COPENHAGEN, Denmark, May 20 (UPI) -- A study finds that very young Danish children appear to have as much trouble with their native language as nearly everyone else.

The Center for Child Language at the University of Southern Denmark compared the size of children's vocabularies, the Copenhagen Post reported. Researchers say that young Danes have vocabularies that average 80 words at 15 months, while Swedes average 130 words and Croatians a whopping 200.

But the Danes don't stay behind for long. By the time they are 2, they have caught up with toddlers from other countries.

"The research shows that by the age of two, Danish children are nearly up to speed," said study leader Dorthe Bleses. "But it's good to be aware of the challenge, as some children need to hear words and phrases several times before they get it right."

Bleses said that Danes tend to slur words together in a sentence. That makes it harder for young children to pick out individual words.

The language also has more vowel sounds than most, giving words a "mushier" sound.