As I'm, badly, attempting to master the Czech language, it's interesting how language shapes our perceptions of other people.  For instance do we have a shared connection with others that use the same language as us?  Does that connection carry more weight than other apparent similarities between us?

Researchers from the University of Chicago have explored this and came to the conclusion that language is more of a tie than previously thought.  

They showed children pictures of a child alongside their voice, and then a photo and voice of two seperate adults.  The children were asked which adult the child would grow up to be.  What made things interesting was that one adult was the same race as the child but not their language, whilst the other matched language but not race.

So for instance if they saw a white child speaking English the adults would be black/English or white/French (for instance).

The results

9-10 year old children would typically go for the adult that matched the child's race.  By that age they understood that skin colour doesn't tend to change much, whereas you can (theoretically – ahem) learn new languages.

What's interesting though is that 5-6 year olds did not do this.  Most of the kids in this age range chose the language match rather than the race match.

The researchers suggested this was because these children associated shared language with family life.