People who forgot some or all of their native language
by Miles-10 | created - 09 Sep 2019 | updated - 10 Sep 2019 | PublicEach of these celebrities admittedly forgot some or all of his or her first language. Linguists call it "first language attrition". Even if you don’t forget all of your first language, you can lose a lot of it over time. This happens to some people when they move to a new country. Most commonly, children under ten (sometimes older) can forget their native language almost completely if they are immersed in a new one. It is as if the brain says, "Oh, I need to lose the language I’ve been speaking for ten years because, in order to survive, I need this new one". Being born into one linguistic milieu doesn't guarantee continued fluency. For example, Natalie Portman speaks fluent Hebrew not just because she lived in Israel as a young child but because she continued to study the language after moving to the United States.
1. Francesca Annis
Actress | Dune
English actress Francesca Annis, who has enjoyed a career spanning seven decades in movies, television and the theater, was born in London six days after V-E Day, on May 14, 1945. Her father, Lester, was English, but her mother, Mariquita (aka Mara Purcell), was of Brazilian-French heritage. From ...
The actress spoke Brazilian Portuguese until she was seven when she moved with her parents to England. Eventually, she could no longer speak a word of Portuguese.
2. Jiddu Krishnamurti
Writer | Gente iluminada
At the age of ten he became an orphan. His father was an early member of the Aydar Theosophical Society, which took over the education of his son and chose him as a world teacher and messiah. With the early loss of his mother in 1909, the then head of the Theosophical Society, Dr. Besant, the ...
As a child, the influential writer and speaker spoke Telugu, a language of the Indian subcontinent. When he was adopted by members of the Theosophical Society at age 14, he learned to speak English in six months. Later, he also learned to speak French fluently. But he forgot Telugu, only remembering the word “ama”, which means “mother”.
3. Regilio Tuur
Self | Shadow Moves - The Homecoming of Regilio Tuur
Regilio Tuur was born on August 12, 1967 in Paramaribo, Suriname.
The former Olympic boxer was raised in the former Dutch colony of Suriname and in the Netherlands, but since moving to New York, USA in 1988, he has lost the ability to speak Dutch fluently, although he is often able to understand it. His worst beating was from ignorant people on social media who could not understand how someone could forget their native language.
4. Steffi Graf
Self | Otto - Der Außerfriesische
Steffi Graf is a German professional tennis player.
She was ranked world No. 1 and won 22 Grand Slam singles titles. In 1988, she became the only tennis player to achieve the Golden Slam by winning all four Grand Slam singles titles and the Olympic gold medal in the same calendar year. She is the ...
Since moving to the United States in 2000, the tennis star soon lost some of her native German, for example, once forgetting the word "überwältigt" during a speech in Germany and having to use its English equivalent "overwhelmed".
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