At almost 18 months we have our first English words – banana (nana) and ball (ba). Baby’s babbling has gotten much more complex, with sounds like “eesh”, “gengda”, and “buyiyang”, but ba, ma, and na are still the sounds he uses to communicate most. And boy does he squeeze every drop of value from each one.
Ba is in first place for most versatile sound. It can mean dad (爸爸), purse (包), I’m full (饱), pick me up please (抱), and now bowl and ball.
Na can mean our nanny (奶奶), milk (奶), to hold (拿), and banana.
Ma is generally mama, but the other day he pointed to a statue of a cat (猫) and said “ma!”
I feel like we’re so close to a language explosion. He’s starting to try and repeat words back. He understands so much. He just needs a little more practice with these new sounds.
Etymology Adventures 