The Daily times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1886-1889, 1888-08-05
WHENCE COMES SPEECH7
A sTRANGE CASE RECORDED IN
A BOSTON NEWSPAPER.
Two brothers Who Speak Ne" Ian"
cuarc-A Parallel Case In the state Oh
Ncyada-The Children of the Bastiie'
Freaks

( 4 Boston newspaper recently published an
account of two brothers living ~ that CITY,
vino. il declares, have grown to mans estate
without over being able 10 speak the English
language. although born in the United states
of American parents. and having Heard
r-oli,h s.o..n continuously Taer vocal
o,raus lave been examined by the best >ye-
ciqli,ts and found TO be perfectly normal
These brothers, IL IS asserted, speah a ian-
orooe of their own, which they reri city
understand, but winch. thus lar, has been
D. rriatelliuible TO everybody else some words
! Of the language were given by the Journal
! referred to. and phioloc.st would trace Il
resemblance. if nothing more, 10 Slnscrit
But the case referred to Is not withoa, rs
narallel The writer Of this article saw, on
more than one occasion, two children.
brother ard sister, living at little stage
station in the state Of Nevada, who nad IN
vented a language Of their Own. which they
constantly used in talking with each o;rer
The gill was 9 o. 10 years Of age. au. the
boy year or two younger There could be
no deception and TO mistake about tne mat
ter Tie children would play to-cthe- .nd
chatter in this strange speech oi their own
doyisnr and 10 was perioc Is apparent tlat
it wa, 10 such mclninSlc,, g.bhar..h Us
children often use in play, bat genuine
ian.uaee 10 rescmbled 10 language with
which tic writer had any acquaiuta.ce.
There coud De- detected no resemblance 10
aav modern language. no similarity ~ root
forms or stems which may Eve said. roughly,
to be common to all spoken language; nor
81 e, t... ..tf s
Greek, aad. consequently, none TO tho cog
nate language which is called SaHrcrit
The children were not at all Shy about talk
ing in the presence Of strangers. hut they
could not b. made to understand what trans
lation from English into tlCir language
meant. They understood Encii-l. and could
and did speak it when spoken To-; Lar they
either could not or would not give thee luiya-
lens o. Ea-i.sh words ed thCig oWa sla-dl-e
The mother OF the chiiron said she c1did not
in any way account for this strange linguistic
freak sac said that the FIRST time she beard
them. and indeed for many time, afterwald,
hcrad no attention, as she supposed they
were "only j3b.c;ng nonsense, as Size ex-
pressed it. and 50 she was entirely unable %
say whether tie language was evolutionary
or whether the children spoke it just as Wei
the frs time as the last They certainly
spoke enough of it WHOM the writer heard
them to understand them without amy dill
Guilty, although 10 seemed TO the writer rom
the curs1ry observations hc could make Tat
the vocabulary was very limited ono: but
that would have been equally the case with
children o. t.at ago had tnoy been ~u"1k.u-
English
There hes been story in vogue for many
wears. although D, IS impossible 10 verify j.
ami IL is pr. ably au1cryphll, tiI. g.. rie
pmpc.. of d..aruniu- whether there wa,
p..ma. language, and /. so what r. wa-, ESQ
infant. uc.e at one time confined in the Bl,-
tile and were never allowed 90 hear q WORT
of any Dam uaee spoken, il being supposed
that nature would supply them wish tie
means of communicating with each o,acr "a.
they grew old enough 20 talk, and thar the
controversy as 10 primal language would
ho concu ivey determined. the story -1ys
However, that up 10 II years of age the c,.il-
drcn never uttered en- ar,rUale 3s.d. They
communicated WiiA eacn other ~ d il,l.o.
but il was entirely 10y signs, anC .o. ~ a.t-
thing resembling spoken langul-e o. any
p
were them released from their Confinement
and placed amons people whore u..- L..d
French spoken all around them, ana that
tlag .1.u rulI 81 suc.. t.o .---..-.
winch tacg beard. hat never -a,caa s..-,
oi knowing any other tongue.
Tho story may Do tIgc, an it may r0, il
ID is, j, would tend very strongly 10 slo"
that ol, speech is the result of iri.,a'. .a. a.i
taat the faculty OK ari.culate speech depends
onthcabildr 10 repeat what s gatherelIram
the speech Of Others THIS view receive,
confirmation from she observation az aeDt
and dumb people, VINO are, as rule. iUiho
because they are deaf They possess the
vocal organs fully developed, but they cali
not speak because they are not able t. ink
tate either the sound of language or the
mechanical local ciIorts oispelkns persons.
and this, not because Of innate inability bat
becaus, OF the lac. OF n medium Of n,eroOm
munication
And yet the observation Of the cases IN
Massachusetts and Nevada 20 which we have
referred slows tuat there mus be- exceptions
to what would seem 10 be a general rule.
Those children in Nevada knew ~ more of
the accepted theories OF philology than they
did OF the diilerential calculus. They dld
not know the inst thing about the develop
ment theory. they never heard of tue r;.~s
of linguistic structure; and yet they con
struc.cd ccr themselves "a language Wllch
was for all practical purposes, just as wucn !
a language ai Hebrew or Greek or German /
or Enclsh l. meant something % them, |
each could understand the other, each coud !
say what o. O.. sAe wanted TO say, ana that
coustitgtes q language.
The Boston case is somewhat different, If !
&c is told correctly. IN that case there wolid |
seem 90 d. sl1r structural deficiency d. tae !
hra.n-sora distorted colyo.ulou or some- |
tnag of tle ..,l-for, generally -.e.s.u-. a /
mea who o.l .feat oas language C.a speak /
every other. at least alter q fashion. bat /
these BROKERS, b. is asserted. canno. sleaE I
En-.sa, otaoleh they can understand 10 TO /
O. certain cA-elt.
These cases. TRANCE as they uay ue. donot /
initiate I'D amy .-..s against 81 morally I
rs..igol doa.tne- ol pa-ol.. They aye /
freak e.. nature, nothing more. al4 ars If I
u. 1902 g. consider u9 more strange than /
other cases WtA uli.l Ue are iam.imr-
SAN Francisco Chronicle.