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.