Naked Science Forum

General Science => Question of the Week => Topic started by: maricruzcampos on 21/01/2019 16:27:47

Title: QotW - 19.01.21 - What language do deaf people think in?
Post by: maricruzcampos on 21/01/2019 16:27:47
Bree wants to know,

If a person is born completely deaf and can’t hear a thing, what language do they think in?

What do you think?
Title: Re: QotW - 19.01.21 - What language do deaf people think in?
Post by: Bored chemist on 21/01/2019 19:00:50
https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/index.php?topic=28129.0
Title: Re: QotW - 19.01.21 - What language do deaf people think in?
Post by: katieHaylor on 31/01/2019 17:14:15
This question has now been answered - you can listen to it here: https://www.thenakedscientists.com/podcasts/naked-scientists-podcast/cars-future-are-we-ready
Title: Re: QotW - 19.01.21 - What language do deaf people think in?
Post by: robertjone336 on 08/07/2019 12:57:04
I came across this post to share my personal experience. I have a colleague in my office that are deaf; I feel so sorry whenever I see him. I work for a freight forwarding company here in Dubai, and we have almost every nationality person that working in the same environment. I asked the same question he said that commonly it is challenging to understand, but in the start, people taught a signal to understand something, so he explained the things slowly.
Title: Re: QotW - 19.01.21 - What language do deaf people think in?
Post by: alancalverd on 08/07/2019 20:26:32
Slightly askew to the subject, I saw an astonishing skill on a PBS TV show last evening. They had some silent film of soldiers preparing for a raid in the Battle of the Somme, and asked a forensic lipreader to give the men a voice. Deaf from birth, her ability to interpret the grainy, jerky film was amazing. At one point she stopped and said "that man does not have an educated accent and I'm having some difficulty with him". The  researcher said "he's from the Lancashire Regiment", whereupon she spoke his words in "deaf Lancashire" almost in real time.

So the answer is "not only in the language they have been taught, but with a preferred regional accent!"   
Title: QotW 19 01 21 What language do deaf people think in
Post by: EnvetteWerMar on 25/09/2019 07:52:25
I congratulate, the excellent answer.
Title: Re: QotW - 19.01.21 - What language do deaf people think in?
Post by: Bored chemist on 25/09/2019 15:54:26
Since this has already been bumped...
Here's another reason why  I don't believe that people "think in a language".
https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/index.php?topic=33220.msg317959#msg317959