Can a baby be raised by animals and learn their language?

Question

I've seen this idea on Tv ( cartoons and movies) but can it be possible?

Answer 1

Some children have grown up "wild". They were separated from society or ignored. When attempts were made to introduce them into society, failure was found. An attempt was made in Russia and also earlier in France. Little is known except that there seems to be a cut off age when language skills develop. After that age, it is impossible for a person to learn language. The studies are nearly a century old. Little was known back then. Today, we cannot study this because it is unethical to intentionally create such a situation. It is also unlikely that we would find such a person in the wild.
Another note: such people were "immune" to their environment. Notes showed that a child reached into a pot of boiling water to get a potato. She showed no reaction to the pain. She also was injured to a lesser extent than was expected. She didn't seem to need more clothes than modesty required without regard to outside temperatures. Notes are sketchy and sad. Again, this happened long ago.

Answer 2

well, animals do not have a language, so you cant learnt what is not there, but human beings have been raised by animals, and they do learn to behave in the same way as the animals who raise them, a matter of survival and place in the social group. so in a way, they can interract, at a very basic level, with animals. the same as a pet will fit in with us and become part of our 'clan'. not so long ago, in poland, a little girl was discovered in a flat, she was 9 and had been raised/fed, by the family dog, as her parents didnt care a hoot for her.... she could not speak, walked on all four, and communicated with sounds, the same as a pet dog will emit with its owner when it wants attention, food or water... look it up, it is heart rending as the only way to 'cure' the child was to separate her from the only being who had ever loved her: the dog.

Answer 3

Assuming it survived (and there have been feral toddlers), then the youngster could certainly "communicate monkey"... yet: monkeys have not got a state-of-the-artwork spoken language the way that people do: lots of their communique is in accordance with physique-language, with in basic terms a constrained volume of verbalisation (alarm calls, greetings, etc.). the youngster could be an authority in be attentive to-how the physique-language and calls of the monkeys. In situations of feral toddlers stumbled on and re-presented to human society, they coach no longer able to learn *human* language and social skills till they are stumbled on whilst very youthful. Psychologists have interpreted this to intend that there is a "window" for the time of early existence progression interior of which state-of-the-artwork language could be discovered; in case you permit out this possibility, then the concepts pathways have become "fixed", and you could't learn those skills.

Answer 4

What languages ?
There are vital stages in a childs development whereby if exposure to language doesn't occur they can't learn to speak later on in life, this has ahppened with so called feral children where they grew up outside of human society and when they were re-introduced they failed to learn to speak.
Animals communicate with each other, but nothing as complex as human language exists verbally.

Answer 5

Yes, there is a true story about a baby brought up by a wolf and when they found her, she could only grunt and howl like a wolf.

Answer 6

Yes, of course. If the baby is a baby animal, too.

Answer 7

Apparently Tarzan did.
But I don't really think so.

Answer 8

i think it is possible after all that's how we learnt our language by listening and learning from those around us.

Answer 9

someone asked that question in an anthropology class i was taking and the professor said no it's impossible

Answer 10

No, the child will just end up stunted and dumb.