Howard Brazee wrote: > > They did the same thing for year-old children and the Japanese babies > > did not look up when the word changed to "la". They had already > > learned that "ra" and "la" were the same and couldn't hear the > > difference between them. > > > > This study fascinates me. How much of the world have I learned to > > ignore? Ken Koester <kkoester at email.ers.usda.gov> replied: > Scary, isn't it? Actually, I was being conservative. The study I read > indicated that much of the loss occurs earlier & by age 12, is almost > concluded. If you wanna really become bilingual & sound like a native, > better do it before you are 6 or better pick better genes (-; No, a better place to grow up. This one's definitely nurture, not nature. But I'm sure you knew that. -- Dr. Whom, Consulting Linguist, Grammarian, Orthoepist, and Philological Busybody a.k.a. Mark A. Mandel __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - Easier than ever with enhanced search. Learn more. http://info.mail.yahoo.com/mail_250