language science

I was watching an old movie from my childhood the other day, Nell. On the description I read from netflix it said "Nell an inhabitant from the backwoods of North Carolina appears to have created her own language." It's not the exact description, but that was the most important part. Of course...

Which of these questions can and has science provided some answers for? Anyone with links to books, papers, studies, ideas etc...

The Nova documentary Ape Genius showed some pretty remarkable footage of a bonobo named Kanzi who appeared to show some remarkable linguistic ability, including following complex instructions in English without non-verbal cueing. According to the documentary, Kanzi learned to understand...