Sex differences in infant vocalization and the origin of language

Abstract

Seeking to discern the earliest sex differences in language-related activities, our focus is vocal activity in the first two years of life, following up on recent research that unexpectedly showed boys produced significantly more speech-like vocalizations (protophones) than girls during the first year of life.We now bring a much larger body of data to bear on the comparison of early sex differences in vocalization, data based on automated analysis of all-day recordings of infants in their homes. The new evidence, like that of the prior study, also suggests boys produce more protophones than girls in the first year and offers additional basis for informed speculation about biological reasons for these differences. More broadly, the work offers a basis for informed speculations about foundations of language that we propose to have evolved in our distant hominin ancestors, foundations also required in early vocal development of modern human infants.