Everything about The Confusion Of Tongues totally explained
The
confusion of tongues (
confusio linguarum) is the initial fragmentation of human languages described in the
Book of Genesis 11:1–9, as a result of the construction of the
Tower of Babel.
It is implied that prior to the event, humanity spoke a single language, either identical to or derived from the "
Adamic language" spoken by
Adam and Eve in Paradise. In the confusion of tongues, this language was split into seventy or seventy-two dialects, depending on tradition. This has sometimes been interpreted as being in contradiction to,
» Of these were the isles of the nations divided in their lands, every one after his tongue, after their families, in their nations.
This issue only arises, however, if is interpreted as taking place before and separate from the
Tower of Babel story, instead of as an overview of events later described in detail in . It also necessitates that the reference to the earth being "divided" is taken to mean the division of languages, rather than a physical division of the earth (such as in the formation of
continents).
During the Middle Ages, the
Hebrew language was widely considered the language used by God to address
Adam in
Paradise, and by Adam as
nomothete (the
Adamic language) by various Jewish, Christian, and Muslim scholastics.
Dante in the
Divina commedia implies however that the language of Paradise was different from later Hebrew by saying that Adam addressed God as
I rather than
El.
Preceding the acceptance of the
Indo-European language family, these languages were considered to be "
Japhetite" by some authors (for example
Rasmus Rask in
1815; see
Indo-European studies). Beginning in Renaissance Europe, priority over Hebrew was claimed for the alleged Japhetic languages, which were supposedly never corrupted because their speakers hadn't participated in the construction of the Tower of Babel. Among the candidates for a living descendant of the
Adamic language were:
Gaelic (see
Auraicept na n-Éces);
Tuscan (
Giovanni Battista Gelli,
1542,
Piero Francesco Giambullari,
1564);
Flemish (
Goropius Becanus,
1569,
Abraham Mylius,
1612);
Swedish (
Olaus Rudbeck,
1675);
German (
Georg Philipp Harsdörffer,
1641,
Schottel,
1641); and among the candidates for
Adamic language itself were:
Hebrew (see
Middle Ages);
Proto-Indo-European (
Anne Catherine Emmerich,
1790). The Swedish physician
Andreas Kempe wrote a satirical tract in 1688, where he made fun of the contest between the European nationalists to claim their native tongue as the Adamic language. Caricaturing the attempts by the Swede Olaus Rudbeck to pronounce Swedish the original language of mankind, Kempe wrote a scathing
parody where Adam spoke Danish, God was a Swede, while the serpent was a
francophone.
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