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5 points

A large foundation for the belief in critical periods for language are based on Genie, a feral child who was entirely unable to learn a spoken language despite significant efforts. Today, she can use some sign language but cannot speak.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genie_(feral_child)

So the answer is largely believed to be: No. You cannot learn a spoken language if you missed the critical period.

It’s also literally impossible to test/study ethically, so nobody actually knows.

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4 points

Just from the overview of that wikipedia page, it’s clear she has been subjected to a horrific amount of abuse and emotional turmoil, both as a child and later as an adult. It seems extremely dubious whether you can really draw any general conclusions from such an extreme case study.

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3 points

How could a child not be exposed to any spoken language without that circumstance also being somewhat traumatic?

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2 points

Did you read the Wikipedia article? I grant that isolation is inherently traumatic, but by itself, it pales in comparison to what that person went through.

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