Newborns Cry with an Accent

Here’s something interesting I would never have guessed was a real thing.  A study in the journal Current Biology found that babies cry with an accent from the moment of birth. They analyzed one thousand recorded cries from thirty French newborns and thirty German newborns.  The cries of the French babies tended to have a rising melody, while the cries from the German babies tended to have a falling melody.  The lead researcher, Dr. Kathleen Wermke, did a follow up study with other countries confirming the findings.  Even the very first cries of newborns bear a resemblance to their native tongue.  The researchers said babies have been listening to their mothers during the last trimester of pregnancy and their speech, limited to crying at this time, still reflects similarities of their mother’s language.