Babbling / First word

[Matthew Saxton]

In response to Annette's query, I have heard the same story, but with
"momma" (or some /m/-initial variant: "mom", "mummy") suggested as the
child's first word. Ease of articulation was given as the reason in this
case also.

Having said that, my son's first word was "cheers," presumably because
the champagne being handed round was more salient than either of his
parents. The point here is that ease of articulation is probably only
one factor dictating production of the child's first recognisable word
form.

Without some hard evidence, though, I think we may have another case of
counting words for "snow" in Eskimo.......


*********************************************************************
 
Matthew Saxton MA, MSc, DPhil
Senior Lecturer in Psychology,
School of Psychology and Human Development,
Institute of Education,
25 Woburn Square,
London,
WC1H 0AA.
U.K.
 
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7612 6509
Fax: +44 (0) 20 7612 6304
 
www.ioe.ac.uk

-----Original Message-----
From: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org
[mailto:info-childes at mail.talkbank.org] On Behalf Of Annette
Karmiloff-Smith
Sent: 12 September 2006 08:40
To: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org; dev-europe at lboro.ac.uk
Subject: babbling

Someone has asked me whether it is true that babies' first word is 
Daddy and whether this is because the articulation position of D is 
easiest?  not sure either is true but would appreciated comments from 
those who study this area.  Are the words for Daddy/Papa etc. and 
Mummy/Maman etc. easier because there is no change of place of 
articulation?  All thoughts on the topic most appreciated.
thanks
Annette K-S


-- 
________________________________________________________________
Professor A.Karmiloff-Smith, CBE, FBA, FMedSci,
Head, Neurocognitive Development Unit,
Institute of Child Health,
30 Guilford Street,
London WC1N 1EH, U.K.
tel: 0207 905 2754
sec: 0207 905 2334
http://www.ich.ucl.ac.uk/ich/html/academicunits/neurocog_dev/n_d_unit.ht
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