Patterns in babbling: a cross-linguistic study.
Three Canadian-English infants and three Parisian-French infants were filmed bi-weekly for three to five months, from the age of 0;9 or 0;11 until 1;2, at home in naturalistic interaction with a parent. Their babbled utterances were transcribed phonetically and categorized according to consonant-type and vowel-type. The contexts for each utterance were described in terms of both specific and more general contextual categories. Observed frequencies of co-occurrences between phonetic and contextual categories were compared to expected frequencies, and deviations were considered to be patterns in babbling. Patterning increased after age 1;0 for most infants, and from 1% to 30% of each infant's babbled utterances recurred in particular contexts with a greater-than-expected frequency. Similarities in patterns were found both within and across language groups. These sound-meaning correspondences in babbling are viewed as continuous with early situation-bound meaning in words.
Blake
J
J
Department of Psychology, York University, Ontario, Canada.
de Boysson-Bardies
B
B
D003142:Communication; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007804:Language Development; D008297:Male; D010700:Phonetics; D013060:Speech