Maternal Language Shapes Infants' Cry Melodies
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Scientists found that the very first cry of neonates is marked by their maternal language. This seems to be especially apparent in tonal languages, where pitch and pitch fluctuation determine the meaning of words.
Chinese and German scientists under leadership of the University of Würzburg have demonstrated that phenomenon for the first time with newborn babies from China and Cameroon.
Tonal languages sound rather strange to European ears: in contrast to German, French or English, their meaning is also determined by the pitch at which syllables or words are pronounced. A seemingly identical sound can mean completely different things -- depending on whether it is pronounced with high pitch, low pitch or a specific pitch fluctuation.
Now if pregnant women speak complex tonal languages: does it show in the crying of their newborn infants? This question has now been examined by scientists from different countries in a joint project. The results of their studies have been published in the latest issues of the journals Speech, Language and Hearing and Journal of Voice.
"The crying of neonates whose mothers speak a tonal language is characterized by a significantly higher melodic variation as compared to -- for example -- German neonates," said Professor Kathleen Wermke, Head of the Center for Pre-speech Development and Developmental Disorders at the University of Würzburg.
With all due caution, the results could even suggest that genetic factors are involved in the process in addition to external factors. "Of course, it remains undisputed that neonates are able to learn any language spoken in the world, no matter how complex it is," Wermke added.
55 neonates from Peking and 21 from Cameroon have been examined by scientists in the course of their studies, and their cry utterances recorded during their first days of life. Of course, no baby was made to cry for the purpose of research.
