Tag: child language acquisition

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Science Phonetics Evolutionary Linguistics Linguistics

The Descent of the Larynx: How a Quirky Evolutionary Shift Gave Humans the Power of Speech

Estimated read time 6 min read

Human speech is a miracle of evolution, but it comes at a steep price. Our ability to form a rich variety of sounds is thanks to a descended larynx, a unique anatomical quirk that also makes us dangerously prone to choking. This post explores the high-stakes evolutionary gamble that gave our ancestors—and us—the power of language.

Categories
History Linguistics Psycholinguistics

The “Wug” Test: How a Fake Bird Revealed the Secrets of Child Language Acquisition

Estimated read time 5 min read

In 1958, a fictional bird called a “wug” helped solve one of the biggest mysteries of the human mind: how children learn language. The groundbreaking “Wug Test” revealed that kids aren’t just mimicking their parents; they are unconsciously deciphering the complex grammatical code of their native tongue. This simple experiment proved that an innate capacity for language is woven into our very biology.