Newborns Pick Up Language in the Womb

Nov. 6, 2009 -- Comparing the gurgles, coos and cries of French and German newborns, a team of scientists from both countries found that baby talk is not, as previously assumed, universal.

Earlier research showed that human fetuses start to memorize sounds from the external world by the third trimester, and are especially keyed in to the melodic qualities of music and speech.

Previous studies also showed that newborns prefer the voice of their mothers, and can decipher different emotional content -- anger, joy -- from the intonation of maternal speech.

But even if tiny tots can perceive differences in language, it was widely thought that they were incapable of vocalizing those distinctions.

The new research, published in the upcoming issue of Current Biology, shows this assumption was wrong.

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A team of researchers led by Kathleen Wermke of the University of Wurzburg in Germany recorded and analyzed the cries of 60 healthy newborns ranging in age from three to five days.

Half the babies were born into French-speaking families, and the other half were in German-speaking families as they grew in the womb.

Astonishingly, cry melodies were distintive and different.

The French newborns tended to cry with a rising melody contour, while the German tots wailed with a "falling" tone, a signature feature in each language, the study found.

"Contrary to orthodox interpretations, these data support the importance of human infants' crying for seeding language development," Wermke said in a statement.

This also reinforced the idea that limitations to acquiring language skills at the youngest ages may be more physical than cognitive.

It has been shown that babies can begin imitating vowel sounds from about 12 weeks. But this skill depends on a degree of vocal control that is not possible physically at an earlier age.

"Newborns are probably highly motivated to imitate their mother's behavior in order to attract her and hence to foster bonding," the study notes.

"Melody contour may be the only aspect of their mother's speech that newborns are able to imitate."

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