A lot depends on how much the mother and father talk to the baby and how they talk to the baby. A baby that hears a lot of talking related to his daily life, can start to a make sounds that are like words around the age of six months - like ma, ba, da and round about 10--12 months will say
baby-speak words -like mama, dada, nana bobo (bottle), appa (apple) , and perhaps cup, cat, dog, light, up, no.
There is a fantastic book I used to learn how to teach a baby to talk that is all about how to talk to babies right from newborn and games to play every day so they learn to talk real soon. You can download it here.
Teach Baby to Talk | Discover how to help baby talk in FUN EASY steps
What I never realised before is how learning to talk before age 2 makes babies smarter the rest of their lives.
Coleen M