2006-12-30 08:20:19 · 14 answers · asked by Kate 1 in Society & Culture ➔ Languages
No one knows when or how language began, but there are many theories. According to most of these theories, language first was one of two things. Perhaps it was an imitation of natural sounds, such as grunts, groans, and barks. Or it might have been an accompaniment to gestures or other body movements. When spoken language began, there was no way of recording it. So our earliest records of language are in writing. But writing developed thousands of years after spoken language.
2006-12-30 08:31:25 · answer #1 · answered by HoneyBunny 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It all started in the book of Genesis at the tower of Babel. At one time everyone spoke the same language. This gave the people at that time to try to build a tower that could reach Heaven. God destroyed the tower of Babel and confused the languages of the world by giving different sets of people different languages.
http://www.handlethetruth.net
2006-12-30 16:23:15 · answer #2 · answered by truthhandl3r 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
It was actually not called the Tower of Babel, but after the people were scattered, then the city was named Babel because they could not understand each other. Today we use the word for explaning someone who babels non-sense. Here's the scripture from the Bible itself, check them if need be...Genesis 11:1-9
11:1 Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. 2 As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.
3 They said to each other, "Come, let's make bricks and bake them thoroughly." They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. 4 Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth."
5 But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. 6 The LORD said, "If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other."
8 So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. 9 That is why it was called Babel--because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth.
NIV
2006-12-30 16:34:59 · answer #3 · answered by Rabbit's Girl 2 · 0⤊ 2⤋
According to the text of Scriptures I quoted below from Genesis 11:1-9 , in the beginning there was only one language. At the plain of Shinar, Nimrod the first king on earth, persuaded the people to build a city with a tower that will reach heaven, so that in case there is another flood, they can escape by climbing that tower.
It was a rebellion against God's command to scatter and fill the earth with their descendants. So God confused their language.
As a proof outside the Bible about the authenticity of this narration, we can study the following words in the Chinese language which have been in existence at about the same time as the Hebrew language, if not older.
the word "tower" in Chinese is written like this : å¡(ta)
The components are: "earth" + "weeds" + "platform/stage/terrace" That is an amazing description of how the first "tower" was made. It was made of "earth" which is exactly how "bridks" are made , by backing the earth or clay, thoroughly, in harmony with the Bible narration in Genesis 11:3,4.
The word for "confusion" in the modernized Chinese character is "luan" ä¹± , consisting of the components: "tongue" (drawn as a combinationn of "one thousand" above "mouth") and one half, or the splitting of the word "er" or son/child. In other words, the "confusion" comes when men's language become "thousands" of different utterances coming out of the "mouth" and they (the children) of Noah, were split or scattered, or separated from each other. An accurate description of how the scattering of nations happened after the confusion of languages.
The last word to notice is "qian" è¿ç§» "to migrate/migration", consisting of the components " thousand" + "moving/walking" on the left and "grain stalk" + "many/much/plenty" , on the right.
The traditional or old character has "west" + "big/great/large" + "baggage" + "moving/walking" for the first word "qian".
So in other words, there was a great "movement/moving" of thousands of "baggages" carried by "many/plenty" of people from the "west" carrying "much/jplenty" of "grains/wheat/rice" as their stapple food!
Unless you believe the Bible and the ancient Chinese Character, your answer to the above question is only: "I don't know", "No one knows", "Don't know", of course!
But people who read and believe the Bible knows better than that!
2006-12-30 18:53:58 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
the babylonians were trying to build a tower to heaven called the Tower of Babel because they thought that they were superior to God. but, God made each one speak a different language so they could not communicate and not finish the tower.
2006-12-30 16:29:45 · answer #5 · answered by DeceptiConservative 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Read the Tower of Babel.
Or what is the odds of two or more countries, hundreds of miles apart, forming a language that uses the same words for everything!
NONE, get a grip!
2006-12-30 16:24:48 · answer #6 · answered by tattie_herbert 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Tower of Babel
2006-12-30 16:22:48 · answer #7 · answered by Britt 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
when you get groups of people far away from other people, words naturally change and new words are made. give the process a few thousands years and you get all the different languages we have today
2006-12-30 16:22:15 · answer #8 · answered by squirrelman9014 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
they use different ones for different reasons
mostly just to confuse people in the United States, the other ones are just kind of code, to confuse the US citizens who are certain theirs is the only language
2006-12-30 16:31:18 · answer #9 · answered by kurticus1024 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
as people spread around the world they created languages, and cultures and stuff
2006-12-30 16:22:50 · answer #10 · answered by kendall 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋