When I am walking my dog around the neighborhood, I am always approached by families and children who want to pet him. He is extremely small and cute and loves people, so I can understand this. If a child sees him from across the street, I will usually hear a familiar phrase:

わんわん！
Doggy!

Now, if you have studied Japanese for a while you already know that the word for dog is 犬 (いぬ) and わんわん is the onomatopoeic expression for “bark” or “woof.” So why do children use the word わんわん when referring to a dog?

To put it simply, this is baby-talk, called 赤ちゃん言葉 (あかちゃんことば) or, more formally, 幼児語 (ようじご).

Have you realized that in English, the way we talk to children is completely different than how we speak to adults? We have a whole new set of words and phrases for when children are under a certain age. For example, instead of “the train is leaving,” we might say “the choo choo is going bye bye!” if we are speaking to a toddler.

The same thing happens in Japanese, and I am here to help you to understand and maybe even communicate with Japanese babies.

As in the above example, the first thing that some Japanese children do for baby talk is to use animal sounds to describe an animal. So in addition to a dog being a わんわん a cat, 猫 (ねこ), becomes にゃんにゃん.This is a common way for Japanese children to refer to animals.

あ！にゃんにゃん！
あ！　にゃんにゃん！
Oh! A kitty!
Literally: "ah + meow-meow!"

Japanese children are very fond of onomatopoeia, and this means a lot of repeated sounds. Stomach becomes ぽんぽん for the sound that your stomach makes when you tap it, and ブーブー is used for “car” because it sounds like an engine.

ポンポンいたい。
ポンポン　いたい。
My tummy hurts.
Literally: "tummy + hurts."

Another feature of Japanese baby talk is repeating the ます stem of a verb. For example, ねんね "sleeping" comes from 寝る (ねる) "to sleep," and かみかみ "chewing" comes from 噛む (かむ) "to chew".

ねんねのお時間ですよ～。
ねんね　の　おじかん　です　よ～。
It's bedtime! // It's sleepy-time!
Literally: "sleep + の + time + ですよ."

Japanese children are also fond of placing the honorific お before nouns like body parts, and then repeating the sound. お手手 (おてて) is used for hand instead of just 手 (て) and お目目 (おめめ) is used for eye instead of 目 (め).

あーちゃん、お姉ちゃんとおててつないで。
あーちゃん、　おねえちゃん　と　おてて　つないで。
Ah-chan, hold big sister's hand.
Literally: "Ah-chan, + older sister + と + hand + hold."
Note: The speaker might be the older sister, or it could be Ah-chan's mother, for example. Also, note that あーちゃん is a nickname. The child's full name would likely be something starting with あ, like あすか.

Baby-talk come from words that are easier to say and understand, so they are varied. Here are some other words you might run into when speaking with children in Japanese:

ばあば ＝ おばあさん ＝ grandma

じいじ ＝ おじいさん ＝ grandpa

くっく ＝ 靴（くつ）＝ shoes

ばっちい ＝ dirty

たっち ＝ standing (from 立つ [たつ // to stand])

あんよ ＝ 足（あし）＝ foot

まんま ＝ ごはん ＝ food

ちゅるちゅる ＝ noodles

め！ ＝ だめ！＝ No! [Not allowed!]

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This lesson was written by Cassy L., a guest contributor: