
A Medieval Emperor's Natural Language Experiment - benbreen
https://resobscura.blogspot.com/2018/05/a-medieval-emperors-natural-language.html
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Mediterraneo10
In a way, this is historical clickbait. Mention the rumours about Frederick II
to get people talking about how wacky this episode is. But don’t mention that
Frederick II is just one of several historical figures claimed to have carried
out this experiment (one of the earliest is in Herodotus over 15 centuries
before) and that it ever happened at all is dubious.

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titanix2
Also the first three paragraphs have no relation to the rest of the article
and seems placed here for apologetical or political purpose.

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benbreen
Author here. I actually agree with you about the post being disjointed - Res
Obscura is basically just my historical notebook where I jot down unusual
things I might want to remember. Was teaching the Crusades to my world history
class this week, hence the content about that.

Like I say toward the end, I'm mostly interested in the case as a hypothetical
early example of pseudo-Lamarckian thinking (i.e. the assumption that babies
somehow "know" their parents' language despite having no contact with them).

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nyc111
> that babies somehow "know" their parents' language despite having no contact
> with them

But this can be easily found out by talking to these Chinese twins who grew up
in the US. Do they speak Chinese naturally? I guess not. I don't believe
language would be hereditary.

[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2399360/Chinese-
twin...](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2399360/Chinese-twins-
separated-birth-adopted-2-American-families-reunited.html)

~~~
benbreen
Sure, naturally _we_ know that, in a post-Darwin world. But from a history of
science standpoint, I'm interested by early attempts to understand aspects of
heredity before Darwin.

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cafard
A similar story appears in Herodotus, Book 2, Chapter 2, but here the ruler is
the Egyptian king Psammetichus, and the children survive:
[http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%...](http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126%3Abook%3D2%3Achapter%3D2%3Asection%3D1)

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sexydefinesher
>As late as 1760, the author of A New Complete English Dictionary speculated
that Hebrew was the "language which God taught Adam." However, he noted that
"others hold for the Syriac, Childee, Ethiopian, or Armenian" as potential
first languages.

Anyone here who knows what language Childee might refer to? Ive never heard of
it before and searching it gives no clue.

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lainga
I am guessing Chaldean, language of the Chaldeans (sometimes archaically
Chaldees)

~~~
rainieri
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaldean_Neo-
Aramaic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaldean_Neo-Aramaic)

