At what age can babies start speaking?

[moonstone1201]

DS is 2 months old, and whenever someone says 'hello' to him, it sounds like he is trying to say it back, but getting frustrated and crying when he can't quite form the word. Am I just projecting meaning onto random baby noises?

yes

Babies are social, so I guess he might be responding. I used to talk to ds when he was quite young and he used to gurgle back at me, but talking... very unlikely. DS is just working out the constanants now at 8 months and has mastered da-da, but that's about it.

lol, they can mimic sounds alright but not speak til much later on.

my dd used to mimic eh-o (hello tellitubbies style ) from very early on but she didn't say anything properly til she was 5/6 months (mama)

ds is 13 months, nearly 14. He makes ALL sorts of noises. He has a specific noise which is basically "thank you" but can also be used to say " I want that" and also "you can have this".
He makes clip clop noises with his tongue when he sees a horse. He says "tat" for cat and is gettinga similar word for dog.
He isn't yet putting the sound "dada" with Dh and "mama" with me, but can make both those sounds.
At 2 months your ds may be mimicking noises, but until he associates the noise with something specific , it isn't really 'talking' .

Hmm, the mimicking noises makes sense. It's very entertaining anyway! He's my first, and I don't know anyone else with babies, so I've really no idea what to expect! The official answer seems to be 'every baby's different,' but it's good to hear other people's experiences