Babies Pick Up Mothers' Accents In The Womb
Categories: Newborns, Development, In The News
Babies learn accents in the womb. Credit: jupiterimages
Have you ever heard a baby cry with a German accent?
You can -- if you listen hard enough, said Kathleen Wermke of the University of Würzberg in Germany to the BBC. She led a research project which concluded that infants pick up the nuances of their mothers' accents, even while in the womb.
Researchers studied the cries of 60 healthy babies born to families speaking German and French. Wermke told the BBC that they could detect the French babies crying with a rising accent while German babies cried with a falling accent.
Wermke added that the research, which was published in the journal Current Biology, is more than just a slightly interesting curiosity. It suggests that human beings are influenced by the first sounds that penetrate the womb. Scientists already knew that unborn children could memorize sounds from the outside world in the last trimester of pregnancy, especially music and voices.
"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 fetal life," Wermke told the British news agency.
Researchers concluded that babies don't need well-developed vocal chords to reflect the accents around them. They just need well-coordinated respiratory-laryngeal systems.
"Newborns are highly motivated to imitate their mother's behavior in order to attract her and hence to foster bonding,'" Wermke said.
Related: Babies In the Womb Learn To Like Vegetables
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Kristi 11-07-2009 @ 10:03AM
What a wonderful testimony to the fact that a baby is a living and learning child and NOT just a choice.
Reply
Sandyone 11-10-2009 @ 8:56AM
Sshhhh....don't let anyone know...they might think about the marvelous marketing campaign (fraud) that abortion-rights folks perpetrated on the Supreme Court and the US people.
Tracy 11-15-2009 @ 5:14PM
Whoa thats way awesome that babies can pick up their mother's Accents while their in the mothers' womb. While their mothers' in her last trimester of pregnancy, especially music and voices.
Reply