Do babies really have accents before they can talk? We ask language experts after a video of a little girl ‘babbling’ in a Scouse accent goes viral… and this isn’t the only example

A baby’s Scouse babble recently took the internet by storm with millions of views on TikTok, which experts say is a ‘striking’ example of how our language is developing.

In the clip, which has now been viewed more than 17 million times, the 19-month-old girl ‘converses’ with a distinctly Liverpudlian accent with her aunt after being told it’s time for bed.

Posted by account @iamcustardpot and captioned “I love our conversations,” the clip sees the baby seemingly reply with a shake of the head and what sounds like “No” in a throaty Scouse intonation before continuing to babble adorably.

Experts told MailOnline that the clip was unusual and showed how much babies absorb aspects of the language spoken by the people around them.

Professor Caroline Floccia, an expert in developmental psychology from the University of Plymouth, told this website that what we hear in the clip is the baby imitating the prosody, or melody, of the Scouse accent.

“It’s striking because the baby is still quite young at 19 months, but already has quite developed language development for his age,” she said.

‘She makes quite long statements, long sentences, which gives you plenty of opportunity to hear that melody.

‘She doesn’t really put words together, she imitates and learns the prosody of the language.

‘Everyone notices it a little more because it’s not the standard British pronunciation.’

She added that although the Scouse baby’s long speaking sentences were unusual for her age, she was basically demonstrating how any child learns to speak.

“It’s exactly what every child does. Language learning begins in the womb, in the last three months before birth.”

Professor Floccia said previous studies have shown that even very young babies ‘cry’ in different languages, with the wails of babies from French-speaking households differing slightly from those of German-speaking counterparts.

She said babies first learn what a language sounds like, its melody, before they ever learn specific words and meanings.

During this time, instead of words, they first begin to detect the melody of language in their environment, which then develops as they grow older.

Professor Floccia added that, although there is currently no data to support this, some accents with a stronger melody, such as Liverpool, may be more noticeable to the ear than accents with a more subtle pattern.

And she said that environment seems to play a stronger role than any specific parental accent.

The baby, who cannot yet speak, seemed to respond immediately to questions – albeit with a Liverpool accent

She said that while data was still available, anecdotal observations suggested that babies growing up in a household with a parent with a foreign accent would not notice this.

“So they never learn English with a French accent or, for example, with a German accent,” she said.

Professor Floccia said that ‘every practitioner in the world’ has rightly encouraged parents to talk to their babies as much as possible, as this helps them develop their own language skills.

“The more they are exposed to language, in terms of quantity but also in terms of quality, the richer their language will be,” she said.

She also said that doctors typically look for babies who begin to form basic two-word sentences by age two.

Dr. Dan Wuori, an expert on parenting and child development, said the video is an example of how observant babies are of the way the people around them talk.

On ) which will become their native language. birth.

‘We are only just beginning to understand the deep learning that begins in the womb.

“It’s just more evidence that the period from prenatal to age three is the most crucial period in human development.”

But the Scouse baby isn’t alone. Social media is flooded with other examples of babies and young children ‘speaking’ with certain accents.

Last year, TikTok user @459cja posted a video of a Scottish baby appearing to say something along the lines of ‘Oh you, what are you doing calling Eilidh’.

And Jessica Di Santo, mother of two from Melbourne, Australia, posted another example that shows it’s not just about the sounds babies pick up.

The adorable clip shows her son Leonardo mimicking the hand gestures his Italian grandfather makes while talking on the phone.