{"id":3572,"date":"2015-03-30T09:54:06","date_gmt":"2015-03-30T08:54:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/eurotalk.com\/blog\/?p=3572"},"modified":"2015-03-30T09:54:06","modified_gmt":"2015-03-30T08:54:06","slug":"3-surprising-facts-about-the-relationship-between-language-and-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/3-surprising-facts-about-the-relationship-between-language-and-music\/","title":{"rendered":"3 surprising facts about the relationship between language and music"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s often said that music is the \u201cuniversal language of mankind<\/a>\u201d. Indeed, like language, music has great expressive power, and manages to convey a vast array of sentiments and emotions, even without the use of words. But just how connected are language and music? Research suggests that the relationship between the two may be even stronger than it appears at first glance. Let\u2019s take a look at some of the surprising ways in which language and music are connected.<\/p>\n

\"Music<\/a>
You\u2019re not likely to confuse Beethoven\u2019s Fifth for Lincoln\u2019s second Inaugural Address, but music and language have more in common than you might think. Image via Derek Gleeson<\/a> \/ Wikipedia<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

1. They share the same basic building blocks<\/b><\/h3>\n

Even on a very basic level, music and language are similar in that both are compositional. <\/b>This means they are made of small parts\u00a0that\u00a0combine to create something larger and more meaningful; in other words, their whole is greater than the sum of their parts.<\/p>\n

For example, languages consist of individual words that\u00a0combine in meaningful ways to create sentences. In isolation, the words \u201cI\u201d, \u201cyou\u201d, and \u201clove\u201d don\u2019t mean much \u2014 but when combined into a sentence, \u201cI love you\u201d, suddenly they carry great importance.<\/p>\n

Similarly, music \u2014 at its most basic level \u2014 consists of individual notes. Like words, these aren\u2019t particularly meaningful by themselves: hearing an E flat in isolation likely won\u2019t stir up any serious emotions. But when you combine the E flat with a C and a G, you have a C minor chord: something meaningful has been formed.<\/p>\n

2. They involve the same areas of the brain<\/b><\/h3>\n

For decades, scientists have isolated specific brain regions that are responsible for the comprehension and production of language. One of the more notable regions is Broca\u2019s area, which is located in the left-hemisphere frontal lobe and plays a crucial role in language comprehension and production. Specifically, Broca\u2019s area seems to be responsible for our ability to use syntax<\/b> \u2014the structural rules that languages have so that sentences make sense.<\/p>\n

Recent studies<\/a> have also found that Broca\u2019s area is crucial in the comprehension and analysis of music. <\/b>Indeed, brain scans have found increased neural activity in Broca\u2019s area when subjects heard and interpreted both speech and music. Further, research<\/a> shows that, compared to non-musicians, musicians have a greater volume of grey matter in Broca\u2019s area, suggesting that Broca\u2019s area may be responsible for both speech and music.<\/p>\n

3. Musical training can improve language skills<\/b><\/h3>\n
\"music<\/a>
Image via Montserrat Labiaga Ferrer <\/a>\/ flickr<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In 2011, developmental psychologists from Justus-Liebig University in Germany conducted a study<\/a> to examine the relationship between the development of music skills and language skills. To do this, they separated pre-schoolers into two groups, one of which received daily music lessons at school.<\/p>\n

Later, they measured the pre-schoolers\u2019 phonological awareness, <\/b>which refers to their general ability to use and manipulate language. For example, children with good phonological awareness can recognize when words rhyme, can successfully identify individual sounds within words, and can blend together individual sounds to create words. Early phonological awareness has been shown to be a predictor of enhanced reading skills later in life.<\/p>\n

The study found that the children who received daily music lessons ended up with higher levels of phonological awareness than those who did not. This suggests that the development of music skills and language skills go hand in hand, which makes sense if music and language are served by the same underlying brain areas.<\/p>\n

As you can see, there are more parallels between language and music than meet the eye! On both a descriptive and neural level, language and music have a lot in common. As language learners, you can take advantage of this relationship by incorporating foreign-language music<\/a> into your daily language-learning routine. In addition to providing you with great music to listen to, you\u2019ll be exercising the same part of your brain that\u2019s responsible for language skills.<\/p>\n

Do you listen to music in your target language? What are some of your favorite foreign-language songs? Let us know \u2014 leave a comment!<\/p>\n

Paul writes on behalf of <\/i>Language Trainers<\/i><\/b><\/a>, <\/i><\/b>a language tutoring service that <\/i>offers German classes in Dublin<\/i><\/a>, as well as courses for other languages all throughout the world. You can check out their <\/i>free foreign-language level tests<\/i><\/a> and other language-learning resources on their website. Visit their <\/i>Facebook page<\/i><\/a> or contact paul@languagetrainers.com if you have any questions or if you\u2019d like more information.<\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s often said that music is the \u201cuniversal language of mankind\u201d. Indeed, like language, music has great expressive power, and manages to convey a vast array of sentiments and emotions, even without the use of words. But just how connected are language and music? Research suggests that the relationship between the two may be even … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[114,3,497],"tags":[298,2,498,1063,240,1064],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3572"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3572"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3572\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}