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Published online 31 January 2005 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news050131-4
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Sign language reveals fast track to grammar
Languages are quick to develop conventions about word order.
New languages can develop consistent rules of grammar within a single generation of their birth, a study of an Israeli sign language has shown.
The Al-Sayyid Bedouins, who live in Israel's Negev region, have a high rate of congenital deafness.
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