The NY Times reported that a study will be published in the Acta Paediatrica about babies learning their native language even before they're born. They used a very novel way of measuring the babies' interest in Swedish and English vowel sounds by their vigor of sucking. American babies sucked more when hearing Swedish vowel sounds, suggesting they hadn't heard them before. Similarly, Swedish babies sucked more vigorously when they heard English vowel sounds. The authors concluded that the babies couldn't have possibly learned so quickly after birth (they were 7 to 75 hours old), so their learning must be attributed to prenatal learning.

Very interesting!

I remember some time back seeing somewhere that unborn/newborn babies recognised the sounds of the language they'd heard in the womb. How researchers determined that they recognised it, I can't remember.

Not surprising IMO. Amniotic fluid can pass sound waves as well as any other liquid.

I cannot wait to see the actual study when it comes out.

This thread flew by & I missed it. Such an interesting topic. In my eldest's last few months in utero, I was busy brushing up a couple of Chopin pieces I'd learned in youth, & learning a new one. Later, when he moved out of our bedroom & into a crib, we tried a selection of tapes for him to hear as he drifted off to sleep. Once he could verbalize a bit (age 9mos or so), he made clear he preferred Horowitz' Chopin album to Sesame St etc.