No Words, No World: A True History of Language Deprivation

The Search for Language’s Origin

Throughout history, some rulers and thinkers have attempted to uncover the origin of human language by raising infants in complete silence. In these “language deprivation experiments,” babies were denied exposure to any form of speech to see what language, if any, they would begin to speak on their own. These experiments aimed to answer fundamental questions about human nature and the roots of language—but were conducted through strict isolation. Although widely criticized today, records show that such attempts were carried out in different cultures and eras.

The Pharaoh’s Experiment

In the 7th century BCE, Pharaoh Psamtik I of Egypt ordered two newborns to be raised by a mute shepherd. No one was allowed to speak to them. Psamtik hoped to prove Egyptian was the world’s original language. Instead, the children reportedly said “bekos,” which resembled the Phrygian word for bread. This led Psamtik to conclude Phrygian was older. Later scholars questioned whether the word was real speech or random babbling.

Frederick II’s Isolated Infants

In the 13th century, Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II had infants raised in silence to determine the language of the first humans. According to monk Salimbene, the children received physical care but died without emotional or verbal contact. No language emerged.

Feral and Deaf Children

Outside controlled experiments, some children have grown up without exposure to language due to isolation. Cases include “feral children” raised among animals, like Oksana from Ukraine, who lived with dogs and barked to communicate. Deaf children in Nicaragua, once isolated by lack of formal instruction, spontaneously created their own sign language when brought together in the 1980s.

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