Washington: Long before their birth, infants begin picking up elements of their first language in the womb, says a new study.
After analysing the cries of 60 healthy newborns, a team of researchers from University of Wurzburg in Germany, found that "human neonates are not just capable of producing
different cry melodies, they prefer to produce those melody patterns that are typical to the language they have heard during their fetal life within the last trimester of gestation".
For their analysis, the team led by Kathleen Wermke recorded the cries of 60 newborn between three and five days -- 30 born into French-speaking families and 30 into
German-speaking families.
They noted clear differences in the cry melodies of these kids, based on their mother tongue. While French newborns tend to cry with a rising melody contour, German infants seem to prefer a falling melody contour in their crying.
"These patterns are consistent with characteristic differences between the two languages," Wermke said adding the data shows an extremely early impact of native language on the
newborns.
The researchers predict that newborns imitate melody contours of their mother`s speech because they want to attract her to foster bonding with her and melody contours is the only aspect that they are able to imitate at that early age.
The study was published in US-based online journal Current Biology.
Bureau Report