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06th Mar 2019

Study finds that children learn most of their vocabulary from their father

Olivia Hayes

Do you agree?

A new study has found that babies get most of their vocabulary skills from their father.

The research, which was conducted at Evanston Northwestern University and Evanston Northwestern Healthcare showed that different language skills are picked up from the male and female sexes.

It was first thought that children learn most words from their mothers, however this new study has contradicted that.

While we might assimilate pronunciation and sound from females, we acquire our vocabulary from males.

The study looked at 34 modern European populations, focusing on the various links present between vocabulary and the paternal Y chromosome.

The researchers concluded that there was a strong link between the paternal genes and lexical (vocab) characteristics, while there was a definite correlation between maternal genes and phonemic characteristics (sounds).

The study also found that mothers are not only passing down the phonetics, but also the culture too, including traditions, behaviours and responsibilities.