I encountered this bit from an anthropological linguistics course, but I think it has held up...
Generally, the ability to learn a second language with native fluency ends with puberty; once past that maturation point, one can be spotted by a native speaker as an "outsider".
One fascinating question raised by this is what role language acquisition may have played in reproductively isolating linguistic groups, i.e., language as an evolutionary accelerant.
This message has been edited by Omnivorous, 12-08-2005 03:09 PM
Just because as we dig a little deeper, our notions change does not mean the discoveries are not useful.--randman
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