When you don't know any languages, what does the voice in the back of our head sound like?

When someone doesn’t know any spoken languages (like a baby or someone raised without exposure to verbal communication), the “voice” in their head isn't made of actual words. Instead, it’s more like pure thought—feelings, images, sensations, and instinctual reactions. The inner world still exists, even without a spoken language to label it.

Imagine it like this: before we learn the word “apple,” we still know what an apple is—how it smells, how it tastes, how it feels in our hand. That early inner voice is non-verbal, but it's still incredibly real and rich. Over time, once we do learn a language, our thoughts start to take on words, like adding subtitles to a movie that was already playing in full color.

So even if you don't have a language, you still have awareness, emotions, reactions, desires… That inner “voice” is more like a soundless knowing—a silent understanding of the world.

A beautiful reminder that language doesn’t create thought; it translates it. Our minds are wise and alive, even in silence.