The present paper discusses some linguistic correlates of early bilingualism, correlates which have implications for first cognitions about language. The paper also touches on the question of what linguistic environments are optimal for the very young child to acquire two languages fluently, testing the importance of a one-speaker/one-language presentation style. The validity of some measures of early bilingual fluency is also discussed. Data from two separate replications are presented. Thirteen bilinguals with mean age of 30 months are compared with matched monolingual controls on age of first word, receptive vocabulary, and general language development. Subsequently, 22 balanced bilinguals (mean age 51 months) are compared with monolingual controls on age of first word, receptive vocabulary, syntactic maturity and verbal fluency. The results suggest that bilingual preschoolers are not delayed in age of first words, may lag slightly in the acquisition of lexical items, but may be superior in ideational fluency. There is no evidence that the bilingual child's languages must be separated by speaker or location for optimum vocabulary growth. (Author/CLK)