tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Jan 22 07:49:18 1996

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Re: "Native Speakers" (was Re: chu' mu'mey nuqDaq vItu'laH'a')

On 22 Jan 96 at 7:28, Garrett Michael Hayes <[email protected]> 
wrote:

> On 20 Jan 96 at 12:28, [email protected] wrote:

> >  Unfortunately, I have not yet had
> > ANY practice of tlhIngan Hol with Qo'noS nganpu'.
> 
> This leads to a very interesting question...  How are we to define
> "native speakers"?  For example, are there *any* "native speakers"
> or Esperanto?  Clearly, there was never a land where Esperanto
> evolved on it's own!  Perhaps the fact that some people have been
> raised speaking the Esperanto from childhood is enough?  If so, can
> we look forward to a day when there *will* be "native speakers" of
> tlhIngan Hol?
This is interesting. I'm taking a Child Language course right now, 
and we have been learning how children learn the grammar of a 
language. We have read about a pair of deaf parents who had both been 
raised with english as their first language and didn't learn ASL till 
later in life. Their grammar was a bit iffy I guess, and although all 
their words were correct, they didn't quite have a handle on correct 
sentance structure or something. Well, when they had a child they 
began teaching him sign language as he was deaf too. A few years 
later when a linguist studied the family it was discovered that the 
young child used correct grammar etc., while his parents continued to use 
their own variation. Will we see the same sort of pattern with 
children that learn this language?
> 
> 'etlhqengwI'

                                      maSqa'
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    "Had I not known that I was dead already, 
    I would have mourned the loss of my life"
              -Ota Dokan, Japanese poet
 (written while a knife protruded from his chest)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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