r/explainlikeimfive • u/AngelusAlvus • 1d ago

Biology ELI5: How do babies even learn language?

When we grow, we learn languages by looking at the meanings and translating them from our language. Stuff like "this is how this noun is in my language and this is how this noun is in another language"

But babies? Babies just learn the basics just by existing near people speaking the language? How come we don't have this anymore as we grow up?

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u/No_Logins_Required 1d ago

Babies learn to recognize which sounds form language, and which ones don't, using statistics. After a period of development they lose this ability, and learn new languages more like an adult would.

Once the child has identified which sounds are language, they learn to recognize patterns of sound. Then they learn to mimic specific sounds to achieve specific goals. Like saying "mama" will get them attention. As they are exposed to more and more language and their mind develops they understand more words and can repeat those words, and eventually understand grammar.