Your guide to Arab baby talk and what it means

For a parent، this means food. For a baby it means anything they can put in their little mouths from carrots to remote controls. 

A dah dah is what Arab parents use to refer to another baby that isn’t theirs, although their own baby is also a dah-dah. Confused? Good! 

Not to be confused with dah-dah!  It is used to refer to dangerous things. It is meant to stop the babies from doing something outrageous such as jumping off the edge of the bed after they’ve had a few bottles! 

Everyone around a baby starts shouting “kah-kah! Kah-kah!” after they've gotten a whiff of their number 2. I mean it’s embarrassing enough to poop in your pants, but for everyone to know about it...it's just wrong, mama! 

You might think it means “dad” but you would be wrong. It actually means “to walk”. This word was made famous by a pop culture song whose lyrics include equally weird words such as “shatta batta”. Here is how it sounds in case you are intrigued. 

If kah-kah is the least favourite word for babies then “tish” has got to be their favorite because it means “to go out” or “meshwar”. 

Another baby talk entry for food. It can also be replaced by nom-nom, for the more anglo types. 

This guttural sound is the strangest, least human-like sound of all. It's a tried and true method to induce laughter in infants. 

You must have seen an Arab mother holding her baby over the bathroom (sometimes the sink, don’t ever use that sink again) and whispering “bish bish” in his/her ear. 

This is a signal to the baby that they have to do a number one. It works. 

It means: Yalla ya mama go to sleep.