Final answer:
Typically, language development in infants starts from birth, progressing from recognizing their mother's voice and language tone to cooing and babbling. Infants are expected to speak their first meaningful words around the age of 12 months and start combining words by about 18 months.
Step-by-step explanation:
Infants are expected to speak their first words at about 12 months of age. Language acquisition is a natively enabled process that starts right from birth. From the inception, babies can distinguish their mother's voice and differentiate between language tones. They begin with cooing, essentially a vowel and a consonant sound combination like 'coo' or 'ba'. Such sounds are usually associated with their parent's language. For instance, a French baby coos differently from a Spanish or Urdu baby. Post cooing, babies start to babble, repeating syllables like 'ma-ma' or 'ba-ba'.
By one year, their language development allows them to utter their first meaningful word and by 18 months, they start combining words. Around 2 years, toddlers have a 50-200 word vocabulary. The ability to distinguish phonemes of their specific language becomes clear around 1 year. Note that these are average age ranges, and individual development can vary.
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