tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Jan 22 18:59:58 1996
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Re: "Native Speakers" (was Re: chu' mu'mey nuqDaq vItu'laH'a')
On Mon, 22 Jan 1996, Christian Matzke wrote:
> On 22 Jan 96 at 7:28, Garrett Michael Hayes <[email protected]>
> wrote:
> > ... 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?
Your account of the research is accurate. The author's conclusion was
that the child acquired correct ASL grammar because the process of first
language (L1) acquisition is informed by universal principles of grammar,
which ASL, as a natural (and human) language conforms to. The parents'
use of the language was not completely "correct" because they had learned
it imperfectly later in life.
Now, it's an interesting question with Klingon. I'm speaking only
Klingon to my son now (he's 19 months). If he changes the language, then
his "grammar" of klingon will be what he hears from me + what he applies
from his innate knowledge of grammar, which is particularly human. I'm
afraid that we won't really learn anything about Klingon this way, but we
sure will learn about humans!
> > 'etlhqengwI'
>
> maSqa'
--Holtej