# Cloned humans raised without parents. They grow to do? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 11, 2025, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cloned-humans-raised-without-parents-they-grow-to-do/1016921 "2025-04-11T17:59:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2025, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cloned-humans-raised-without-parents-they-grow-to-do/1016921/1 "2025-04-11T17:59:44Z")
Inspired by the thread reanimated due to the Dire Wolf looking designer dog bit. In the old thread a point was made several times that without parents, pack, herd, flock, to learn from they wouldn’t be the true animal. So imagine that a future very alien species comes across a selection of dead very well frozen humans and can clone new babies from them. They can figure out nutrition and environmental needs for this group to grow to adulthood. Given enough food shelter and space. But without parents or culture. No model of a language. What would happen? I posit that they would develop a language fairly quickly that followed basic human linguistic rules. Maybe more gestures than spoken but some of both. My WAG is that some HG societal function would develop even without modeling. Agree? Disagree? Why? What ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2025, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cloned-humans-raised-without-parents-they-grow-to-do/1016921/2 "2025-04-11T18:03:28Z")
> [@DSeid](#): > > I posit that they would develop a language fairly quickly that followed basic human linguistic rules. Nope. There have been many cases of feral children, and one of the sad things about these cases is that if they don’t learn language skills by a fairly young age, they are never be able to learn any language fluently later and they struggle with basic communication for the rest of their lives. ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2025, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cloned-humans-raised-without-parents-they-grow-to-do/1016921/3 "2025-04-11T18:06:54Z")
> [@DSeid](#): > > I posit that they would develop a language fairly quickly I’m pretty sure humans need physical contact with other humans to survive. I think they’ve done some experiences with chimps or monkeys or something, and without that, they literally didn’t survive. But, that’s not really what you’re asking. You’re saying, take a bunch of humans, start fresh, what happens. I agree that they would develop language – in Nicaragua, they put all the deaf children together and didn’t teach them sign language, and within a few years, they had created their own Nicaraguan sign language, fully syntactical. @engineer_comp_geek, [here’s](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicaraguan_Sign_Language) my cite: > The scheme achieved little success, with most pupils failing to grasp the concept of Spanish words. The children subsequently remained linguistically disconnected from their teachers, but the schoolyard, the street, and the school bus provided fertile ground for them to communicate with one another. By combining gestures and elements of their home-sign systems, a pidgin-like form and a creole-like language rapidly emerged — they were creating their language. The “first-stage” pidgin has been called Lenguaje de Signos Nicaragüense (LSN) and is still used by many who attended the school at the time.[when?] > > Staff at the school, unaware of the development of this new language, saw the children’s gesturing as mime and a failure to acquire Spanish. Unable to understand what the children were saying, they asked for outside help. In June 1986, the Nicaraguan Ministry of Education contacted Judy Kegl, an American Sign Language linguist from MIT. As Kegl and other researchers began to analyze the language they noticed that the young children had taken the pidgin-like form of the older children to a higher level of complexity, with verb agreement and other conventions of grammar. The more complex sign language is now known as Idioma de Señas de Nicaragua (ISN). I agree that an isolated human wouldn’t develop that, or might not even survive, if they were isolated from birth. But, a group of humans, born and raised together by aliens, would likely create a language. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2025, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cloned-humans-raised-without-parents-they-grow-to-do/1016921/4 "2025-04-11T18:07:39Z")
Feral children are not growing up with other children who are able to respond to protolanguage communication. ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2025, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cloned-humans-raised-without-parents-they-grow-to-do/1016921/5 "2025-04-11T18:08:38Z")
If you’re interested in this, you should definitely read _The Language Instinct_ by Steven Pinker. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2025, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cloned-humans-raised-without-parents-they-grow-to-do/1016921/6 "2025-04-11T18:10:10Z")
And I think it was there that I had read the following referenced. [https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.6867713?url\_ver=Z39.88-2003&rfr\_id=ori:rid:crossref.org&rfr\_dat=cr\_pub%20%200pubmed](https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.6867713?url_ver=Z39.88-2003&rfr_id=ori:rid:crossref.org&rfr_dat=cr_pub%20%200pubmed) Deaf kids developed their own sign system growing up with no adult model. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2025, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cloned-humans-raised-without-parents-they-grow-to-do/1016921/7 "2025-04-11T18:10:34Z")
> [@RitterSport](#): > > I think they’ve done some experiences with chimps or monkeys or something, and without that, they literally didn’t survive. > **[Harlow’s Classic Studies Revealed the Importance of Maternal Contact](https://www.psychologicalscience.org/publications/observer/obsonline/harlows-classic-studies-revealed-the-importance-of-maternal-contact.html)** > > Harry Harlow’s empirical work revolutionized the scientific understanding of the influence of social relationships in early development. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2025, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cloned-humans-raised-without-parents-they-grow-to-do/1016921/8 "2025-04-11T18:10:41Z")
Here’s Wikipedia’s take on the topic: > **[Language deprivation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_deprivation)** > > Language deprivation is associated with the lack of linguistic stimuli that are necessary for the language acquisition processes in an individual. Research has shown that early exposure to a first language will predict future language outcomes. Experiments involving language deprivation are very scarce due to the ethical controversy associated with it. Roger Shattuck, an American writer, called language deprivation research "The Forbidden Experiment" because it required the deprivation of a n Th... ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2025, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cloned-humans-raised-without-parents-they-grow-to-do/1016921/9 "2025-04-11T18:10:57Z")
> [@RitterSport](#): > > I’m pretty sure humans need physical contact with other humans to survive. A few decades ago, I remember reading about some children raised in Eastern European orphanages who were not nurtured or picked up or cuddled at all and how damaging this was to them. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2025, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cloned-humans-raised-without-parents-they-grow-to-do/1016921/10 "2025-04-11T18:11:53Z")
For the hypothetical they get alien cuddling. ---
**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2025, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cloned-humans-raised-without-parents-they-grow-to-do/1016921/11 "2025-04-11T18:16:36Z")
Unfortunately the aliens look like slime molds. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2025, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cloned-humans-raised-without-parents-they-grow-to-do/1016921/12 "2025-04-11T18:20:25Z")
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#): > > There have been many cases of feral children, and one of the sad things about these cases is that if they don’t learn language skills by a fairly young age, they are never be able to learn any language fluently later and they struggle with basic communication for the rest of their lives. Yeah, but these are feral children who are raised with no one to talk to. I think if you raised a group of humans together, but with no language or culture, they’d be able to form one by playing off each other. But it would be very primitive compared to our language and culture - around the level of what apes and monkeys have. Over some number of generations, I think they’d develop true language. But it might be very different than any of our languages, since it would have no common root with any of them. Things that are universal to all human languages might be alien to them. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2025, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cloned-humans-raised-without-parents-they-grow-to-do/1016921/13 "2025-04-11T18:21:35Z")
As an ASL speaker, all my kids and grand kids and pets recognize it. What’s been interesting is how the kids have made their own signs. Usually abbreviated versions of what they’ve seen me do. Once they understand a sign its just a matter of a short period before it changes to their own version. Me and the Lil’wrekker talk in signs really fast(she’s my best communicator). We have many short cuts. I doubt we could hang at a Deaf convention long. But at least we could agree, by sign, when to abscond. ---
**Author:** ![Sylvanz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/fbc32d/32.png) [@Sylvanz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sylvanz)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2025, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cloned-humans-raised-without-parents-they-grow-to-do/1016921/14 "2025-04-11T18:21:44Z")
Eh, a cuddle is a cuddle. I’m thinking a deprived child will take what they get. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2025, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cloned-humans-raised-without-parents-they-grow-to-do/1016921/15 "2025-04-11T18:23:10Z")
> [@DSeid](#): > > For the hypothetical they get alien cuddling. I’m assuming that for the first generation, the aliens use the human equivalent of a condor puppet: [![](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/03/20/article-2296127-18CB350E000005DC-91_634x478.jpg) ](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/03/20/article-2296127-18CB350E000005DC-91_634x478.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2025, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cloned-humans-raised-without-parents-they-grow-to-do/1016921/16 "2025-04-11T18:24:19Z")
That is what I was thinking. A child alone will not develop language. A group of children growing up together will create their own language. OTTOMH Twinspeak is just such a thing ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2025, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cloned-humans-raised-without-parents-they-grow-to-do/1016921/17 "2025-04-11T18:24:30Z")
Who’s to say? The aliens may be very cuddly and lovey dovey. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2025, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cloned-humans-raised-without-parents-they-grow-to-do/1016921/18 "2025-04-11T18:27:38Z")
My twin grand sons do the twinspeak. They have had a time transitioning into group play at preschool because of it. They’re chattering like regular tots now. It worried Mom and the preschool for a few months. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2025, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cloned-humans-raised-without-parents-they-grow-to-do/1016921/19 "2025-04-11T18:30:28Z")
> [@Sylvanz](#): > > Eh, a cuddle is a cuddle. I mean, I think I’d prefer, say, a Twi’lek over a Xenomorph, but that’s just me. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2025, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cloned-humans-raised-without-parents-they-grow-to-do/1016921/20 "2025-04-11T18:31:18Z")
The third child of a friend was having language delays ( I do not know the proper term exactly). They eventually figured out that rather than having to ask for anything, the child would just point to what he wanted. His two older siblings, trying to be helpful and loving, would get it for him. So, the parents explained the situation to them and how their new brother needed to ask for things out loud. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cloned-humans-raised-without-parents-they-grow-to-do/1016921.md?page=2)