Etymology — Full Article

No Evidence for Evolution of Language

Can't be! Surely BABEL is a Myth

According to evolution theory, human languages are developing from meaningless sounds to ever more perfect languages. But if the origin of man, including his ability to speak, occurred by evolution, then why are the most HIGHLY STRUCTURED, COMPLEX and SOPHISTICATED languages found among the most backward and culturally "primitive" tribes? Most of them are more complicated in grammar than the tongues spoken by civilised people. And secondly why is there no such thing as a primitive language?

In every culture on the planet, the language is complex. The idea of SIMPLE languages among primitive people does not coincide with fact and there is a massive gulf between human and animal sounds. The languages of even the most 'primitive' tribes are extremely complex -- and are removed by a great gulf from the chattering's of the most 'advanced' apes, as well as other animals.

All animal sounds are more or less on the same level of complexity. Human speech is absolutely distinct from animal communication. And the ability to articulate and communicate even abstract concepts is the basic aspect of human culture. No society is known at any point in history which did not have a fully developed language. We find no support at all for any kind of evolutionary development of language. There is NO EVIDENCE nor any EXPLANATION for such an assumed evolution of language. Certainly, there has been much change in language, but not in a simple-to-complex sequence.

ONE ORIGINAL LANGUAGE

The fact is, that the whole world once spoke the same language and this knowledge survives in the racial memory of many people. For example a fragmentary Sumerian tablet copied by the Oxford cuneiformist Oliver Gurney speaks of a time when "the whole universe" spoke "in one tongue." The epic tale Enmerker and the Lord of Araita, published by Professor S.N. Kramer, of the University of Pennsylvania, records that all mankind spoke one and the same language until Enki, the Sumerian god of wisdom, confounded their speech.

The idea that there was a time when all men spoke the same language is found also in ancient Egyptian and Indian writings. Even the Popul Vuh, a book of the Central American Maya records that "those who gazed at the rising of the sun \[the ancestors who formerly lived eastward of the Americas\]... had but one language... before going west." Yes, one language... and a unified alphabet. Yes! evidence for an original single worldwide language is substantial.

In 2002, some very ancient petroglyphs were discovered in the remote canyons in the Comanche National Grassland, just south of La Junta, Colorado. There was something special about these particular petroglyphics. The ancient alphabetic symbols were virtually identical to those found in the Har Karkom region of the Negev desert of Israel, in South Australia, in Yemen, in Chile (South America), and in the British Isles! This same ancient alphabet has now been found on six continents. This has been referred to as "The First Tongue".

According to the book of Genesis, all once spoke the same language. "And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech." (Gen.11:1) Genesis recounts a dramatic event that changed this. This is where our investigation will now take us.

The native Mexican chronicler, Ixtilxochitl, in his Relaciones, records an ancient Toltec tradition that the descendants of the Flood survivors built a "zacuali" (tower) of great height. After this, their tongues became confused and, not understanding one another, they went to different parts of the world. The 7 families who spoke the Toltec language set out for the New World. They wandered for 104 years over large extents of land and water.

Finally, they arrived at Huehue Tlapallan 520 years after the Flood. Other peoples, such as the Chaldeans, the Hindus and the Chiapa of the Americas, to name a few, were discovered with a tradition which not only agrees with the Genesis account of the way Babel was built, but with the confusion of tongues and the subsequent dispersal.

Even the isolated inhabitants of the Fijian Islands recorded a tradition of a building just like the Tower of Babel. There are also Australian Aboriginal tribal legends which appear to be corrupted memories of those events up to, and including, the time they separated from the other peoples. These legends include the "dispersion of the tongues" which occurred at Babel.

In his writings, the Greek historian Hestaeus speaks of "olden traditions" that the people who escaped the Deluge came to Senaar (compare this with the biblical "Shinar" in Genesis 11:2) but were driven away from there by a diversity of tongues. Yes, the event of the dispersion of tongues is firmly fixed in our global racial memory. The Genesis account turns out to be no myth. A thorough scientific and historical treatment of the whole languages story may be found in the book Babel at the SHOP page.

The Tower of Babel

The book of Genesis tells of the exodus of a group of people from the area first settled by the Flood survivor Noah and his descendants after the Flood.

"And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime \[bitumen\] had they for mortar. And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven: and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth." (Gen.11:2-4)

The presence of oil here, in the Middle Eastern region, about 4,000 years after the time of Babel, indicates that an ample supply of bitumen most likely could have been obtained by the builders of this infamous city and tower, just as Genesis says.

THE REBELLION

The tower, dedicated "unto heaven" (to the worship of the host of heaven, an astrological system) was the actual headquarters of a rebel movement which aimed to seize control of the world. According to the record, building the tower was a case of clear-cut DEFIANCE of the Creator.

In the first place, God had promised never to send another universal Flood; the tower builders said God had lied (and they decided that to protect themselves from another Flood they should build a great tower whose top would reach above the deepest flood waters). In the second place, the Flood had destroyed only the rebels. The Creator Himself had protected the faithful. The tower builders were saying that they would live exactly as they pleased, and would protect themselves. God was superfluous.

Once again, the Almighty intervened. He did this in a manner that caused them to comply with His command to "replenish the earth". The leader of the rebels, Nimrod, who is recorded in scripture as being a mighty man at the time, persuaded the people that they could find security without God if they stayed together under his rule. There was an urgency about being connected. They conceived a plan for a united world government.

Oppressive and cruel laws were planned by Nimrod and his henchmen. Had they gone unchecked, they would have demoralised the world in its infancy. The symbol of their defiance -- the tower of Babel -- was already reaching high above the plain. Then it happened. Many factors were involved. But, in brief, there was an interruption to their plan.

THE LANGUAGE CONFOUNDED:

"Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city... Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth." (Gen.11:7-9)

They no longer could understand each other. There was a sudden multiplication of languages. One can imagine the scene. Maybe the ones next to certain others could understand one another, but those below them only heard gibberish when the next call came for materials. In any case, the scene must have been one of chaos. It is impossible to imagine what it must have been like. All we are told is that at some point after this "confusion" of languages, they ceased work on the city and were scattered "abroad upon the face of all the earth".

People now wanted to get away from each other. The inevitable result was that those who understood each other moved off together. So began the DISPERSION from the Mesopotamian plain in all directions, north, south, east and west.

Imagine the scene, SUDDENLY many, many different languages were spoken. In the confusion, what would you do? Firstly, everyone would find those who speak their own language. Then decisions would be made about what to do next. It would be almost impossible to continue planting, harvesting, building, with those to whom you cannot communicate. Especially back then when there were no translators.

The next step would most likely be to find a separate place to live. You'd need room to raise your crops; fields for your flocks; and space to build a permanent settlement. Some language groups may set out and settle 25 miles from the original town; others would have to travel 100 miles or even more before they could find a suitable location.

As time passed, the land nearby would already be taken and new groups would have to travel further and further away to find a suitable location. Some might be more ambitious and travel much, much further -- perhaps 1,000 miles away. But, as with all things, there would survive remnants of many, many of the original language groups in the general area. And today, nowhere else on earth can you find so many different tongues being spoken in such a small area:

Many ancient races and tribes still inhabit the Caucasus \[the mountains above Noah's Ark which form the northern barrier of the Araxes plain\] and the Armenian plateau of eastern Anatolia. As many as fifty different languages and dialects are spoken in this vast and, in parts, inaccessible region." (Legends of the World", edited by Richard Cavendish, 1989, p.137) Strabo informs us (Book XI,5), that no less than seventy Dialects were spoken in the country, which even then was called the Mountain of Languages. (The New Learned History Encyclopaedia, 1922, col VIII, p.6,743) The further one travels from this area, the fewer languages we find being spoken in an area (except in cases of immigration, such as in the USA and Australia).

This evidence alone is sufficient to show where the languages began. Genesis chapter 10 gives us a photo-start breakdown of the 46 basic language groups which were formed into nations at the time of the Babel dispersion. This figure is not unrealistic in regard to the active language groups in the world today. From these originals, the languages of the earth have developed. Of course, there are now thousands of languages, but there is a definite grouping of them (Aboriginal, Sino-Tibetic, Dravidian, and so on.)

Careful study of these basic modern language groups shows that they are not in excess of the number allowed for in Genesis 10. While the biblical story of the confusion of tongues and the forced worldwide dispersion from Babel is commonly ridiculed by skeptics and considered a myth, there is certainly no better explanation for the origin of the different families of languages. In opposition to this is the bankrupt theory of evolution which is completely unable to adequately account for even the origin of one human language. So it really gets back to in the

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