Why do puppies like it when we use babytalk?

Many people speak to their pets – consciously or not – differently than they would with their fellow humans. A new study now provides evidence that puppies, in particular, respond well to "babytalk" and process it in their brains.

"Who's a good dog? Yes, you are... Yes, you!" – Many puppy owners often make statements like these and may not even realize in the moment that they have changed their speech melody and manner of speaking when addressing their four-legged friend. For many, this modulation of their speech happens almost reflexively and seemingly without reason. As a result, people speak to their pets like they do with toddlers. A new study now shows that puppies and dogs in general respond particularly well to "babytalk."

In any form of communication, there is a speaker and a recipient. To communicate effectively, speakers adjust to the recipient's situation. Therefore, people speak differently to friends than they do to their teachers, for example. Consequently, speakers also change their speech melody.

People tend to speak more clearly and simply to children and puppies than they would when speaking to adults. The so-called prosody (speech melody) changes. In particular, women emphasize vowels when speaking to dogs and children because their voices are anatomically very flexible. In speech directed at recipients who do not (yet) understand words particularly well, word melody also becomes clearer and varies in pitch.

Scientists from the Hungarian Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest wanted to investigate these connections and found out how dogs process words directed at them in their brains. The team led by first authors Anna Gergely and Anna Gábor published their work in the journal "Communications Biology."

It has already been proven that when speaking to toddlers, speaking loudly, overly clearly, and emphasizing vowels leads to faster learning, and toddlers recognize that they are being addressed.