Horizon Documentary ~ Why Do We Talk

• Language defines us as humans 
• Speech distinguishes us from other animals 
• Children learn with minimal effort
• How we learn to talk is a mystery 
• Is it something we are born with or learn?
• We know little about where our language comes from 
• Deb Roy~ turn his home into language laboratory called 'Speech home project', he filmed his son from aged 0-3 capturing how we learn to talk
• Parents unconsciously simplified speech ~ when parents language develop so does the childs ~ care givers language 
• Children at 5 know 5000 words ~ adults speech 150000 words a day 
• Humans speech with a voice box low in the throat, animals have a higher voice box ~ but animals can lower their voice box so must be related to the brain to the reason we speak 
• Dr Kathy Price ~ highlighting key areas of the brain related to speech 
• Baby's react to mothers voice in different ways to other voices 
• Innate ability for language ~ born with it
• Noam Chompsky ~ language is innate and we all have L.A.D ~ we have the blue print of language but we need to be exposed to it early on ~ nature Vs nurture
• The forbidden experiment would give an answer ~ Child raised by wolves would give the answer ~ found the child was raised in a domestic environment 
• Family who had speech issue (KE family), the issue wa.s found in chromosome 7 but no one knows where ~ named speech 1
• New unrelated child found a broken chromosome 7 ~ Fox-P-2 ~ shows language is innate