• Question: Have you heard/read about research into unborn babies learning to recognise music and sounds coming from outside the womb (e.g. research by Partanen in 2013 using ERPs)? These pieces of research suggest that newborns may have grown accustomed to the sorts of sounds present in their mothers first language while developing as a fetus. Do you think that this could relate to your research into the emotions attached to words in primary vs secondary languages?

    Asked by EmilyGodd to Wil on 9 Mar 2017.
    • Photo: Wilhelmiina Toivo

      Wilhelmiina Toivo answered on 9 Mar 2017:


      Wow this is a really good question! (also I am very impressed that you actually looked up studies about this!). I have heard about these studies and it definitely can have an impact. This is actually what we are trying to find out at the moment – what exactly makes a language more emotional for you. Some of the big theories suggest (theory of language embodiment, and the brain maturation approach) that the earlier you learn a language, the more emotional it will be for you. This is for two reasons: firstly you would associate your childhood experiences with the words of that language, and secondly, because your brain matures as you are learning the language, the reactions of the words of these language are more deeply encoded in your brain. So I would definitely agree that a language that a baby has heard from the mother even before birth and learnt to recognise, would be more emotional for them.

      Another interesting point is if it can change how emotional we find a language. Sometimes bilinguals have learnt a language as a child, but never used it much after that, or they may have a partner who they communicate to in their second language and they start associating that language with more emotional situations. People’s language histories are so complicated and really fascinating – this is why I really like my topic! 🙂

      Thank you for an excellent question, this was definitely one of the best ones i have got so far! 🙂

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