0:00:02 > 0:00:04Hello.
0:00:04 > 0:00:09You know, just saying that one word is one of the most complex and extraordinary operations we know.
0:00:09 > 0:00:1370 muscles and half a billion brain cells go into it.
0:00:13 > 0:00:16What's more, pretty much anyone who can speak English over the age of two
0:00:16 > 0:00:19can do it without even having to think.
0:00:19 > 0:00:24The story of language is surely one of the greatest stories we have.
0:00:27 > 0:00:30In this series, I'm going to explore language
0:00:30 > 0:00:35in all its amazing complexity, variety and ingenuity.
0:00:35 > 0:00:38Our species perhaps could live together without language
0:00:38 > 0:00:40but it wouldn't be what we call the human species.
0:00:40 > 0:00:43'I'm going to try to understand how we learn it,
0:00:43 > 0:00:45'how we write it...'
0:00:45 > 0:00:47Oh, my goodness. This is magical!
0:00:47 > 0:00:49'..how we sometimes lose it...'
0:00:49 > 0:00:52Oh, my Lord!
0:00:52 > 0:00:56'..how it defines us to the very core of our being...'
0:00:56 > 0:00:59Ba, ba-ba-da-ba! Ra-ba-dum-bum-ba-dum.
0:00:59 > 0:01:03'..why it can make us laugh and cry and tear our hair out
0:01:03 > 0:01:05'or inspire us.'
0:01:05 > 0:01:08To sleep...no more.
0:01:08 > 0:01:11'It's what I treasure above all else.
0:01:11 > 0:01:13'It is what makes me ME.'
0:01:15 > 0:01:18In this programme, I'm going to take you on a journey
0:01:18 > 0:01:21to find out why we are the only species to have developed
0:01:21 > 0:01:25this miraculous gift of language.
0:01:25 > 0:01:30We'll see the individual miracle of how we acquire language at an early age...
0:01:32 > 0:01:38..and celebrate language as one of the most marvellous tools humanity has.
0:01:38 > 0:01:42A continual process of innovation and creation.
0:01:42 > 0:01:44HE SPEAKS KLINGON
0:01:46 > 0:01:48That really hurts, actually.
0:02:03 > 0:02:06To begin my exploration of language,
0:02:06 > 0:02:09I've come here to north-east Africa,
0:02:09 > 0:02:11close to where our species first evolved.
0:02:16 > 0:02:20There are around 7,000 languages in use on our planet today,
0:02:20 > 0:02:25some spoken by a mere handful of people, others by more than a billion.
0:02:25 > 0:02:29It's a surprisingly short time - only about 50,000 years -
0:02:29 > 0:02:34since mankind graduated from uggs and grunts and growls
0:02:34 > 0:02:36into a linguistic flowering.
0:02:39 > 0:02:42TRANSLATION:
0:02:44 > 0:02:48These are the Turkana, a pastoral nomad tribe
0:02:48 > 0:02:52who are about as far away from me and my tribe as you could find.
0:02:57 > 0:03:01But one thing that I do share with them is language.
0:03:01 > 0:03:05Turkana is as sophisticated and complicated a tongue
0:03:05 > 0:03:08as ancient Greek, and although I can't understand a word,
0:03:08 > 0:03:11it actually works much the same as English does.
0:03:14 > 0:03:15THEY GIGGLE
0:03:15 > 0:03:18There are nouns to name things,
0:03:18 > 0:03:20adjectives to describe them
0:03:20 > 0:03:21and verbs to explain
0:03:21 > 0:03:23what you can do with them.
0:03:23 > 0:03:26THEY SING IN TURKANA
0:03:27 > 0:03:32Every language provides an amazingly rich and adaptable set of tools
0:03:32 > 0:03:35that mankind shares the world over -
0:03:35 > 0:03:40and which every Turkana child imbibes with their mother's milk.
0:03:41 > 0:03:45And how old is a baby when they start to speak?
0:03:45 > 0:03:48THEY SPEAK IN TURKANA
0:03:59 > 0:04:00Two years?
0:04:00 > 0:04:01Yeah, two years.
0:04:06 > 0:04:09That means winter, summer. Winter, summer.
0:04:09 > 0:04:14- I see, winter, summer. Two winters, two summers.- Yeah.
0:04:24 > 0:04:28Those are the first words. "Father, mother." It's the same everywhere.
0:04:28 > 0:04:30What's really amazing is that these children,
0:04:30 > 0:04:34even the smallest of them, within a very short space of time
0:04:34 > 0:04:37are able to grasp the full complexities and all the phonetics
0:04:37 > 0:04:42and all the metaphors and all the remarkable depths that the Turkana language is capable of.
0:04:42 > 0:04:46It's no more effort for them to acquire a full language
0:04:46 > 0:04:47than it is for them to grow hair.
0:04:47 > 0:04:49It just happens,
0:04:49 > 0:04:52and yet it's the most complex piece of brain processing
0:04:52 > 0:04:54that we know of on the planet.
0:04:54 > 0:04:56It's a kind of miracle.
0:04:57 > 0:05:00Miracle. You are a miracle.
0:05:03 > 0:05:04All over the world,
0:05:04 > 0:05:08from the cradle of man in East Africa to a hutong in China,
0:05:08 > 0:05:13this same miraculous process takes place over the course of just a few years.
0:05:13 > 0:05:15THEY BABBLE
0:05:22 > 0:05:26This is Ruby, who lives in London.
0:05:26 > 0:05:29Ruby.
0:05:32 > 0:05:35Ruby is 15 months old and over the next year,
0:05:35 > 0:05:41we'll be tracking her development from umms and ahs to recognisable speech.
0:05:41 > 0:05:43Say "ta".
0:05:46 > 0:05:49But how do we learn language?
0:05:53 > 0:05:58And what exactly is the difference between language and communication?
0:05:58 > 0:06:03After all, the natural world is an absolute cacophony of communication.
0:06:06 > 0:06:09Birds singing to greet the dawn,
0:06:09 > 0:06:13meerkats whistling to each other to warn off predators.
0:06:13 > 0:06:16Elephants trumpeting to attract a mate,
0:06:16 > 0:06:19dolphins clicking to point out food.
0:06:23 > 0:06:26The closer you get to us humans on the evolutionary tree,
0:06:26 > 0:06:30the more sophisticated their communication seems to become.
0:06:30 > 0:06:35Monkeys have a whole grammar of whoops, howls and calls
0:06:35 > 0:06:40that signal everything from fear to joy to love.
0:06:40 > 0:06:47But it's still a long way from this to language as our species knows it.
0:06:48 > 0:06:51It's not that we haven't looked for an amazing talking ape,
0:06:51 > 0:06:55it's just that so far we haven't found one.
0:06:57 > 0:07:01It's so closely related and yet so completely different.
0:07:01 > 0:07:05I think it is language that's the thing that's most different about us.
0:07:05 > 0:07:09If I trained hard, I probably could bounce from tree to tree,
0:07:09 > 0:07:12but you could train all your life and you could never say,
0:07:12 > 0:07:16"Betty had a bit of bitter butter, put it in her batter and made her batter bitter,
0:07:16 > 0:07:21"then took a bit of better butter and put it in her bitter batter and made her bitter batter better."
0:07:21 > 0:07:23If you could, you'd be the wonder of the age.
0:07:29 > 0:07:32So how did we manage to develop language,
0:07:32 > 0:07:34when other primates have not?
0:07:35 > 0:07:40I've come to the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology in Leipzig,
0:07:40 > 0:07:43where they study a number of large primates.
0:07:46 > 0:07:50I'm here to meet one of the world's foremost evolutionary linguists,
0:07:50 > 0:07:52Michael Tomasello.
0:07:52 > 0:07:54There's a general assumption that we all have
0:07:54 > 0:07:58that language is one of the things that separates human beings from all other animals,
0:07:58 > 0:08:04but that maybe animals like the great apes, our closest relatives, with whom we share so much DNA,
0:08:04 > 0:08:07are sort of on a continuum on the way to language.
0:08:07 > 0:08:10That maybe they can be taught language.
0:08:10 > 0:08:13Does your research show that any of this is likely?
0:08:13 > 0:08:16Well, in evolution, everything is on a continuum
0:08:16 > 0:08:19but they're a pretty far step away on that continuum, I would say.
0:08:19 > 0:08:22So their vocalisations are pretty hard wired
0:08:22 > 0:08:25and before you can get to something like language,
0:08:25 > 0:08:29you have to be able to produce sounds when you want to and not when you don't.
0:08:29 > 0:08:32So, if food is coming, they make this noise
0:08:32 > 0:08:34or if a predator is coming, they make that noise.
0:08:34 > 0:08:36They're very much tied to their emotions.
0:08:36 > 0:08:39The vocalisations go with emotional states.
0:08:39 > 0:08:41If they're frightened, they scream.
0:08:41 > 0:08:43If they're excited about food, they hoot.
0:08:43 > 0:08:46If they're grieving someone after a long time,
0:08:46 > 0:08:49they give a kind of submissive pant-grunt.
0:08:49 > 0:08:53And so their vocalisations are fairly stereotypical,
0:08:53 > 0:08:55with only a little bit of flexibility.
0:08:59 > 0:09:02Well, no-one can doubt that animals communicate.
0:09:02 > 0:09:06You can see our closest cousins here - primates like us -
0:09:06 > 0:09:08communicating like Billy-o in all kinds of ways.
0:09:08 > 0:09:11But I don't think we can call that language.
0:09:11 > 0:09:14One of the problems they face - even sophisticated primates -
0:09:14 > 0:09:18is that they simply don't have the mechanical apparatus necessary for speech.
0:09:18 > 0:09:20They don't have the control over breathing,
0:09:20 > 0:09:24the complex facial muscles that allow such extraordinary sounds
0:09:24 > 0:09:26that we can make, and I'm making now,
0:09:26 > 0:09:29though goodness knows, they can try and compensate.
0:09:30 > 0:09:34Nor do they have the larynx or vocal cords in the right position for speech,
0:09:34 > 0:09:37but they can make signs.
0:09:37 > 0:09:42Maybe sign language is possible amongst primates. That's worth thinking about, surely. Eh?
0:09:43 > 0:09:46You can't JUST fart, surely. That's better!
0:09:50 > 0:09:56Since the 1960s, there have been numerous attempts to do just that -
0:09:56 > 0:10:00trying to teach apes language using sign language.
0:10:01 > 0:10:04Perhaps the most famous of these experiments
0:10:04 > 0:10:08was conducted at Columbia University, where a chimpanzee,
0:10:08 > 0:10:11cheekily named Nim Chimpsky -
0:10:11 > 0:10:13a pun on the great linguist Noam Chomsky -
0:10:13 > 0:10:15was brought up like a human child
0:10:15 > 0:10:20in an attempt to mirror a human child's linguistic development.
0:10:20 > 0:10:23Nim became quite adept at signing,
0:10:23 > 0:10:27but never grasped how to use grammar.
0:10:33 > 0:10:37Around the same time, a three-year-old chimp named Lana
0:10:37 > 0:10:39was the subject of an experiment in Atlanta.
0:10:39 > 0:10:44- REPORTER:- Lana lives in a transparent plastic cage with a computer.
0:10:44 > 0:10:47She operates the machine through a language of symbols.
0:10:47 > 0:10:52The symbols have to be pressed in a specific order for the desired result to be achieved.
0:10:52 > 0:10:57"Please, machine, give piece of apple, full stop."
0:10:57 > 0:11:01Although this communication seems sophisticated,
0:11:01 > 0:11:04it's not using language in the way that we do.
0:11:05 > 0:11:09Chimps have the ability to construct very basic sentences,
0:11:09 > 0:11:12but they don't initiate conversations.
0:11:14 > 0:11:17There is no linguistic creativity.
0:11:17 > 0:11:19"Please, machine, give chocolate, full stop."
0:11:22 > 0:11:24They're doing it only to request things.
0:11:24 > 0:11:26They're doing it imperatively,
0:11:26 > 0:11:28or in response to some demand from them,
0:11:28 > 0:11:31and not with one another in their natural state.
0:11:31 > 0:11:36Pointing, for them, is not about sharing information as much as it is about getting what you want.
0:11:39 > 0:11:44So, what is your best guess, based on your research,
0:11:44 > 0:11:47as to how human beings separated?
0:11:47 > 0:11:51Why and when they acquired this difference,
0:11:51 > 0:11:55this ability to project their personality on to their fellows,
0:11:55 > 0:11:58to co-operate and use language as a social, co-operative medium
0:11:58 > 0:12:00in a way quite different from others?
0:12:00 > 0:12:03I think the initial step was that we ended up
0:12:03 > 0:12:06having to collaborate in order to produce food.
0:12:06 > 0:12:09Something in the ecology changed that meant
0:12:09 > 0:12:13that we had to put our heads together to be able to acquire food.
0:12:13 > 0:12:17Working together towards a common goal
0:12:17 > 0:12:20means we have to be co-operative in sharing the food at the end,
0:12:20 > 0:12:23we have to co-ordinate our movements when we do that
0:12:23 > 0:12:25and it puts pressure on for communication,
0:12:25 > 0:12:30because I think the first major function of uniquely human communication
0:12:30 > 0:12:33was to co-ordinate collaborative activities.
0:12:38 > 0:12:43For simpler types of hunting, gestures and grunts may suffice -
0:12:43 > 0:12:48but the pursuit of more elusive quarry demanded a more complex system of communication.
0:12:53 > 0:12:57When the ancestors of these Wauja of the Xingu River in Brazil
0:12:57 > 0:12:59first decided to hunt some alligators,
0:12:59 > 0:13:04the whole village needed to work together to catch their prey.
0:13:08 > 0:13:09So, somewhere along the line,
0:13:09 > 0:13:15cries and grunts turned into words and sentences.
0:13:18 > 0:13:22Clearer communication brought other benefits.
0:13:22 > 0:13:26Increased efficiency created more free time to spend together as a community.
0:13:26 > 0:13:32As language blossomed, experiences could be shared and stories told.
0:13:32 > 0:13:35TRANSLATION:
0:13:54 > 0:13:58So language gave us the power to hunt ever more efficiently and with greater co-operation,
0:13:58 > 0:14:02but it also granted us completely unseen new benefits.
0:14:02 > 0:14:04We were able to talk about the past
0:14:04 > 0:14:06and to project our lives into the future.
0:14:06 > 0:14:09This transmission of knowledge across the generations
0:14:09 > 0:14:12is what gave us, ultimately, civilisation itself.
0:14:17 > 0:14:21Language became the foundation of human society and culture
0:14:21 > 0:14:25and for me, thinking about it, using it, playing with it,
0:14:25 > 0:14:30has always been one of the greatest passions of my life.
0:14:30 > 0:14:34- To you, language is more than a means of communication?- Of course it is, of course it is,
0:14:34 > 0:14:37of course it is. Language is my mother, my father, my husband, my brother,
0:14:37 > 0:14:40my sister, my whore, my mistress, my checkout girl.
0:14:40 > 0:14:44Language is a complimentary moist lemon-scented cleansing square,
0:14:44 > 0:14:46or handy freshen-up wipette.
0:14:46 > 0:14:48Language is the breath of God.
0:14:53 > 0:14:57If our changing environment first forced us to learn language,
0:14:57 > 0:15:00what did that language then do to us?
0:15:00 > 0:15:03Did it change us physiologically?
0:15:05 > 0:15:09Elsewhere in Leipzig's Max Planck Institute,
0:15:09 > 0:15:15leading geneticist Dr Wolfgang Enard is unravelling the mysteries of the human genome.
0:15:16 > 0:15:19His work is providing some tantalising clues
0:15:19 > 0:15:23as to how our brains became hard-wired for language.
0:15:24 > 0:15:29Wolfgang, one of the most important things that science can discover is where speech comes from.
0:15:29 > 0:15:33Where this extraordinary ability of human beings to have evolved
0:15:33 > 0:15:37and to process language - the thing that marks us out perhaps more than
0:15:37 > 0:15:40anything else from other animals - where it comes from.
0:15:40 > 0:15:44There are all kinds of theories, but a recent addition to those theories
0:15:44 > 0:15:49has been this mysterious two-letter gene difference
0:15:49 > 0:15:52that you and your colleagues have discovered.
0:15:52 > 0:15:56- Can you tell me about it? It's called FOXPT - is that right?- FOXP2.
0:15:56 > 0:16:01Yes, that's how gene names are. They are strange letters and numbers.
0:16:01 > 0:16:08FOXP2 is currently the biggest foot we have in this door.
0:16:08 > 0:16:13What the genetic make-up is and how we evolved language and how speech, at least, functions.
0:16:17 > 0:16:21The FOXP2 gene is what's called a forkhead box protein,
0:16:21 > 0:16:24found on human chromosome 7.
0:16:24 > 0:16:26All mammals have it and, in fact,
0:16:26 > 0:16:30there are only two amino acids different between ours and the chimps'
0:16:30 > 0:16:33and just three between us and mice.
0:16:33 > 0:16:37Its connection to language was realised when it was discovered
0:16:37 > 0:16:42that humans with a mutation in the gene can have extreme speech disorders.
0:16:42 > 0:16:46We need to somehow study that and the clue to that -
0:16:46 > 0:16:51or the only possibility we really have to study that - is to look in mice.
0:16:51 > 0:16:55If you can make mice that have the human version of the FOXP2 gene,
0:16:55 > 0:16:59and then see how they compare to a normal mouse. Litter mates.
0:17:00 > 0:17:04- These are pups that have the gene in?- Yes.
0:17:04 > 0:17:09So they... They carry the human version of FOXP2.
0:17:11 > 0:17:14Mice can have litters every few months,
0:17:14 > 0:17:19so the study effectively follows an evolutionary process on fast forward.
0:17:22 > 0:17:26By closely monitoring these little creatures' squeals and squeaks,
0:17:26 > 0:17:30Enard is already spotting some small but significant changes.
0:17:34 > 0:17:37They have some sudden features, especially in their brain,
0:17:37 > 0:17:40but also in their vocalisation.
0:17:40 > 0:17:42Really?
0:17:42 > 0:17:46Slight differences and we hope these slight differences give us some clue
0:17:46 > 0:17:51to where and what actually changed in human FOXP2 evolution.
0:17:51 > 0:17:56And you would hope, of course, to discover not just new sound waves
0:17:56 > 0:17:58or new frequencies at which they're communicating,
0:17:58 > 0:18:02but maybe even an effect in the communication,
0:18:02 > 0:18:07which is to say quicker mating or passing of news of food,
0:18:07 > 0:18:10or who knows? Or is that being far too optimistic about the possibilities?
0:18:10 > 0:18:14I think that would be asking too much. The mouse would not start talking.
0:18:14 > 0:18:18- They're not going from squeaking to speaking.- They're still a mouse. - Exactly.
0:18:21 > 0:18:27So sadly, despite the fact that Enard's test subjects have been dubbed "the singing mice,"
0:18:27 > 0:18:32there doesn't seem to be any chance they will evolve into something like these old friends.
0:18:32 > 0:18:34# We will wash it, we will splosh it
0:18:34 > 0:18:36# Bring the bucket and mop, mop, mop
0:18:36 > 0:18:38# We will dust it, we will brush it
0:18:38 > 0:18:41# We will polish its top, top, top
0:18:41 > 0:18:44# We will polish its top, top, top. #
0:18:44 > 0:18:49- Do you think FOXP2 has more secrets to give up for you?- Absolutely.
0:18:49 > 0:18:54I mean, er, we understand so little in terms of what it really does
0:18:54 > 0:18:57because, after all, the brain is a pretty complex organ.
0:19:00 > 0:19:04How certain molecular changes relate to physiological changes
0:19:04 > 0:19:08in the brain, behavioural changes, it is a hard problem.
0:19:08 > 0:19:13'Of course, scientifically appealing and revealing as it might be,
0:19:13 > 0:19:18'to experiment with FOXP2 on primates would be ethically unthinkable.
0:19:18 > 0:19:24'But that hasn't stopped us imagining what communicating with our closest cousins might be like.'
0:19:24 > 0:19:27- Getting the hang of it. Mind the banisters, son. - I can't hold it, Dad.
0:19:27 > 0:19:31Don't worry, son. I've shifted more pianos than you've had hot dinners.
0:19:31 > 0:19:35Coo-ee. Coo-ee, Mr Shifter. Light refreshment?
0:19:35 > 0:19:38- Thank you most kindly, madam. - Oh, my!
0:19:38 > 0:19:41One way of shifting it.
0:19:41 > 0:19:45- Dad, do you know the piano's on my foot?- You hum it, son, I'll play it.
0:19:46 > 0:19:48Human.
0:19:51 > 0:19:52Chimp.
0:19:53 > 0:19:55Mm... Mouse.
0:19:57 > 0:20:00And...
0:20:00 > 0:20:01human.
0:20:02 > 0:20:04If only it were that simple.
0:20:04 > 0:20:09But we are, it seems, beginning to unlock some of the mystery.
0:20:09 > 0:20:13A few misplaced atoms on chromosome 7 was probably part of it,
0:20:13 > 0:20:16causing some improved communication during hunting,
0:20:16 > 0:20:21which led to a better diet so that those who had the gene had more children.
0:20:21 > 0:20:25But exactly when and where humankind first started to speak,
0:20:25 > 0:20:26we'll never know.
0:20:26 > 0:20:29But we certainly did learn to speak and, frankly, ever since then,
0:20:29 > 0:20:31we've never shut up.
0:20:32 > 0:20:36As haven't you, I notice. Yes.
0:20:38 > 0:20:43But absolutely none of that would have been possible without this exquisite thing -
0:20:43 > 0:20:46this glorious three pounds of mushy grey matter
0:20:46 > 0:20:50which differentiates us from all other animals.
0:20:50 > 0:20:52The human brain.
0:20:52 > 0:20:58With this cauliflower-walnut-like mass containing something like 100 billion neurons,
0:20:58 > 0:21:00we're able to think our thoughts, dream our dreams,
0:21:00 > 0:21:04dredge the memory banks, to translate them into words
0:21:04 > 0:21:08and then get our bodies actually to speak them.
0:21:08 > 0:21:12The strange thing is, we know more about the origins and workings of the universe
0:21:12 > 0:21:14than we do about the human brain.
0:21:14 > 0:21:17It's mankind's final frontier.
0:21:18 > 0:21:24'So what do we actually know about this language-producing machine between our ears?
0:21:24 > 0:21:28'I'm off to have a delve into my own brain.
0:21:30 > 0:21:33'At the University College London Centre for Neuroimaging,
0:21:33 > 0:21:37'psychologists, brain boxes and neurolinguists
0:21:37 > 0:21:40'have the very latest kit to look into the grey matter.'
0:21:45 > 0:21:47- Ah, this looks like a little office. - Control room.
0:21:47 > 0:21:49It's through there, right? Oh, yes.
0:21:49 > 0:21:52Yes, I've seen these on House and things like that.
0:21:52 > 0:21:57'Dr Joe Devlin and Professor Cathy Price are clinical psycholinguists,
0:21:57 > 0:22:02'whose work is focused on how language works in the brain -
0:22:02 > 0:22:05'specialising in how strokes affect language ability.'
0:22:05 > 0:22:07OK.
0:22:08 > 0:22:11'They're going to have my brain scanned by MRI,
0:22:11 > 0:22:15'the magnetic resonance imaging technique that allows scientists
0:22:15 > 0:22:20'to see which parts of the brain are working, lighting up areas which are being stimulated -
0:22:20 > 0:22:22'in this case, while I'm speaking.'
0:22:22 > 0:22:25Magnetic resonance imaging.
0:22:25 > 0:22:27It's what I'm undergoing even as I speak.
0:22:27 > 0:22:30An extraordinary technology which allows one to view
0:22:30 > 0:22:33areas of the brain and the activity which they undergo
0:22:33 > 0:22:35when performing certain tasks,
0:22:35 > 0:22:38such as this rather self-reflexive one of describing MRI.
0:22:42 > 0:22:46'Professor Price has now analysed my scan results.'
0:22:46 > 0:22:49This is your brain here and this is a model of the brain,
0:22:49 > 0:22:54where we've superimposed a summary of the activations during different conditions.
0:22:54 > 0:22:56It doesn't matter where the human being is brought up
0:22:56 > 0:22:59or how they have learned to communicate.
0:22:59 > 0:23:01The same set of regions are involved.
0:23:01 > 0:23:04It's like looking at bodies.
0:23:04 > 0:23:07They're all made up of the same components.
0:23:07 > 0:23:11Anyone who learns to play the piano will be taught to do it
0:23:11 > 0:23:15the same way, to use the same set of instruments.
0:23:15 > 0:23:20'When it comes to understanding exactly how our brains work in the language process,
0:23:20 > 0:23:24'we are still in the neurological equivalent of the dark ages.
0:23:26 > 0:23:31'But looking at the images, I can't help but wonder at how much of my brain is involved in it.
0:23:31 > 0:23:34'Is my grey matter saturated with language?'
0:23:34 > 0:23:36Language uses most of our brain
0:23:36 > 0:23:40because it is integrating all of our sensory sources,
0:23:40 > 0:23:43all the different types of memory that we can have
0:23:43 > 0:23:45and then co-ordinating how we respond to it.
0:23:45 > 0:23:50And then everything we do is then monitored by language,
0:23:50 > 0:23:55so language then becomes an integral part of our human nature.
0:23:56 > 0:23:59'I do feel that language is what I am,
0:23:59 > 0:24:02'so what happened to the writer Robert McCrum
0:24:02 > 0:24:05'is just the sort of thing I would fear most.
0:24:05 > 0:24:10'15 years ago, a stroke left Robert unable to walk or talk.
0:24:10 > 0:24:14'Language lived on inside him, but he could not express it.'
0:24:14 > 0:24:19- I had what's called a right-side haemorrhagic infarct.- Goodness me.
0:24:19 > 0:24:21Which is quite a bad one,
0:24:21 > 0:24:26and I was paralysed all the way down my left side.
0:24:26 > 0:24:28The right goes to left in the brain,
0:24:28 > 0:24:31so I was paralysed and couldn't stand or do anything.
0:24:31 > 0:24:36I was completely poleaxed. The stroke took place in what's called the basal ganglia.
0:24:36 > 0:24:41It's very deep in the brain. But I did have language, and never lost...
0:24:41 > 0:24:44I couldn't speak, cos my mouth was all...
0:24:44 > 0:24:49- So the language was in your head? - The language was in my head but the face was frozen, or half-frozen.
0:24:49 > 0:24:52There was a nervous two or three months
0:24:52 > 0:24:55- when I wasn't sure what I was going to get back.- Right.
0:24:57 > 0:25:01'As Robert recuperated, his brain did an extraordinary thing.
0:25:01 > 0:25:04'New parts of it took over to replace the burnt-out ones.
0:25:04 > 0:25:06'It rewired itself.
0:25:06 > 0:25:09'And although it's not quite as easy as before,
0:25:09 > 0:25:13'Robert is now able once again physically to verbalise his thoughts.
0:25:13 > 0:25:16'It's now believed that somewhere between 50 and 80% of the brain
0:25:16 > 0:25:19'is involved in language processes.'
0:25:19 > 0:25:21Gradually, it's got better.
0:25:21 > 0:25:25Even now, when I'm speaking to you I still have to make an effort.
0:25:25 > 0:25:29- There's a greater amount of conscious production?- Absolutely.
0:25:29 > 0:25:32So it's like someone who has to walk by remembering how to use...
0:25:32 > 0:25:36Have to remember to articulate clearly and not to speak too quickly
0:25:36 > 0:25:39and I have a slight - you probably didn't get this or see this -
0:25:39 > 0:25:43but there's probably a slight stammer, particularly if I'm nervous.
0:25:43 > 0:25:44Tiny things.
0:25:44 > 0:25:48So language is clearly integral to being human.
0:25:48 > 0:25:51It's hard-wired into us at a genetic level,
0:25:51 > 0:25:53utilising every part of the brain.
0:25:53 > 0:25:57Indeed, the brain will rewire itself just to keep us speaking.
0:25:57 > 0:26:00But how intrinsic - how automatic - is language?
0:26:00 > 0:26:05Is it like eating and sleeping or is it, to some extent, a learned skill?
0:26:05 > 0:26:09It's really a kind of nature-versus-nurture question.
0:26:09 > 0:26:15The kind of question that has beguiled and fascinated scientists and philosophers since time began.
0:26:15 > 0:26:19It's not often that nature affords us an opportunity to investigate.
0:26:27 > 0:26:31In the midst of the craziness of the French Revolution,
0:26:31 > 0:26:36a young boy was discovered in the forests of the south-eastern Massif Central,
0:26:36 > 0:26:40one of the wildest and least inhabited regions in Europe.
0:26:40 > 0:26:44It appeared that the boy had been living alone,
0:26:44 > 0:26:47and like an animal, for some years.
0:26:57 > 0:27:01Feral children have fascinated philosophers for centuries,
0:27:01 > 0:27:08offering a window into human nature untainted by society's strictures.
0:27:08 > 0:27:13And in doing so, revealing how language might be formed.
0:27:14 > 0:27:18Finding a real-life feral child was nothing short of sensational.
0:27:24 > 0:27:27He was captured and ended up in Paris
0:27:27 > 0:27:30under the care of the innovative doctor Jean Marc Itard,
0:27:30 > 0:27:35who was working at the recently established Institute for Deaf Mutes.
0:27:36 > 0:27:38The boy, whom they named Victor,
0:27:38 > 0:27:43having experienced almost nothing of society and no education,
0:27:43 > 0:27:46was considered something of a blank slate.
0:27:46 > 0:27:47Victor?
0:27:48 > 0:27:51Tu veux un peu de lait? Du lait?
0:27:51 > 0:27:56Most significantly, he was unable to speak, suggesting that language
0:27:56 > 0:28:00is not just genetic - it needs to be learned from others.
0:28:00 > 0:28:03Doucement, doucement. Pas si vite, pas si vite.
0:28:05 > 0:28:09For the next five years, Itard devoted himself to Victor.
0:28:09 > 0:28:11He taught him how to eat, how to use the toilet,
0:28:11 > 0:28:14how to restrain his animal urges,
0:28:14 > 0:28:18in particular with the female inmates once he had reached puberty.
0:28:18 > 0:28:20And of course, how to speak French.
0:28:20 > 0:28:23Victor, Victor.
0:28:23 > 0:28:24Va chercher la plume.
0:28:24 > 0:28:26Va chercher la plume.
0:28:29 > 0:28:35Victor's vocal cords, like any muscle unused to exercise, needed training.
0:28:35 > 0:28:37Just as a baby learns to babble,
0:28:37 > 0:28:42so Victor started to learn to articulate sounds.
0:28:43 > 0:28:44Mar...
0:28:44 > 0:28:48Mar-teau. Mar-teau. Mar-teau.
0:28:48 > 0:28:50..teau.
0:28:50 > 0:28:52Tres bien. Prends le pomme de terre.
0:28:54 > 0:28:56Doucement, doucement. Pas si vite.
0:28:56 > 0:28:59Le retrouve. Fort, comme ca. Direct. Encore.
0:28:59 > 0:29:04Despite remaining in Itard's care until his death aged 42,
0:29:04 > 0:29:08Victor never learned to talk.
0:29:08 > 0:29:10The reasons why were never established.
0:29:10 > 0:29:15Perhaps it was a congenital defect or psychological trauma,
0:29:15 > 0:29:18or perhaps Victor simply started to learn too late.
0:29:20 > 0:29:21Oui. Tres bien, tres bien.
0:29:21 > 0:29:24The trouble is, cases like Victor make for messy scientific study
0:29:24 > 0:29:29because, by definition, with all feral children their backgrounds are unclear.
0:29:29 > 0:29:33What seems certain is that there is a window for language acquisition,
0:29:33 > 0:29:35which closes round about early puberty.
0:29:35 > 0:29:38Then it's much more difficult to acquire language.
0:29:38 > 0:29:42Of course we do, as we often learn foreign languages
0:29:42 > 0:29:44but, as most of us can testify,
0:29:44 > 0:29:48it becomes a lot more difficult as the brain loses plasticity.
0:29:48 > 0:29:50One thing, though, is certain - by the age of five,
0:29:50 > 0:29:54most of us will have acquired the gift of language.
0:29:57 > 0:30:02To study this magical process, Dr Deb Roy of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
0:30:02 > 0:30:06had cameras installed throughout his house.
0:30:06 > 0:30:11For three years, Dr Roy filmed his son as he began to talk.
0:30:11 > 0:30:14WOMAN: OK, water. Water.
0:30:16 > 0:30:19Dr Roy's son was right on schedule.
0:30:19 > 0:30:21At first, he spoke in simple phonemes -
0:30:21 > 0:30:24the "wahs" and "gahs".
0:30:24 > 0:30:28By 18 months, he had progressed to words and phrases.
0:30:32 > 0:30:36After 24 months, like most other children,
0:30:36 > 0:30:40he was acquiring ten new words a day.
0:30:45 > 0:30:48And how is Ruby, the little girl we met earlier in the film,
0:30:48 > 0:30:50how is she doing?
0:30:51 > 0:30:53Hello.
0:30:53 > 0:30:55RUBY: Come in.
0:30:55 > 0:30:56HE LAUGHS
0:30:56 > 0:31:00- Who's that? Who said that noise? - Poo.
0:31:00 > 0:31:04RUBY SPEAKS IN DISTANCE
0:31:04 > 0:31:07It's a mixture of melody...
0:31:07 > 0:31:10RUBY CONTINUES
0:31:10 > 0:31:12HE LAUGHS
0:31:12 > 0:31:16- I've a horrible feeling my first word might even have been "sorry". - Baby's chair.
0:31:16 > 0:31:20- Baby's chair. - Baby chair.
0:31:20 > 0:31:22Baby chair. That's exactly right.
0:31:22 > 0:31:28There is the baby's chair and both the babies are on the chair now.
0:31:28 > 0:31:32Today is actually her second birthday, so quite literally she is two.
0:31:33 > 0:31:36And she's not your first child.
0:31:36 > 0:31:40So you've had the opportunity to observe children learning,
0:31:40 > 0:31:45acquiring - as I believe the technical phrase is - language before.
0:31:45 > 0:31:51- Yes.- And I suppose you are probably more relaxed by the time it's the third one.
0:31:51 > 0:31:53Well, yes, and also it's more funny,
0:31:53 > 0:31:56because you kind of make it more of a laugh rather than...
0:31:56 > 0:32:01With your first, you're slightly watching what everyone else's kids are doing -
0:32:01 > 0:32:06to see when their language is coming, is mine advanced, is mine behind?
0:32:06 > 0:32:09Whereas with this one, it doesn't matter.
0:32:09 > 0:32:11You know it will come whenever she's ready.
0:32:11 > 0:32:14And she's got her siblings to help her.
0:32:14 > 0:32:16Well, yes, and to be quite annoying.
0:32:16 > 0:32:19Because they are always trying to get her to say all the bad stuff.
0:32:19 > 0:32:21Of course they are.
0:32:21 > 0:32:26Which is great, but it means she's not necessarily learning the words you want her to learn.
0:32:26 > 0:32:29My apple, thank you.
0:32:29 > 0:32:33- Apple.- Apple. Exactly.
0:32:33 > 0:32:37'From here on in, Ruby's vocabulary grows day by day.'
0:32:38 > 0:32:40SHE CHUCKLES Bye-bye.
0:32:40 > 0:32:42Bye-bye.
0:32:42 > 0:32:44Hello.
0:32:44 > 0:32:46Hello.
0:32:46 > 0:32:48SHE BLOWS A RASPBERRY
0:32:48 > 0:32:49- I...- I...
0:32:49 > 0:32:51- ..am...- ..am...
0:32:51 > 0:32:54- ..a...- ..a...
0:32:54 > 0:32:58- ..banana. - ..bana-nana.
0:32:58 > 0:33:00What is your name?
0:33:00 > 0:33:02Mary.
0:33:02 > 0:33:04No, what is your name?
0:33:04 > 0:33:06Ruby.
0:33:06 > 0:33:07Yes! Well done.
0:33:07 > 0:33:10- What is your name?- Ruby.
0:33:10 > 0:33:13'It's wonderful watching Ruby starting to speak.'
0:33:13 > 0:33:19'I want to know more about how children manage this miraculous process,
0:33:19 > 0:33:21'so I've come to see a bit of a hero of mine -
0:33:21 > 0:33:26'the renowned academic and author, Professor Steven Pinker.'
0:33:26 > 0:33:31I wondered if you could explain to me what current thinking might be about language acquisition.
0:33:31 > 0:33:34Presumably, it needs society, it needs encouraging.
0:33:34 > 0:33:37Language, at a bare minimum, needs words,
0:33:37 > 0:33:40and the words have to be the same words that everyone else is using.
0:33:40 > 0:33:42If you had your own private language,
0:33:42 > 0:33:47even if it were possible for language to spring up out of the brain, it would be useless.
0:33:47 > 0:33:50No-one would know or understand a word you're saying.
0:33:50 > 0:33:54So the child has to be attuned to the words that are floating around
0:33:54 > 0:33:56in the linguistic environment.
0:33:56 > 0:34:01There also has to be some kind of talent in the child's brain
0:34:01 > 0:34:05that allows them not just to parrot back the exact words and sentences they've heard,
0:34:05 > 0:34:08it would be upsetting if that's what your child did.
0:34:08 > 0:34:12We expect children, from the beginning, to compose their own sentences.
0:34:12 > 0:34:17To abstract the rules of combination, the rules of grammar,
0:34:17 > 0:34:21so that they can talk about new events and new thoughts
0:34:21 > 0:34:25and take the familiar words but rearrange them in new sentences.
0:34:25 > 0:34:30'What's really amazing is that with this gift of grammar,
0:34:30 > 0:34:33'we can go beyond forming our own simple sentences
0:34:33 > 0:34:35'and begin to be creative with language.'
0:34:35 > 0:34:37Even a young child can come up with a sentence
0:34:37 > 0:34:41that has never been uttered in the history of their language?
0:34:41 > 0:34:45Right from the beginning, from the time at which children first start putting words together,
0:34:45 > 0:34:49some of those combinations are clearly from their own creativity.
0:34:49 > 0:34:53An example - a child whose hands were covered with jam
0:34:53 > 0:34:55and wanted mother to wash them.
0:34:55 > 0:34:58Mother washed off the jam and the child said, "All gone, sticky."
0:34:58 > 0:35:03That doesn't correspond to any adult English sentence,
0:35:03 > 0:35:08but the child had those two words and had the formula that put them in that order
0:35:08 > 0:35:11to express the idea of the passing of a state.
0:35:11 > 0:35:13Imagine a piano keyboard.
0:35:13 > 0:35:1888 keys, only 88, and yet hundreds of new melodies, new tunes, new harmonies
0:35:18 > 0:35:22are being composed on hundreds of keyboards every day in Dorset alone.
0:35:22 > 0:35:25- LAUGHTER - Our language, tiger,
0:35:25 > 0:35:29our language, hundreds of thousands of available words,
0:35:29 > 0:35:31frillions of legitimate new ideas,
0:35:31 > 0:35:36so that I can say the following sentence and be utterly sure that nobody has ever said it before
0:35:36 > 0:35:39in the history of human communication.
0:35:39 > 0:35:43Hold the newsreader's nose squarely, waiter,
0:35:43 > 0:35:47or friendly milk will countermand my trousers.
0:35:47 > 0:35:48LAUGHTER
0:35:48 > 0:35:55Perfectly ordinary words, but never before put in that precise order.
0:35:55 > 0:35:58A unique child delivered of a unique mother.
0:35:58 > 0:36:01CHILDREN CHATTER
0:36:01 > 0:36:07A path-breaking way of investigating how children instinctively use grammar was created in 1958
0:36:07 > 0:36:12by a pioneering psycholinguist, who I've come to meet today -
0:36:12 > 0:36:14Jean Berko Gleason.
0:36:14 > 0:36:17- Hello.- This is Twyla.
0:36:17 > 0:36:19Twyla. One of my favourites names.
0:36:19 > 0:36:23- Twyla is a famous woman. How old are you, Twyla?- Four-and-a-half.
0:36:23 > 0:36:29- Four-and-a-half! A good age. - OK, Twyla, er, hi.- Hi.
0:36:29 > 0:36:32I'm going to show you some pictures, OK?
0:36:32 > 0:36:37'It's called the Wug test and Jean still uses the original cards she designed half a century ago.'
0:36:37 > 0:36:43- This is a Wug. - 'They show that even with nonsense words they've never heard before,
0:36:43 > 0:36:47'children can use grammatical rules that they've somehow absorbed.'
0:36:47 > 0:36:50- What are they? You tell me.- Wugs.
0:36:50 > 0:36:53- Say that louder.- Wugs. - Wugs is great.
0:36:53 > 0:36:55Very good.
0:36:55 > 0:36:57OK.
0:36:57 > 0:37:02This is a man who knows how to bing. He is binging. He did the same thing yesterday.
0:37:02 > 0:37:04What did he do yesterday? Yesterday, he...?
0:37:04 > 0:37:07- Binged.- Binged. Very nice.
0:37:07 > 0:37:12- Yes. - Here is a man who knows how to zib.
0:37:12 > 0:37:14So what is he doing? He is...?
0:37:14 > 0:37:16Zib...
0:37:16 > 0:37:18- Zibbing.- Zibbing!- Zibbing! - Very good.
0:37:18 > 0:37:22What would you call a man whose job is to zib?
0:37:26 > 0:37:30He has to do it every day, his job is to zib. So he is a...?
0:37:30 > 0:37:33- Zibber.- Mmm!
0:37:33 > 0:37:35Very, very, very good.
0:37:35 > 0:37:40Is there evidence as to how many times a child who's right in the flush of language acquisition
0:37:40 > 0:37:44needs to hear someone not correct them, exactly...
0:37:44 > 0:37:47They say, "I think that..." "Oh, you thought it, did you?"
0:37:47 > 0:37:53But the amount of speech that parents provide for their kids at home,
0:37:53 > 0:37:56before they get to school, is crucial,
0:37:56 > 0:38:02absolutely crucial. All the research has shown that hearing a lot of language,
0:38:02 > 0:38:06and getting the opportunity to talk in different ways,
0:38:06 > 0:38:11really is the kind of insurance you would want for your kids to be successful.
0:38:11 > 0:38:14So actually trying to coach them, or correct them,
0:38:14 > 0:38:16- is irrelevant in your estimation? - I think so.
0:38:16 > 0:38:20I think coaching... But, reading the books and talking to them
0:38:20 > 0:38:23and listening to what they say, and giving them
0:38:23 > 0:38:28the opportunity to engage in different kinds of linguistic experiences,
0:38:28 > 0:38:32in other words, having them tell you what they did, narrative,
0:38:32 > 0:38:35but having them describe something.
0:38:35 > 0:38:38A lot of different genres that kids might be able to engage in,
0:38:38 > 0:38:41that is a wonderful thing for young kids.
0:38:47 > 0:38:51Wherever people congregate, they talk, they use language
0:38:51 > 0:38:56to affirm, to reaffirm, to confirm, to reassure, to amuse, to beguile,
0:38:56 > 0:39:00to delight, because language itself seems to fascinate and delight us.
0:39:00 > 0:39:05So much so that perhaps over 400 conlangs, constructed languages,
0:39:05 > 0:39:10have been made up, usually out of idealism, like Esperanto, I suppose is the most famous.
0:39:10 > 0:39:14Sometimes, languages are made up for more amusing reasons.
0:39:15 > 0:39:18ACTORS SHOUTING
0:39:20 > 0:39:23HE SPEAKS KLINGON
0:39:28 > 0:39:32'One of the newest languages on the planet is Klingon,
0:39:32 > 0:39:36'named after the eponymous Star Trek species.'
0:39:37 > 0:39:42'My guest appearance in the Klingon version of Shakespeare's Hamlet
0:39:42 > 0:39:45'is not one of my proudest theatrical moments.'
0:39:45 > 0:39:46AUDIENCE LAUGHTER
0:39:48 > 0:39:50That really hurts, actually.
0:39:50 > 0:39:52LAUGHTER
0:40:02 > 0:40:04'Backstage, before the performance,
0:40:04 > 0:40:09I chatted to a level 4 Klingon speaker, the highest you can be.
0:40:09 > 0:40:14'D'Armond Speers is a computational linguist who took the unusual step
0:40:14 > 0:40:18'of teaching his son Klingon as his first language.'
0:40:19 > 0:40:22We had a lot of fun. We would play language games,
0:40:22 > 0:40:25so I would say things to him like... HE SPEAKS KLINGON
0:40:27 > 0:40:29He would point to my cheek - where's my cheek?
0:40:29 > 0:40:31I would say... HE SPEAKS KLINGON
0:40:31 > 0:40:33- ..and he would point to his nose. - Wow.
0:40:33 > 0:40:36One day, we were playing on the carpet in the living room
0:40:36 > 0:40:39and I had his bottle that he would drink from.
0:40:39 > 0:40:44We didn't have a word for bottle, diaper, we didn't have a word for, you know, high chair.
0:40:44 > 0:40:49- Domestic things. They're not domestic people, the Klingons. - I had words for shuttlecraft,
0:40:49 > 0:40:54and phaser and transporter ionisation unit - I didn't have "bottle".
0:40:54 > 0:40:58So we were using the word for bottle that is a drinking vessel.
0:40:58 > 0:41:04And I said to him one day... We had this game, "This or that".
0:41:04 > 0:41:07And so I said to him... HE SPEAKS KLINGON
0:41:07 > 0:41:10So I used the word for bottle, I used it with a suffix,
0:41:10 > 0:41:12I used it in a sentence.
0:41:12 > 0:41:15I didn't point at it, look at it, I didn't do anything like that.
0:41:15 > 0:41:18And this two-year old kid, baby, toddler,
0:41:18 > 0:41:21started crawling over to the bottle and grabbed the bottle.
0:41:21 > 0:41:26At that moment, I knew this was working. He was learning this language. It was very exciting.
0:41:26 > 0:41:28SHE GROANS
0:41:28 > 0:41:30HE SPEAKS KLINGON
0:41:31 > 0:41:33LAUGHTER
0:41:42 > 0:41:47One of the other things we did was we had a lullaby that we would sing every night.
0:41:47 > 0:41:51The Klingon imperial anthem. HE LAUGHS
0:41:51 > 0:41:54HE SPEAKS TITLE IN KLINGON "May The Empire Endure.
0:41:54 > 0:41:56And we sang it as a lullaby.
0:41:56 > 0:42:00I'm so picturing this baby in a Pooh Bear onesie,
0:42:00 > 0:42:03- singing the Klingon Empire song. - Absolutely right.
0:42:03 > 0:42:08There were things like that and he was learning to count and he was learning colours,
0:42:08 > 0:42:10and he was learning words.
0:42:10 > 0:42:14But as he went from two-and-a-half to three years old, he stopped.
0:42:14 > 0:42:16He stopped being interested,
0:42:16 > 0:42:19he stopped enjoying doing it with me as much.
0:42:19 > 0:42:22I would say something in Klingon and he would say it back in English,
0:42:22 > 0:42:26- and I would try to encourage him. - Ooh...- He started to resist it.
0:42:26 > 0:42:32And it was fun and interesting. When it stopped being fun and interesting, I stopped doing it.
0:42:32 > 0:42:34SHE SPEAKS KLINGON
0:42:35 > 0:42:40'Klingon was little use to D'Armond's son in communicating with the outside world
0:42:40 > 0:42:46'and that is the key factor in whether a language survives and flourishes, or dies.'
0:42:51 > 0:42:55'One of the most enduringly practical forms of communication
0:42:55 > 0:42:57'is sign language for the deaf.'
0:42:57 > 0:42:59Surprise.
0:42:59 > 0:43:01Shock.
0:43:02 > 0:43:06'Since the first form of it was codified in Paris in 1760,
0:43:06 > 0:43:11'over 200 different versions have evolved.'
0:43:11 > 0:43:13'But can we really call this a language?'
0:43:14 > 0:43:19TRANSLATION: Hello. My name is Claudia. And I am from Germany.
0:43:20 > 0:43:25TRANSLATION: Hello. I'm Ian. And I'm from New Hampshire.
0:43:26 > 0:43:30Hello. I'm Janice and I'm from Oklahoma.
0:43:31 > 0:43:34And we're the Little Theatre Of The Deaf.
0:43:35 > 0:43:37LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE
0:43:40 > 0:43:47So, Janice, perhaps you can ask Ian and Claudia to explain to me,
0:43:47 > 0:43:48in all my ignorance,
0:43:48 > 0:43:53why sign language is more than just gestures, and why it is a complete language.
0:43:59 > 0:44:04TRANSLATION: Sign language really is part of language because...
0:44:04 > 0:44:07we can't hear, but we can communicate.
0:44:08 > 0:44:10It's a visual language.
0:44:12 > 0:44:16Instead of hearing it and depending on our ears,
0:44:16 > 0:44:18we sign it and we depend on our eyes.
0:44:18 > 0:44:23We don't just make up signs, there are actual words that have pictures and meaning and structure,
0:44:23 > 0:44:26sentence structure and concepts.
0:44:27 > 0:44:32Everything is involved so that it's clear and understandable communication.
0:44:32 > 0:44:35And Claudia, you're German.
0:44:35 > 0:44:41In Germany, is there a...is there a Deutsche Zeichensprache?
0:44:41 > 0:44:43Go on, say that!
0:44:45 > 0:44:47- Deutsche Zeichensprache. - She doesn't interpret German!
0:44:47 > 0:44:53I'm only kidding. But is there a Germanic sign language
0:44:53 > 0:44:58that's different from French or Italian, let alone American?
0:44:58 > 0:45:01Yes, it's very different.
0:45:01 > 0:45:04Just as the writing is different in every language.
0:45:04 > 0:45:08So an Italian signer would not be able to understand a German signer?
0:45:10 > 0:45:12- No.- No.
0:45:12 > 0:45:13It's very interesting.
0:45:13 > 0:45:20One afternoon, there was a large wolf that waited in a dark forest...
0:45:20 > 0:45:22AUDIENCE LAUGHS
0:45:28 > 0:45:31..for a little girl to come along.
0:45:33 > 0:45:35Finally, a little girl did come along
0:45:35 > 0:45:38and she was carrying a basket of food.
0:45:39 > 0:45:41AUDIENCE LAUGHS
0:45:41 > 0:45:42Are you...
0:45:42 > 0:45:45'How do you agree on a sign?
0:45:45 > 0:45:47'Does it spread very quickly?'
0:45:47 > 0:45:51That this is going to be the sign for Barack Obama, for example?
0:45:56 > 0:46:00TRANSLATION: Really, it starts with a big name, like Obama.
0:46:01 > 0:46:05Typically, there's an agreement and it just sort of develops
0:46:05 > 0:46:07with...
0:46:07 > 0:46:12with big deaf...politicians.
0:46:12 > 0:46:15No? P... Population.
0:46:15 > 0:46:17What is Barack Obama, for example?
0:46:23 > 0:46:26Right. And can you give me the derivation of that?
0:46:26 > 0:46:29Where would that have come from? Is it BO,
0:46:29 > 0:46:32or is it... It's not the letters "B" and "O", is it?
0:46:32 > 0:46:33- It's "O".- "O".
0:46:35 > 0:46:38- Something about the flag.- Ah, right.
0:46:38 > 0:46:43- Emphasise the "O" and then, like, the flag, the American flag. - I see.- Obama.
0:46:43 > 0:46:49Ask Claudia this, not meaning to be offensive but it's interesting, because as a German,
0:46:49 > 0:46:51there may be a different sign for Adolf Hitler
0:46:51 > 0:46:55from one that we might use in the rest of the world, for example.
0:46:55 > 0:46:57He is one of the most famous images...
0:46:57 > 0:47:01I guess, if you were British, you'd just do the moustache.
0:47:01 > 0:47:04- What's the American sign?- Yeah. The moustache, exactly.
0:47:04 > 0:47:07That's what I thought. And in German?
0:47:07 > 0:47:11Normally, it's the same but I have...
0:47:11 > 0:47:12Um...
0:47:12 > 0:47:15Some people sign...
0:47:15 > 0:47:17like a combination of how...
0:47:17 > 0:47:20And the salute, hidden into... Yes. Very interesting.
0:47:22 > 0:47:23OK, Madonna.
0:47:26 > 0:47:28I don't want to sign that one.
0:47:28 > 0:47:31That's interesting, is that like pointy breasts?
0:47:31 > 0:47:33There. You see. Exactly.
0:47:33 > 0:47:35That's what's so wonderful about sign languages,
0:47:35 > 0:47:40you can do things that incorporate the character and the reputation of the person,
0:47:40 > 0:47:43not just the dull spelling of their name. It can be witty.
0:47:48 > 0:47:50TRANSLATION: I agree with that.
0:47:52 > 0:47:57- And deaf tend to put more of the spirit in the language.- Yeah.
0:47:57 > 0:48:00So that they get a reaction... "OK."
0:48:01 > 0:48:03It has a good effect.
0:48:03 > 0:48:04SHE SCREAMS
0:48:10 > 0:48:14When she opened the door, all the girls saw
0:48:14 > 0:48:18that there someone in bed with the nightcap and a nightgown on.
0:48:20 > 0:48:24But she had approached no nearer than 25 feet
0:48:24 > 0:48:27when she realised it was not her grandmother,
0:48:27 > 0:48:28but the wolf.
0:48:30 > 0:48:34For even in a nightcap, a wolf does not look any more like your grandmother
0:48:34 > 0:48:38than the MGM lion looks like Calvin Coolidge.
0:48:38 > 0:48:41AUDIENCE LAUGHS
0:48:41 > 0:48:43So, she reached into her basket,
0:48:43 > 0:48:45pulled out an automatic
0:48:45 > 0:48:47And shot the wolf dead.
0:48:47 > 0:48:49LAUGHTER
0:48:54 > 0:48:55Moral -
0:48:55 > 0:48:59it's not so easy to fool little girls nowadays as it used to be.
0:48:59 > 0:49:00LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE
0:49:16 > 0:49:20The question of how thought and language came about in the human race
0:49:20 > 0:49:25is one of central concern, so it's hardly surprising we've spent thousands of years
0:49:25 > 0:49:26thinking and speaking about it.
0:49:26 > 0:49:31The biblical account suggests Adam and Eve spoke a prelapsarian language,
0:49:31 > 0:49:33a single language of paradise.
0:49:33 > 0:49:35And then came the Tower of Babel
0:49:35 > 0:49:38and thousands of languages were unleashed upon the planet,
0:49:38 > 0:49:42and we were all doomed to crawl on its surface for eternity,
0:49:42 > 0:49:44misunderstanding each other.
0:49:44 > 0:49:47Not surprisingly, people became obsessed with the idea
0:49:47 > 0:49:49of what that primary language of Adam and Eve's was,
0:49:49 > 0:49:54even if it was only a metaphor. What did mankind first speak?
0:50:01 > 0:50:05'The Old Testament Babel myth doesn't quite do it for me,
0:50:05 > 0:50:11'but, 250 years ago, one of the greatest of linguistic forensic discoveries
0:50:11 > 0:50:14'was unearthed here by two brothers.'
0:50:16 > 0:50:19This is the famous Leipzig Christmas market,
0:50:19 > 0:50:22and it all looks rather a fairy tale.
0:50:22 > 0:50:26It's quite appropriate, because aside from being remembered for JS Bach,
0:50:26 > 0:50:28Leipzig is also remembered for the Brothers Grimm,
0:50:28 > 0:50:32progenitors of some of the best loved fairy tales Europe ever produced.
0:50:32 > 0:50:35Also, and perhaps you may not know this, the Brothers Grimm
0:50:35 > 0:50:38were responsible for founding the signs of linguistics,
0:50:38 > 0:50:44what the Germans call philology, tracing back to the very roots, the languages of the world.
0:50:47 > 0:50:52Professor Wolfgang Klein is a philologist and psycholinguistic,
0:50:52 > 0:50:56currently working on Grimm's original documents.
0:50:56 > 0:51:02I suppose Jacob's greatest contribution is called Grimm's Law, or Rask's-Grimm's Law?
0:51:02 > 0:51:04That's true, both terms exist, actually.
0:51:04 > 0:51:08What people noticed, actually began to notice systematically,
0:51:08 > 0:51:11let me say the second half of the 18th century,
0:51:11 > 0:51:16is there are many similarities and correspondences between languages.
0:51:16 > 0:51:22They discovered there are similar words in languages, as remote as Sanskrit and Greek,
0:51:22 > 0:51:24and then the Germanic languages.
0:51:24 > 0:51:28- Sanskrit is an ancient Indian language?- True. Absolutely true.
0:51:28 > 0:51:33There is huge distance and still words sometimes sound surprisingly similar.
0:51:33 > 0:51:39It's not just accidental. Sometimes the similarities are completely accidental, but not in that case.
0:51:41 > 0:51:43'Grimm's Law, as it became known,
0:51:43 > 0:51:48'showed how the consonants of different Indo-European languages relate to each other.'
0:51:48 > 0:51:55'For example, there's a relationship between words beginning with "P" in Sanskrit, Latin or Greek,
0:51:55 > 0:51:59'and "F" in Germanic languages, including English.
0:51:59 > 0:52:02'So "pater" in Latin becomes "father" in English.
0:52:02 > 0:52:08'This single language - proto-Indo-European, or PIE - the root to over 2,000,
0:52:08 > 0:52:11'is thought to have been spoken more than 5,000 years ago
0:52:11 > 0:52:13'in the Steppes of Southern Russia.
0:52:13 > 0:52:16'As tribes migrated through Europe and Asia,
0:52:16 > 0:52:22'PIE split into a number of dialects, and these, in time, developed into separate languages.'
0:52:22 > 0:52:26PIE isn't the first language that humanity spoke,
0:52:26 > 0:52:29but is the first of which we have evidence.
0:52:30 > 0:52:38This English that we speak that you are very kindly speaking as fluently as anybody can, frankly,
0:52:38 > 0:52:42it seems so natural to us and it seems so separate.
0:52:42 > 0:52:45It seems so different from German, from French,
0:52:45 > 0:52:47certainly different from Danish.
0:52:47 > 0:52:50Yeah. It is.
0:52:50 > 0:52:53Any of these languages and Persian languages,
0:52:53 > 0:52:57and yet, with this common ancestor. It's quite extraordinary.
0:52:57 > 0:53:03Do you think in some sense it's necessary for mankind to have so many languages?
0:53:03 > 0:53:06- Well... - Why Babel? Why did it happen?
0:53:06 > 0:53:09First of all, it's beautiful and I wonder
0:53:09 > 0:53:13whether this argument, biology, is not also a romantic argument.
0:53:13 > 0:53:16I really would like to see the evidence that it is necessary,
0:53:16 > 0:53:18but it's beautiful to have many species.
0:53:18 > 0:53:23Beautiful not to have just one type of cat, but many types of cats.
0:53:23 > 0:53:26In that sense, that argument also applies to languages.
0:53:26 > 0:53:30Beautiful to see all of this. The Romans said "varietas delectat".
0:53:30 > 0:53:32They have many things that are beautiful here.
0:53:32 > 0:53:36What would you regard as the thing about language
0:53:36 > 0:53:40that keeps you getting up every morning and being excited about your job?
0:53:40 > 0:53:45I mean, everything, what makes human beings human, is based on language.
0:53:45 > 0:53:48Our species perhaps could live together without a language,
0:53:48 > 0:53:51but then it wouldn't be what we call the human species.
0:53:51 > 0:53:55Whatever we know, whatever we have done over the centuries
0:53:55 > 0:53:59is based on language, on languages and language.
0:54:06 > 0:54:10Some would argue that the 6,000-plus languages we speak on the planet
0:54:10 > 0:54:13are structurally just one primal human tongue.
0:54:13 > 0:54:16What's amazing is how quickly language evolves
0:54:16 > 0:54:19according to how quickly children can develop slang
0:54:19 > 0:54:22or how quickly culture and technology demands.
0:54:22 > 0:54:25There's a constant practicality about the way
0:54:25 > 0:54:28we use language, as well as a deep beauty.
0:54:28 > 0:54:32One thing's for certain, language will never stay still.
0:54:33 > 0:54:36Mummy! Mummy!
0:54:36 > 0:54:39'And finally, aged two and three months,
0:54:39 > 0:54:44'Ruby is chatting away in complete sentences with her siblings.
0:54:45 > 0:54:51'She understands more than she says and, over the next year, her vocabulary will explode.'
0:54:55 > 0:54:58'Some children, perhaps Ruby will be one of them,
0:54:58 > 0:55:01'do not stop at learning one language.
0:55:02 > 0:55:05'And there are plenty of others to choose from.
0:55:07 > 0:55:10'There are currently 194 member states
0:55:10 > 0:55:12'belonging to the United Nations,
0:55:12 > 0:55:16'with over 6,000 languages spoken in them.'
0:55:18 > 0:55:22They are saying these demonstrators are followers of Bin Laden
0:55:22 > 0:55:25and I ask him is the six-month-old baby who was killed
0:55:25 > 0:55:27a follower of Bin Laden, also?
0:55:27 > 0:55:30'Maybe many of our species' troubles could be avoided
0:55:30 > 0:55:33'if we understood each other better.
0:55:33 > 0:55:37'Would having one world language, be it Esperanto, English
0:55:37 > 0:55:41'or, to be utterly neutral and possibly perverse, Klingon,
0:55:41 > 0:55:43'even be an advantage?
0:55:43 > 0:55:48'Perhaps in world forums like here in the UN Security Council,
0:55:48 > 0:55:52'which is currently in session discussing the Libyan crisis,
0:55:52 > 0:55:57'it would. But then it would also put Zahar out of the job.'
0:55:57 > 0:56:01- How many working languages are there?- Two. English and French. - So that's it?
0:56:01 > 0:56:04- Just English and French. - For the working languages.- I see.
0:56:04 > 0:56:08- Then there are official languages. - Six of them.- Only six?- Yes.
0:56:08 > 0:56:14The official languages are English, French, Spanish, Russian, Chinese
0:56:14 > 0:56:18and Arabic, which is the most recent addition to the official languages.
0:56:18 > 0:56:23SHE TRANSLATES FROM ENGLISH
0:56:33 > 0:56:37That is rather wonderful, watching you translate simultaneously,
0:56:37 > 0:56:42it seems like an extraordinary thing, like a conductor being able to read a music score.
0:56:42 > 0:56:44It's incredible the human brain can do this.
0:56:44 > 0:56:48I look down here and it's almost like a living symbol of the Tower of Babel,
0:56:48 > 0:56:52of the fact that mankind split into so many languages.
0:56:52 > 0:56:56Do you sometimes think the world would be better if everybody spoke Esperanto?
0:56:56 > 0:56:58No, there is a beauty to languages,
0:56:58 > 0:57:02each and every language has its own beauty, its own music,
0:57:02 > 0:57:08its own imagery, its way of expressing the sentiments
0:57:08 > 0:57:11and the nature of the people who speak that language.
0:57:11 > 0:57:14It would be a loss if that language did not exist.
0:57:14 > 0:57:17I am very much in favour of the Tower of Babel.
0:57:30 > 0:57:33This building where the General Assembly of the United Nations meet
0:57:33 > 0:57:38perhaps symbolises more than any other what happened to humankind after Babel.
0:57:38 > 0:57:43Thousands of voices upraised in different mutually incomprehensible tongues,
0:57:43 > 0:57:46trying to comprehend each other, trying to understand,
0:57:46 > 0:57:51trying to build some sort of peace out of the wreckage of the 20th century.
0:57:51 > 0:57:54Well, they sort of solved the problem by reducing
0:57:54 > 0:57:58all those languages to the six working languages of the UN.
0:57:58 > 0:58:01And, that way, people do understand each other.
0:58:01 > 0:58:05They understand how they think, perhaps, they understand how they communicate
0:58:05 > 0:58:08and a little of the history of each language.
0:58:08 > 0:58:10But languages do so much more than that.
0:58:10 > 0:58:16Languages, in many respects, defined our identities, who we are.
0:58:16 > 0:58:18And that's what I'll be looking at next time.
0:58:20 > 0:58:22Four times 14.
0:58:24 > 0:58:26'From Kenya to Israel,
0:58:26 > 0:58:29'Ireland to Oxytown, Newcastle to Barnsley...'
0:58:31 > 0:58:36'..I'll be looking at how our 6,000-plus languages and myriad accents
0:58:36 > 0:58:42'are threatened with extinction as the global village becomes a reality.'
0:59:00 > 0:59:04Subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing by Red Bee Media
0:59:04 > 0:59:07E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk