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natsu's picture

Emerging languages

Something that came to my mind when I was thinking about emergence was language. I think that most people would agree with me that most languages are extremely complex, and at the same time they have to be very ordered to be used effectively for the purpose of communication. It seems unlikely that such a system could emerge; however, there is evidence that languages can emerge. For example, the Creoles. In the late 18th century, immigrants from mulitiple countries (e.g. China, Puerto Rico, Japan) came to Hawaii (to work in the sugar industry). At first, they did not have a way to communicate, but very soon the Hawaiian Pidgin English emerged, which was a simple communication system with minimal vocab, that they used to get by in a day to day basis. What is even more amazing is that during the next few generations, the Hawaiian Creole developed into a complex language that became widely used. Researchers is believe that it was the immigrant children that invented this language. I find it fascinating that a complex system like language can actually emerge from the interactions of young immigrant children. Also, it is known that when deaf children are brought up in a home where they are not exposed to sign language (or sometimes even discouraged to do so), they still invent their own sign language system (homesign). In a study that I read, when deaf children with unique homesigns were brought together, a language that they could all understand emerged spontaneously! 

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