外國人的腔調聽不懂？！

每個國家的嬰兒，哭啼的節奏跟母語一樣

It’s logical that the accent we hear the most when we’re younger is the one with which we speak. But research from Wurzburg University in Germany suggests that we develop and speak with our accent long before we utter our first words.
邏輯上，我們年輕時聽到最多的口音就是我們說話的口音。但是德國維爾茨堡大學的研究表明，在我們說出第一句話之前，我們的口音就已經在發展。

The researchers found that the crying of newborn babies contained melodies that mimicked the speech patterns and accents of their parents. For example, French babies were more likely to raise the pitch of their cries toward the end, mimicking the cadence of a French speaker’s accent. German babies did the exact opposite, just like their language does.
研究人員發現，新生嬰兒的哭泣，包含模仿父母說話方式和口音的旋律。例如，法國嬰兒在哭泣尾聲會提高音調，接近講法語的口音節奏。德國嬰兒的情況恰恰相反，就像他們的語言一樣。

These accents show up in babies as young as three days old. The researchers believe that it might be an attempt to form a bond with their mother by imitating her sounds as well as they can at that age. Although we’ve known for a while that babies can hear in the womb, this study suggests that they interact with those sounds, too.
這些重音出現在三歲大的嬰兒中。研究人員認為，這可能是通過盡可能模仿母親的聲音，嘗試與母親建立聯繫。儘管我們已經知道，嬰兒可以在子宮中可以聽到聲音，但這項研究顯示，嬰兒也可以與這些聲音互動。

We’re Largely Stuck With Our Accents
If we’re learning our accents before we actually talk, it makes sense that we tend to stick with the accent we first develop. Although bits and pieces of another accent or language might sneak in if you move somewhere else, it’s unlikely that you’ll ever pass for a native speaker in another region.
如果我們在開始學講話之前就學習了口音，那麼口音根深蒂固在我們的語調中就情有可原。如果你搬到其他地方，雖然可能會混入另一種口音或語言，但不太可能會就此成為其他地區的母語使用者。

Few differences are more pronounced than the “r” and “l” sounds between native English speakers and English-speaking Japanese. After studying the first six months of babbling from both English and Japanese babies, researchers at the University of Washington found that Japanese babies stopped forming the “r” and “l” sounds at about 10 months old.
以英語為母語的人和說英語的日本人之間，幾乎沒有什麼區別比“ r”和“ l”的聲音更明顯。在研究了英語和日語嬰兒的前六個月的胡言亂語之後，華盛頓大學的研究人員發現，日本嬰兒大約在十個月大時就停止了發出“ r”和“ l”聲。

新聞節錄：https://listverse.com/2015/12/11/10-fun-things-you-should-know-about-accents/

文章解說影片

utter [ˋʌtɚ] 說出; 發出
pitch [pɪtʃ] 音調；聲調
phonetic alphabet 發音字母表
mimic [ˋmɪmɪk] 模仿
opposite [ˋɑpəzɪt] 相反
swear words 髒話

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《Let’s chat 一起來閒聊》，是個只有聲音的節目，是Christine (台灣) 和Gavin (澳洲) 一起用雙語錄製的，我們每個裡拜挑選一則有趣的生活新聞來閒聊，重點部分會用中文解釋。
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學習外語最大的目的是「溝通」，然而在口語溝通時，本身的口音有時候會是學習外語的障礙，讓你無法準確的發出正確的音，達到溝通的目的。我們今天邀請到一位特別來賓，是從南非來的Piero，他的母語是非洲語，但同時也會講流利的英文，中文的說和讀也沒問題，他要在節目中跟我們一起討論不同國家語言的口音，以及口音是如何在嬰兒時期就開始發展了。

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