Multilinual babies: their first words

Multilingual babies can speak any language first, and there is no set order or pattern. It often depends on the child's exposure to the languages and their individual developmental process.

Some babies may speak their first words in their mother tongue or the language spoken most often at home. Other babies may start speaking in a language they hear more frequently outside the home or from other caregivers, such as a daycare or a nanny who speaks a different language.

In some cases, babies may mix different languages in their early speech, creating what is known as "code-switching." This is common in multilingual households and is often a natural part of a child's language development process.

When Lou began to speak, we noticed something remarkable. She had an intuitive understanding of language that allowed her to choose the easiest word to express herself, regardless of the language. For example, instead of using the more complicated Italian, Spanish, or German words for "sit down," Lou would use the simple and straightforward Catalan word "seu." Lou selected also the word "bitte" in German to say "please" because it was the easiest word among the 4 different languages she was exposed to. Something fun is that somehow she started to say "up" in English even though she was never directly exposed to the word before, and she has continued to use it because she understands its meaning. Overall, it was amazing to watch Lou's language skills develop and see how she could effortlessly switch between multiple languages, selecting the most comfortable and natural words for her.

There are other parents who have had similar experiences. For example, one family uses the one-person-one-language (OPOL) method with English and Taiwanese Hokkien, a minority language, and with the parents mainly communicating in Mandarin between themselves. As a result, the child was exposed to all three languages during family conversations. The parent pointed out that their 14-month-old started to pronounce Taiwanese Hokkien first, since this language has a lot of single-syllable vocabulary, making it easier for their child to form words.

Another family shared that their also 14-month-old son, exposed to Dutch, Kurdish, and English, began saying his first words in Kurdish. They noted that this could be due to the fact that Kurdish has a lot of repeating syllables, such as "baba" for dad and "kaka" for brother or older man.

As a parent, it is fascinating to observe how babies can be so clever in their language acquisition journey. It is a reminder that, as adults, we often overcomplicate things, while babies have a natural ability to simplify things and find the most straightforward path.

For more 👉 Multilingual education

Experts on this topic:

Don’t take ages and stages for early language development too seriously by Speech and Language Therapist Mary-Pat O’Malley

Dr. Barbara Zurer Pearson, a linguist and professor emerita at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, who has conducted extensive research on bilingual language development in children.
Dr. Annick De Houwer, a professor of language acquisition and multilingualism at the University of Erfurt in Germany, who has studied language development in bilingual and multilingual children.
Dr. Fred Genesee, a professor of psychology at McGill University in Canada, who has researched language development in bilingual and multilingual children and has authored several books on the topic.