Guide to Baby Babbling

Baby noises can be sorted into the following categories:

  1. :v:laughter (### should be annotated in the Utterance and Chunk tiers while :v:laughter should be tagged in the Language tier)

  2. :v:crying

  3. :v:vocalizations (sub groups babbling and cooing, includes screaming, whining, exclaimations or singing)

  4. :v:airstream (burping, coughing etc.)

All baby noises are to be sorted into the above four categories. The category of the noise made should be marked in the Baby (Language) tier.

Recognizable words should be transcribed on the tier labelled Baby (Utterance), Baby (Chunk), and Baby (Translation) if applicable.

Languageless should NOT be used and tagged in the Baby (Language) tier.

Important notes

In all cases, try your best to transcribe the baby’s babbling exactly. But if the babbling or vocalization is unintelligible, mark it in the Baby (Utterance) and Baby (Chunk) tier as ###. This can stand for a whole line or it can be inserted for a word of phrase. Remember, do not put punctuation after ### in your transcript. Do not transcribe only part of a word as ###. For example, you should never transcribe ###ing or ###ed. Also, ### should be a standalone token, it should not be with anything else, e.g. :m:### or :si:###.

After you are done transcribing the utterances in the Baby Utterance and Chunk tier, you need to add the baby noise category in the Baby (Language) tier.

For crying, annotate ### in the Utterance and Chunk tiers and tag it as :v:crying under the Baby (Language) tier. For singing, if the baby is singing actual words it should be tagged to its respective language in the Baby (Language) tier. However, if the baby’s singing are similar to babbling and you are unable to make out its language, it should be tagged as :v:vocalizations in the Baby (Language) tier.

Idiosyncratic words. Sometimes children invent words that have nothing to do with the standard, adult version of the word. For example, a child might say “neenee” meaning “guitar” or “Amwes” meaning “Nemo”. If the idiosyncratic word has a clearly identifiable meaning that occurs in at least one obvious context, transcribe the word as it sounds, followed by the @ symbol, and indicate the word and its meaning after the @. e.g., neenee@guitar. Under the Language tier, it will be tagged as :v:vocalizations

If an adult mimics an idiosyncratic word, it will be annotated the same way in its Utterance and Chunk tiers but will be tagged as its respective language in the Language tier. For this example, since guitar is an English word it will be tagged as English

idiosyncraticwords.png

Where the baby is mimicking an adult speaking, note it in the “Baby (Utterance)” and “Baby (Chunk)” tiers with :m: preceding the mimicked word/utterance e.g., :m:baba if the baby was mimicking an adult saying baba.