For some reason, the URL for this article got lost: itʻs
https://medium.com/@chacon/mit-scientists-prove-adults-learn-language-to-fluency-nearly-as-well-as-children-1de888d1d45f

While the findings of this Hartshorne, et al. (2018) study are encouraging, in that researchers found that the cut-off age for learning second language (L2) grammar at native-like levels seemed to be older than previously thought (17.4 years of age vs. puberty), the researchers only examined grammar acquisition, but not phonology/pronunciation, an aspect of language learning thatʻs crucial to full fluency.

Some possible signs, according to various researchers cited in the article:
1. amount of bragging
2. efforts to elevate themselves by comparing down to others
3. efforts to draw attention to oneself and maintain superiority over others
4. prefer to make authoritative statements about the way things are rather than how they feel
5. arrogant and argumentative: more likely to interrupt, glaze over when you speak, swear, post provocative pictures, and tag themselves in social media than ever use the word 'I',"

By analyzing the patterns of mistakes that native speakers of two languages make in English, computers can discern whether two languages might actually be related to one another, as the structures of these languages are similar. Computer error analysis can also be useful from a historical linguistics standpoint. The mistakes speakers of endangered or dying languages make when they're speaking and writing in English can serve as an archaeological window into other languages and the history of language.

http://www.cracked.com/article_20744_5-surprising-ways-your-language-affects-how-you-think.html is the full article. It enumerates 5 ways language can affect thinking: examine each section for the studies that informed those findings.
1. "Gendered" Languages Encourage Discrimination
2. Thinking in a Foreign Language Forces You to Make Better Decisions
3. You're Born With Vocal Cues, and They Can Screw You Over Later in Life
4. Your Views Change With the Language You Use to Voice Them
5. "Futureless" Language Speakers Are Better at Everything

A telltale stretch of DNA at a gene called ROBO2 is linked to the number of words that a child masters in the early stage of talking, they reported in the journal Nature Communications.

ROBO2 controls a protein that directs chemicals in brain cells that may be used for developing language and producing sounds.

The gene lies on a region of Chromosome 3 which has previously been implicated in dyslexia and speech-related disorders, according to the study.

ROBO2's protein also interacts with cousins in the ROBO group of proteins that have been linked to problems with reading and remembering speech sounds.

Read more: http://www.ctvnews.ca/lifestyle/scientists-identify-robo2-the-baby-talk-gene-1.2010970#ixzz3E4heJIXw

http://www.savethewords.org

A website where you can pledge to save endangered, yet worthy, words.

Read the story at
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2010/11/09/131201940/save-the-words