The reflexive (meta-linguistic) properties of language are typically represented as supplemental and inessential. Language, so the story goes, could get along perfectly well without them. The characteristics of language are independent of reflexive discourse –– independent of how in metadiscourse we talk about language and its characteristics. This paper challenges this web of received opinion by asking: What might `first-order' language be like if there were no way to talk, write, or sign about it –– that is, if there were no `second order' metalanguage? By considering the consequences for writing, translation, pragmatics, semantics, and language acquisition and evolution, the conclusion arrived at is that without `second-order', reflexive properties, `first order' language itself could not exist.