The Word Before Birth

November 13, 2009

The Word Before Birth

This article at MercatorNet: "Babies tune into language before birth" is fascinating! It reminded me:

"Before I drew my first breath or even had a name, I was loved. Her voice was but a wave in the waters, and I knew neither time nor place nor being. In the dark cavern of my mother’s womb I rested in the water while flesh and body took shape. The face for which my mother longed was hidden from her gaze, while she continued to speak words into the darkness.
'Although I have no memory of my genesis—neither words, nor sounds, nor love—I know it is true, for I learned it long ago from others.
"I left the womb and entered the civilized and literate dimensions of time and space that we know as the world, drawing my first startled breath.
"Slowly, underneath the watchful eye of my mother as she held and fed me, I emerged into self-consciousness by her words. I came to know myself by coming to know her and the sound of her voice and the features of her face. Mimicking her voice I took the primitive steps into the world of words, which slowly opened to me the world of others through their names. I saw the world through her eyes and learned to speak of it through her tongue. Despite later youthful attempts at autonomy, I remain forever my mother’s child, as I am my father’s son. I can never be a self-made man, for I was not so from the beginning.
"And so these words I write, as the language I speak, are not entirely my own. My mother tongue comes to me from an unbroken line of others reaching back in time." [Printed by permission. All rights reserved.]