• Lowpast@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    A large foundation for the belief in critical periods for language are based on Genie, a feral child who was entirely unable to learn a spoken language despite significant efforts. Today, she can use some sign language but cannot speak.

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genie_(feral_child)

    So the answer is largely believed to be: No. You cannot learn a spoken language if you missed the critical period.

    It’s also literally impossible to test/study ethically, so nobody actually knows.