Natural Language

[*AQuietPlace*]

Originally Posted by missourimary

Would basement people and wilderness people even want to communicate with each other? Or would they be intimidated or distrustful of each other, having lived so long in isolation from other humans?

If they were together for quite some time, I imagine they would eventually begin communicating.

[*AQuietPlace*]

I think language is fascinating anyway. For instance the way so many people speak English, but there are so many variations of it. It's fascinating how language evolves.

[Digging4Truth]

Originally Posted by Baron1710

http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/langu...es/000078.html

Late in the 16th century, the Mogul emperor Akbar the Great tested his hypothesis that babies raised without hearing speech would be unable to speak. He had twelve infants raised by mute nurses in a house where no speech could be heard. Several years later, he went to the house and found that none of the children spoke. Instead, they conversed only in signs. Akbar's hypothesis seemed to be supported: no oral input, no oral language language learning.

I would wonder if the children's experience being that which demonstrated to them that humans do not speak influenced the outcome?

They were not given an example of human speech but they were given a consistent example of human's being mute. This might have influenced them to communicate without speech.

[missourimary]

Originally Posted by Michlow

But it (language) did develop, didn't it? I mean, we are walking talking examples of it. Which means that it would probably start out very rudimentary but would be refined over thousands of subsequent generations until it approached something like we know it today.

Adam in the garden started with the task of naming all the animals. (Gen 2:20) But God also spoke to Adam immediately (Gen 1:28-29) and Eve misquoted Him to the serpent. From a literal interpretation, it would appear that God created language, language immediately began to evolve (Adam added animal names), God scrambled it at Babbel, and we have passed down our scrambled, evolving versions ever since. There are new words and terms being created daily. We've even seen a few right here on this board.

[Baron1710]

Originally Posted by Digging4Truth

I would wonder if the children's experience being that which demonstrated to them that humans do not speak influenced the outcome?

They were not given an example of human speech but they were given a consistent example of human's being mute. This might have influenced them to communicate without speech.

Read the rest of it on the link provided. Those aren't my words, I was just referring you to an article where you can start your journey.

[Digging4Truth]

Originally Posted by Baron1710

Read the rest of it on the link provided. Those aren't my words, I was just referring you to an article where you can start your journey.

Indeed.

Thanks.

[missourimary]

Originally Posted by Digging4Truth

I would wonder if the children's experience being that which demonstrated to them that humans do not speak influenced the outcome?

They were not given an example of human speech but they were given a consistent example of human's being mute. This might have influenced them to communicate without speech.

True.

Language development is very interesting. Our first, inate reaction at birth is crying, and if it is responded to in a positive way, we continue making noises.

[Michlow]

Originally Posted by missourimary

Adam in the garden started with the task of naming all the animals. (Gen 2:20) But God also spoke to Adam immediately (Gen 1:28-29) and Eve misquoted Him to the serpent. From a literal interpretation, it would appear that God created language, language immediately began to evolve (Adam added animal names), God scrambled it at Babbel, and we have passed down our scrambled, evolving versions ever since. There are new words and terms being created daily. We've even seen a few right here on this board.

LOL, who I was talking to, and where I was talking to them for just a minute! I was actually confused why everyone seemed to be missing that (IMO) language already evolved. Just chalk that up to it being a Monday!

(For the record, I don't personally believe the stories you listed are literal, but I know that the majority of the people here do!)

[Digging4Truth]

Originally Posted by missourimary

True.

Language development is very interesting. Our first, inate reaction at birth is crying, and if it is responded to in a positive way, we continue making noises.

Indeed... language development is interesting and the influence of what we see around us is powerful.

[missourimary]

Originally Posted by Michlow

LOL, who I was talking to, and where I was talking to them for just a minute! I was actually confused why everyone seemed to be missing that (IMO) language already evolved. Just chalk that up to it being a Monday!

(For the record, I don't personally believe the stories you listed are literal, but I know that the majority of the people here do!)

Whether Adam began by grunting or speaking like a literal interpretation would indicate, evolution of language is something not many here would deny... we have terms on this board such as LOL, BTW, ASAP, "holy magic hair" and "sheep slapping" to prove language does indeed evolve. The problem is that when children are raised in a vacuum, void of language, the language they develop is very limited and may not appear to even be a language to us with our advanced languages. Roman based language has been around for millenia. We can't expect toddlers to develop in a few years what we developed in thousands.