Free Alien Tongues by M.L. Janes

three centuries. "Oh, yes, I think we did that in school.  Oops!" She pulled a face of exaggerated shame towards Séamus.  "But I do know about the Americans."
    When asked if she had any questions, she said, "I'd like to know more about this brain-scan equipment.  Are you certain it's safe?   I mean, they thought X-rays were safe at one time, didn't they?  And my mother died of cancer."
    "That you don't have to worry about," Wilkie said.  "It's just measuring output from your brain – tiny electronic impulses that occur in it every moment.  We want to measure what parts of your brain you are using, and at what intensity.  If we're really lucky, we'll get new insight into how the brain combines memory and genetic structure to both create and use a language."
    "What do you mean, genetic structure?" Phyllis asked.
    The Professor gave a small chuckle.  "It's sharp of you to question that expression and I have to say, we don't really know what we mean by it!  Just that we have established beyond any reasonable doubt that part of our brain, right at birth, is already equipped in vital ways to learn a language – any language it hears.  Somehow, it listens to the grammar embedded in the sentences of people around it, and seems able to slot them into some internal rule-book from which it can then construct an infinite number of other sentences, all correctly.  It's a bit like watching your father take apart the engine of his old truck, then deducing from that how to repair any engine on any vehicle.  It seems crazy, I know.  But any other theory would be worse than crazy – it would be unscientific."
    "Let me explain it the way I think about it," Alice added.  "It's like we have a computer program inside our head.  Let's say instead of language, it designs dress patterns.  You feed it with a few thousand dress patterns as "samples."  From those, it works out all the rules for dress patterns.  It can then make you any dress pattern you need – all you need to do is give it an idea, and it works out all the rest."
    Séamus wondered if the dress-pattern analogy might be viewed as condescending, but Phyllis nodded respectfully.  "It sort of makes sense to me.  Of course, we never know how we learn our native language because we're too young to remember what we were listening to.   But the other languages I learned since a teenager – often I ask myself, 'how did I ever learn to say an expression like that?'  I then ask the native speaker I'm talking to if it's correct and they say yes, how did I get so good at it?"
    "Once into their teenage," the Professor added, "Almost everyone is not good at it.  It's as if, for all but a handful of people like you, the more our brain learns to reason for itself, the less it manages to copy language.  The computer program develops an increasing number of bugs, you might say."
    When he took her back to her room, Phyllis asked Séamus if he could stay for a quick cup of coffee, which he accepted.
    "I hope I didn't scare you too much when we met," she told him as they sat at her kitchen counter.  "I have a tendency to joke around when I'm a bit nervous."
    He grinned.  "I don't scare easily and I suspect you are not really the nervous type.  I think it's just your style to challenge people.  See what they're made of.  I'm sorry if I came across a bit wooden, but my excuse is that this is my job.  Hopefully my career."
    "So what is that, exactly?  Some kind of bodyguard?"
    He measured the size of his biceps. "Bodyguards are typically bigger men than me, aren't they?  I know some self-defense, of course, that's basic training.  When they hired me, they were looking for someone who could do some intelligence work.  You know, detect something suspicious and act on it in good time."
    As he spoke, Séamus recalled Alice's ex-boyfriend.  He had included the event in his report that morning, but had not given it much priority.  He had made some inquiries about potential