Each year, about 40,000 children are adopted across national lines, primarily by families from North America and Western Europe. These joyful occasions mark the growth of new families and also provide the framework for a natural experiment in language development.

Ukraine is a pioneer of dictation in the former Soviet Union -- but that doesn't mean other ex-Soviet states are lagging behind. Most of them have developed their own contests aimed at promoting their native language following decades of Russian linguistic domination.

Do the sounds of our native languages affect how we hear music and other non-language sounds" A team of American and Japanese researchers has found evidence that native languages influence the way people group non-language sounds into rhythms.