So, have you ever wondered how you know what you know about languages? Does it feel like our ability to understand and use language just magically appeared? The question of how much of our linguistic abilities are innate (like built-in) or learned has been a hot debate in linguistics for a long time, and it's not just linguists, but philosophers, cognitive scientists, and anthropologists who are in on the chat.

A good real-world example is how babies all over the world start babbling with the same kind of sounds, before moving on to the specific sounds of their native language. It's like they're programmed with a 'universal grammar'. This idea comes from Noam Chomsky, a big brain in linguistics, who thinks we are all born with a framework for understanding language.

But not everyone agrees with Chomsky. Meet Daniel Everett, a linguist who studied the Pirahã people in the Amazon. He discovered that their language doesn't have one of the features Chomsky says all languages share. Oops! This sparked lots of controversy and the 'Universal Grammar vs. Learned Language' debate rages on.

The brain is the control center of language, and it’s not always as easy to understand as understanding a new word or sentence. Think of the brain as the engine under the hood of a car. To get an idea of how it works, scientists use all kinds of cool tools like fMRI and EEG to literally look inside our heads.

Historically, scientists linked the brain to language through patients who lost their ability to use language due to brain injuries. Think of Paul Broca and Carl Wernicke, who identified specific areas in the brain responsible for speech production and comprehension, now known as Broca's and Wernicke's areas. Imagine you are watching a movie but can't understand what the characters are saying. That's what life is like for a person with Wernicke's aphasia.