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Is there a linguist in the house? How about a psychologist?
Friday, May 22nd, 2009 12:29 pmClose readers of this journal will note that I have recently completed Nine Years Among the Indians being a first-person account of the abduction of a white child, one Herman Lehman, by Apache Indians. As I suspected, I gained very little insight into the process of moving (albeit being forced to move) from one set of cultural mores to one that was pretty much diametrically opposed from Herman's account. I suspect that he was among the Indians as he became among the white men when he was finally "reunited" with his "real family," a charming rogue who could spin a tale to his own benefit as easy as taking a breath.
But! One thing that Herman asserted has me wondering a bit about language (though perhaps I should be worrying about Herman). I know that children acquire languages very quickly, often making no difference between the words from Language A and those from Language B and being pretty free in the matter of creating creoles. Herman was eleven when he was abducted, and at that time was bi-lingual -- he spoke German and English. When he was returned to his mother, a great hulking savage of twenty summers, he spoke Apache, Comanche, and Spanish. He claimed to have no knowledge of English or of German and had to have those languages taught to him again by his sister.
I suppose I had expected that Herman would have perhaps had to have been "reminded" of his first two tongues, since he hadn't spoken them daily for nine years, but I'm having a hard time imagining that he would completely forget them. Maybe a younger child would have -- but by eleven you would think that the languages would have made grooves in his brain.
Does this happen? Do people simply forget their milk tongue if they don't speak it for a certain number of years? Or is this simply the "let's make it a better story" gene at work?
But! One thing that Herman asserted has me wondering a bit about language (though perhaps I should be worrying about Herman). I know that children acquire languages very quickly, often making no difference between the words from Language A and those from Language B and being pretty free in the matter of creating creoles. Herman was eleven when he was abducted, and at that time was bi-lingual -- he spoke German and English. When he was returned to his mother, a great hulking savage of twenty summers, he spoke Apache, Comanche, and Spanish. He claimed to have no knowledge of English or of German and had to have those languages taught to him again by his sister.
I suppose I had expected that Herman would have perhaps had to have been "reminded" of his first two tongues, since he hadn't spoken them daily for nine years, but I'm having a hard time imagining that he would completely forget them. Maybe a younger child would have -- but by eleven you would think that the languages would have made grooves in his brain.
Does this happen? Do people simply forget their milk tongue if they don't speak it for a certain number of years? Or is this simply the "let's make it a better story" gene at work?
