Bilinguals have a significant advantage in resisting neuropsychological deterioration. This page is a theory about the protective value in the brain of being able to communicate in a second language. The hyperlinks on the homepage show how to work around impairment so speech, hearing or vision, and brain impairments including Alzheimer’s and stroke.
Starting a language in one’s 70s might need 250 contact hours to GCSE (A2 level) and moderate fluency at A-level (B2) might take 700 hours. Only about 15% of native English speakers can get by in another language. This is unrealistic for most of us, and some ability in another language might not really help. We hypothesise this: it is the ability to bring your whole linguistic repertoire to bear to work around gaps. This repertoire includes codeswitching, mime, 2-word pidgin, closed questions, floor-holding, phatics, proper nouns and tech skills with translation engines and dictionaries.
Research in Toronto, Trieste and Hyderabad converge on one conclusion: lifetime experience of workarounds in a second language defers the cognitive effects of Alzheimer’s by 4.5 years. In Italy patients with dementia who spoke both German and Italian were also 4-5 years older on entering a dementia clinic than those who spoke only one. The brains of the bilinguals were as deteriorated as the monolinguals, but despite similar dementia they communicated better than the monolinguals. Hyderabad is particularly interesting as patients were non-literate farmers who had not had been taught grammar in school. Some spoke Telugu but get by in Urdu, which they learned through talking in the marketplace. Some spoke Urdu and could get by in Telugu.
The Nuns Study of Aging and Alzheimer’s Disease shows that “idea density” in young adulthood is the best protective factor against Alzheimer’s. This is a continuing longitudinal study, begun in 1986, to examine the onset of Alzheimer’s disease. 678 sisters of Notre Dame all agreed to participate, including permission for post mortem exam. Entry was at age 75 if cognitively intact. As a research sample, they are remarkably homogeneous: little alcohol use, no reproductive history, similar housing. The sisters had written autobiographies at about age 22, the time they took their vows. Idea density was measured by the range of English structures they used in those life stories. It was also found that education level predicted low Alzheimer incidence and positivity predicted longevity. Cognitive function was largely independent of neurological evidence of Alzheimer’s disease.
So how can talking a second language or writing a good story reduce brain degeneration? The pathology of Alzheimer’s is presumed to be accumulations of tau and beta amyloid proteins which block healthy brain transmission. The metaphor of “the cluttered loft” will be used. In the image below, unfinished insulation and unused boxes prevent access to the Christmas decorations which were put away unlabelled a year ago.
In the loft, the rarely-used but useful items can be accessed by careful walking along the planks and a systematic search strategy. In the brain, the ability of nerves to produce new dendritic spines is the probable beneficial factor. The accumulated junk does not prevent new connections being made.
Here are some strategies bilinguals use. A “two word pidgin” is like what toddlers use around the age of 18m to three. One word is usually a noun, and the other a question word or a verb. Knowing the word “doggie” and a few others, the small child could construct “where doggie?”, “doggie eating” and “doggie gone”. If you tried to communicate in Ukrainian, start with https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:Ukrainian_Swadesh_list. You might cut this list down to 80 and make some pidgin utterances as follows.
“vokzal pravi?” means approximately “is the station to the right?” The words are easy to remember, as the first comes from “Vauxhall station” in London, and you may know that pravda means “truth or right”. It’s a closed question. If the answer is ni (no”), turn round halfway and say it again.
“hovorymo nimetsʹkyy” is approximately “let’s speak German”. This implies you think it’s the best common language. It’s not quite right, as ti should really use the instrumental case nimetsʹkoyu, but it should be understood.
“pid zemlya?” is an attempt to say “under ground”, meaning “where do I take cover in a missile attack?” Again the noun case is slightly wrong, but you may know zemlya from novaya zemlya.
These examples also illustrate the linguistic strategies holding the floor and closed question. When trying to communicate with a very small vocabulary, it works best if the native speaker has raised children and is willing to indulge your approximations and treat you as a “cute child”. Later on they will start to supply the correct adult form, but without making an issue of correcting you. Using an open question is generally fairly hopeless, unless you chance to ask a special needs teacher, as you have yielded the floor to a fluent native speaker. The closed question may be seen as rude, which is why starting with phatics may maintain rapport.
Translation engines and dictionaries on a smartphone are crucial tools for any modern language learner. Google Translate can show you text, or even speak, in a hundred or more languages. There is linguistic skill in your English input: use one clause, subject-verb-object order, eliminate slang and words with multiple meanings. This works well for EU official languages, Russian and Japanese. In Arabic the verbs may be slightly odd. Zulu and Quechua are quite good, with occasional noun errors. Hindi and Thai will take several attempts. Latin is not worth attempting. Anyone trying to speak Mandarin has to have Pleco at hand as a trustworthy assistant to negotiate the maze of tones, pinyin and hanzi. Machine translation is discussed more in the section for visually impaired people.
The idea that long distance walking might defer brain deterioration was made more plausible by Raynor Winn’s book “The Salt Path”. Moth Winn was diagnosed over a decade ago with CBD, a motor disorder like Parkinson’s. Moth confronted brain deterioration by walking the south west coast of England – a ridiculous thing to do and contrary to sensible medical advice. Having to do it for weeks on end seemed to make new nerve pathways that work around the gaps. After this “Salt Path” they walked Iceland, and then Cape Wrath to Cornwall. Moth is still going strong in June 2024, and he and Raynor did a sponsored London Marathon in 2023. We’re evolved for a lot of walking. We may also be evolved to work around communication problems.