Comments on: We Learn Our Language in the Womb

By: Mouserz

Mouserz — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 23:30:48 +0000

Im going to start screaming obscenities in every language at my unborn son

By: Cola

Cola — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 19:29:24 +0000

Chago- you’re right, it’s extremely preliminary, but we all know how lay people tend to exaggerate the tentative conclusions of even the most qualified of studies. More likely this is just more evidence for the way we’re wired as human beings to learn language. Even as embryos, our half developed brains are picking up on linguistic cues.

I doubt this proves language is completely learned before birth.

By: Cola

Cola — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 19:22:30 +0000

I don’t know that you can say one’s dialect is determined at birth. A friend of mine was born in Japan to Japanese parents and came to the U.S. at four years of age (becoming a citizen just a couple of years ago). It was hard for me to believe she was fluent in Japanese, until I heard her speak it over the phone with her father, because her English is completely unaccented.

This is just one story, but I remember learning about the apprehension of language in my linguistics classes, and I just think the way you’ve boiled it down here is a little too simplistic. For instance, the real test of whether a dialect is “fixed” by birth would be to take an infant born in another country (China, for instance) with entirely different syntax from the one in which they were raised and see how easily they learned their mother tongue at the high school level compared to their (U.S. born) peers.

By: Chicago Translator

Chicago Translator — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 09:34:54 +0000

This is an amazing discovery. This only proves that they can hear us even while they are still in their mother’s womb. Then it is really true that we can read them good books and let them listen to good music even before they are born. Thank you for this post.

By: emmiline

emmiline — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 07:39:21 +0000

Flux- agree!
–

if *you’re* not the one having the abortion done, then maybe you should mind your own business.

By: Flux

Flux — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:56:59 +0000

If you’re also against abortion, you should be anti-masturbation for males. All those wasted half people…omg, teh carnage!

By: ronald

ronald — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:10:58 +0000

IMO, if you are against abortion, you should also be anti-war, anti-death-penalty, pro-universal health care, and pro-civil rights (including right of consenting adults of any gender to marry and lead their own lives).

By: Humos

Humos — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:56:42 +0000

It’s a wonderful excuse for lazy mono-monolingual people for NOT even trying to learn another language.

By: Chago

Chago — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:43:29 +0000

How did they control the experiment? What about babys removed from their family to a different younger home?
This is lame

By: Chago

Chago — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:31:42 +0000

I’m sorry but a 60 person sample isn’t even close to proving anything.

By: Jim

Jim — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:23:58 +0000

I simply cannot fathom the type of person who works every day at disposing unwanted babies. Then again few of us could understand the mind set of Nazi death camp personell.

By: Kaboom

Kaboom — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:20:19 +0000

In what language do the late-term abortees protest their fate?

By: Padraig

Padraig — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:07:25 +0000

So what exactly happens if the expecting couple speak different languages? Or does only the language spoken by the prospective mother matter?

By: pwscott

pwscott — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 02:46:15 +0000

That is too freaky. We could breed a world of evil genius’ with at least 5 months of mental training in the womb.