Babies Already Have an Accent
How can you tell the difference between a French baby and a German baby? No, it’s not that one is wearing a saucy little beret while the other is tucked into tiny pair of lederhosen. Well, maybe that’s part of it. But a new study in the journal Current Biology shows that the babies actually sound different. Because the melody of an infant’s cry matches its mother tongue.
We all know that babies start eavesdropping while they’re still in the womb. So when they come out, they know their mother’s voice. When they’re older, they start to imitate the sounds they hear. Eventually they babble, and then start to speak, and then you never hear the end of it. But long before that first burble or coo, babies are learning the elements of language.
A team of scientists recorded the cries of 60 newborns: 30 born into French-speaking families and 30 that heard German. And they found that French infants wail on a rising note while the Germans favor a falling melody. Those patterns match the rhythms of their native languages. So next time you hear a baby cry, listen closely. He could be telling you where he’s from.
婴儿时期就已经有了“口音”
你怎样区别一个法国婴儿和一个德国婴儿？你可能认为戴着漂亮小巧贝雷帽的是法国婴儿，而穿着小皮短裤的是德国宝宝，但这不是判断的好方法。不过呢，穿着也 许可以成为区分的一部分。目前发表在《当代生物学》（Current Biology）杂志上的一项新研究表明，婴儿的声音实际上听起来就不同，这是因为婴儿啼哭的声调与他们的母语相一致。
我们都知道，当婴儿还在子宫中的时候，他们就开始“偷听”了。所以，当他们出生以后，他们就知道自己母亲的声音。当他们稍微长大以后，他们就开始模仿所听 到的声音。最后，他们开始咿呀学语了，继而开始说话了，然后呢，你就会听到他们说个不停了。不过，在婴儿咿呀学语很久之前，他们就开始学习语言的关键部分 了（译注：指语言的节奏与旋律）。
一个科研小组记录下了60个新生儿的哭声：其中30个出生于说法语的家庭，另外30个生于说德语的家庭。科学家们发现，法国婴儿的哭声是升调，而德国婴儿 的哭声是降调。这些语调与他们的母语节奏很吻合。所以下次如果你听到婴儿啼哭的话，请仔细听，或许你能从哭声中知道他出生于哪个国家呢！