On the “self awareness being tied to language” note, I found this quote from Helen Keller interesting: “Before my teacher came to me, I did not know that I am. I lived in a world that was a no-world. I cannot hope to describe adequately that unconscious, yet conscious time of nothingness. (…) Since I had no power of thought, I did not compare one mental state with another.” Hellen Keller, 1908: quoted by Daniel Dennett, 1991, Consciousness Explained. London, The Penguin Press. pg 227
http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2010/07/how-deaf-people-think/
Shows how central language is to cognition AND to consciousness.
I wonder if that Helen Keller pre-verbal state was like the fabled samadhi.