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Babies Cries Match Melody of Mother's Native Tongue
Here is more proof that babies start learning language very, very early. The L.A. Times reports on research that found babies cry in their native tongue. During the study babies as young as 2 to 5 days old cried in pitched and patterns related to their mother's native tongue.
The researchers recorded the cries uttered by 30 French and 30 German newborns when they were hungry, having their diapers changed or generally out of sorts. Though the babies were only 2 to 5 days old, they cried in distinct patterns.
The wails of the French babies started out low and rose to a higher pitch, whereas those of their German counterparts started out high and fell to a lower pitch. The German babies also cried with more intensity than the French babies, the researchers found. These patterns matched the intonation patterns of spoken French (in which the pitch tends to rise over the course of several words) and German (in which the opposite occurs).
The L.A. Times says the scientists believe babies pick up on the "melody of ambient language" while they are still in the womb during the third trimester.
Posted on November 16, 2009
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