Actually speech is controlled by the left frontal lobe of your brain, specifically a part of the lobe known as "Broca's area." Science has recently discovered that language is also associated with this area, and not simply learned, as previously thought. In other words the "language" we speak is genetically determined - we are born German, French, Chinese (at least linguistically). Since it is possible to learn different languages, and since children are exposed only to their family's language during their crucial first two years of learning, they pick that language up as a second language and forget their genetic language since it is never used. Like all memories, however, our genetically predisposed language is still in our brain waiting to be triggered. Head trauma to Broca's area can, in fact, trigger one's dormant genetic language in much the same way that trauma can cause amnesia or personality changes.
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Edited 7 years ago
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· 7 years ago
But seeing how genetics change quite slowly compared to how quickly languages change, wouldn't the genetic language be like a realy ancient form of for example spanish?
I wonder what determines the "base" language then. Cause not everyone who changes languages during coma wakes up speaking Spanish, the brains is amazing like that.
From what I've read there are apparently only a handful of "root" languages that have evolved into various dialects or mutated into another similar, but different language (for instance Italian and Spanish are really similar when you break them down, as are practically every Scandinavian language).
This has led to a theory that the story of the Tower of Babel in The Bible might actually have some basis in fact. According to The Bible everyone spoke the same language until they tried to build a tower tall enough to reach Heaven, and God caused them to start speaking different languages so that they couldn't coordinate their efforts. The theory goes that some great traumatic event (possibly an earthquake or other natural disaster, but probably not God) injured many of the early people (falling blocks from the tower?) or caused enough emotional shock to trigger different "genetic languages" in them.
Actually historians have found that a number of stories in the Bible actually did happen - perhaps not exactly as written, since our perception of events is colored by our beliefs, the limits of our understanding, and subtle changes every time a story is told from one person to the next. For example it is now widely accepted that Jesus was, in fact, a real person, if not a supernatural being.
Of course I would think that it's entirely possible that humans have always been segregated by the language they speak, they just didn't travel very far and meet very many other groups until relatively recently in history. Maybe they used to seek out "their own kind" and stay there.
Seems like the only way to test that theory would be to raise a child by itself and for no one to ever speak to it, and see if it started speaking in its own language. Of course that would probably be considered abuse.
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· 7 years ago
Well there of course sometimes "feral children" who grew up in the woods without any people. I remember reading about one of those who was found in France, and he didn't speak at all. Of course, the French only tried speaking French to him, but I imagine that if he could talk in his own language, he would've done so.
Yeah I kinda wondered about that too. I would think that children simply wouldn't speak if they had never heard language, and if they have they obviously learn and mimic the language they hear.
Sounds like bs to me.
There are heaps of cases of "feral children" like yimmye said. When a child is left on it's own without any one speaking to it it doesn't develop the neural connections it should in the brocas area and many other areas, so it won't be able to talk or communicate (unless it's in grunts and moans etc.). In other words the child remains underdeveloped and 'animal like'. This lack of social isolation doesn't allow their brains to develop as a normal child would, a really good case to look at is a little girl called Genie.
This is actually true. Apparently he knew a little Spanish before the coma but then woke up being able to speak it fluently and knew little English. After some time, however, his Spanish speaking abilites seemed to decline and he was able to speak English fluently again.
Isn't tomorrow Sunday?
This has led to a theory that the story of the Tower of Babel in The Bible might actually have some basis in fact. According to The Bible everyone spoke the same language until they tried to build a tower tall enough to reach Heaven, and God caused them to start speaking different languages so that they couldn't coordinate their efforts. The theory goes that some great traumatic event (possibly an earthquake or other natural disaster, but probably not God) injured many of the early people (falling blocks from the tower?) or caused enough emotional shock to trigger different "genetic languages" in them.
Of course I would think that it's entirely possible that humans have always been segregated by the language they speak, they just didn't travel very far and meet very many other groups until relatively recently in history. Maybe they used to seek out "their own kind" and stay there.
Seems like the only way to test that theory would be to raise a child by itself and for no one to ever speak to it, and see if it started speaking in its own language. Of course that would probably be considered abuse.
Sounds like bs to me.