Which Language Do People Think With?

[Deleted]

People usually think in the language/s they use the most. For example, while browsing this forum, I generally mostly think in English, but in my everyday life I think in Romanian.

A good question regarding deaf people. I don't know. Do deaf people from birth think in a language or in images of sorts?

[Deleted]

I know only Romanian and English.

I find myself thinking in Romanian when using Romanian and thinking in English when talking in English. Though lately, since I am more exposed to English than Romanian (most of my Romanian interactions are small talk at the office and home with my wife), I find myself using "false friends" and other errors while talking in Romanian

[primalmatter]

I always translate everything into English when I am speaking French. I can't really recall a time I ever "thought" in French.

[Dezerte]

I must be weird or a retard, but I don't think in any language - it's more emotions, feelings, logic, etc (i.e. events/state of mind, not words). But I suppose those are still forms of language/communication so maybe I'm not too far of the mark.

[Cephilia]

I think in Finnish when using Finnish and in English when using English. If there's no communication throught language in a situation, then I usually think in Finnish. My Swedish isn't good enough for me to think in Swedish, so that I have to translate in my head.

[Gully Man]

I think in English when i speak English and think in Swedish when i speak Swedish. I used to think in English when i first started speaking Swedish but that can end up making things come out wrong if you try translating directly from English to Swedish so i quickly ditched that habit. I've only ever had a few dreams in Swedish though.

[Mercadi]

Depends on if I am talking to someone. If yes, then I think in the same language as the conversation.
Otherwise in different languages about different topics. About tech-y stuff in English.

[Kontinuum]

Unknown, the last feral child I can recall was genie from the 70's and we can't exactly ethically make feral children.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feral_child#21st_century

[lonely zergling]

Mostly german... sometimes english.

[DJ117]

I dream in Danish although I am more than fluent with English.

[Deleted]

I have always wondered which language people that speak multiple languages use to process things in their heads. That could sound extremely stupid I guess. Maybe I am just stoned.

Do people fluent in several languages dream in every language?

Do people always prefer native tongue?

What language do deaf people think in?

Read some of Noam Chomsky's work.

[Revi]

I think in Norwegian mostly, but there's some English mixed in there.

[Jademist]

Actually we have exmaple of lost kids that turn feral and never learn language. As far as we could study they dont develope as much thinking ability of humans with social contacts. We even have Genie, i think was her name, where her father literally locked her up in a room and strapped her to a bed for years only feeding her and never teaching her any languages. When they took her away she was eventually able to learn a language, but her social behavior was always highly problematic.

True... I never thought about feral children.

[Raetary]

i think with the language im currently using.
like now, im using english to write this post, so my brain automatically thinks in english.
(i speak 3 languages)

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What language do babies or people who never learned a language, think in?

not everyone thinks the same.
some people dont even have "the voice" but rather think in images, shapes or noises.

[Dug]

Just depends really. Sometimes I speak in Spanish (my second language) but most of the time I'm thinking in English. Usually happens when I just got done speaking in Spanish

[Raetary]

also, when im alone and do nothing i mostly think in english because i prefer english over german or serbian.
sometimes i think in german, mostly during school lessons and i barely think in serbian (when then only when i visit my grandma in serbia or something like that).

[Medusa Cascade]

English with a bit of Japanese

[Reeve]

I think in a mixture of English, Spanish, and amorphous concepts or emotions that don't require language.

[Theodarzna]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feral_child#21st_century

Genie is last big feral child that linguists got a hold of I should say. Genie is were we learned a lot about first language acquisition, as her parents had prevented her from learning a first language. We learned that while it is possible to still learn words it appears the capacity for grammatical speech becomes impossible after puberty, so there is in fact a window for first language acquisition.

But this was the last time researchers really looked into feral child extensively, it was deemed unethical to subject them to such intensive study.

[Kuntantee]

I exclusively "think" in my mother tongue.