A recent article in an AOL news section describes a new finding which is that babies still in the womb are picking up elements of their parents native tongue. Up until now we have taught and been taught that children have to learn through their parents after birth to imitate sounds and how to communicate and what to communicate. When scientists recorded and analyzed the cries of 60 healthy newborns, born to French or German speaking households, the analysis revealed clear differences in the melodies of their cries based on their native tongue.
These researchers believe that the development of language is rooted in melody and the findings listed above support the idea. Music and language might have co-evolved for a certain time during evolution and share a primordial form of communication system, says Kathleen Wermke, a medical anthropologist at the University of Wurzberg in Germany. (November 5, 2009 -Current Biology).
What a fascinating bit of research. It puts me in mind of the many different documentaries and even films that demostrate the power of melody and the connection to language in other ways. I think first of slavery in the United States and how information was passed among African people to convey news and warnings and other information. In the film Australia, the young half white/half aborigine, called a "creamy" in a derrogative manner talks about his aborigine grandfather "singing it" to him. The "it" might be a location, an answer to a question, or even a request.
Because the research indicates that babies are hearing this in the womb first, and since we already know that babies can hear in the womb, singing to your child, reading to your child and Mom even cooing or crying influences aspect, tone, and patterns of the way your child develops his or her language.
Perhaps you have already noticed this in your own children or in the children of parents whom you know well.
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