a generalization stating that when a multilingual person recovers from aphasia caused by a stroke or cerebral injury, the language recovered first is usually the one most used by the person prior to the onset of the aphasia. Other languages are reestablished in a slower and often less complete manner. Also called Pitres’law. Compare Ribot’s law. [proposed in 1895 by Jean Albert Pitres (1848–1927), French neurologist]