Re: no language no people

Dan Sulani wrote:
>because that would signify that a person without a lang
>cannot exist; something I as a speech-language-pathologist
>know not to be true. Sometimes my job entails providing
>lang capabilitiy to human beings who are very much alive
>and who definitely have personality (if not downright _attitude_
>sometimes! :-)  ).>
Stroke victims?  Terrible and strange things happen (but linguistically
interesting, alas).  My dread.  Laryngectomy patients?  At least the brain
is not affected.
Having gone through the experience of a parent with Alzheimer's, I'd be
inclined to say "without memory, there is no person".