BBC reports that university researchers in Germany studied the cries of 60 newborn infants born to French and German women and found the babies mimic the sounds of their mothers' accents.

The cries of German babies had a lower inflection, whereas French infants cried with a rising tone.

Previous studies have shown that children in the womb can memorize sounds during the last trimester and are "sensitive to the contour of the melody in both music and human voices," but the latest findings were exciting for researchers studying language development and human bonding:  

Kathleen Wermke from the University of Wurzburg, who led the research, said: "The dramatic finding of this study is that not only are human neonates capable of producing different cry melodies, but they prefer to produce those melody patterns that are typical for the ambient language they have heard during their foetal life...

Their analysis revealed clear differences in the shape of the infants' cry melodies that corresponded to their mother tongue...

Dr Wermke said: "Newborns are highly motivated to imitate their mother's behaviour in order to attract her and hence to foster bonding.

If you click here, you can listen to the babies' cries and hear what the researchers are talking about. 

Readers have left 2 comments.

   Quote(1) Babies and Learning
November 06th, 2009 | 1:25pm

It has occurred to me that babies, even newborns are probably much smarter and more aware of their enviornment than we realize. Because they cannot "speak" we tend to believe that there is not much going on in that little head, when the reverse if actually true. I would suspect that a 6 month old infant has got quite a bit going on in their mind. They may not be able to converse with use about it, but I suspect that they are much more aware of their enviornment that we give them credit for.

Yes, I would bet money that a newborn knows a lot more than we realize, even being capable of some complex thought. If there was a way of testing their problem solving skills, we might actually be shocked.

 Written by Austin

   Quote(2) Heard in a multicultural nursery
November 06th, 2009 | 1:42pm

Baby 1 "You are Eenglish types-eh"

Baby 2 "Well, what are you, then?"

Baby 1 "Ah am French. Why do you think I cry with thees outRAGEous accent?!"

Seriously, this is an interesting post, Zoe. I wonder if there are somehow physiological factors involved as well? Generations of speaking a certain way have caused a people's tongue, larynx, lips, etc to develop a certain way, maybe?

 Written by Jason Negri

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