Researchers had previously known that infants develop the ability to ape speech around twelve weeks of age and babies show a preference for spoken language mirroring the rhythm, melody and intensity patterns of their mother tongue.
A team of European scientific researchers now believe that babies demonstrate that they are tuned into the chatter around them through their cries. The cries of 30 French and 30 German newborn babies were recorded by researchers when the babies were hungry, having their nappies changed or when generally being out of sorts and it could be seen that they cried in distinct patterns.
French babies’ cries started out low and rose to a higher pitch, whereas German babies’ cries started out high and fell to a lower pitch. German babies also cried with more intensity than the French babies and all these patterns matched the intonation rhythms of spoken French, where the pitch tends to rise over the course of several words and German, where the opposite occurs.
The scientists believe that foetuses begin to pick up on the melody of ambient language during their last three months in the womb. They cannot hear all the phonetic details of their mothers’ speech but can perceive the overall patterns. The researchers believe that imitating these patterns may aid the closeness between newborn babies and their mothers.
