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But by the time the same infants are a year old, they have lost that ability. Working with American, Swedish, Japanese and Russian children, Kuhl has discovered that 6- to 8-month-olds clearly hear and respond to the vowel and consonant sounds in both their own and other languages 6-month-olds in Tokyo perceive the difference between l and r just as easily as babies in Seattle. And by the time the baby's first words do come, those distinctive characteristics are solidly in place."įor 25 years, in her laboratory overlooking Lake Washington, Pat Kuhl has been exploring how humans develop spoken language and why, for example, American English speakers can readily distinguish between the l and r sounds and adult Japanese are consistently defeated by "lake" and "rake." Or, for that matter, why Americans struggle to hear the subtle difference between the b and p sounds in Spanish, so that "beso" (kiss) becomes "peso" (weight). Why is that? Our research shows that a kernel of that pattern of speaking begins to form in the brain well before actual production of speech. Yet you can tell they're not native speakers of the language. He speaks English beautifully, and I'm sure so does she. "Henry Kissinger wasn't born with an accent," Kuhl said, of the German-born ex-Secretary of State who often joked about his guttural pronunciation, "and neither was your wife. Thus we jokingly snack on "Rich crackers," and have a friend named "Dorothy Ritz." She replies that former Pittsburghers stress the first syllable of "Hello"-"Hell-low."
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She was born in the Philippines, began speaking English at 6, has lived in English-speaking Hong Kong and the United States for more than 30 years, holds a doctorate in education from Stanford, and still cannot easily twist her tongue around the English tz and ch sounds, which blend together in the Philippine languages she learned as an infant. Aha, I said, thinking of my Southern mother, who said "heah" for "here" until her dying day, my own persistent Pennsylvanianisms, and my wife, Sally. Accents, in whatever language, stubbornly hang in there for years, decades, a lifetime, without being easily rubbed out. And when the words do tumble out, they will be reproduced with the distinctive, localized twang or lilt overheard in Mommy's and Daddy's (or Mama's and Papa's) own funny speech.
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As early as 6 months, Baby begins to differentiate one bit of verbal input from another, mentally reviewing and silently rehearsing for the moment when the vocal cords are ready to deliver. Well before that first word is joyfully recorded on Baby's growth chart, according to Kuhl, who is director of the Center for Mind, Brain, and Learning at the University of Washington, the supine little person is taking in and carefully filing for future use the nuances of pronunciation-and mispronunciation-of the language heard at cribside. Prior to that, words are just background noise that doesn't register on the infant brain. Not until somewhere around the first birthday will Baby have developed the power of speech and thus be able to repeat and imitate those cute sounds the adults are making. The 6-month-old lies happily in the crib, cooing and babbling to the beaming parents and grandparents who respond encouragingly, eagerly anticipating that first word, that distinguishable "Mama" or "Dada." But, of course, 6 months is too soon to expect such a landmark utterance.