Hey /sci/ Is Language in our DNA or is it simply a behaviour?

>>7590823
Said differently, did we evolve language, or did our brains simply by chance have the faculties needed to produce the behaviour of language?

>>7590823
Do you even know what a DNA is?

>>7590835
No. If you are smarter than me could you help me figure out why this is a stupid question so I can try and ask what I mean?

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>>7590823
Opie, our DNA gives us a general-purpose pattern workshop in our skulls.
Language is a natural consequence of having this tool.
Ultimately, you're arguing semantics.
And, oh yeah, your Mom's a whore.

>>7590823
>Is Language in our DNA

that will trigger the autism of some people here

any way, it's bit of both

we have areas in our brain dedicated to language, so it is in-built to some degree(which is what I assume you meant)

but if you aren't exposed to any language during certain periods of development in your childhood, you will never learn it

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feral_child#Reality

>They often seem mentally impaired and have almost insurmountable trouble learning a human language

>>7590823
>simply

Kek. Language is a hugely complex phenomena, with genetic and environmental (cultural) aspects.

>>7590881
>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feral_child#Reality
That stuff is amazing though. Just think about to what degree you are programmed by your environment.
People have these delusions about who and what they actually are. Such as "being yourself". And seeing current ethics, the culture they happen to be born into etc, as absolute truths. "I would never think a different way". Yeah, you would.

It's a complex social behavior. The DNA codes for the tools and brain regions responsible for generating symbolic speech, but doesn't code deeper than that.

However, with what we are beginning to understand about epigenetics and our dynamic genome, it's not preposterous to suggest that certain people's languages, and the basic characteristics of the language, make changes to their genome over time -- allowing a more "inherited" grasp on developing language skills as a youngster. For instance, the Chinese language involves a lot of pitch and tonalities. This could be a characteristic that causes gene evolution and allows Chinese children to be able to learn and speak the language more easily than a kid of the same age, originating somewhere else.

When you're a baby, your crib talk is actually all the sounds different languages make (phonemes). By the time you grow up, your brain forgets how to make the sounds you don't use in your language.

Language is just the name for sounds we can make with our throat.

>>7590923
>think about to what degree you are programmed by your environment.

You must have missed this part:
>The impaired ability to learn a natural language after having been isolated for so many years is often attributed to the existence of a critical period for language learning, and taken as evidence in favor of the critical period hypothesis.[3]

You're genetically predisposed to learn language as a toddler, not an adolescent.

>>7590962
Except that language is more than just making the noises that you can make

>>7591012
Language's critical period is from age 3 to 13ish. This can be shown in sibling studies of parents who move to different countries/regions when their children are on the cusp. For example, Henry Kissenger moved to America when he was 14, and had a heavy german accent his entire life. His younger brother, who was 11 or 12 at the time, has no accent.

>>7590823
The correct answer:

Language is not in our DNA. The possibility of language is.

>>7590962
Crib talk has actually been shown to be gibberish. It's completely random and unrelated to any languages.

Think about it. The sounds you use to create actual words (in any language) are complex combinations of throat, tongue, cheek and lip muscle control. As a baby you have none of that, and are only expelling breath from your lungs. The sounds that come out (except for crying and laughter, basically) are completely random.