An article by medical writer Lauran Neergaard reviewed research on how children become bilingual so easily. She cited studies on the difficulty Japanese people have in distinguishing the “R” and “L” sounds in English, “rake” and “lake” sounding the same to their ears. She writes, “(Dr. Patricia Kuhl’s University of Washington) team proved that a 7-month-old in Tokyo and a 7-month-old in Seattle respond equally well to those different sounds. But by 11 months, the Japanese infant had lost a lot of that ability.”
I can relate to the Japanese trouble with r’s and l’s. I can’t hear the difference between the French dessous and dessus, no matter how hard I try. And there are certain French sounds I can’t seem to pronounce at all. My pronunciation of dix-neuf sounds like ‘diks-nerf’. I blame the state of Pennsylvania.
I grew up there and acquired a southeastern PeeA accent thicker than any Southern, Bronx or Boston accent you’ve heard. Supposedly there are differences between central PeeA and southeastern PeeA speech. But I believe there is a great deal of overlap. I grew up saying warsh instead of wash, pitcher instead of picture, ignernt instead of ignorant. And then there’s the dialect. My people said youze instead of the plural you or the southern y’all. We redd up the table instead of clearing it and outened the light instead of turning it off.
My accent approaches the level of a speech impediment and is a major obstacle in my pursuit of fluency in French. I’ve obviously missed the sensitive window for learning a second language in early childhood, so what to do? Dr. Kuhl to the rescue! She developed a computer program that simulates ‘motherese’, the slow exaggeration of sounds mothers make to their babies. She had Japanese college students with little English language exposure sit through 12 sessions of an instructor slowly pronouncing ‘R’ and ‘L’ motherese. They used MEG scans (magnetoencephalography) to prove that the students could better distinguish between the two sounds and they also pronounced them better.
Now if only I can get Dr. Kuhl to turn her attention to the southeastern PeeA accent….
or find a willing française to speak motherese to me…..
Think I can score a MEG scanner on eBay?
Cynthia Tuttelman (aka "Tut") is a writer, family doctor and quilter who lives in Northern California and part-time each year in Paris, France. Follow along and explore the wonders of Paris.