The answer involves the evolution of Latin into the Romance languages, how our brains process language, how spelling relates to pronunciation, how language changes over time, and analogy to other words in English. There’s a lot packed into understanding such an innocuous word!

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However, fluency among younger generations is slipping. And one thing that makes standardization tricky is that Guarani is a dialect continuum.

Guarani is a member of the Tupian language family, and is one of the most widely spoken Native American languages. About half the rural population of Paraguay are monolingual speakers of the language.

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Previous research had shown that fetuses and newborns can recognize familiar voices and even that they prefer their native language soon after birth. But these findings come mostly from behavioral cues—sucking patterns, head turns or heart rate changes—rather than direct evidence from the brain.

A recent study suggests that babies start processing language before they are born. A research team in Montreal has found that newborns who had heard short stories in foreign languages while in the womb process those languages similarly to their native tongue.

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