![]() Nevertheless, “linguistic fossils” do exist. “Unlike biologists, linguists do not have fossils to guide them through the past.” The magazine adds that one evolutionary linguist arrives at his conclusions by “mathematically informed guesswork.” But how do linguists reconstruct the development of extinct languages? “That is tricky,” says the Economist magazine. * Others claim that today’s languages are related to several root languages spoken at least 6,000 years ago. Some scholars theorize that modern languages stem from one original language -the so-called mother tongue that they thought humans spoke nearly 100,000 years ago. So the events of Babel evidently took place some 4,200 years ago. ( Genesis 11:2) When did that happen? “The earth was divided,” says the Bible, in the days of Peleg, who was born about 250 years before Abraham. The Bible states that the confusion of language and dispersion of the people took place “in the land of Shinar,” later called Babylonia. What have archaeologists and researchers uncovered regarding the origin and development of human languages? Do their discoveries confirm any of the proposed theories? Or do the findings support the Babel account? First let us take a closer look at that Bible account. Fitch, who wrote in his book The Evolution of Language: “We do not yet have fully convincing answers.” These and other conflicting theories have caused many to agree with Professor W. For example, some scholars suggest that language groups did not appear suddenly but evolved gradually from one “mother tongue.” Others believe that several original languages developed independently, advancing from simple grunts to complex speech. Why do people reject the Babel account? Simply put, it contradicts certain theories regarding the origin of language. ![]() One author claims: “The Tower of Babel myth is definitely one of the most absurd stories ever told.” Even a Jewish rabbi called it “a naive attempt to explain the origin of nations.” DID that event recorded in the Bible really happen? Did people start speaking different languages all at once, as described? Some scoff at the Bible’s account of how human languages began and spread.
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