When should my DS start speaking?

[ObsidianBlackbirdMcNight]

Ok I know it's subjective but....

he's 18mo nearly. He learnt 'mummy' over christmas which he has now stopped saying and although he sometimes mimics you it's very indistinct and random. We are bringing him up bilingual, hopefully. Yesterday he said the arabic word for water while looking at the water but it sounds a lot like mama so could have been coincidence!
he has a few 'words' such as 'da' when waving and 'ayaa' into the phone, so i think he gets the concept ok, but zero actual words.

Is he normal? (wails)

Yep. My son was exactly the same. Any skills like talking, walking, reading etc., are very variable. If it helps, at around 19/20mo, my DS started to learn a few more words, and then a week or two ago he's had a bit of a mini explosion in speech, going from saying 'mam', 'daaaad' and 'jooce' to saying at least ten to fifteen other words (including quite a few names) and linking them together in basic sentences (such as 'jooce gone' when he's drunk it all etc.).

Some children learn to talk sooner (there was a girl at our playgroup saying a few words from about a year), and some pick it up later. They all even out by the time they're five or six, so don't worry if he seems 'backward' compared to your books and leaflets.

Is your DS quite an active child? I sometimes think that the children who wander around more don't bother speaking as early, because they can often get what they want without saying words, and get sort of lazy about it. My DS certainly managed for months by saying 'da' about everything, and simply pointing at what he wanted.

My DD is 18mths and a right chatterbox. We get full sentences such as "One more cake please Daddy". "Where have the balls gone to Mummy?"
She doest stop from the moment she wakes till she goes to bed...its constant! [yawn]
Shes is ahead of nearly all of her peers in her speech so dont use this as a guide.

Not sure where this has come from but ive heard it said that children being brought up bilingual often take longer to master speech as they have more words to process and decide which language they should be using at each time. I know this was true for my friends DS who was bought up speaking English, Hungarian (mum) and Spanish columbian (Dad). He's fluent in all now and hes 4

Deffo, DD (4) was talking in sentences at 18mths 'red tractor field there' after having lots of single words about 12mths, DS (16mths) only says Dada and dog-gie. However DS walked at 12.5mths and is climbing/running etc but DD didn't walk til 16mths and didn't run til 2.

dgs 12 months says about six words clearly-tractor,car,train,digger,mama and dada
Children all develop at different speeds and being bilingual may slow it a little I think.

Just wanted to say that my son didn't have any words by 18 months and was only putting a couple together by 2 years. He's nearly four now and quite chatty and eloquent. It could be inherited as I was 3.5 before I spoke at all and the children I know that have been brought up bilingual have started talking later but soon catch up. I'm sure he's fine and before you know it you'll be wishing he'd stop talking as it feels like you're being tortured!

Thanks all!