How do people think who don't use verbal speech?
Users of sign languages have long had to fight a stigma that theirs were not "real" languages. However linguists agree that languages such as American Sign Language, Svenskt teckenspråk in Sweden and Zhongguo shouyu in China are all in fact true languages.
Each of these has a rich vocabulary and internal grammar and are fully-developed languages just as much as English, Swedish and Chinese are.
Children who grow up in homes where a signed language is used naturally learn that language, just as hearing children learn language spoken in their homes. Babies who are exposed to signed languages "babble" with their hands just as babies exposed to spoken language babble with sound.
But do individuals who never acquired any language think entirely in images? What goes through their heads? Elizabeth Weise explains in this Ask Paste BN.
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