Mothers are happier, more articulate with babies, puppies – study

Why do we articulate more when speaking to babies and puppies?

If you’re a new mother and also have taken possession of a new puppy as a pet, you are certainly very busy. But another sure is that you speak to both newborns with the same type of articulation – using clear and distinct sounds and higher and more-variable pitch in shorter sentences.

Having babies and puppies promotes a positive emotional state in human mothers, according to an international team headed by Dr. Alejandrina Cristia, an Argentinian linguistic researcher at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS). They studied the vocal behavior of 10 mothers to better understand why they seem to articulate more when speaking to infants.

“Happy speech” is often perceived as more intelligible, in part because smiling during speaking often acts to shorten the vocal tract and widen the mouth, they wrote.

Continue reading at The Jerusalem Post

Photo Credit: DR. MARK PANNETON