From: cindy@solan10.solan.unit.no (Cynthia Kandolf)
Subject: Re: "First language" (was Re: Primate Speech Research: Bogus?)
Organization: /home/ludviga/cindy/.organization
	<C14Cst.1t8@usenet.ucs.indiana.edu>
	<1993Jan20.034705.25712@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu>
Date: 22 Jan 93 22:33:11

Finally!  I found my sources for the "first language" experiments.
For those of you who haven't the foggiest idea what i'm talking about,
i mean the experiments where someone - generally a king with way too
much time on his hands - has attempted to find out what the "first"
language of mankind was by commanding that a baby (or two) is raised
in circumstances where it won't hear speech, and then assuming
whatever it speaks must be the "first" language.  My source for this
is one of my old stand-bys _The Cabridge Encyclopedia of Language_
edited by David Crystal.

"The legnths to which some people have gone in order to throw light on
the question [of the origin of language] are truly remarkable - if the
accounts are to be believed.  One of the best-known reports concerns
the Egyptian King, Psamtik I, who reigned in the 7th century BC.
According to the Greek historian Herodotus, Psamtik wished to find out
which of all the peoples of the world was most ancient.  His way of
determining this was to discover the oldest language, which, he though
would be evidence of the oldest race.  This is how Herodotus tells the
story:

"'He gave two newborn babies of ordinary men to a shepherd, to nurture
among his flocks after this manner.  He charged him that none should
utter any speech before them, but they should live by themselves in a
solitary habitation; and at the due hours the shepherd should bring
goats to them, and give them their fill of milk and perform the other
things needful.  Thus Psammetichus did and commanded because he
desired, when the babes should be past meaningless whisperings, to
hear what tongue they would utter first.

"'And these things came to pass: for after the shepherd had wrought
thus for a space of two years, when he opened the door and entered in,
both babes fell down before him and cried _becos_, and stretched out
their hands.  Now when the shepherd heard it for the first time, he
held his peace; but when this word was oftentimes spoken as he came to
care for them, then he told his lord, and brought the children into
his presence when he commanded.  And when Psammetichus had also heard
it, he enquired which nation called anything _becos_; and enquiring,
he found that the Phrygians call bread by this name.  Thus the
Egyptians, guided by this sign, confessed that the Phrygians were
elder than they. [....]'"

Phrygian is dead, but it was at the time spoken in what is now
northwestern Turkey.  

Of course, the conclusion - hell, the whole experiment - is silly.
What happened, if the story is true, was that the babies were babbling
to each other.  Twins, and children of the same age who spend most of
their time together, often spend long periods in repetitive verbal
play at about the age of two.  The shepherd probably recognized one of
their babbling words, and reported it; by coincidence someone knew
that it meant something in another language.  

Two other experiments of this type are reported in the book.  One was
conducted by the Holy Roman Emporer Fredrick II of Hohenstauten
(1194-1250).  He believed Hebrew to be the oldest language, and wanted
to see whether the children would speak that, or Greek, Latin, or
Arabic, or the language of their parents.  Apparently his experiment
ended badly.  The chronicle quoted says simply that the children
"could not live" without sounds and gestures of endearment.  Whether
this means they died, or that the foster mothers took pity on them and
messed up the whole experiment, i don't know.

The final report is of James IV of Scotland (1473-1513) - a much more
recent account than i expected to find.  In this case a woman who
couldn't speak was put in charge of two babies.  By the time the story
passed on to the chronicler, it claimed the children learned to speak
"good Hebrew" - showing that the creation of urban legends is not a
new phenomenon.  

Incidentally, the book also lists 47 cases of children and young
adults, ranging in age from 2 to 23, who either had somehow managed to
survive without human contact, or who were purposely kept in
unbelievably cruel circumstances and had had little human contact.
Not one of these people could speak when they were found.  The most
recent case, and also one of the most celebrated, was a girl named
Genie who was found in the U.S. at the age of 13 1/2, in 1970.  She
had spent most of her life tied to a chair in her parents' attic.
They fed her and so forth, but never spoke to her or played with her.
I wish i could say that's an urban legend... but it's not.

To end this on a happier, if incongruous, note, i'll quote something
from the section of the book that discusses the problems of
translation:

"Many problems occur during Bible translation.  In a translation into
an Indian language of Latin America, _ass_ was translated as 'a small
long-eared animal'.  The effect was to suggest that Jesus entered
Jerusalem on something which closely resembled a rabbit."

-Cindy Kandolf
 cindy@solan.unit.no
 Trondheim, Norway