She said “mamma” but…
October 7th, 2008
My 10-month-old is now officially saying “mamma”; sometimes it’s “mammamamma” but she does say it when she wants my attention. I’m really happy; it really does move something inside when you hear it the first time.
Apparently it’s easier for kids to remember and to pronounce words with repeating syllables because those words stimulate their brains much more than others (you can find a more scientific explanation here). This may also explain why languages have evolved in such a way that words related to our babies’ worlds have repeating syllables. Besides the obvious “mamma” and “papà”, in Italian we also have “pappa” for baby food and “nanna” for baby sleep. The French have their “dodo” … and I’m sure there are many more.
I find this really interesting, but it doesn’t really explain why my older son’s first word was “scarpa”…shoe??!!??
-Michela
Entry Filed under: Baby, Interesting Articles, Parenting
4 Comments Add your own
1. Courtney | October 7th, 2008 at 4:40 pm
Yes, and think of all the other english terms… “Uh oh”, “Bye Bye”, “Wee wee”…
Sometimes I think the language I speak was made up my a toddler!
2. Adriana | October 7th, 2008 at 7:56 pm
No way! my daughter’s first word was also shoe (in Spanish, zapato, pronounced papaco by her)! And she is still obsessed with everyone’s shoes. Since her second word was “helmet” I’m not surprised anymore…
3. BSTEVENS | October 8th, 2008 at 8:35 am
la prima parola di Pop è stata “cracker”… fai un po tu…. ; )
4. Cinzia | October 11th, 2008 at 3:41 pm
The first word of my niece was ‘Chi è?’ (who is him/her?)… because she was often with granmother that everytime that someone ring the doorbell said ‘Chi è?’
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