* Babbling is not a perfect representation of adult speech: Infants are not trying to reproduce specific adult sounds. They are experimenting with their vocal cords and developing the motor skills needed for speech.
* Phonetic inventory varies: While there are 869 phonemes in the world's languages, not all languages use all of them. Infants are limited by the sounds of their native language.
* Individual variation: Each infant develops at their own pace. Some infants may produce a wider range of sounds than others.
However, we can say that:
* Infants can produce a surprising number of sounds: They can often make sounds that are not in their native language.
* The sounds they make are precursors to adult speech: The babbling stage is crucial for developing the ability to produce the specific sounds of their language.
Instead of focusing on the exact number, it's more important to understand that babbling is a vital stage in language development. It's a time of exploration and experimentation for infants, setting the foundation for their future speech abilities.