 If children are not exposed to a spoken language, do they organically learn to speak one? This was a question that James IV of Scotland, the King from 1488 to 1513, was obsessed with. Instead of simply pondering this question however, King James conducted a highly unethical experiment that would be impossible today. An experiment that was so cruel that it has been dubbed the Forbidden Experiment, along with all other language deprivation experiments. As the story goes, King James, a man who was fascinated with language in general and who spoke several himself, sent two young children to be raised by a mute woman in isolation on the island of Inchkeeth, an island in the Firth of Forth just north of Edinburgh. The purpose was to figure out whether language was learned or innate, and if it was innate and not learned, what was the innate language of human beings? In other words, what was the language of God? Although there is not a whole lot of documentation about the experiment, with some debating whether it even took place or not, a 16th century Scottish chronicler did write about it in the History and Chronicles of Scotland. Robert Lindsay of Pitscote wrote that, the King ordered a mute woman to be put on Inchkeeth and gave her two young children and company with her, and provided them with everything they would need for the nourishment, including food, drink, fire and candle, clothes, and all other kinds of necessities needed by man or woman. He was desirous to discover what language the children would speak when they came of proper age. Some say that they spoke good Hebrew, but I myself know no more than my sources say. Of course, the idea that they just organically started speaking good Hebrew is nonsense, as ridiculous as saying that Scotland are good at football. Unfortunately, there is no clear information on what actually happened to these children. James IV of Scotland is not the only ruler to conduct language deprivation experiments, however. An early example was recorded by the Greek historian Herodotus, who wrote that the Egyptian pharaoh, Samtik I, who ruled from 664 to 610 BC, conducted a similar language deprivation experiment. The pharaoh concluded that the precursor civilisation of the Egyptians must have been the Anatolian culture of the Phrygians, as the child was said to have spoken the Phrygian word for bread, beacause. Most agree that this was just the wishful interpretation of the child babbling and making noises. As we have seen, each language deprivation experiment is as mad as the next one. Thanks for watching. If you would like to support this work, through Patreon, buy me a coffee dot com, or make a donation through PayPal. Please do so via the links in the description below. Please remember to subscribe and hit the bell, and I'll speak to you soon.