First words?

[Mercedes Benzene]

One of the many joys of parenthood is when a baby speaks his first word.

So here it is... a thread on "first words".

 

A few questions come to mind with regards to this topic:

 

-What influences what a baby's first word will be. Obviously, repetition may be a factor, but sometimes a baby's first word is seemingly random. "mama" or "papa" come to mind, but my cousin's first word was "rubber". o.O

-What was your first spoken word (avoiding cliches such as mom and dad, and including any words in your native tongue)?

-What cultural/situational factors influence our first words?

 

My first word was "juice", which seems rather strange considering that I did not drink juice as a baby. :naughty:

[infamous]

 

 

 

-What cultural/situational factors influence our first words?

 

 

Actually, it most likely boils down to sounds the child hears from it's parents and the local enviornment within which it lives. Sounds from radio, television, and neighborhood noises probably constitute the source of informational material the child has to drawn upon. It's also highly likely that sometimes these (words/sounds) are simply random vocalizations the child makes by passing air through their vocal cords. Once the sound is learned by the infant, repetition is bound to follow as a natural response to a learned habit..........Infy

[pgrmdave]

I'd assume otherwise, Infy. I think that the child would most likely not really attribute 'other' sounds to 'mommy and daddy' sounds. I suspect that if a child was to be brought up in a household where the mother and father spoke one language, and everything else was in another, the child's first words would almost definitely be something the mother or father said.

[infamous]

I suspect that if a child was to be brought up in a household where the mother and father spoke one language, and everything else was in another, the child's first words would almost definitely be something the mother or father said.

I must agree completely dave. The first words would most assuredly be immitations of sounds heard from their parents. However, following those first words, the total audio-enviornment would also contribute to the informational reservior......................Infy

[Jay-qu]

My first word was 'cake', apparently it was at a fairly young age though I am unsure of the circumstance perhaps my mum had just cooked one and had been saying it so I mimicked her :shrug:

[Janus]

I don't really know what my first word was.

 

I do know that ny nephew's was "hot". (my sister was living with my mom at the time, and my mom baked a lot, so she was always stopping him from touching the oven door, saying that it was hot. )

 

My daughter's was "up". (she liked to be picked up and held.)

 

My wife's interestingly enough, was "thermometer".

[Turtle]

I have a hard time remembering my last word, let alone my first. :) It is interesting to note however that all babies, regardless of culture or ethnicity, make the same cooing and babbling sounds at approximately the same ages.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babbling

 

Noam Chomsky pioneered many of the concepts in regard to the hard-wired-for-language human brain.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noam_Chomsky

 

:shrug:

[learnin to learn]

riddle me this. When my brother was a baby his baby sitter was this old german lady. I think at the time my dad was still in the marines, so we lived in maine. When my brother started to talk he spoke in both german and english! Is it becuase he heard both the languages for about the same time period?

[Probable Uncertainty]

My first word is 'teplý', which is meaning after a kind of element. My sester, she was used 'skrblík', which is like a kind of pudding. So even from small baby, we were looking for things we will do in life (my sester is chef in big hotel).

[BibleBeliever]

My daughter's first word was 'spaceman', it just kinda popped out one day, she didn't speak a coherent word again for a few months and then after 'mum' and 'dad' came 'Wallace' of Wallace and Gromit fame. Too much TV?:doh:

[Tormod]

My daughter's first word was 'spaceman'

 

Wonderful! :doh:

 

My (first) daughter's first word was..."daddy". ;)

[Boerseun]

Don't know if this is appliccable to this thread, but I read awhile ago that back in the ancient Greek days in Ionia (the heyday of Science!), an experiment was performed which would be a complete no-no today. They had an argument about which language was the oldest, so the raised a few babies from birth without anybody speaking to them.

 

...and the first word clearly spoken by any of the babies sounded like the Sumerian word for "bread". So they concluded that Sumerian was the oldest language!

 

Personally, I think it was a fluke, and if the experiment was to be repeated, the first word spoken could be literally anything. But it would be quite interesting, if you can ignore the ethical issues for a minute, to see whether a lot (say, a few hundred) people raised in isolation, where they're only fed but not spoken to from infanthood, would come up with a language all their own? I guess they would, for humans are indeed compulsive communicators, but it would be interesting to see how they would come up with sentences and structures, and if it will be merely grunts...

 

Is there a country out there willing to do this? :doh:

 

Interesting...

[Mercedes Benzene]

Is there a country out there willing to do this?

 

Interesting...

 

That is QUITE an interesting idea... however, I don't see anyone sanctioning such an experiment any time soon.

[TheFaithfulStone]

my cousin's first word was "rubber"

 

Ha. No more brothers and sisters for him apparently!

 

My first word was "lawnmower."

 

Cake, lawnmower, spaceman. None of these words have anything in common - yet as Jay points out we all make the same babbling when we're infants.

 

My question is whether our first words are really our first words or if they're just what our parent(s) want to hear.

 

I've seen video of my brothers first word ("amen") and to me it just sounded like baby talk... Of course he repeated it like a dozen times after my mother freaked out about it - so it really WAS his first word.

 

TFS

[Tormod]

My question is whether our first words are really our first words or whether or not they're just what our parent(s) want to hear.

 

Amen to that. :hihi:

[eric l]

Quote:

Originally Posted by BibleBeliever

My daughter's first word was 'spaceman'

 

Wonderful! :hihi:

 

My (first) daughter's first word was..."daddy". ;)

 

Do you mean that this words are synonims ?