Anyone who comes into a foreign

country
land

will often have
has frequently

to learn the language [f|o]f the inhabitants there

by
through

ostensive

explanations
definitions

which

people
they

give him; and he

will often have
has frequently

to guess the interpretation of these explanations, ˇ& will guess it

sometimes
often

correctly,

sometimes
often

wrong[.|ly.]
And now we can say, I think:

And now we can say, I think: Augustine describes

the child's
the

learning of h[i|u]man of language to speak as though the child

had come
came

to a foreign country and did not without understanding

it's
the country's

language; that is, as though the child already had a language, only not this one. Or, as though the child could already think but could not speak yet. And here “think” ˇwould means something like: speak to onehimself.

(2015–) Wittgenstein Source Bergen Nachlass Edition (WS-BNE). Edited by the Wittgenstein Archives at the University of Bergen under the direction of Alois Pichler. In: Wittgenstein Source, curated by Alois Pichler (2009–) and Joseph Wang-Kathrein (2020–). (N) Bergen: WAB.