European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 8, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                William Safire. A on language n guard mothers the Chomski ans Are after you. You know that language you talk to your toddler not baby talk accompanying a tickle with itchy itchy goo that s the use of nonsensical singsong sounds to amuse or reassure babies puppies and Kittens. We re talking Here about Mitherese a coinage by or. Henry Gleitman first cited in a 1977 paper from a doctoral dissertation by Elissa Newport a the older literature used baby talk Quot recalls Newport. Now professor of psychology at the University of Rochester a but our focus was on How mothers talk to girls. Newer terms take into account that fathers and others influence the child a language. In be heard caretaker talk and child directed speech but no single word is As effective As Mitherese Quot in Mitherese words and sentences Are Short and simple the Mother consciously tries to make her meaning easy Fop the child to understand. Most mothers since time immemorial have assumed this helps the kid learn language. A forget All that the Chomski ans say. In a new Book the language instinct Burbid on the front cover by professor Noam Chomsky of Mit professor Steven Pinker gives Mitherese a hard time a first let us do away with the folklore that parents teach their children language a asserts the Chomakian Pinker director of the Center for cognitive neuroscience at Mit. A Marty parents and some child psychologists who should know better think  provide children with implicit lessons. These lessons take the form of a special speech variety called Mitherese or As the French Call it Mam Anaise intensive sessions of conversational give and take with repetitive drills and simplified grammar a look at the Dogg a College years ago Nixon and the Tony Kornheiser i to weeks ago when the big news was Richard Nixon a death i happened to go Back to the College in upstate new York from which i graduated in 1970 when Nixon was president. Binghamton University also known As a the Harvard of the Binghamton Endicott Johhson City area is a 325-mile drive from my Home , . Six hours minimum in the car with an 11-year-old and an 8-year-old, which would be been 14 straight repetitions of the Aladdin tape a had i not Flung it out the window near Harrisburg a. I love taking Long confined car trips with children. Not my children of course. But ill bet Alistair cookers children would be rather genial on a Long trip a not on a because they would have some Breeding but because they re probably in their 60s by now. My own children Are. Shall i say a a Active in the car by that i mean if they had spinning wheels attached to their Heads wed All have had sweaters by Baltimore. Its not just the constant eating and drinking though in be never seen anybody who Hadnot been held hostage eat so much so fast. Its the fighting. They sit in the Back seat and carve out their territory like cats and As soon As one s Toenail crosses the Boundary they begin shrieking and flailing and snarling things like a stupid big butt Moron head or Quot Booger brain  and i think the ones with four kids How do they even get out of their driveways. But this Isnit about Small kids its about College kids. When i got Back everybody wanted to know so what arc College kids like these Days 1. They re Young. 2.1 hate them. Because they can Wear Short shorts and their thighs done to jiggle and the boys have hair shaved tight on the sides and Fluffy on top kind of like toy poodles in Paris in the 1930s, and the girls with the a jiggly thighs appear to find this More attractive than say a a a mature head of hair by which i mean mine by which i mean none. I got to Binghamton just in time for a Spring fling a an annual event devoted apparently to determining who can Wear the least amount of clothing and the most earrings. This outdoor carnival reminded me of when i was in College i graduated the same year As the shootings at Kent stat that first warm Spring weekend when there a less than a month until finals and you feel yourself bursting with sexual Energy. And i might have kept that feel chg standing out in the Middle of All those Sweet kids if one Hadnot approached me and asked for my autograph and when i gave it to him he was disappointed because he had Thoi ight i was  grandpa. I was so Happy to be there again and learn it was still the same Quirky place with the same tolerant student Friendly attitude that it was in the late �?T60s. Which it proved two weeks ago when an Art major unveiled his Art project for display in the University Art gallery a a dead opossum on a Cross. If i d thought of it id have done that too 25 years ago the year they held the draft lottery. Id have tried to finesse it. Prof what a that me its Art. Prof its Road kill. Me yeah its Road kill. But its Art too. It died for our  it died under the wheel of an Oldsmobile Tornado. Me Are you trying to Tell me that its not Art unless its painted on a Canvas that its not Art unless it conforms to a rigid conservatism that its not Art because it happened in nature because it represents symbolically the blood and suffering of All Mankind because you re stuck in a time Frame where Art has to be neat and instantly recognizable All life is Art and i done to need your Jive academic censorship Tel. Ing me what Sart i look at this and i seet3od, Man. And the great part is that Binghamton in 1994 let it stand As Art. Its on display now All vacuum sealed and chemically preserved. I joked about that with the newspaper staff at a dinner they put together for me. They regarded me As a museum piece. I had gone to their school lived in their dorms and graduated before they were even born. I told them i went to Binghamton when the beatles were popular and i see the Doggie there a a dog Icv Quot a he argues that a children deserve most of the cred. It for the language they acquired and scorns Ayup. Pic esque a the belief that Mitherese is essential to language  a a a that a baloney a says or. James Egan clinical _ professor of psychiatry at George Washington University and former head of psychiatry at children a Hospital in Washington. A the very underpinnings of the head Start pro. Gram Are predicated on Early language interaction. Between Parent and child. Studies of immigrants in new York City have shown that the child Sdebel Oping language is directly related to the sophistication of language spoken to the child. Also classic studies have shown that you can reliably Tell the difference in babble Between Middle class and lower class children by 6 to 7 months of age. Those a new ideas a Egan argues a Are uninformed and contrary to virtually All the developmental  common sense rears its ugly head. If parents talk to their children intelligently perhaps even encouraging them to use Standard English the kids will be More Likely to speak and write intelligently and do better in life. Just As a Lack of education stymies a Brilliant mind a Lack of Mitherese limits the realization of the potential of our inborn linguistic Power especially on mothers Day. A a. New York times a. A. A a president Nixon in 1969, his first year in office and the height of . Involvement in the Vietnam War. Joked that the beatles were the band Paul Mccartney was in before wings. They wanted to know who Paul Mccartney was. I asked them about what they found important socially. They mentioned cultural diversity and Date rape and i said these things weren tissues for us. Mostly the boys were interested in not going to Vietnam and having their behinds blown off and the girls were interested in this not happening to their Brothers and their lovers and their favorite lab partners. The Vietnam War was everything i explained. It overwhelmed everything. It made everyone Young mistrust everyone  it seemed As though everyone old just wanted to kill them. God it seems so Long ago. They study it in history now. The late Richard Nixon was president. Washington Post a 24 sunday May 8, 1994