The linguistic genius of babies | Patricia Kuhl

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Bilinguals maintain two sound-statistical systems and switch between them based on language and conversational partner.
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Twelve Mandarin sessions taught American infants sound distinctions as well as Taiwanese infants learned after 10 and a half months.
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Twelve television sessions produced no language learning. Neither did audio exposure paired with a teddy bear.
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At six to eight months, American and Japanese infants distinguish English “ra” and “la” equally well. Two months later, they diverge.
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Babies learn new language sound statistics from live human interaction, not equivalent audio or video exposure.
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Koro, spoken by only about 800 people, survives only when babies hear it. Adults cannot acquire it the same way.
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Every infant begins as a “citizen of the world,” distinguishing sounds from every language before specializing in one.
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Twelve Mandarin sessions improved Mandarin sound discrimination. Babies hearing only English showed no improvement.
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English separates many R and L sounds. Japanese groups them into an intermediate sound category.
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Babies become listeners tuned to their own language before their first birthday.
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Babies track sound frequencies in speech, then their brains reshape around the language they hear.

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