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Out of the Mouth

of Babes

By Vicki Kritzell

As I sat engaged in cozy after-dinner conversation

with my family, my nine-month old great-nephew,

Gus, suddenly blurted out, “Mama.” We all stopped in

mid-sentence, each making sure the other had heard

this “first word.” My niece, Jenny, was

in tears, so joyful was this occa-

sion. When he realized all the

attention he had garnered

from this utterance, he re-

peated it loudly and often,

much to our great happi-

ness! Soon he was en-

gaged in some other

activity, leaving us to dis-

cuss this developmental

milestone.

My sister, Molly, re-

lated a study she had re-

cently browsed, which hypothesized all language

in infants is universal until the age of around

ten months. We questioned family mem-

bers who had lived abroad, as to what the

babies’ words for mother and father

were. Jenny who had lived in Kenya in-

formed us “mama” and “baba” was used

in Swahili. Rachael, who lived in both

Ecuador and Chile, related that “mama”

and “tayta” were used, while Sairy, who

had worked with AIDS orphans in Thai-

land, was called “moma“ by one of her

favorite little girls. I was struck with the

similarity of language in tongues so dissimilar.

As I visualized babies being born around

the world of every race and eth-

nicity, gazing into their

mothers’ faces, all making

the same first sweet

sounds, tears came to my

eyes. There is something

about that notion that

brings a feeling of univer-

sal connectiveness. I

wanted to know more, so

began to research the sub-

ject, with some very inter-

esting results.

Early communication in babies starts with cooing

and advances to articulation for sheer pleasure, or to

draw attention to self. Of course, the baby does not un-

derstand the potential in his or her speech sounds.

These first articulations are called “babbling,” at which

time the baby is practicing for the greater variety of

sounds needed in adult language. What is interesting

about this first language is that all babies

produce the same sounds, in a

greater variety than they will

need for their ethnic lan-

guage. American babies,

like children all over the

world, are heard produc-

ing clicks and trilled Rs

even though English does

not normally use those

sounds.

These first sounds are

nearly identical in hundreds

of languages and go back to ancient times. It is believed

the reason the terms for mother, father, grand-

mother, grandfather, etc., are so similar is be-

cause of the reaction the infant gets to these

first sounds (witness Gus), causing him to

repeat them, and by watching the reaction

of the adults around him, associating with

that person.

A study of deaf children reveals that

although they begin to babble at the same

age as hearing children, they stop bab-

bling early and experience great diffi-

culty learning to speak unless the hearing

loss is corrected. Similarly, hearing chil-

dren of deaf parents often have developmental delays

in speaking when their attempts at language are not re-

sponded to. Children in both groups

have shown remarkable ability

to learn American Sign Lan-

guage, and can often use

two-word phrases by

fourteen months.

Consider many of the

names grandparents are

called in English: ma-maw,

me-maw, nana, mo-mo;

paw-paw, papa, pappy, even

grandma and grandpa all contain

those first babblings.

The list below illustrates but a few of what babies

call their mothers and fathers in very different parts of

the world:

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Congolese Baby

Baby Gus

Rwandan Baby

Kenyan Baby

Ugandan Baby