Joyful Babbling and Other Nonsense

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A few minutes ago, I wrote the following on the Got Anything Random To Say? thread...

And it got me thinking. That's the first time I've ever admitted my enjoyment of this little quirk, rather than sheepishly trying to explain it away because I got overheard. There really is something about it that's a purely instinctive expression of joy. Nonsense poetry and random word/sentence generators are also a wonderful way to cheer myself up a bit (nonsense text generators are one of my go-to coding exercises when I'm learning a new programming language.) There's something about playing with the written forms and sounds of words which have no meaning to process that really lights up my brain.

The occasional urge to babble doesn't worry me; it's rarely even occurred to me to question why I do it, though I suspect that having been a hyperlexic child may have been an influence. All and any comments on the subject welcomed; as serious or as silly as you like.

It sounds like a spoken form of scat singing. As long as you don't do it while walking down a crowded street, enjoy!

It's one of the reasons why you are so good with words. Myself, I am much too inhibited to try it. But I do like to sing joyfully.

Yes.

Except I'm not the hyperlexic and overly verbal child.
Instead, I'm the echolaliac audiophile child who do literally sing nonsense really loudly when on the mood.

Just as joyful, just as babbling, and just as nonsensical...

Yes, I think you may be onto something there - the rhythm of the sounds does seem to be as important as the sounds themselves for it to be really satisfying. I have played musical instruments since my late childhood, and I've noticed that my stims often have rhythms to them - I rarely flap my hands, fiddle with things, or bounce my legs without there being little syncopated "riffs" to the sequences of movement.



Both interesting comments. I've always found understanding or expressing myself in speech much harder than reading and writing - I'm certainly not a talkative person normally. At the same time, I often have to say words in my head when reading them, otherwise the meaning often doesn't sink in - I get seriously flummoxed if I read a word that I don't know how to pronounce (invented names for sci-fi characters distract me something rotten), or can read for page after page before it dawns on me that my mind was just playing with the words and ignoring the message.

I do wonder whether my brain likes to babble just as a way to practice speech sounds, or at least, if it started that way; the mystery is why I'm so drawn to sounds that don't naturally occur in the phonotactics of English (I've never learned anything more than the very basics of any other language, and not until my early teens.) Using real words or grammar just isn't satisfying in the same way at all.