Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cos!hadron!netxcom!netxdev!sdutcher From: sdutcher@netxdev.DHL.COM (Sylvia Dutcher) Newsgroups: comp.ai Subject: Re: Early Language Learning & Ancient Language Keywords: intonation, language learning, babbling babies Message-ID: <5513@netxcom.DHL.COM> Date: 25 May 90 15:36:13 GMT References: <17809@ultima.cs.uts.oz> <6bkf02r=a4Zx01@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com> <5181@jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU> <17785@ultima.cs.uts.oz> <2648275E.18657@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca> <1990May22.122714.14445@hri.com> Sender: news@netxcom.DHL.COM Organization: NetExpress Communications, Inc., Vienna, Va. Lines: 48 In article <1990May22.122714.14445@hri.com> rolandi@sparc9.hri.com (Walter Rolandi) writes: |In article <17809@ultima.cs.uts.oz>, dcorbett@ultima.cs.uts.oz (Dan |Corbett) writes: |> |> It is also possible that there are consonants in Navajo which my brain cannot |> hear. Three different consonants in Navajo may get mapped to only one |> consonant in my brain, making it impossible for me to _ever_ tell the |> difference among them. The structure of my brain was determined by my |> English-speaking parents, and cannot now be altered by memorizing foreign |> words. |> |> | |This is commonly said to be the case but I wouldn't underestimate the power |of learning. | |Does anyone remember the 40+ something US Army deserter that recently came |back to the US after spending over 20 years in East Germany. He was born |in the US of native American English speakers and lived in the US throughout |the thought-to-be crucial developmental periods up to his late teens. | |Yet, after 20 some years hearing and speaking nothing but German, the guy |spoke broken English with a profound German accent. I saw him interviewed |on a morning news show and he could scarcely respond to the simplest questions. | |If the structure of one's brain is determined by cultural effects and the |structure of one's brain determines what you can and cannot hear and say, |what happened with this guy? I think Dan is missing the point here. If you can hear the different sounds of a foreign language, and replicate them, then you should be able to speak that language. If you can't _hear_ the differences, then you will not be able to replicate those sounds. The ability to differentiate sounds appears to be present in all babies, but fades at an early age so only the baby's native language(s) become wired into the brain. There was an interesting program on TV that showed how a baby could hear sounds in a language (some Eskimo dialect, I think) that were not perceptible to adults that did not speak the language. As for your example, complete immersion in a language is the best way to learn it. You get to the point where you think in the language, and after 20 years, I'm not surprised this person lost most of his English. He probably made a point of sticking strictly to German to hide his identity. Sylvia Dutcher * The likeliness of things NetExpress Communications, Inc. * to go wrong is in direct 1953 Gallows Rd. * proportion to the urgency Vienna, Va. 22180 * with which they shouldn't.