Who's a good boy? The science behind 'dog voice.' Is it 'bated breath' or 'baited breath'?

Welcome and live show announcement

0:00Grammar Girl here. I'm Mignon Fogarty. This week, we'll talk about why we use a completely different voice when we talk to dogs, and how to properly use and spell the phrase bated breath. But first, mark your calendar for the live-streamed game show we're doing on September 24th. Yep, for the 20th anniversary of the podcast, I am hosting six wonderful word people who will compete in word games for your enjoyment. Patreon supporters even get fun

0:33ways to participate, and we'll have big book giveaways too. RSVP now so you can get a reminder to attend, and you'll also get a 20th anniversary digital excerpt of my updated New York Times bestseller. RSVP at quickanddirtytips.com slash gglive event. This next segment is by Karen Lundy.

Why humans speak dog

0:54If you read the words, who's a good boy, on the page, there's a good chance you know exactly how that phrase would sound spoken aloud, and you might even be able to add to it mentally. Who's a good boy? Who is? You are. Well, there's also a very good chance you'll know who the speaker of that phrase is talking to. No, not a child and not a cat either. It's a dog, obviously. So here's the question. Why would an otherwise competent adult suddenly start speaking with

1:27exaggerated enthusiasm? And why do so many of us seem to adopt this speech pattern in the presence of cute canines? Well, researchers actually have a name for this. They call it dog-directed speech. It's also sometimes called pet-directed speech, and researchers have also studied cats and horses. But so far, dogs lead the pack, so to speak. Linguistically, it functions as a special register, a way of talking meant for a particular listener or situation. So although dogs may not speak

2:01English, it turns out we humans aren't so bad at speaking dog, or at least making sounds dogs get excited about. Compared with ordinary adult-directed speech, the dog-directed variety has a higher pitch and more pitch variation. We also use shorter phrases and simpler language and slower speed and more repetition when we talk to our furry best friends. And although we talk this way to dogs of every age, researchers found that people use an even higher pitch for puppies. With extra cuteness comes an

2:36extra high vocal register, apparently. And that brings us back to the question, why do we do it? Why do we get extra exuberant in the presence of four paws and soulful brown eyes? Well, it turns out dog-directed speech isn't just meaningless emotional excess. Dogs actually respond to it. Anyone who's ever gotten animated and silly while asking an excitable golden retriever, who's a good boy, almost certainly saw the dog respond with anything from a happy tail wag,

3:09to excited wiggles, to full-on leaps of joy. And yeah, researchers have looked at this too. One study video recorded 44 adult pet dogs and 19 puppies listening to the same phrase using either adult-directed, pet-directed, or infant-directed speech patterns. The pet-directed speech attracted the adult dog's attention more effectively than ordinary adult speech, and in some cases more than infant-directed speech. Interestingly, in that study, puppies didn't show any significant preference. But other

3:45studies found that puppies can respond especially strongly to dog-directed speech. It's possible the details of how the studies were done are influencing how the puppies responded. But another fascinating study compared dog vocalizations with human speech in five languages. Humans produce about four syllables per second. But dogs vocalized at what would roughly be two sounds per second. The researchers proposed that humans might be adjusting their speech rhythm to help dogs process it. But there's a little caveat. The

4:20researchers aren't quite sure whether this adjustment humans made is for the benefit of dogs specifically, or more of an extension of the way we talk to babies called infant-directed speech. Still, it's possible we allow ourselves to sound silly because ordinary human conversations might be literally a little too fast for a canine audience. But do dogs really know what we're saying, or are they just celebrating because we are, and dogs love a good party? Well, science has also looked at that.

4:51In a 2018 experiment, adult dogs preferred to interact with a speaker who used both dog-directed speech and relevant expressions like praise or invitations. The dogs weren't won over by tone or vocabulary alone. Neither doggy words spoken in a normal adult voice nor ordinary words said in an exaggerated dog-directed one were enough. But put that unmistakable talking to a dog voice together with words dog connect with

5:24like walk or good boy, and the dogs were much more interested. Brain scans on dogs tell a similar story. Dogs don't just respond to our tone of voice. They seem to process the emotion in our voice and the words we say separately. And have you ever watched a non-English speaker interact with a dog? Well, then you've almost certainly seen that dog-directed speech isn't limited to one language. It's often just the way we humans connect with canines. French dog owners might say,

5:57Bon chien, good dog. But Japanese pet praise includes yi codoné, which roughly translates to what a good kid. But before we decide everyone around the world speaks the same basic dialect of dog, just with different words, there's a catch. Most of the research around how we talk to dogs has studied Western household pets. Although we can see some anecdotal evidence in things like videos of how people interact with dogs in other countries, research hasn't nailed down just how universal that

6:30familiar, high-pitched, good dog register really is. And a dog's job can affect how we talk to them, too. People who communicate with hunting, herding, guarding, or free-ranging dogs may have different ways of talking to them, including specialized calls and commands. So for now, the strongest evidence concerns that affectionate register we use for companion dogs. So there you have it. You're not being ridiculous when you talk to a dog in a silly voice. You're speaking in a way dogs genuinely seem

7:01to enjoy and relate to. So who is a good human? You are. That segment was by Karen Lundy, a career writer and editor. She writes I'll Go First, a newsletter where she shares her story, then hands you a writing prompt and a metaphorical pen. Find her on igofirst.org.

The history of baited breath

7:25Baited breath is one of the many phrases Shakespeare invented. Or at least, he was the first person to put it on a piece of paper that survived to this day. Baited is a form of the word abate, which means to diminish, beat down, or reduce. And it is spelled B-A-T-E-D. So when you're waiting with baited breath, and you can think of that as abated breath, you're so eager, anxious, excited, or frightened

7:56that you're almost holding back your breath. You're reducing your breathing. Shakespeare first used the phrase with bated breath in The Merchant of Venice, published in 1600, where it had a slightly different meaning. It's a scene where Shylock, the moneylender, points out the irony of Antonio, the merchant, coming to him for a loan after treating him so poorly in the past. It reads like this. Or shall I bend low and in a bondsman key, with baited breath and whispering humbleness, say this, Fair sir, you sped on me on Wednesday last,

8:33you spurned me such a day. Another time you called me dog, and for those courtesies I'll lend you thus monies? Well, unlike our modern meaning of eagerness here, baited breath means reduced or subdued breath. Shylock is sarcastically imagining himself bending low and speaking in a hushed, humble voice like a servant addressing a master. And that set phrase with baited breath is the only place you'll likely hear the word baited these days. And since baited is such an archaic word

9:08and most people aren't used to seeing it, it's common to see the phrase incorrectly written as with baited breath, B-A-I-T-E-D, like baiting a hook in fishing. Now there's an odd logic to the baited misunderstanding. You can bait a hook to catch a fish, and people eagerly waiting for something could be tempted to put out metaphorical bait. But why would it be their breath? It wouldn't. Nobody would rush toward fishy breath. Baited breath spelled that way like fish bait is wrong.

9:41Your quick and dirty tip is to remember the moneylender Shylock refusing to grovel in a bait

Family words for carbonated water

9:46hold back his breath. Finally, I have a familect story and a question for all of you. Hi, Mignon. I was hoping to share our familect. Our familect comes from my niece, who when she was little, like three years old, would refer to carbonated water or sparkling water as spicy water. We thought that was so cute and honestly pretty accurate, so we started using that. Now I have a six-year-old, and that's the only term she uses for carbonated water is spicy water.

10:22I wanted to share this because the other day in the grocery store, I heard another family calling at spicy water, and I was so thrilled. So I was curious to know how many other folks use spicy water to refer to carbonated water. Thanks so much. That's great. Let me know if any of you use spicy water for carbonated water, and I'll do a follow-up. And if you want to share your familect, instructions are in the show notes. Grammar Girl is a Quick and Dirty Tips podcast. Thanks to Nat Hoops, Morgan Christensen, Rebecca Sebastian,

10:53Muram El-Nagheeb, Stephen Japanski, Dan Feierabend, and Holly Hutchings, who's rebooting her meditation practice again. And I'm Mignon Fogarty, better known as Grammar Girl. That's all. Thanks for listening, and don't forget to like and subscribe.