"What are the words which we have lost?"

Helen Keller with her tutor, Anne Sullivan, 1888

I remember as a child watching a film depicting the early life of Helen Keller. Born deaf and blind, she grew
up without language of any kind. She behaved savagely, grunting and screaming and grabbing fistfuls of other people's food with animalistic instinct, until her tutor, Anne Sullivan, taught her to behave, but more importantly, how to use sign language. When Keller finally understood the connection between the objects and the signs for them that her teacher showed her, she had a revelation. And from there, she was able to progress and grow and become an inspiration for many.

After the film, I remember wondering how someone who is blind and deaf--someone who has never been exposed to language--would form thoughts in their mind. Would it just be a haze of fleeting instincts and flashes of tactical perception? I couldn't imagine trying to think without the essential element of language.