BAKERSFIELD, Calif. -- A newborn with a French accent? New research has found that even at 5 days old, a newborn's cry is already mimicking the accent of their language-to-be.

Researchers analyzed the cries of 60 newborns, 30 born to French-speaking families and 30 born to German-speaking families and found that the infants' "cry melody" differed distinctly, based on their mother tongue.

For example, the cries of French newborns tended to have a rising cry melody while the cries of German babies had a falling one, a difference that is characteristic of the accents for each of those languages.

The study found that this early exposure to their native language affects how babies form sounds much earlier than previously thought and long before they begin to babble or coo.

Previous research has shown that newborns prefer their mother's voice and can recognize the emotional intonations in her voice, but this is the first study to suggest that infants are actually learning how to mimic her accent while still in the womb.