if a human being was born in the wild and left alone. When this person grows to be able to think, would they think using a language of their own or would they just develop an understanding of the world around?

Question

if a human being was born in the wild and left alone. When this person grows to be able to think, would they think using a language of their own or would they just develop an understanding of the world around?

In: Biology

Answer 1

They would develop some understanding of the world around them, but no they would not develop language on their own.

We’ve already experimented with this before. Kept newborns in isolation, even when other humans did interact they had strict orders to not speak to them. The children grew up without language, being completely mute even by ages 3-6. The experiments were quickly discontinued when it became clear that we were severely disabling orphans for the sake of “discovering” the origin of language, which turns out to be more of a communal trait rather than an individual one.