General Question

Rememberme's avatar

Who tried to find Gods true language?

Asked by Rememberme (661points) February 8th, 2009

I once read an article about a knight during the crusades who wanted to find “Gods True Language”. To do it he took some orphaned children to gave them to some nuns. He told the nuns to care for the children but not to speak to the children. Later the knight came to check up on the children and they were “wild children”. Acting on their instincts, yelling, spitting, kicking and so on.

I read this article a while ago then lost it. If someone could point me in the right direction to the article or help me find it, I would greatly appropriate it. I am planning to share the article in my class about cognition and development.

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7 Answers

90s_kid's avatar

[Edit]: Fine then….

Rememberme's avatar

I am not asking what you think the language is, I am asking about the article.

Harp's avatar

The incident involved Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor in the early 13th century.

The Italian monk Salimben wrote about this and other excesses of Frederick II in his Chronicals. (extracts here)

And here is a news story that references the Frederick II experiment in the context of a modern case of deprivation.

asmonet's avatar

The Egyptians tried it as well, long before Mr. Fancypants and his nuns.

Mamradpivo's avatar

I always thought God spoke Bulgarian.

loser's avatar

I always thought it was Jive.

seekingwolf's avatar

Reminds me of the play about Joan of Arc…

In one scene, she goes before the English court, and they asked her “What language did the archangel speak to you in?” and she said “French.”

The court erupts into chaos “It was the devil, the DEVIL! Had it been the REAL archangel, he would have talked to her in English…!”
but then how would she have understood?

I found that pretty amusing.

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