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Published on: January 7, 2020
Newborns' cry melody is shaped by their native language
Birgit Mampe1, Angela D Friederici, Anne Christophe
1Center for Prespeech Development and Developmental Disorders, Department of Orthodontics, University of Würzburg, 97070 Würzburg, Germany.
Current Biology : CB
|November 10, 2009
Summary
Newborns
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Linguistics
- Neonatal Studies
Background:
- Human fetuses perceive auditory stimuli, including melody contours in music and language, by the third trimester.
- Newborns exhibit perceptual preferences for their native language and can distinguish between languages based on prosody, primarily melody.
- Prenatal exposure to native language prosody influences newborn perception, but effects on sound production typically emerge later.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate whether the surrounding speech prosody influences newborns' vocalizations, specifically their cry melody.
- To analyze the melody and intensity contours of cries from French and German newborns.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of crying patterns (melody and intensity contours) in 30 French and 30 German newborns.
- Comparison of cry contour characteristics between the two language groups.
Main Results:
- French newborns preferentially produced cries with a rising melody contour.
- German newborns preferentially produced cries with a falling melody contour.
- These findings suggest an influence of surrounding speech prosody on newborn cry melody.
Conclusions:
- Newborns' cry melody is influenced by the prosody of the language they were exposed to prenatally.
- This influence may occur through vocal learning, leveraging biological predispositions.
- The study provides evidence for early effects of linguistic environment on vocal production.
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