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[Morgoth]

Croatian teenager wakes from coma speaking fluent German

 

The girl, from the southern town of Knin, had only just started studying German at school and had been reading German books and watching German TV to become better, but was by no means fluent, according to her parents.

 

Since waking up from her 24 hourcoma however, she has been unable to speak Croatian, but is able to communicate perfectly in German. Doctors at Split's KB Hospital claim that the case is so unusual, various experts have examined the girl as they try to find out what triggered the change.

 

Hospital director Dujomir Marasovic said: "You never know when recovering from such a trauma how the brain will react. Obviously we have some theories although at the moment we are limited in what we can say because we have to respect the privacy of the patient."

 

Psychiatric expert Dr Mijo Milas added: "In earlier times this would have been referred to as a miracle, we prefer to think that there must be a logical explanation

[Monte Carlo]

What makes it even freakier is the difficulty curve of learning German - it's a genuinely tough cookie to learn and the grammar alone is enough to make a hardened linguist cry.

[Gfted1]

Wow, that's really bizzare. How could that happen?

 

 

Thats a great question, it seems like total bulls**t. The last paragraph especially, how the hell could someone speak a language that hasnt seen the light on day in over a millenium? Maybe, MAYBE, the girl absorbed enough German in her studies (they say the human brain has the capacity to recall everything its ever encountered, even though we cant do it on command), but a dead language? C'mon.

Edited April 14, 2010 by Gfted1

[Morgoth]

Yeah but what's also curious is why did she lost remembering her own language?

[213374U]

I know Kung Fu.

[Amentep]

Yeah but what's also curious is why did she lost remembering her own language?

 

IIRC, It has been suggested that language learning in the brain is different for early childhood primary language development and learning additional languages later in life There is a theory, again IIRC, that suggests specific trauma to the area of the brain that houses the primary language "storage" may force the brain to use the "additional language" storage when the individual attempts to communicate.

 

As Gfted1 suggests, the girl in question has studied the language (and watched TV/movies in German) so possibly has the material in her "secondary language storage" at her disposal to use to communicate. So when she tries to talk she does, but in German.

 

As far as knowing dead languages as Gfted1 asks - hard to say. I could say for example, that while I can't read hieroglyphs or speak ancient Egyptian, I have read books that detail both hieroglyph meanings, translations into words and pronunciation of ancient Egyptian (as best guessed). So it could be theoretically possible for my brain to pull that information out if necessary (or even unnecessary but just happened because of brain trauma). Without knowing specifics of any given case of people waking up speaking Babylonian or Egyptian, I'd be loathe to think they didn't at least at some point come across the tools to speak the language (if the stories are true).

Edited April 14, 2010 by Amentep

[Guard Dog]

What makes it even freakier is the difficulty curve of learning German - it's a genuinely tough cookie to learn and the grammar alone is enough to make a hardened linguist cry.

I thought learning German from English was not all that hard. I took it for two years in HS. I was nowhere near fluent and probably had a terrible accent but at least I did not need the subtitles when watching Das Boot. Since English evolved from German (somewhat) at least the words were easier. Syntax & gender was hard.

 

If she had woken up speaking a non-latin based language she had not been exposed toothat would have been freaky.

Edited April 14, 2010 by Guard Dog

[Orogun01]

Most interesting case. I would theorize that they might have been some damage to her long term memory whose functions were replaced by the short term memory. In any way an encephalogram should reveal more.

[Guest The Architect]

I can speak fluent Arabic despite my lack of familiarity with the language.

 

Bak. Derk-derk-Allah. Derka derka, Mohammed Jihad. Haka sherpa-sherpa. Abaka-la. Derka derka derka!

 

See?

[Tigranes]

Dear God, an Aussie! Everyone hide, your Indians are in danger!

[Gorth]

I can speak

Uh huh...

 

Your "arabic" needs a little work though.

 

Maybe we all have an inner German?

 

Maybe yoga, hynosis, meditation, traumatic experiences etc. is what takes to bring it out? Maybe we all have the possibility of becoming engineers overnight?

 

One of my favourite classic jokes...

 

The European Commission have just announced an agreement whereby

English will be the official language of the EU, rather than German, which

was the other possibility. As part of the negotiations, Her Majesty's

government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and

has accepted a five year phase in plan that would be known as "EuroEnglish".

 

In the first year, "s" will replace the soft "c". Sertainly, this will

make the sivil servants jump for joy. The hard "c" will be dropped in favour

of the "k". This should klear up konfusion and keyboards kan have 1 less

letter.

 

There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year, when the

troublesome "ph" will be replaced with the "f". This will make words like

"fotograf" 20% shorter.

 

In the third year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be

expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible.

Governments will enkorage the removal of double letters, which have always

ben a deterent to akurate speling. Also, al wil agre that the horible mes of

the silent "e"s in the language is disgraseful, and they should go away.

 

By the 4th year, peopl wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing "th"

with "z" and "w" with "v".

 

During ze fifz year, ze unesesary "o" kan be dropd from vords

kontaining "ou" and similar changes vud of kors be aplid to ozer

kombinations of leters. After zis fifz year, ve vil hav a realy sensibl

riten styl. Zer vil be no mor trubls or difikultis and evrivun vil find it

ezi to understand each ozer

 

ZE DREAM VIL FINALI KUM TRU!

[Walsingham]

I'ver heard of other instances of similar. All based on past life experience. I have to say it strikes me as rather implausible. I'll believe it when I've seen a reputable investigation.

[Guest The Architect]

Dear God, an Aussie! Everyone hide, your Indians are in danger!

 

Dear God, a Kiwi! Everyone hide, your sheep are in danger!

[Gorgon]

What makes it even freakier is the difficulty curve of learning German - it's a genuinely tough cookie to learn and the grammar alone is enough to make a hardened linguist cry.

kannst du nicht dein akkusativ, dann bist du virchlig dum. Actually it's not that hard, it's just that you are never exposed to any German outside of textbooks.

Edited April 15, 2010 by Gorgon

[Humodour]

Dear God, an Aussie! Everyone hide, your Indians are in danger!

 

Dear God, a Kiwi! Everyone hide, your sheep are in danger!

 

Zing!

[Monte Carlo]

Studied Arabic part-time for a year, German at school for two. Arabic was easier by a country mile, but maybe that's just me. Note: I am rubbish at languages, but at least I can order a coffee / say hello in Arabic. The script is also a bit easier than it looks, especially if like me you are left-handed. It is also beautiful.

[Reinoc]

She probably gained a level and swapped her Speak language points from Croatian to German.

[Pidesco]

So there's respeccing in real life?

[Monte Carlo]

So there's respeccing in real life?

 

Genius! New thread ahoy.

[Hurlshort]

So there's respeccing in real life?

 

Yep, but it's got permadeath and a load of griefers so that's a bit of a drawback.

[Walsingham]

So there's respeccing in real life?

 

Yep, but it's got permadeath and a load of griefers so that's a bit of a drawback.

 

the griefers reallly depend on the server, and if you're part of a good clan. It's the admins I usually worry about.