One method applied to the problem of language origins has been an experimental one: to examine the speech produced by a group of children who have been isolated from exposure to language at birth and cared for by (usually) dumb foster-mothers. Three such early investigations are acknowledged — those of Psamtik I of Egypte (663–610 B.C.), Frederick II of Sicily (1192–1250), and James IV of Scotland (1473–1513). A fourth such royal investigation by Akbar the Great (1542–1605) is less well-known. Historical evidence pertaining to each of these investigations is located and analysed, and an estimate is made of their authenticity and plausability. It is concluded that the experiments attributed to Psamtik I and James IV very probably did not take place and that, while Frederick II’s experiment may very well have occurred, nothing can be learned from it. The remaining experiment, that of Akbar the Great, almost certainly did occur, but its outcome remains ambiguous. Finally, the question asked by these ancient experiments is treated as a special limiting case of a more general question, namely, what are the characteristics of the function which relates properties of the child’s language to properties of the language to which he/she is exposed? Some evidence from more recent ‘natural’ experiments is reviewed and it is concluded that there are some grounds for supposing that this function may be augmentative. That is, it may alter or add to the properties of the language to which the child is exposed.
Aneer, Gudmar. 1973. Akbar the Great Mogul and his Religious Thoughts. Uppsala: Skriv Service.
Armen, Jean-Claude. 1971. Gazelle-boy: A child brought up by gazelles in the Sahara. Translated by Stephen Hardman. London: Bodley Head.
Aziz, Ahmad. 1969. An Intellectual History of Islam in India. Edinburgh: Edinburgh Univ. Press.
Bergenroth, Gustav Adolph(1813–65), ed. 1862–68. Calendar of Letters, Despatches and State Papers relating to the Negotiations between England and Spain. Preserved in the Archives at Simancas and elsewhere. 21 vols. & supplement. London: Longmans, Green.
Beveridge, Henry. (1837–1929) 1888. “Father Jerome Xavier”. Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal 571:1–38.
Bickerton, Derek. 1975. Dynamics of a Creole Continuum. London: Cambridge Univ. Press.
Blakemore, Colin. 1970. “A Burning Fire”. The Listener 96:2487.743–44 (9December).
Blumenthal, Arthur L.1976. Language and Psychology: Historical aspects of psycholinguistics. New York: J. Wiley.
Borst, Arno. 1957–63. Der Turmbau von Babel. 41 vols. Stuttgart: A. Hiersemann.
Brown, Peter Hume(1849–1918). 1891. Early Travellers in Scotland. Edinburgh: David Douglas.
Brown, Roger W.. 1958. Words and Things. Glencoe, Illinois: Free Press.
Buchanan, George(1506–82). 1715. “Rerum scoticarium historia”. Opera Omnia. Ed. by Thomas Ruddiman (1674–1757). Edinburgh: Robt. Freebairn.
Buchanan, George. 1827. The History of Scotland, translated from the Latin. With notes and a continuation to the Union in the reign of Queen Anne. Translated by James Aikman (1779–1860). Glasgow: Blackie, Fullarton.
Catrou, François(1659–1737). 1705. Histoire générale de l’Empire du Mogol depuis sa fondation. Sur les mémoires portugais de M. Manouchi, Vénitien. Paris.
Catrou, François. 1709. The General History of the Mogol Empire, from its foundation by Tamerlane to the late Emperor Orangzeb. (Translator unkown). London: Jonah Bowyer.
Chambers, Robert, and Thomas Thomson, comps. 1870. A Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Scotsmen. Glasgow: Blackie & Son. [Vol. 11.96; entry for Andrew Barton.]
van Cleve, Thomas Curtis. 1972. The Emperor Frederick II of Hohenstaufen: Immutator mundi. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Coulton, George G.1907. From St. Francis to Dante. London: David Nutt.
Curtiss, Susan. 1977. Genie: A psycholinguistic study of a modern-day ‘wild child’. New York: Academic Press.
Drummond of Hawthornden, William(1585–1649). 1655. The History of Scotland from the year 1423 until the year 1842, etc. London: H. Hills.
Farrar, Frederick(1831–1903). 1865. Chapters on Language. London: Longmans, Green.
Farrington, Benjamin. 1936. Science in Antiquity. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
Farrington, Benjamin. 1944. Greek Science; its meaning for us. Harmondsworth, England: Penguin.
Feldman, Heidi, Susan Goldin-Meadow, and Lila Gleitman. 1977. “Beyond Herodotus: The creation of language by linguistically deprived deaf children”. Action, Gesture and Symbol: The emergence of language ed. by Andrew Lock, 351–414. New York: Academic Press.
Gedda, Luigi. 1951. Studie dei gemelli. Rome: Edizioni Orizzonte Medico.
Guthrie, Douglas. 1947. “King James IV of Scotland: His influence on medicine and science”. Bulletin for the History of Medicine 211.173–92.
Haig, Lt.Col. Sir Thomas Wolseley(1865–1938). 1937. “Akbar”. The Cambridge History of India. Vol. 41 (The Mughul Period), Chapters 4&5, pp.70–155. Ed. by Sir Wolseley Haig & Sir Richard Burn. London: Cambridge Univ. Press.
Hale, Horatio Emmons(1817–96). 1886. “The Origin of Languages”. Proceedings of the American Association for the Advancement of Science 351.279–323.
Hale, Horatio Emmons. 1888: “The Development of Language”. Proceedings of the Canadian Institute [3rd series] 61.1–44.
Hall, Robert A., Jr.1966. Pidgin and Creole Languages. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell Univ. Press.
Hardy, Robert Spence(1803–68). 1866. Legends and Theories of the Buddhists, compared with history and science. Edinburgh: Williams & Norgate.
Haskins, Charles Homer(1870–1937). 1921. “The ‘De Arte cum Avibus’ of the Emperor Frederick II”. English Historical Review 361.334–55.
Haskins, Charles Homer. 1924. Studies in the History of Mediaeval Science. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univ. Press.
Haskins, Charles Homer. 1929. Studies in Mediaeval Culture. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Hauber, Anton. 1912. “Kaiser Friedrich II der Staufer und der langlebige Fisch”. Archiv für die Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften und der Technik 31.315–29.
Heidel, William Arthur(1868–1941). 1935. “Hecataeus and the Egyptian priests in Herodotus, Book II”. Memoirs of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences [New Series] 18:2.53–134.
Heizer, Robert Fleming, Albert B. Elsasser. 1963. “Original Accounts of the Lone Woman of San Nicolas Island”. Aboriginal California: Three Studies in Culture History ed. by R. F. Heizer, 125–81. Berkeley, Calif.: Univ. Calif. Archeol. Research Facility.
Hervé, Georges(1855–1932). 1909. “Le premier programme de l’anthropologie”. Bulletins et Mémoires de la Société d’Anthropologic [Série V] 101.473–87.
Hewes, Gordon Winant. 1975. Language Origins. 21 vols. The Hague: Mouton.
Hewes, Gordon Winant. 1977. “A Model for Language Evolution”. Sign Language Studies 151.97–108.
Hewes, Gordon Winant. 1978. Review of J. H. Stam’sInquiries into the Origin of Language (New York: Harper & Row, 1976). HL 51.174–89.
Jespersen, Otto(1860–1943). 1922. Language, its Nature, Development and Origin. London: Allen & Unwin.
Kantorowicz, Ernst Hartwig. 1928. Kaiser Friedrich der Zweite. Berlin: C. Bondi.
Kantorowicz, Ernst Hartwig. 1928. Frederick the Second, 1194–1250. Translated by Emily O. Lorimer. London: Constable.
Lane, Harlan. 1977. The Wild Boy of Aveyron. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univ. Press.
Lesley, John [Bishop of Ross](1527–96). 1830. The History of Scotland. Edinburgh: Bannatyne Club.
Lloyd, Alan B.1976. Herodotus Book II: Commentary 1–98. Leiden: E. J. Brill.
Mackenzie, William Mackay. 1932. The Poems of William Dunbar. Edinburgh: Porpoise Press.
Mackie, Robert Laird. 1958. King James IV of Scotland. Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd.
MacLagan, Sir Edward Douglas. 1932. The Jesuits and the Great Mogul. London: Burns, Oates & Washbourne.
MacLean, Charles. 1977. The Wolf Children. London: Allen Lane.
Manucci, Niccolo (17th cent.) 1907–08. Storia do Mogor: or, Mogul India 16531708, by Niccolo Manucci, Venetian. Translated with introduction and notes by William Irvine. London: John Murray for the Royal Asiatic Society’s Indian Texts Series.
Marwick, Sir James David(1826–1908), et al. 1869–82. Extracts from the Records of the Burgh of Edinburgh. Edinburgh: Scottish Burgh Records Society.
Marwick, Sir James David. 1871. Charters and other Documents relating to the City of Edinburgh. Edinburgh: Scottish Burgh Records Society.
Marx, Otto. 1967. “The History of Biological Basis of Language”. Biological Foundations of Language by Eric Lenneberg, Appendix B. New York: J. Wiley.
Müller, Friedrich Max(1823–1900). 1861–64, Lectures on the Science of Language. 21 vols. London: Longmans. (Quoted after the 1891 reprint.)
Needham, Noel Joseph Terence Montgomery. 1954–. Science and Civilisation in China. London: Cambridge Univ. Press.
Nicholson, Ranald. 1974. Scotland: The Later Middle Ages. Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd.
Ogburn, William Fielding, and Nirmal K. Bose1959. “On the Trial of the Wolf Children”. Genetic Psychology Monographs 601.117–93.
Orange, J.. 1977. “The Strange Case of Poto and Cabengo”. Woman (17December), 38–41.
Panconcelli-Calzia, Guilio(1878–1966). 1937. “Der ‘wilde Knabe’ in seiner Beziehung zu manchen Sprachstörungen im Kindesalter und zu der Entste-hung von Mythen”. Medizinische Welt 111.410–14.
Panconcelli-Calzia, Guilio. 1955. “Das Motiv vom ‘Wilden Knaben’. Zur Sprache verwilderter Kinder”. Sprachforum 11.272–77.
Pinkerton, John(1758–1826). 1797. The History of Scotland from the Accession of the House of Stuart to that of Mary. 21 vols. London: C. Dilly.
Purchas, Samuel the Elder(1577?–1626). 1626. Purchas his Pilgrimage. 4th edition. London: W. Stansby.
Read, John. 1938a. “Alchemy in Scotland”. The Chemist and Druggist (25June), 1–4.
Read, John. 1938b. “Alchemy under James IV of Scotland”. Ambix 2:2.60–67.
Read, John. 1947. Humour and Humanism in Chemistry. London: G. Bell.
Schiff, Naomi B.. 1979. “The Influence of Deviant Maternal Input on the Development of Language during the Pre-School Years”. JSHR 22:3.581–603.
Schiff, Naomi B., and Ira M. Ventry. 1976. “Communication Problems in Hearing Children of Deaf Parents”. JSHD 411.348–58.
Sennert, Daniel(1572–1637). 1643. “Cur, qui surdi sunt a nativitate, idem et muti sint?”. Paralipomena. Book 2, Part 3:2. Leiden.
Singh, Joseph Amrito Lal, and Robert Mowbry Zingg. 1942. Wolf-Children and Feral Man. New York: Harper.
Smith, Vincent Arthur(1848–1920). 1917. Akbar the Great Mogul 1541–1605. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Snow, Catherine E., and Charles A. Ferguson. 1977. Talking to Children. London: Cambridge Univ. Press.
Srivastava, Ashirbadi Lal. 1962–67. Akbar the Great. 21 vols. Agra, India: Shiva Lal Agarwala & Co.
Stokoe, William C.1974. “Classification and Description of Sign Languages”. Current Trends in Linguistics 121:345–72. The Hague: Mouton.
Tervoort, Bernard Th. 1961. “Esoteric Symbolism in the Communicative Behaviour of Young Deaf Children”. American Annals of the Deaf 106:5.436–80.
Thomson, Thomas. 1893. A History of the Scottish People from the Earliest Times. 31 vols. Glasgow: Blackie & Son.
Tylor, Sir Edward Burnett(1832–1917). 1878. Researches into the Early History of Mankind. 3rd ed. London: John Murray.
Wood, Casey Albert(1856–1942), and Florence Majorie Fyfe. 1943. The Art of Falconry: The ‘De arte venandi cum avibus’ of Frederick II. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford Univ. Press.
Zazzo, Rene. 1960. Les jumeaux, le couple et la personne. 21 vols. Paris: Biblio-thèque scientifique internationale.
Zingg, Robert Mowbry. 1940. “Feral Man and Extreme Cases of Social Isolation”. American Journal of Psychology 531:487–517.
Cited by (15)
Cited by 15 other publications
Salvaggio, Federico
2024. Multilingualism from the perspective of the medieval Islamic vision of language. postmedieval
Delliponti, Angelo, Renato Raia, Giulia Sanguedolce, Adam Gutowski, Michael Pleyer, Marta Sibierska, Marek Placiński, Przemysław Żywiczyński & Sławomir Wacewicz
2023. Experimental Semiotics: A Systematic Categorization of Experimental Studies on the Bootstrapping of Communication Systems. Biosemiotics 16:2 ► pp. 291 ff.
Whiten, Andrew
2023. Cultural evolution in the science of culture and cultural evolution. Physics of Life Reviews 45 ► pp. 31 ff.
Olivesi, Aurélie
2017. « Ces parents sont de vrais tarés ! » L’opposition à une expérience de parentalité alternative dans les commentaires en ligne comme structuration d’une grammaire anti-genre. Genre en séries :6
Kany, Werner & Hermann Schöler
2014. Skinner und Chomsky: zwei Protagonisten der Spracherwerbsforschung. In Theorien in der Entwicklungspsychologie, ► pp. 486 ff.
Kany, Werner & Hermann Schöler
2014. Theorien zum Spracherwerb. In Theorien in der Entwicklungspsychologie, ► pp. 468 ff.
1985. The origin of language: A scientific approach to the study of man. Topoi 4:2 ► pp. 181 ff.
[no author supplied]
2015. References. In Kisisi (Our Language), ► pp. 146 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 5 january 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.