[tsimionescu]

There were efforts to teach them language as adolescents, but they didn't acquire it - as far as we know, it's not possible to acquire language if you don't do it as an infant.

This is similar to other brain functions that aren't present at birth and require stimulation, such as sight. That is, if your eyes are forced closed for the first few months of your life, you will never be able to see, even if later they are uncovered, and keep working perfectly. The brain functions responsible for interpreting visual signals can only develop if they get visual signals in a (quite short) developmental window - and we know this with quite a bit of certainty from quite cruel animal studies.

Language acquisition is not proven to be the same, as the required studies would be deeply unethical, but the few experiences with feral children are highly suggestive that the same applies.

[mrblah]

Went down the rabbit hole and found the case of Danish Bear Boy, he was reportedly taught to speak but he claimed to have no memory of his time living with the bears. Fascinating stuff https://books.google.com/books?id=k2MRHJuQiVEC&dq=hesse+wolf...

[mrblah]

i just had the uncomfortable thought that it's possible a disease could kill off everyone older than 1, sterilizing the species to language at some scale. for the few that survive, their world would be feral.