I didn't mean to imply that ALL Irish people (or any other people) may be linguistically gifted, I only meant that on a personal level, my Irish family have this gift. As we hardly know eachother and have been brought up separately, I conclude it's genetic. My father's people are Scots, from way up north in Sutherland, and again the seafaring 'gene' has been strong from 1600, even among those not born near the sea. (I ought to have turned out to be a cruise-ship interpreter!) I've noticed in pupils' families, (I'd taught the parents of many of my pupils) that certain personalities seem to run in families. This subject interests me, as I wonder if 'blame' and 'punishment' could be modified or adjusted according to genetic factors, but I also wonder to what extent we truly have 'free will'. I studied (among other auxiliary subjects at Uni) Moral Philosophy, and these questions have been chewed over for centuries. But now we have more scientific evidence of gene patterns, they could be chewed over some more.