When asked what a baby’s first word is, a great deal many people interpret the question as asking what were the first sounds to come out of the baby’s mouth that happen to be in the same order as a word that already exists. It is common for eager parents to interpret a stray word amongst a stew of incoherent babbling as their infant’s first word, whether it be a ma-ma, ba-ba, or some other combination of baby sounds. An important distinction to make here is whether or not the sounds the youngster in question were meaningful. For example, if a baby says ba-ba (which most people would agree is referring to a baby bottle), is the word hidden amongst other coos and babbles and said in an environment and situation that is completely irrelevant to the perceived word, or is the baby specifically asking for or referring to their baby bottle as they speak of it? Defining what constitutes a word in the right context adds a sense of objectivity to the term and makes it much easier to nail down when that youngin’ spoke their very first word. For all intents and purposes, an “almost” word, such as in cases where a baby says muk instead of milk, is usually also seen as acceptable first words so long as the above criterium is fulfilled. Not all sounds are easy to make at that age!

Baby Talk

    Before a baby speaks even their first word, they are typically able to communicate simple ideas by other means, such as pointing, smiling, laughing, making eye contact, gesturing, protesting, and more. This is often accompanied by sounds, perhaps to get the attention of anyone who would give it to them or someone able to get them whatever else they want. At the same time, toddlers will be understand simple things that are being said to them long before they can form words of their own.

    Baby’s constantly watch and listen to their surroundings, taking in the world around them and processing it, right down to the moment they’re born. At three months old, they hear where sounds are coming from and can watch a person as they speak to them, they will listen to the words spoken to them, and they will even listen to music that may be in the background. Research shows that babies are very likely to prefer voices and music that they heard while still in the womb and (possibly for that very reason) often prefer a woman’s voice above a man’s.

    Around 6 months, a baby will use baby language. This will invariably consist of random sounds and syllables strung together in no coherent matter. At this time, the infant is getting a feel for what kinds of sounds it can make. They will coo along as if trying to imitate the words they hear around them, experimenting on their own what they can do with their vocalizations. There is a strong likelihood that a string of sounds might sound familiar to older folk who already know how to speak, but is very unlikely that any “words” spoken at this age have any meaning behind them.

Age

    As statistics would have it, the vast majority of babies speak their first meaningful words anywhere between 8 and 14 months old, while occasional cases of words spoken as early as 7 months and as late as 18 months are not unheard of. Right around their first birthday is a very solid place for a character to speak their first word. Babies with mental disabilities may bloom much later (or in some unfortunate cases, not at all). Additionally, there have been some very rare cases of babies speaking their first words as early as 2 months, though it is still quite likely that these instances don’t meet the above condition that the word must be meaningful.

Visual and Audial Influences

    Another important thing to account for is what the baby sees before speaking their first word. Studies have shown that visual cues are at least as important as audio cues. A toddler is unlikely to speak a word for an object they haven’t seen before or have seen very little of. In fact, the most likely first words for an infant are the things they see the most. Even words that are very commonly said around them may not be very likely candidates compared to words that are accompanied by an object that they can see with their own eyes.

    Of course, there are exceptions. In fact, one of the most notable exceptions is the word no, which is among the top ten words most likely to be a toddler’s first (amusingly, yes doesn’t even come close to making that list). Is this unusual? Not in the least when you consider all the things a baby does. It’s not surprising that one of the most common things a toddler hears from its parents is negation, in many cases associated with an action preventing them from doing whatever they’re not supposed to be doing. Things like grabbing their arm as they reach for something they’re not supposed to be playing with or pulling things out of their mouth as they are being told not to do it often come with the word, and the more and more they hear it, the more it starts to imprint in their mind.

Composition

    Despite the prevalence of negation, nouns are by-and-large the most common parts of speech a baby will speak first. More accurately, 65% of the time, a person’s first word was a noun. The other 35% is action words, social words, or other simple words (including the aforementioned no). A more inquisitive toddler’s first words might even be what, as they point to an object and wonder what it is.

    Words with repetitive sounds are also very strong candidates. Amongst their cooing, babies very often repeat the same sounds multiple times, as it’s much easier for a baby to do so. As such, it should come as no surprise that dada (or variants thereof) is by far the most common first word among infants at a massive 52%, followed by mama and it’s variants at around 35%. This is no accident. Research published in an October 2012 edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and led by Judit Gervain of the University of British Columbia showed that babies’ brains had increased levels of activity when they heard words with repeating sounds. This, opposed to tests under the same conditions where words with non-repeating sounds were played and elicited no outstanding brain activity, is an indication that human brains — infant brains, at least — are hardwired to recognize words with patterns and repetitions. It only goes to follow that they would also be able to repeat these kinds of sounds in a meaningful way before words with non-repeating sounds.

    Similarly, words with sounds that are easy to form make very strong candidates for first words. Sounds such as /p/, /m/, /h/, /n/, /w/, /b/, /t/, and /d/ as well as most simple vowel sounds are among the easiest sounds to make in the English language, whereas sounds like /ɹ/, /l/, /s/, /t͡ʃ/, /ʃ/, /d͡ʒ/, /ð/, /θ/, /ʒ/, and some of the more complex vowels like /ø̞/ or /ɞ/ require a great deal more coordination with the tongue in order to produce. These are the sounds least likely to be present in your character’s first word. Most other English sounds fit somewhere between those two sets while many other sounds are much more difficult still than either set. For example, most adults still can’t produce a voiced epiglottal trill (/ʢ/).

    Finally, you can always expect that any infant’s first word will be a short one, though there are characters such as prodigies or those with some kind of enhancement that can get away with some of the more unique stuff. In general, it’s best to stick with one or two syllables at most. And even then there are limitations. Any more is really pushing the edge of a reader’s willing suspension of disbelief. The shape of a word matters, such as where the consonants and vowels are. It’s rare for a baby’s first word to have two or more different consonants in a row. Most will follow the pattern of CV (that is, “Consonant-Vowel”, as in no), CVC (where both consonants are the same, as in pop), VC (as in on), or CVCV (where both consonants and vowels are the same, as in mama or papa). Less frequently, there are instances of first words taking the shape CVC with different consonants (as in map), CVCV with different consonants (as in potty), or even CVCVCV (as in banana). It should be noted that words starting with a vowel are slightly more difficult to produce and are thus not as common.

Irregular Cases

    Let’s take a step back for a moment. Natural, normal birth isn’t the only way a character is born, and thus the natural progression of language and the formation of words doesn’t apply to. Or maybe this character isn’t even a human or otherwise won’t ever speak a human word. For these cases, there are much fewer rules.

    For example, what if your character is an instant clone that was generated like a photocopy of someone else? A character “born” this way is likely (and probably expected) to already have developed neural pathways and muscle control to be able to make whatever sounds the original was able to make. In this case, it more likely comes down to the original’s personality and the circumstances of the clone’s entry into the world. If the cloning machine doesn’t automatically dress them, there’s probably a good chance they’ll first comment on their lack of clothes. Alternatively, maybe they’ll first see their “parent” and greet them. A good example comes from the episode “The Doctor’s Daughter” of Doctor Who where a single cell is taken from the Tenth Doctor’s hand and is instantly grown into a progeny. Not quite a clone, per se, but her first words right out of the progenation machine were “Hello, dad.”

    Alternatively, maybe your character is part of a creation myth and was formed as an adult. Much like the bit about cloning above, this character is likely to already be able to speak fairly fluently, though they still may have to learn or (if the character’s creator has set it up in such a way) create several words. The Bible does not record the first words of Adam, but his first recorded words were “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” (Genesis 2:23, KJV) It’s safe to assume at this point that it hadn’t been long since he was “born” and already he shows quite a grasp on language. Though, of course, different worlds may have different rules.

    Now what if it’s a character that doesn’t speak? Or that doesn’t speak any human language? A dog, perhaps. Well, the line becomes quite blurred here. You could leave this blank or say that they don’t speak. You could also recite that the character whined or barked (or made whatever sound their species makes), but given the above rule that what they say should be meaningful, there’s no way to tell what would fit the definition of a “first word”. Animals generally have very simple forms of communication and can’t share ideas with one another with the ease a human could. It’s nothing like animal stories like Lady and the Tramp where they can all speak in some dog language that humans can’t understand. Even singing between birds can often be likened to cavemen grunting at each other, perhaps to alert the group of danger or show them where a bit of food is. Words aren’t really spoken, although ideas are still communicated. With that in mind, you may instead choose to record the first meaningful communication with another was. This can vary wildly from species to species and will likely take further research to produce something that would be accurate to what is seen in real life.

    Other cases, such as alien species, gods and spiritual beings, disembodied voices, etc. will carry even fewer rules and will usually only be influenced by what’s happening when they do speak. Depending on the alien species, you may wish to carry over some of the rules outlined above to decide what their first words might be. So long as it’s at the very least consistent with itself, there’s most likely nothing worry about.

References

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5. Circle-Of-Moms-Editors. (2011, July 1). “Baby Talk: The 15 Most Common First Words”. PopSugar. Retrieved 2017, February 5.
   
6. Mastroianni, Brian. (2016, December 9). “Babies' first words might depend on what they see”. CBS News. Retrieved 2017, February 5.
   
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