第2291期:How we learn accents before we learn words

No! That's the only word we hear in the latest cute baby video to go viral. But it's not the words that baby Orla says that has made this video so popular. It's the fact that her babbling clearly mimics the distinctive Scouse accent from Liverpool. 

不！ 这是我们在最新的可爱婴儿视频中听到的唯一一句话。 但并不是小奥拉说的话让这段视频如此受欢迎。 事实上，她的胡言乱语显然模仿了利物浦独特的苏格兰口音。 

This now-famous infant may only have been born in 2022, but the different accents of babbling babies have been investigated for many years. A study from 2009 found that French babies tend to cry with a rising intonation, while German babies' cries often have a falling intonation. Other studies have shown American and French babies reflecting syllables from English and French respectively, and that babies with parents who speak a tonal language, like Mandarin, had a greater range of tones in their crying.

这个现在著名的婴儿可能才出生于 2022 年，但牙牙学语婴儿的不同口音已经被研究了很多年。 2009年的一项研究发现，法国婴儿的哭声往往是升调，而德国婴儿的哭声往往是降调。 其他研究表明，美国和法国的婴儿分别反映了英语和法语的音节，而父母说普通话等声调语言的婴儿在哭泣时的声调范围更大。

So why does this happen? As children develop, they practise making the sounds of the language that they hear around them. It's natural that they pick up the sounds and rhythms that surround them. In fact, babies start to learn language from their mother from three months before birth. However, it's not just the language of immediate family and caregivers that has an impact. Professor of developmental psychology, Caroline Floccia, highlights studies suggesting that children are more likely to acquire the accent of their environment than that of a parent who has an accent that is foreign to that location. 

那么为什么会发生这种情况呢？ 随着孩子的成长，他们会练习发出周围听到的语言的声音。 他们很自然地会捕捉到周围的声音和节奏。 事实上，婴儿从出生前三个月就开始向母亲学习语言。 然而，产生影响的不仅仅是直系亲属和照顾者的语言。 发展心理学教授卡罗琳·弗洛恰 (Caroline Floccia) 强调，研究表明，与父母的口音与当地口音不同，孩子更有可能获得周围环境的口音。 

Why is this important to know? Well, what it shows us is that babies are learning language through practice, and that the more time that parents spend interacting with their children, the greater the opportunity for this there is. While babbling babies may not be able to say many words, studies estimate that they can understand many times the number of words than those that they can actually say. Giving babies exposure to a greater number of words, allows them to better build their vocabulary.

为什么知道这一点很重要？ 嗯，它向我们展示的是，婴儿是通过练习来学习语言的，父母花在与孩子互动上的时间越多，这种机会就越大。 虽然牙牙学语的婴儿可能不能说很多单词，但研究估计，他们能理解的单词数量比他们实际能说的单词数量多很多倍。 让婴儿接触更多的单词，可以让他们更好地积累词汇量。

babbling 婴儿发出的咿呀声
mimic 模仿
distinctive 独特的
Scouse accent 利物浦口音
infant 婴儿
intonation 语调
syllable 音节
tonal 有声调的
tone 声调，语气
sound 声音
pick up 学会
rhythm 韵律，节奏
immediate family 直系亲属
caregiver 看护者
developmental psychology 成长心理学
acquire 学到，获得
foreign 不同的，外来的
interact 互动
exposure 暴露，接触
vocabulary 词汇量