Stony Brook Research

Discovery of New Language Furthers Nature/Nurture Debate

An article coauthored by Mark Aronoff, Linguistics/Deputy Provost, in the February 1, 2005, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reports on the study of a language that originated spontaneously some two centuries ago and apparently developed without outside influences. The Al Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language developed in an isolated Bedouin village in Israel's Negev desert. It is unrelated to Israeli or Jordanian sign languages and its word order differs from the region's spoken languages.

This rare opportunity to study a new language enabled the authors to make an exceptional contribution to the ongoing debate on whether language is culturally transmitted or arises specifically from the structure of the human brain. Since language learning is a social activity, socially determined linguistic patterns can be distinguished from innate forms only in the highly unusual circumstance of directly observing a new language in development. Prof. Aronoff and his colleagues indicate their belief that the features of Al Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language may reflect the genetically determined neural circuitry that governs the brain's language capability. The New York Times reported on the publication.

Discovery and Innovation