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Melody as a primordial legacy from early roots of language

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 August 2006

Kathleen Wermke*
Affiliation:
Center for Pre-Speech-Development and Developmental Disorders, Julius-Maximilians-University, Wrzburg, Wrzburg, 97070, Germany
Werner Mende*
Affiliation:
Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Science, Berlin, 10117, Germany

Abstract:

The stormy development of vocal production during the first postnatal weeks is generally underestimated. Our longitudinal studies revealed an amazingly fast unfolding and combinatorial complexification of pre-speech melodies. We argue that relying on melody could provide for the immature brain a kind of filter to extract life-relevant information from the complex speech stream.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2006

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References

Note

1. Only soft crying and whining uttered in a context of low distress and mitigated in its intensity was recorded.