E.g., when
they are mere months old they already distinguish native phonemes from
a) noise and b) foreign phonemes. They also (soon after, but I don't
remember when) distinguish amongst different native phonemes (i.e., if
they've heard two or more languages). This is all pre-verbal.
On Apr 25, at 6:44 PM, George Scithers wrote:
The story is told of one family -- with uncles and aunts and so on
-- who decided to teach the family's young 'un as many languages as
possible. So: each person talked to the kid in a different language.
The kid observed all this, apparently thought it over, and then
proceded to start inventing a language of his own.
The experiment was hastily dropped and the household settled in one
a single language for the time being.
G H Scithers
----- Original Message ----- From: "David B. Kronenfeld"
To:
Sent: Friday, April 25, 2008 6:00 PM
Subject: Re: file searching/vista help
I don't know what's in her head, but my then 19 month old
granddaughter happily toddled around the house on her last visit
checking out the words for everything--proudly asserting the ones
she already knew and avidly learning those that were new.
David Auerbach
Department of Philosophy & Religion
Box 8103
NCSU
Raleigh, NC 27695-8103