The Greek writer Herodotus reported the story of an Egyptian pharaoh named
Psammetichus (or Psamtik) who tried the experiment with two newborn babies more
than 2,500 years ago. After two years of isolation except for the company of goats and a
mute shepherd, the children were reported to have spontaneously uttered, not an
Egyptian word, but something that was identified as the Phrygian word bekos, meaning
“bread.” The pharaoh concluded that Phrygian, an older language spoken in part ofwhat
is modern Turkey, must be the original language. That seems very unlikely. The children
may not have picked up this “word” from any human source, but as several commentators
have pointed out, theymust have heard what the goats were saying. (First remove
the -kos ending,whichwas added in the Greek version of the story, then pronounce be- as
you would the English word bed without -d at the end. Can you hear a goat?)