[VIDEO] Listen to a French and German baby crying in their native languages

Because infants do not have the ability to articulate words, researcher Henkjan Honing, in a 2011 TED talk, identified a baby’s cry not as an effort at language, but rather as an expression of musical ability. He opened his TED talk with two sound bytes illustrating how a German and a French baby’s cry reflected the linguistic intonation of each baby’s native language.

Honing’s talk is entitled, “What Makes Us Musical Animals.”

His comments include the proposition or fact that, to a bird, a melodic pattern which is identical to another but in a different pitch, or register, is considered by the bird to be a totally different birdsong.

Click next page to read about bilingual language exposure in the womb.