"Goo-Goo Gah-Gah" May Be Primal: Monkeys Use Baby Talk Too

By Anastacia Mott Austin

"Is little Joey-boey weady for his num-nums?"

Before you reflexively gag the next time you hear something like this, consider the fact that baby talk may have instinctive biological roots.

Researchers at the University of Chicago published a study in the September issue of Ethology which reveals that adult female rhesus monkeys will use a specialized, high-pitched series of vocalizations when around babies.

The study involved a group of 65 rhesus macaque monkeys on an island near Puerto Rico.

"The [vocalizations] appear to be used to elicit infants’ attention and encourage their behavior," write the authors. "They also have the effect of increasing social tolerance in the mother and facilitating the interactions between females with babies in general. Thus, the attraction to other females’ infants results in a relatively relaxed context of interaction where the main focus of attention is the baby."

In other words, it’s hard to be hostile when someone is cooing at your baby.

The specific vocalizations used in these interactions are called "girneys," and consist of a high-pitched, nasal sound. "It’s a very strange sound," said Dario Maestripieri, co-author of the study and an associate professor in Comparative Human Development at the University of Chicago. Maestripieri told reporters, "It’s made with their mouths almost closed, sort of nasal and relatively soft. I can’t replicate it, but it is used almost exclusively when adult monkeys see babies."

The researchers found that the girneys are used when an adult female monkey approaches another female with a baby. Initial studies with monkeys concluded that the girney sounds were made to defuse hostility between adult females, but the recent research shows that the approaching female was looking at the baby when making the sounds, suggesting that the noises are meant to attract the attention of the infant monkey, not the mother.

Lead author Jessica Whitman told reporters at The Chicago Tribune, "Actually, they are looking at the baby when they are producing these vocalizations, so we think they are intended for the baby, not the mother. They also mix in grunt vocalizations, but the girney may be more similar to baby talk, an acoustic structure intentionally designed to attract attention of the infant."

In addition to the girneys, the adult monkeys used other behaviors that seemed designed to get the baby monkey to look at them, such as waving their tails, much like an adult human might wave a toy in front of a baby.

The only difference found between humans and monkey baby-talk, according to the study, is that the mothers of baby macaques did not use the sounds with their own infants.

Human studies have shown that humans can differentiate between "regular" language and baby talk, even when the language spoken is not their own. Many different cultures use a form of high-pitched speech patterns when speaking to babies.

Baby talk is not only universal, but also possibly instinctive.

"In fact, it could be that humans and monkeys emit sounds that infants find attractive," Maestripieri told reporters. "Babies like to hear what we consider to be baby talk."