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Sign languages emerge when deaf kids (who aren't receiving other signed input) are together. To get the equivalent with spoken language, you'd have to put a bun
by kylebgorman 12y ago
Sign languages emerge when deaf kids (who aren't receiving other signed input) are together. To get the equivalent with spoken language, you'd have to put a bunch of (hearing) kids together on a desert island with no adult supervision. Deeply unethical, but that hasn't prevented people from proposing it.
- pavel_lishin 12y agoI'd wager it's happened before in cities with a high initial immigrant population. Several families who don't speak a common language move into an area, and while the kids speak their native tongues at home, they might develop a private neighborhood pidgin to understand each other.
- nirvdrum 12y agoThere have been variations of this run in the past, too: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_deprivation_experiments http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_deprivation_experiment... The James IV of Scotland experiment was the one I was familiar with, but it appears others have attempted it as well.