Damn Interesting » The Birth of a Language
Is it possible for a group of children to invent an entirely new and unique language of their own? Sounds far-fetched?
But the answer seems to be "Yes!", based on this intruiging case study.
In at least one case, however, a group of children was able to spontaneously invent a totally new language out of necessity. The children in question were deaf, illiterate, and devoid of all but the most basic language skills, yet they were able to devise an intricate method of communication to use amongst themselves. Nicaraguan Sign Language (or ISN, for either Idioma de Señas de Nicaragua or Idioma de Signos Nicaragüense) is a unique and remarkable linguistic phenomenon of recent years.
Awesome Article. Judy Kegl is a professor of mine and I have heard her lecture about this a few times. I even got to watch a video of when ISN was being developed. It is awesome. If you ever get a chance to hear Judy speak on this topic, I highly reccommend it.
Comment by Rebecca Hitt — April 2, 2008 @ 9:36 pm