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Babies might learn most of their vocabulary through father, study finds

The term 'mother tongue' might not be as accurate as first thought. (Getty Images)
The term 'mother tongue' might not be as accurate as first thought. (Getty Images)

We’ve all heard of the phrase “mother tongue” which leads us to believe a baby learns most of its vocabulary through its mother.

A recent study has found that might not be as accurate as we first thought.

While both mother and father play a vital role in the language development of their children, it’s primarily fathers who influence a baby’s vocabulary.

The study by the Laboratory of Contemporary Anthropology at the University of Fudan found that babies habitually picked up their father’s language over their mother’s.

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That’s not to suggest the term “mother tongue” is inaccurate, though.

Mothers have a huge influence over the development of their children as well, which is a bond that starts while the baby is still in the womb.

Before they’re born, babies will be able to distinguish their language from a foreign language.

They’ll also be able to recognise up to 800 words.

That’s why children are so quick to pick up two languages if their parents are bilingual.

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In order to establish which areas of language are communicated by each parent, The team, led by Menghan Zhang, conducted a genetic-linguistic study of 34 modern Indo-European populations.

Firstly, they looked at how the paternal Y chromosome influences vocabulary and then they looked at how sounds the baby hears before it’s born from the mother will affect its development.

The study’s findings go against most other research in this area.

It suggests the baby will pick up pronunciation from its mother, along with a host of other communications from traditions, behaviours and responsibilities.

Whereas the father plays more of a role in the actual vocabulary that the baby learns.

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The research was based upon another study of its kind by Estella Poloni and other researchers at Geneva University.

It looked at language variations and genetic lines between mother and baby and father and baby and noticed a correlation in the way that children picked up certain aspects of their language from their two parents.

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