What language do you think in if you were never taught a language?

Question

i've asked this several times and have not gotten a clear answer.

Let's say a baby is born and the parents just feed and nurture the baby without communicating with him/her in a language. So now the baby grows up without a language. What language does he/she think in??

i have a follow up question.

what language do animals think in? i know animals have to think at one point to decide where they want to go and such, so what language do they think in? some sort of symbolic language?

help?

Answer 1

there have been studies on feral children done i saw a show on discovery what they have found is if a child doesn't learn speech by puberty they will not be able to ever fully grasp it because if you never use parts of your brain they shrink so that other areas can can work better so basically they learn to survive by hunting and gathering they feed there stomachs and protect themselves some have been known to live with packs of animals . go to search bar and look up feral children. and animals think in animal language.

Answer 2

American sign language

Answer 3

no language, just feeling.

if we dont learn language from parent or school, we cant think much things. we cant organize thinking and express our feeling. just feel comfortable, angery, sleepy..etc

they cant think why or causal relation.

Answer 4

mmm...I have never thought about this before...Now,I am as confused as you are.What about a baby raised among animals(like monkeys or wolves)?I think he/she would express itself as an animal.

Answer 5

The truth is, if you don't communicate with a child during it's first few years of life, it's brain wouldn't develop properly and it would be mentally handicapped. It would think, but almost the same as an animal.

That's why it's EXTREMELY important for people to talk to their children when they're young.

I remember when a monk or bishop or a member of the clergy, whatever, left some orphans with nuns and told them to raise them without speaking to them so they would learn to speak "the language of God". They turned out, in simple words, stupid.

Here's a story of a feral child:

http://tampabay.com/features/humanintere...

About animals; they do communicate with each other, whether it's vocally or through actions.

Answer 6

The baby hears others communicating.

He/she will pick up speech from that.

Therefore, the baby speaks and thinks

in the language it hears.

Animals think in needs, sounds.

A certain pitch means go, stay,

etc.

Answer 7

The baby wouldn't think because he doesn't know any words to think about in the first place.

Animals think in animal language.

Answer 8

animals dont think in languages in the general sense

babies who werent taught any language will think like animals but are able to realise things more clearly as well as remember and act more intelligent

its not huga bualululububu or so

they think in feelings and desires but are not able to develope more complex thoughts as it requires abstract thinking

and communicate in symbolic kind as well as in body language , like we all

and primitiv sounding sounds

Answer 9

The reason you "have not gotten a clear answer" is because this is a stooopid, absurd, pointless, nonsensical question.

First of all, the baby thing would never happen, that's just stoooooopid.  Second, if it were possible for that to happen (which, I will reiterate, it is not), there is no way anyone could know the answer to that question.

Here, I'll give it my best shot ... yes, the person (baby) would have thought processes going on, but whether these thought processes would be in anything that we recognize as a language is impossible to tell.  As it grew, it would develop vocal sounds, I'm sure, though since it has never, and will ever communicate with anyone, in any known language (that's your premise ... see how dumb it sounds??), it would certainly not speak/think in any known language, but something of its own.  

The animal thing ... also impossible to know ... also an incredibly stoooopid, absurb question.

Hope this helps, have a wonderful day.

Answer 10

Your thoughts would be like a picture book  with a lot of abstract art.

Answer 11

No-one can actually give a clear answer to this, seeing as no-one actually knows. I would guess that they would think in pictures and sounds, perhaps emotions and feelings.

Have you ever heard about feral children? - children brought up by animals? More or less, because they haven't been taught how to speak or normal human interactions during early brain development, later in life they can't be taught these and they are therefore, effectively animals.

I guess that this is kinda similar. If the baby isn't taught language at a young age, they are stunted at brain growth and become less capable, therefore they probably won't have many 'normal' thought patterns any way.

I hope I'm making sense :-)

As for animals, it's probably more instincts than actual thought processes. Although, who can say?

Answer 12

sign language  

Answer 13

I think that it would be something like eurythmy -- associating gestures with sounds. http://www.austineurythmy.org/whatis/ Babies think without language, but recognise things and people and sounds. The baby would  develop his faculties to use a very complex sign and sound system to express ideas and emotions. Think how many ideas are conveyed by ballet!