Grammar Girl here, I'm a Neon Fogarty and you can think of me as your friendly guide to

the English language, writing history, rules, and cool stuff.

Today I have some cool history, the story of a boy who was raised by wolves and what

he taught us about language.

The legend of Victor of Avirons' early childhood sounds like something straight out of the jungle

book.

The story goes that he was raised by wolves until early adolescence, never learning

to communicate or function in society until the day he decided to join the village next

to the woods that had been his home.

Victor of Avirons was spotted for the first time on the edge of the woods in 1794, but

stayed hidden for another three or four years until some hunters noticed what looked like

a naked child, about six years old, watching them from the tree line.

Victor froze as they approached, maybe instinctively feeling what we call stranger danger, so he

got a late start running back into the woods.

They caught up with him just as he scrambled up a tree and were able to pull him down.

His stay in the village didn't last long though, he was placed with a little old lady

but ran off after a week, and the villagers would occasionally see him over the next three

years, often wearing the increasingly tattered clothes he'd been given during his short

stay in town.

Nine times the villagers tried to capture him again when he would come out of the woods,

but they were never successful.

On occasion they would wake up in the morning to find that a few loves of bread had been

...