Janet CollinsCrying in Accent
November 8th 2009 05:51
Can you identify an accent from listening to a baby cry? Contrary to long held beliefs that accents are cultivated long after birth, researchers have now discovered that accent traits in babies are clear from their very first sob.
A recent study of 60 newborns from France and Germany has identified very clear characteristics in the crying sounds of French and German newborns. While the cries of the French babies tended to have a rising melody, the sound of the German babies’ cries was more of a falling melody, distinct differences that are characteristic of the two accents, scientists say.
The research, published in the Current Biology Journal this week, was conducted by Kathleen Wermke from the University of Wuerzburg in Germany in conjunction with a few French and American colleagues. The findings of the research on 30 French and 30 German babies contradict the previous understanding that language traits do not start to influence us until some time after birth.
While numerous studies have led scientists to understand that human fetuses are capable of memorizing sounds by the last three months of pregnancy, none had previously believed language or accent had any bearing on this.
Researchers were quick to point out that language and accent has a lot to do with intonation and pronunciation, but the French tend to raise the pitch at the end of sentences whereas the Germans tend to lower it. It was these characteristics in accent and language that the study revealed.
While this study was based on French and German newborns it would be interesting to find out these scientists views on the cries of newborn Australians. Do they, for example, cry from the back of their mouths or restrict the movement of their lips when they cry? Like the French, we all tend to go up at the end of sentences too, although I dare say this is probably where all similarities end.
Sourced: www.bigpondnews.com; www.nationalgeorgraphic.com
Image Credit: www.nationalgeographic.com
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Listening carefully to 60 babies crying individually to come to this conclusion would not have been too easy either.