As soon as Illinois-born neurobiologist Richard Mooney opens his mouth， North Carolina residents know he's not from around there. But humans aren't the only creatures whose regional drawls and twangs give them away. The same thing goes for the songbirds Mooney studies in his Duke University laboratory.
"If you drive around the U.S.， you'll hear the same species of songbirds，" said Mooney， "But if you listen closely， the songs sung by a swamp sparrow from… New York sound different from a swamp sparrow in Pennsylvania， … It could be likened to a dialect. Or an accent."
It turns out that these dialects stem from the way baby birds lean to sing-a process that is much like the way human babies learn to talk.
Preserving cultural dialects
"Unfortunately because of TV and radio， there has been a real homogenization of regional dialects [in the U.S.]" Mooney said. Songbirds feel no such pressure from the media.
Still， there's no doubt that humans tend to sound a lot like the people they grew up with. In the same way， songbird dialects are passed on from generation to generation within a certain region.
The speech process
As newborns， humans imprint on their parents' speech patterns. As children grow older， they listen to themselves speak-this is known as auditory feedback-and try to match the way they vocalized to the memory imprinted from infancy. Songbirds do something similar.
"The juveniles form and auditory memory of the song they hear when they are young， and their song develops progressively to mimic the song they heard from their parents，" Mooney said. Swamp sparrows can memorize a song after hearing it just a few dozen times， then store it in their memory for up to a year without hearing it or using it.
Neurobiologist （n） a specialist in the study of the nervous system
Drawl （n） a slow way of speaking in which the vowel sounds are lengthened and words are not separated clearly
Twang （ n） a quality of the human voice， produced by air passing out through the nose as you speak.
Dialect （n） a form of a language that people speak in a particular part of a country， containing some different words and grammar.
Stem from （phr v） to develop as the result of something
Homogenization （n） the process of blending things that are different and making them similar to another
Imprint （v） to fix an event or experience so firmly in the memory that it cannot be forgotten although you do not try to remember it.
Auditory （adj） relating to the sense of hearing
"If you drive around the U.S.， you'll hear the same species of songbirds，" said Mooney， "But if you listen closely， the songs sung by a swamp sparrow from… New York sound different from a swamp sparrow in Pennsylvania， … It could be likened to a dialect. Or an accent."
It turns out that these dialects stem from the way baby birds lean to sing-a process that is much like the way human babies learn to talk.
Preserving cultural dialects
"Unfortunately because of TV and radio， there has been a real homogenization of regional dialects [in the U.S.]" Mooney said. Songbirds feel no such pressure from the media.
Still， there's no doubt that humans tend to sound a lot like the people they grew up with. In the same way， songbird dialects are passed on from generation to generation within a certain region.
The speech process
As newborns， humans imprint on their parents' speech patterns. As children grow older， they listen to themselves speak-this is known as auditory feedback-and try to match the way they vocalized to the memory imprinted from infancy. Songbirds do something similar.
"The juveniles form and auditory memory of the song they hear when they are young， and their song develops progressively to mimic the song they heard from their parents，" Mooney said. Swamp sparrows can memorize a song after hearing it just a few dozen times， then store it in their memory for up to a year without hearing it or using it.
Neurobiologist （n） a specialist in the study of the nervous system
Drawl （n） a slow way of speaking in which the vowel sounds are lengthened and words are not separated clearly
Twang （ n） a quality of the human voice， produced by air passing out through the nose as you speak.
Dialect （n） a form of a language that people speak in a particular part of a country， containing some different words and grammar.
Stem from （phr v） to develop as the result of something
Homogenization （n） the process of blending things that are different and making them similar to another
Imprint （v） to fix an event or experience so firmly in the memory that it cannot be forgotten although you do not try to remember it.
Auditory （adj） relating to the sense of hearing