The results obtained by researchers interested in the speech-time relationship indicate that the sequential organization through time of speech sounds necessary for communication requires a universal "grammar" consisting of vowel and consonant sequences and an awareness of the duration experienced in that process, as well as the memory of its sequence. The elementary aspects of speech timing can only arise with infant babbling. A study of infant speech timing examined whether the perceived temporal characteristics of infant speech changed to reflect increased voluntary control of speech timing when the child achieved an unsupported, upright seated position. An analysis of tape recorded infant babblings obtained over several weeks revealed that (1) utterance durations decreased with time and became more uniform, or less variable; (2) the infants seemed to form a preference for consonant/vowel types, practice them, then use them often but more selectively; and (3) the infants began to use breath control to pattern sound with time. Thus, the changing skills observable in the speech data suggest voluntary control of speech series and an underlying emergence of cognitive functioning in segmented time, or temporality. (HOD)