babies say the same first words, even in different languages and cultures

a new study explains why demonstrative words are so common in early language development.

by maija kappler

published apr 12, 2022

2 minute read

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2 minute read

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babies' first words are similar across language and culture

most babies start understanding simple words like "no" when they're around nine months old. getty

after identifying their parents, many children’s first words are variations on “this” and “that,” according to linguists — words that help caretakers orient themselves by drawing attention to specific objects. many languages, including english, spanish and mandarin, have fairly simple demonstrative words, such as “this” and “that” as well as “here” and “there.” in all of those languages, those words are among some of the first children learn. a new study from cornell university, published in the journal of child language, found that this is also true of ticuna, an indigenous amazonian language. the study’s author amalia skilton analyzed 89 10-minute video recordings of samples from video recordings of child-caregiver interaction among ticuna speakers in peru, examining how they communicated. she focused on children between the ages of one and four.

children learn ‘this’ and ‘here’ as early as they learn ‘mama’

she found that these demonstrative words play a “starring role” in the way young children develop the use of language.

“children learn demonstratives that call others’ attention to objects – such as ‘this/that’ and ‘here/there’ – at extremely young ages, when they know very few other words,” skilton told cornell’s news outlet. “‘this’ and ‘here’ show up just as early as stereotypical first words like ‘mama.’”

some languages have many sets of demonstrative words. ticuna has six, four of which are very commonly used. the children featured in the study used what are called “egocentric” demonstratives, or words focused on how close or far objects were to them. it takes about two years after learning egocentric words to start developing “interactive” demonstratives, focused on the point of view of the person you’re speaking to.

it makes sense for young children to have more familiarity with their own point of view than considering how other people view objects. skilton told cornell that that’s more about cognitive development than learning a language. and it’s also normal for kids to sometimes make mistakes when trying to use interactive words.

“while adults think of these words as simple, their meanings are fairly challenging for children to understand at young ages and having trouble with them is a typical part of child development,” she said.

most babies start understanding simple words like “no” when they’re around nine months old, according to webmd. they’ll typically start speaking when they’re about one year old.

maija kappler is a reporter and editor at healthing. you can reach her at mkappler@postmedia.com