What denki said was really interesting, too- especially the bit with a ball rolling, and how one would rotate the hand faster to indicate speed.

I wonder though about, “teachers at the schools are careful not to introduce any elements of other sign-language systems; these could possibly contaminate the development of ISN.” Wouldn’t isolating ISN students from other language elements actually prevent the language from developing naturally?

Look at other languages; if there is interaction between speakers of different languages, terms are shared between them, and both are positively affected by such “contamination”. There are many terms in other languages that have no equivalent – or inadequate equivalents – in English, but terminology from other languages has found common use among English speakers.”

JUST DAVE??? I call myself Not Dave!!! Lol, another coinky-dink for ya!

Since so much of how people communicate is through facial expressions, I wonder if the kids could’ve had as rapid a success, or success at all, if they all wore blank stares 24/7.

Kinda makes you wonder if the first cavemen were really the primitive grunters that we have becomed so accustomed to stereotyping. Personally, I don’t think so.

AMAZINGLY DI, Brook!

donlaudanny said: “Damn interesting, but a far more useful article would be one that deconstructs the grammatical principles behind pirate talk.”

But they only have one letter in their alphabet (‘R’)! * laughs *

Isn’t it an intuitive deduction that humans have the innate ability with which to form languages to communicate?

Well, it’s pretty widely accepted, but not universally so. This is a bit oversimplified, but there are also those who believe humans interact because of the mere presence of other humans – i.e. we learn everything we know about communication from having others around.