Lee Wrote:
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> I think the inability to pronounce certain sounds,
> English “r” for example among speakers of
> Japanese, Chinese, comes about with age. As I
> think we all know, young children brought up in
> bilingual environment can usually pronounce,
> better yet, speak, both languages correctly.
> There is some suggestion – how valid I do not know
> – that baby talk, that babble of seemingly
> meaningless syllables, consists of an infant’s
> trying out a hardwired succession of sounds to
> figure out which ones it will need; as the child
> grows older and speaks the language, he no longer
> has a need to pronounce sounds not present in that
> language and therefore cannot readily reproduce
> them. (I think Pinker has made this argument, and
> it makes sense to me, but, once again, I am not a
> linguist.) This may well explain why learning a
> language later in life almost invariably produces
> speech in the new language that is deficient in
> several respects, primarily pronunciation, but
> also incorrect sentence rhythm, pacing, etc.
>

Lee, we were not talking about that. we were talking about inability of some people to produce certain sounds in their own and the only language he/she was trained from the begingining until today..