Cover not available

Article published In: Historiographia Linguistica
Vol. 9:1/2 (1982) ► pp.43–74

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
authorization required

Royal investigations of the origin of language

 | University of Stirling
 | University of Western Australia
Published online: 1 January 1982
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/hl.9.1-2.04cam
Summary
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.
Résumé
Une des méthodes appliquées au problème des origines du langage est expérimentale. Ainsi, il s’agit d’examiner le langage produit par un groupe d’enfants élevé et normalement soigné par des nourrices muettes et de ce fait, tenu à l’écart de toute exposition au langage. Trois expériences de ce type sont reconnues: celles de Psamtik I d’Egypte (663–610 avant Jésus Christ), de Frédéric II de Sicile (1194–1250) et de James IV d’Ecosse (1473–1513). Une quatrième expérience réalisée par Akbar le Grand d’Inde (1542–1605) est moins connue. Les témoignages historiques concernant chacune de ces expériences royales sont localisés et décrits, et une estimation est faite sur leur authenticité et de leur plausibilité. Les expériences attribuées à Psamtik I et James IV n’ont probablement jamais été réalisées et, si l’expérience de Frédéric II a sans doute eu lieu, elle ne nous est d’aucune utilité. La dernière expérience, celle d’Akbar le Grand, a certainement été réalisée mais ses résultats restent ambigus. Finalement, la question posée par ces anciennes expériences est traitée comme une partie spéciale et limitée d’une question plus large, qui touche aux caractéristiques de la fonction qui fait la relation entre les propriétés du langage de l’enfant et les propriétés du langage auquel il se trouve exposé. Quelques témoignages d’expériences ‘naturelles’ plus récentes et portant sur cette question plus large sont évoqués. Il y a des raisons de supposer que cette fonction peut augmenter et, qu’ainsi elle peut modifier ou accroître les propriétés du langage auquel l’enfant est confronté.
References (82)
References
Aneer, Gudmar. 1973. Akbar the Great Mogul and his Religious Thoughts. Uppsala: Skriv Service.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Armen, Jean-Claude. 1971. Gazelle-boy: A child brought up by gazelles in the Sahara. Translated by Stephen Hardman. London: Bodley Head.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Aziz, Ahmad. 1969. An Intellectual History of Islam in India. Edinburgh: Edinburgh Univ. Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
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.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Beveridge, Henry. (1837–1929) 1888. “Father Jerome Xavier”. Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal 571:1–38.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bickerton, Derek. 1975. Dynamics of a Creole Continuum. London: Cambridge Univ. Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Blakemore, Colin. 1970. “A Burning Fire”. The Listener 96:2487.743–44 (9 December).Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Blumenthal, Arthur L. 1976. Language and Psychology: Historical aspects of psycholinguistics. New York: J. Wiley.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Borst, Arno. 1957–63. Der Turmbau von Babel. 41 vols. Stuttgart: A. Hiersemann.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brown, Peter Hume (1849–1918). 1891. Early Travellers in Scotland. Edinburgh: David Douglas.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brown, Roger W.. 1958. Words and Things. Glencoe, Illinois: Free Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Buchanan, George (1506–82). 1715. “Rerum scoticarium historia”. Opera Omnia. Ed. by Thomas Ruddiman (1674–1757). Edinburgh: Robt. Freebairn.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 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.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Catrou, François (1659–1737). 1705. Histoire générale de l’Empire du Mogol depuis sa fondation. Sur les mémoires portugais de M. Manouchi, Vénitien. Paris.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1709. The General History of the Mogol Empire, from its foundation by Tamerlane to the late Emperor Orangzeb. (Translator unkown). London: Jonah Bowyer.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chambers, Robert, and Thomas Thomson, comps. 1870. A Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Scotsmen. Glasgow: Blackie & Son. [Vol. 11.96; entry for Andrew Barton.]Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
van Cleve, Thomas Curtis. 1972. The Emperor Frederick II of Hohenstaufen: Immutator mundi. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Coulton, George G. 1907. From St. Francis to Dante. London: David Nutt.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Curtiss, Susan. 1977. Genie: A psycholinguistic study of a modern-day ‘wild child’. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Drummond of Hawthornden, William (1585–1649). 1655. The History of Scotland from the year 1423 until the year 1842, etc. London: H. Hills.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Farrar, Frederick (1831–1903). 1865. Chapters on Language. London: Longmans, Green.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Farrington, Benjamin. 1936. Science in Antiquity. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1944. Greek Science; its meaning for us. Harmondsworth, England: Penguin.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
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.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gedda, Luigi. 1951. Studie dei gemelli. Rome: Edizioni Orizzonte Medico.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Guthrie, Douglas. 1947. “King James IV of Scotland: His influence on medicine and science”. Bulletin for the History of Medicine 211.173–92.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
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.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hale, Horatio Emmons (1817–96). 1886. “The Origin of Languages”. Proceedings of the American Association for the Advancement of Science 351.279–323.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1888: “The Development of Language”. Proceedings of the Canadian Institute [3rd series] 61.1–44.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hall, Robert A., Jr. 1966. Pidgin and Creole Languages. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell Univ. Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hardy, Robert Spence (1803–68). 1866. Legends and Theories of the Buddhists, compared with history and science. Edinburgh: Williams & Norgate.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Haskins, Charles Homer (1870–1937). 1921. “The ‘De Arte cum Avibus’ of the Emperor Frederick II”. English Historical Review 361.334–55.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1924. Studies in the History of Mediaeval Science. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univ. Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1929. Studies in Mediaeval Culture. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hauber, Anton. 1912. “Kaiser Friedrich II der Staufer und der langlebige Fisch”. Archiv für die Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften und der Technik 31.315–29.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
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.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
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.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hervé, Georges (1855–1932). 1909. “Le premier programme de l’anthropologie”. Bulletins et Mémoires de la Société d’Anthropologic [Série V] 101.473–87. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hewes, Gordon Winant. 1975. Language Origins. 21 vols. The Hague: Mouton.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1977. “A Model for Language Evolution”. Sign Language Studies 151.97–108. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1978. Review of J. H. Stam’s Inquiries into the Origin of Language (New York: Harper & Row, 1976). HL 51.174–89.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jespersen, Otto (1860–1943). 1922. Language, its Nature, Development and Origin. London: Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kantorowicz, Ernst Hartwig. 1928. Kaiser Friedrich der Zweite. Berlin: C. Bondi.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1928. Frederick the Second, 1194–1250. Translated by Emily O. Lorimer. London: Constable.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lane, Harlan. 1977. The Wild Boy of Aveyron. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univ. Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lesley, John [Bishop of Ross] (1527–96). 1830. The History of Scotland. Edinburgh: Bannatyne Club.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lloyd, Alan B. 1976. Herodotus Book II: Commentary 1–98. Leiden: E. J. Brill.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mackenzie, William Mackay. 1932. The Poems of William Dunbar. Edinburgh: Porpoise Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mackie, Robert Laird. 1958. King James IV of Scotland. Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
MacLagan, Sir Edward Douglas. 1932. The Jesuits and the Great Mogul. London: Burns, Oates & Washbourne.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
MacLean, Charles. 1977. The Wolf Children. London: Allen Lane.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
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.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Marwick, Sir James David (1826–1908), et al. 1869–82. Extracts from the Records of the Burgh of Edinburgh. Edinburgh: Scottish Burgh Records Society.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1871. Charters and other Documents relating to the City of Edinburgh. Edinburgh: Scottish Burgh Records Society.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Marx, Otto. 1967. “The History of Biological Basis of Language”. Biological Foundations of Language by Eric Lenneberg, Appendix B. New York: J. Wiley.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Müller, Friedrich Max (1823–1900). 1861–64, Lectures on the Science of Language. 21 vols. London: Longmans. (Quoted after the 1891 reprint.)Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Needham, Noel Joseph Terence Montgomery. 1954–. Science and Civilisation in China. London: Cambridge Univ. Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nicholson, Ranald. 1974. Scotland: The Later Middle Ages. Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ogburn, William Fielding, and Nirmal K. Bose 1959. “On the Trial of the Wolf Children”. Genetic Psychology Monographs 601.117–93.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Orange, J.. 1977. “The Strange Case of Poto and Cabengo”. Woman (17 December), 38–41.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
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.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1955. “Das Motiv vom ‘Wilden Knaben’. Zur Sprache verwilderter Kinder”. Sprachforum 11.272–77.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
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.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Powell, John Enoch. 1949. Herodotus’ Histories. 21 vols. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Purchas, Samuel the Elder (1577?–1626). 1626. Purchas his Pilgrimage. 4th edition. London: W. Stansby.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Read, John. 1938a. “Alchemy in Scotland”. The Chemist and Druggist (25 June), 1–4.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1938b. “Alchemy under James IV of Scotland”. Ambix 2:2.60–67. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1947. Humour and Humanism in Chemistry. London: G. Bell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
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.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schiff, Naomi B., and Ira M. Ventry. 1976. “Communication Problems in Hearing Children of Deaf Parents”. JSHD 411.348–58. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sennert, Daniel (1572–1637). 1643. “Cur, qui surdi sunt a nativitate, idem et muti sint?”. Paralipomena. Book 2, Part 3:2. Leiden.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Singh, Joseph Amrito Lal, and Robert Mowbry Zingg. 1942. Wolf-Children and Feral Man. New York: Harper.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Smith, Vincent Arthur (1848–1920). 1917. Akbar the Great Mogul 1541–1605. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Snow, Catherine E., and Charles A. Ferguson. 1977. Talking to Children. London: Cambridge Univ. Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Srivastava, Ashirbadi Lal. 1962–67. Akbar the Great. 21 vols. Agra, India: Shiva Lal Agarwala & Co.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stokoe, William C. 1974. “Classification and Description of Sign Languages”. Current Trends in Linguistics 121:345–72. The Hague: Mouton. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tervoort, Bernard Th. 1961. “Esoteric Symbolism in the Communicative Behaviour of Young Deaf Children”. American Annals of the Deaf 106:5.436–80.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Thomson, Thomas. 1893. A History of the Scottish People from the Earliest Times. 31 vols. Glasgow: Blackie & Son.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tylor, Sir Edward Burnett (1832–1917). 1878. Researches into the Early History of Mankind. 3rd ed. London: John Murray.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
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.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zazzo, Rene. 1960. Les jumeaux, le couple et la personne. 21 vols. Paris: Biblio-thèque scientifique internationale.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zingg, Robert Mowbry. 1940. “Feral Man and Extreme Cases of Social Isolation”. American Journal of Psychology 531:487–517. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (15)

Cited by 15 other publications

Salvaggio, Federico
2024. Multilingualism from the perspective of the medieval Islamic vision of language. postmedieval 15:3 ► pp. 631 ff. DOI logo
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. DOI logo
Whiten, Andrew
2023. Cultural evolution in the science of culture and cultural evolution. Physics of Life Reviews 45 ► pp. 31 ff. DOI logo
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 DOI logo
Kany, Werner & Hermann Schöler
2014. Skinner und Chomsky: zwei Protagonisten der Spracherwerbsforschung. In Theorien in der Entwicklungspsychologie, ► pp. 486 ff. DOI logo
Kany, Werner & Hermann Schöler
2014. Theorien zum Spracherwerb. In Theorien in der Entwicklungspsychologie, ► pp. 468 ff. DOI logo
Thomas, Margaret
2007. The evergreen story of Psammetichus’ inquiry into the origin of language. Historiographia Linguistica 34:1 ► pp. 37 ff. DOI logo
Campbell, R.N.
2006. Language Development: Pre-scientific Studies. In Encyclopedia of Language & Linguistics, ► pp. 391 ff. DOI logo
Bonvillian, John D. & Susan B. Dell
1999. A response to Grieve and Campbell's medieval experiments on child language. First Language 19:55 ► pp. 99 ff. DOI logo
Grieve, Robert & Robin Campbell
1999. Ancient and medieval experiments on child language: a comment on Bonvillian, Garber and Dell (1997). First Language 19:55 ► pp. 91 ff. DOI logo
Bakker, Peter
1987. Autonomous Languages of Twins. Acta geneticae medicae et gemellologiae: twin research 36:2 ► pp. 233 ff. DOI logo
Taylor, Daniel J.
1984. Another royal investigation of the origin of language?. Historiographia Linguistica 11:3 ► pp. 500 ff. DOI logo
Schreyer, Rüdiger
1983.  The Forbidden Experiment: The story of the wild boy of Aveyron. By Roger Shattuck. Historiographia Linguistica 10:1-2 ► pp. 138 ff. DOI logo
Schreyer, Rüdiger
1985. The origin of language: A scientific approach to the study of man. Topoi 4:2 ► pp. 181 ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2015. References. In Kisisi (Our Language), ► pp. 146 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 10 december 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.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue