How did human language appear? New theories. First language on earth

Over time, the diversity of languages ​​in the world has become so great that their number has ceased to fit in our imagination. Languages ​​evolve with humanity. In order to find out how perfect and developed languages ​​have become, it is necessary to study oldest languages ​​in the world. This is the basis that served as the basis for modern languages. Revealing is not an easy task, it's like identifying the oldest civilization in the world. First you need to study the written monuments that were found during archaeological excavations. Otherwise, it is very difficult to determine exactly which of the languages ​​is the most ancient, since the languages ​​were spoken long before there was a written language.

So what are the oldest languages ​​in the world?

The most ancient languages ​​in the world

Sumerian

The first written evidence dates back to 3200 BC. Written monuments in this language have been discovered at the Jemdet Nasr archaeological site in Iraq. Sumerian was the language of the ancient Sumerians, whose appearance dates back to the 4th millennium BC. Sumerian is also considered an isolate language that does not have family ties with other languages.

Akkadian language

The first mentions of Akkadian date back to 2800 BC. Written evidence of this language has been found in the Shaduppum region of Iraq. This language was spoken in ancient Mesopotamia now he is presumed dead. The language got its name from the city of Akkad, major center Mesopotamian civilization of that time. The first texts written in Akkadian, appeared during the second half of the 3rd millennium BC. So far, thousands of texts have been found in excavations. The Akkadian language served as a means of communication between the two peoples who lived in antiquity on the territory of the modern Middle East. The language began to die out in the 8th century. BC.

Egyptian language

The indigenous language of Egypt belongs to the Afro-Asiatic language family. The first written records of this language date back to 3400 BC. The first written evidence was found in the tomb of Pharaoh Set Peribsen. Until the end of the 7th century AD. this language existed in the form of Coptic. Modern version language is known as Egyptian, which supplanted the Coptic language after the Muslim conquest of Egypt. Nevertheless, the Coptic language exists to this day as the language of worship of the Coptic Church.

Eblaite language

A Semitic language, now dead, Eblaite was once dominant from 2400 B.C. Thousands of tablets with inscriptions in this language have been found during archaeological excavations of the ruins of the city of Ebla. It was spoken in the 3rd millennium BC. in the ancient city of Ebla, between Aleppo and Hama, now in Western Syria. Regarded as the second oldest written Semitic language after Akkadian, the language is now considered dead.

Minoan

This language was widely spoken in the 2nd century BC. It was the language of ancient Crete. Today, the language is considered an isolate, as its relationship with other languages ​​has not been established.

Hittite

The first mention of the Hittite language dates back to 1650. BC. Today it dead language, but once it was spoken by the Hittites - a people in the north-central part of Anatolia. The language fell into disuse after the collapse of the Hittite Empire.

Greek language

It is considered one of the oldest written living languages ​​in the world. The first entries on Greek date back to 1400 BC. With 34 centuries of written history, this language has the most long history writing among all Indo-European languages. Greek is the native language of the peoples who inhabited the Balkan Peninsula. Today, approximately 13 million people speak Greek.

The first written evidence in Chinese dates back to the 11th century. BC. Chinese is spoken by more than 1 billion people today - this is one of the most spoken languages ​​in the world. The Chinese language consists of , where putonghua ( standard Chinese ) ranks first in terms of the number of carriers. The whole group as a whole and other language variants are called Chinese.

What was the first language on our planet? Unfortunately, today scientists cannot answer this question. Sometimes you can hear the variants “Sumerian” (the Sumerians lived on the territory of modern Iraq, there are written sources from 3000 BC), “Egyptian”, “Phrygian” (a couple of millennia younger than Sumerian).

But linguists believe that the language macrofamilies that exist today arose 15-17 thousand years ago, and this is much earlier than the 3rd millennium BC.

Scientists who adhere to the theory of monogenesis believe that all languages ​​\u200b\u200bhave descended from one language, the world language, that is, some language was the first on Earth. Although a situation is also possible in which different language groups arose independently.

It should be especially noted that the original language is not necessarily really the very first language in the world, it is “only” the language from which all the others originated.

Parent language and monogenesis: how to find the first language?

There are some roots that can be traced in many languages, for example, dad, mom, older brother (aka, kaka), leaf (leaf, petal). Suppose the existence of the words "dad" and "mum" (a link to a page with dad and mom on different languages) can be explained by the fact that the consonants "m" and "p" are the first sounds of children's speech, that is, the words are, as it were, natural for children's babble. But it’s already difficult to attribute the word “leaf” to children’s speech, and this root can be found in language families very far from each other. And he is not alone, there are many such common roots. Linguists explain this by the fact that such words have a common source - probably we are talking about the world's first language?

In addition, human languages ​​are similar in their internal structure: all have consonants and vowels, there is a subject, a predicate and an object. Linguists consider it unlikely that such an identical structure could originate in different places completely independent.

As we have already said, the language macrofamilies known to science date back to about 15-17 thousand years. It is possible that 2-3 more “floors” are needed to bring these families together, but linguists, in particular, Sergey Starostin, who is deeply involved in the problems of monogenesis, believes that the parent language is unlikely to be older than 40-50 thousand years, otherwise the global etymology.

It is very likely that human language originated in Central Africa. As proof of this, a number of others cite the fact that there is a group of Khoisan languages ​​in Africa (reference to Khoisan). They differ from all the others by the presence of clicking consonants, clicks. Linguists believe that it is much easier to lose klixes in the course of language development than to acquire them, thus Khoisan languages ​​may be one of the first - or related to the first language.

Which most ancient language on the ground? There are many answers to this question. In this article, we will try to find the right answer to this question with an open mind through extensive research.

To choose one single language out of thousands and say that it is the most ancient is not so simple task. An extensive research work and thoroughly study the history of mankind in order to understand how languages ​​​​arose. human civilization develops in a spiral: once, out of millions of languages, only thousands survived, today, in the age of globalization, we are talking about hundreds of languages. Many languages ​​continue to die out today. But even today there are peoples who speak ancient languages.

All living beings use various means communication among themselves, but only people are able to communicate with each other through speeches and language. The language of animals is primitive and not as skillful and developed as the verbal language of people. We use millions of words every day, but have you ever wondered where all these words came from? The most interesting thing in knowing and learning foreign languages that it seems that they existed before the advent of human civilization itself.

What is the oldest language on Earth?

The question is tricky, and believe me, it is not so easy to answer it. Historians believe that languages ​​may have appeared c. 3000 - 10000 years ago. But this is only an assumption, since there is no clear evidence for this conjecture. Historians are trying to figure out why, at the dawn of the emergence of mankind, the need for language arose. Some claim that language originated evolutionary way, for example, individual words formed into languages, which helped people understand each other and adapt to conditions environment. What to define what is the oldest language on earth, we must first find out which is the most ancient civilization existed on earth. Was it an Aryan civilization, European or Dravidian? No one can justly judge in this case, since every people claims that they were the first. According to research, at first man was a solitary creature, and only later people began to form groups (communities) in order to hunt and get their own food together. That is why there was a need for communication. Discussions on the topic: what is the oldest language on earth, are being carried out very actively, since there are many candidate languages ​​for the role of the most ancient. Of the Asian languages, these are Sanskrit, Chinese (Putonghua) and Tamil. Western languages ​​include Hebrew, Latin, Greek, Old Irish, Gothic, and Lithuanian. Ancient writings in Sanskrit and Tamil that are over 5,000 years old have been found, as well as the famous Bible, which was written in Hebrew. This state of affairs greatly complicates our task of determining the most ancient language on Earth. But there is one fact: languages ​​to one degree or another influenced each other. There is no constancy in the language, some changes occur in it every day: new words, expressions appear. Thus the rude words and sounds once uttered by man at the dawn of his appearance developed into skillful, wise words that we use daily.

According to the latest data, today in the world approx. 6000 languages, this number also includes the languages ​​of various tribes of numerous islands. Statistics show that there are approx. 200 languages, each of which has up to 1 million speakers, and there are languages ​​with less than 15 speakers. Such languages ​​are on the verge of extinction.
Where to start research?
Will there be enough time (I mean years of life) to consider each language, suddenly, one of them will be the most ancient?

The emergence of the Russian language, like any other, is a process extended over time. How did it happen that the youngest ethnic nation - the Slavs - in a short period of two thousand years formed the richest language in the world? And why is mainstream science so reluctant to recognize a clear fact? The ancient origin of the Russian language is undeniable

Role developed speech determines the self-consciousness of a person in society. Not only speech distinguishes man from animals, but developed speech apparatus- this is something that no other animal in the world has. Language, speech are the main factors in identifying a person as a representative of a certain linguistic group of the people. In their native dialect, people speak, think, write, read - this forms a unique group of bearers of the priceless gift of their ancestors. The richness and diversity of speech forms the intellectual potential of human development, the more complex the speech, the greater the potential that determines the depth of human thinking.

We inherited the priceless gift of multifaceted and ambiguous speech from our ancestors, and we must protect our native dialect from penetrating into it. foreign words and concepts. But something is too persistently saturating our world of communication with slang, replacing native words with incomprehensible English terms or introducing distorted mutant words as a trendy youth jargon.

Formation of the Russian language

Scholars attribute many European languages ​​to the Indo-European language group. Such a group has general rules, consonant pronunciation, words that sound the same. Ukrainian, Belarusian, Polish and Russian have always been considered related. But in fact, everything is much more complicated and wider.
Traces of truth are hidden in India.

Sanskrit

Modern scientists put the ancient Sanskrit first in proximity to the Russian language. This language is described and partially deciphered by archaeologists and philologists studying antiquities. So it was discovered that the inscriptions on burial items in India were made in Sanskrit. However, this dialect has never sounded like a native in India, not a single nationality inhabiting India has ever spoken Sanskrit. Servants of science believe that this language was practiced in the circles of scientists and priests. ancient india, like Latin among European peoples.
It is proved that Sanskrit was artificially introduced into the life of the Hindus. It is worth considering how he got to India.

Legend of the Seven Teachers

An ancient Indian legend tells that a long time ago seven white teachers came to them from the North, because of the impregnable Himalayan mountains. It was they who brought Sanskrit and the ancient Vedas to the Hindus. Thus was laid the foundation of Brahminism, which is the most widespread religion in India today. Centuries later, Buddhism emerged from Brahminism and became an independent religion.

The legend of the seven white teachers lives on in India today. It is even studied in the theosophical universities of India. Modern Brahmins are sure that the northern part of European Russia is the ancestral home of all mankind. Admirers of Brahmanism today make pilgrimage trips to the Russian North, just as Muslims go to Mecca.

But outside of India, for some reason, such knowledge is prohibited ...

The living language of humanity

60% of Sanskrit words completely coincide in meaning, meaning and pronunciation with Russian words. For the first time, an ethnographer, a specialist in the culture of India, N. Guseva, wrote about this. She has written over 160 books on the culture and ancient religions of the Hindus.

In one of her books, she writes that she was deeply struck by the words of a scientist from India, who refused the services of an interpreter in a conversation with the inhabitants of the northern settlements, and shedding tears, he said that he was glad to hear live Sanskrit. This happened on a journey along the rivers of the Russian North, when N. Guseva accompanied an Indian scientist. It was from this moment that our ethnographer N. Guseva became interested in the phenomenon of the coincidence of the sound of two related languages.

You can just wonder, but you need to think

An amazing thing: beyond the Himalayas, where the peoples of the Negroid race are widely settled, there are educated people who speak a dialect consonant with our native speech. Sanskrit, by the definition of linguists, is as close to the dialect of Russian people as Ukrainian. But Sanskrit maximally coincides only with the Russian language, with no other it has so many words that are consonant and close in meaning.

Sanskrit and the Russian language are undoubtedly relatives, philologists are only clarifying the question - Slavic letters originated from Sanskrit, or vice versa. What is there to find out? An ancient Indian legend says that Sanskrit originated from the language of the Rus. The numbers and dates that archaeologists provide when determining the age of interesting finds of writing do not play any role here. Dates are given to us only to confuse, hide the truth.

Russian language is the oldest on Earth

Philologist A. Dragunkin proved that a language born from another is usually simpler in structure: words are always shorter, verbal forms are simpler. Indeed, Sanskrit is much simpler. It can be called a simplified version of the Rus language, which was frozen in time about 5 thousand years ago. N. Levashov is sure that the Sanskrit hieroglyphs are Slavic-Aryan runes, which have undergone some transformation over time.

The Rus language is the most ancient on Earth. It is closest to the parent language, which served as the basis for a large number of dialects around the world.

Cyrillic and Glagolitic letters. Russian language.

V. Tatishchev, the author of the Russian History, argued that the Slavs created writing long before Cyril and Methodius. Academician N. Levashov writes that the Slavs had several types of writing: a drop cap, runes, slashes, which are often found in many excavations. And the famous Cyril and Methodius only “finalized” the Slavic initial letters, removing nine characters. Their merit in the creation of writing should not be exaggerated: by simplifying the Slavonic initial letter, they created the Church Slavonic alphabet based on it for translating the Bible.

This theory finds support in studies of Etruscan inscriptions. The Etruscans are a people who once lived on the territory of modern Southern Europe, on the Apennine Peninsula long before the birth of the "Roman Empire". To date, archaeologists and historians have received almost 9 thousand inscriptions in the Etruscan alphabet during excavations and research. The inscriptions were located on tombstones, on household earthenware - vases, mirrors; there were inscriptions on jewelry. None of the linguists could decipher the inscriptions, a saying was born in the circle of archaeologists: “etruscum non legitur”, which translates as “Etruscan is not readable”.

Reading Etruscan letters

When Russian scientists began to decipher the inscriptions, the letters began to slowly lift the veil of their secret. First, G. Grinevich deciphered the inscription on the world-famous Phaistos disk; then V. Chudinov proved with his research that the Etruscan inscriptions should not be deciphered, but simply read using the letters of the Russian alphabet. Etruscan letters and words almost completely correspond to the letters and words of our native language. Any person who has studied the modern alphabet will read them, not to mention experts in the Old Russian alphabet.
Why hide such a terrible secret?

At lectures, V. Chudinov demonstrates photographs taken during excavations of an Etruscan tomb. Looking at the pictures of the inscription taken at close range, the lecturers themselves were able to read it. On the stone structure is written: "Here rests five thousand warriors after the great track of the strong and glorious Slavs, we and the titans of Italy."

Surprise is caused not only by the inscription in letters that are indistinguishable from our modern ones, but also by the date of burial. Archaeologists attributed the tomb to the third or fourth millennium BC. The same dates determine the formation of writing among the Sumerians in Mesopotamia. Here, a long-standing dispute between connoisseurs of the world is revealed - whose writing appeared earlier.

Argument leading to the wrong path

It is clearly seen that the world scientific community refuses to recognize the superiority of the Rus. It is easier to admit that the European dialects came from the ancient Indian proto-language than to admit that the Russian language served as the basis. This hypothesis is not even given the right to exist, not to mention the opportunity to start actively studying it for refutation or confirmation.

An example is the fact that the scientist D. Mendeleev was never admitted to the Imperial St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, today's RAS. A scandalous event: an honored scientist is not awarded the title of academician. scientific world of that time, which made up the majority of the Academy Russian Empire, considered that one Russian scientist was enough at the Academy - M. Lomonosov; and D. Mendeleev did not become an academician.

The world community does not like Russian scientists, the world does not need Russian discoveries. Not even like that. Discoveries are needed, but if they are made by Slavic scientists, they are hidden and oppressed by any means until a similar one appears in another country. And more often than not, discoveries are simply stolen or appropriated during the registration process. The authorities of other countries were and are afraid of the competition of Russian scientists. It's easier to close your eyes to the next discovery, if only not to recognize the Russian superiority in anything.

That's what they're doing so far interesting questions development of the Russian language in the country are by no means professionals: geologist G. Grinevich, philosopher V. Chudinov, satirist M. Zadornov. It remains to be hoped that Russian science stop closing his eyes to the facts, and turn his scientific knowledge in search of raw information that promises to become the next star on the slope of scientific discoveries.

There are a lot of such hidden facts and knowledge. Concealment and destruction of them is carried out constantly and purposefully, and those facts that lie on the surface and it is impossible to hide them are distorted and presented from the “correct” point of view. You just need to look at them from a different point of view, instead of continuing to live in a world of artificially created illusion.

look short video about the alphabetic truths hidden in the ancient Slavic alphabet.

one of the greatest mysteries human being. Why are only people, unlike all other species of living beings living on Earth, able to communicate through language? How did the language come about? Scientists have been trying to answer these questions for many years, but so far have not found acceptable answers, although they have put forward countless theories; some of these theories will be discussed in this article.

Human language: arose whether it evolved from simple sounds made by animals, or was given to humans

God? Everyone agrees that language is the main feature that distinguishes humans from other biological species. Our children are learning oral speech barely reaching the age of four; if a child at the age of four cannot speak, then this is a consequence of a congenital or acquired pathology. In general, the gift of speech is inherent in all people - and none of the other living beings that inhabit the Earth. Why is it that only humanity has the ability to communicate verbally, and how did we acquire this ability?

First experiments and scientific hypotheses.

Also in Ancient Egypt people thought about which language is the most ancient, that is, they posed the problem language origin.
Basics modern theories The origin of the language was laid by the ancient Greek philosophers.
By looking at they were divided into two scientific schools - supporters of the "fuses" and adherents of the "theses".
Theory "fusei"(fusei - Greek. " by nature") defended the natural, "natural" nature of the language and, consequently, the natural, biological conditionality of its occurrence and structure. Supporters of the natural origin of the names of objects, in particular, Heraclitus of Ephesus(535-475 BC), believed that the names were given by nature, since the first sounds reflected the things that the names correspond to. Names are shadows or reflections of things. The one who names things must discover the correct name created by nature, but if this fails, then he only makes noise.

Supporters t theories of "Tesey"(thesei - Greek. " by establishment") among which were Democritus of Abder(470/460 - the first half of the 4th century BC) and Aristotle from Stagira (384-322 BC), argued the conditional nature of the language, not related to the essence of things, and, therefore, artificiality, in extreme terms - the conscious nature of its occurrence in society. Names come from the establishment, according to custom, of an agreement between people. They pointed to many inconsistencies between a thing and its name: words have several meanings, the same concepts are denoted by several words. If the names were given by nature, it would be impossible to rename people, but, for example, Aristocles with the nickname Plato (“broad-shouldered”) went down in history.

Scientists have put forward dozens of hypotheses about how people overcame obstacles to appearance of language; most of these hypotheses are very speculative and differ significantly from each other.

The theory of the emergence of language from sounds.

Many biologists and linguists who support the idea of ​​evolution from protozoa to humans believe that language gradually developed from the sounds and noises made by animals. With the development of human intelligence, people managed to make more and more sounds; Gradually, these sounds turned into words, which were assigned meanings.
One way or another, sounds designed to express emotions are very different from those used to convey concepts. Therefore, the probability origin of human language from the sounds made by animals is extremely small.

The theory of creating language by the power of the human mind

Some scholars have suggested that humans somehow created language through their minds. According to their theory, as man evolved, the intellectual abilities of people grew continuously and eventually allowed people to begin to communicate with each other. This assumption also seems very logical, but most scientists and linguists deny this possibility. In particular, Dwight Bolinger, a scientist and linguist who has studied the language abilities of chimpanzees, says:

“It's worth asking why all the life forms that inhabit the Earth had to wait millions of years before Homo did it [created language]. Is it really because a certain level of intelligence had to appear first? But how could this happen if intelligence is entirely dependent on language? Language could not possibly be a precondition for emergence of language».

The level of intelligence cannot be measured without the help of language. So the hypothesis about the appearance of language as a result of the development of the human mind is unfounded and unprovable.
Among other things, scientists cannot prove that a developed intellect is necessary for a language. Thus, we can conclude that we owe our ability to communicate in language not to our highly developed intellect.

The theory of the sudden emergence of language

Some scientists believe that the language appeared in people suddenly, without visible prerequisites for its origin. They believe that the language was originally embedded in a person, and people at a certain stage of evolution simply discovered this feature in themselves and began to use words and gestures to communicate and transmit information, gradually expanding lexicon. Adherents of the theory of the sudden appearance of language argue that people acquired the gift of speech as a result of a random rearrangement of DNA sections in the process of evolution.

According to this theory, language and everything necessary for communication existed before man discovered them. But this means that the language as such arose quite by accident and was not conceived as complete system. Meanwhile, the language is a complex logical system, the highest level of organization of which simply does not allow one to believe in its random occurrence. And even if this theory can be considered as a model for the emergence of language, it cannot by any means be considered an acceptable explanation for the origin of such, since such a complex structure as language could not have arisen by itself, without a creator.

Sign language theory

This theory was put forward Etienne Condillac, Jean Jacques Rousseau and German psychologist and philosopher Wilhelm Wundt(1832-1920), who believed that language is formed arbitrarily and unconsciously.
According to this theory, as humans have evolved, they have gradually developed sign systems because they have discovered that the use of signs can be beneficial. At first, they did not seek to convey any ideas to others; the person simply performed some action, the other saw it and then repeated this action. For example, one person tries to move some object, but he himself is unable to do it; the other sees these efforts and comes to his aid. As a result, the person realized to himself: in order for him to be helped to move something, a gesture depicting a push is enough.

The most serious shortcoming of this theory is that, despite countless attempts, none of its adherents has ever been able to offer an acceptable scenario for adding sounds to gestures.
Gestures as an auxiliary means of communication continue to be used modern man. Non-verbal (non-verbal) means of communication, including gestures, studies paralinguistics as a separate discipline of linguistics.

Theory of onomatopoeia

This hypothesis was put forward in 1880 Max Miiller(Miiller), but even he himself considered it not very plausible. According to one hypothesis, initially the words had a sound similarity with the concepts they expressed (onomatopoeia). For example, the concept of "dog" was initially expressed by the interjection "bow-wow" or "yaw-yaw", and sounds resembling bird chirping or croaking were associated with the birds that made them. Actions were indicated by the sounds that people made when performing these actions; for example, eating was conveyed by champing, and lifting a heavy stone by strained hooting.

Miiller's theory would seem quite logical, but in all the languages ​​of our time, the sound of words has nothing to do with the "sound image" of the concepts they express; and in the ancient languages ​​studied by modern linguists, there was nothing of the kind.

Obstacles to the emergence of language in an evolutionary way

It seems reasonable to many to think that people could have invented signs and words for simple things and actions, but how did people invent syntax? There is no way a man can say, "Give me food," if all the words he has are "food" and "I." Syntax-so a complex system that people wouldn't be able to "open" it by accident. For the emergence of syntax, an intelligent creator was required, but a person could not be this creator, since he would not be able to convey his discovery to others. We do not think of our speech without a metalanguage - a set of auxiliary words that do not have a lexical meaning, but determine the meanings of other words. There is no way people could, by sheer chance, begin to use and understand these words.

A person cannot communicate his thoughts to another without resorting to syntactic constructions; speech without syntax is reduced to exclamations and orders.
In addition, evolutionists fail to explain the patterns of changes that have occurred in languages ​​since the advent of writing, which has preserved these changes for modern linguists. The most ancient languages ​​- Latin, Ancient Greek, Hebrew, Sanskrit, Phoenician, Ancient Syriac - are much more difficult than any of the modern languages. Everyone who comes across these languages ​​these days will admit without hesitation that they are definitely more complicated and harder to learn than the current ones. Languages ​​never got more complicated than they were; on the contrary, over time they only became simpler. However, this is in no way consistent with the theory of biological evolution, according to which everything that exists has become more complicated over time.

Language Creation Theory

Traditions similar to the story of the Tower of Babel have been noted among the most isolated peoples of all continents. They can be divided into three types: the first speaks of a large construction, without mentioning the division of languages ​​(the peoples of Africa, India, Mexico, Spain, Burma); oral chronicles of the second type set out their versions of the origin of languages, without mentioning the construction (peoples Ancient Greece, Africa, India, Australia, USA, Central America), and stories of the third kind, like the Bible, combine these two events.

It is clear from the biblical account of Creation that language existed even before God began to create this world. Language was one way to communicate Holy Trinity- hypostases of the Triune God.
The history of mankind allows Christians to claim that language exists as long as God exists, and according to the Bible, God exists forever.

"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. The earth was formless and empty, and the Spirit of God hovered over the waters. And God said: let there be light. And there was light” (Genesis 1:1-3).

But why, of all the living beings He created, did God endow only humans with language? We find the answer to this question in the very first chapter of Holy Scripture:

“And God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:27).

God created people in his own image, and since God is inherent in language and communication, people also got this gift. Thus, language is one of the facets of the Personality of Godhead that He has given to people. This is a perfectly sound conclusion, since language gives us a partial idea of ​​the nature of God. Like God, language is unthinkably complex. It can take a lifetime to study it; but at the same time, children, having barely learned to walk, begin to understand and use the language.

Religious theories

According to the Bible, God punished the descendants of Adam for their attempt to build a tower to heaven with a variety of languages:
The whole earth had one language and one dialect... And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the sons of men were building. And the Lord said, Behold, there is one people, and all have one language; and this is what they began to do, and they will not lag behind what they have planned to do. Let us go down and confuse their language there, so that one does not understand the speech of the other. And the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth; and they stopped building the city. Therefore a name was given to her: Babylon; for there the Lord confounded the language of all the earth, and from there the Lord scattered them over all the earth (Genesis 11:5-9).

The Gospel of John begins with the following words, where the Logos (word, thought, mind) is equated with the Divine:

“In the beginning was the Word [Logos], and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. It was in the beginning with God."

The Acts of the Apostles (part of the New Testament) describes an event that happened to the apostles, from which the connection of language with the Divine follows:

“When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together with one accord. And suddenly there was a noise from the sky, as if from a rushing strong wind and filled the whole house where they were. And divided tongues appeared to them, as if of fire, and rested one on each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. In Jerusalem there were Jews, devout people, from every nation under heaven. When this noise was made, the people gathered and were confused, for everyone heard them speaking in his own language. And they were all amazed and wondering, saying among themselves, Are not these who speak all Galileans? How do we hear each of his own dialect in which he was born. Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and parts of Libya adjacent to Cyrene, and those who came from Rome, Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians, we hear them in our languages talking about the great things of God? And they were all amazed and, perplexed, said to each other: what does this mean? And others, mocking, said: they drank sweet wine. But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice and cried out to them: Men of the Jews, and all who dwell in Jerusalem! let this be known to you, and give heed to my words…” (Acts of the Apostles, 2:1-14).

The Day of Pentecost, or Trinity Day, deserves to be, in addition to its religious significance, the Day of the Linguist or Translator.

The existence of a proto-language

Researchers most often judge the origin of peoples by their languages. Linguists subdivide many Asian and African languages ​​into Semitic, named Shema or Shema, and Hamitic, named Ham, the sons of Noah. To the Semitic group of languages; reference to language families; include Hebrew, Old Babylonian, Assyrian, Aramaic, various Arabic dialects, the Amharic language in Ethiopia, and some others. Hamitic are ancient Egyptian, Coptic, Berber, and many other African languages ​​and dialects.

At present, however, there is a tendency in science to combine the Hamitic and Semitic languages ​​into one Semitic-Hamitic group. The peoples descended from Japhet speak, as a rule, Indo-European languages. This group includes the vast majority of European languages, as well as many of the languages ​​​​of the peoples of Asia: Iranian, Indian, Turkic.

What was it "single language" which was spoken by all the people of the world?
Many linguists meant Hebrew by the universal language, in view of the fact that many proper names the primitive world, preserved in the languages ​​of all peoples of exile, are built from the roots of the Hebrew language.

According to the tradition of Judaism, the "Single language", which people spoke before the division into nations, was the "Sacred Language". sacred language– “loshn koidesh” is the language in which the Creator spoke with Adam, and people spoke it up to Babylonian pandemonium. Later, the prophets spoke this language, and the Holy Scriptures were written in it.

The fact of the use, according to the Torah, of the Hebrew language by the first people is also indicated by Scripture, where a play on words is found that cannot be translated into other languages. So, the wife is called in Hebrew isha from ish (husband), which indicates the unity and holiness of the marriage union. The name Adam (man) is from Adam (earth), Chava (in Russian Eve) is from Hai (living), “for she was the mother of all living things”, Cain is from Kaniti (I acquired) and so on. This language was called Hebrew by the name of Ever, a descendant of Shem, for Ever preserved this language by passing it on to Abraham. Abraham used the sacred language only for holy purposes.

The everyday language of Abraham was Aramaic, very close to the sacred language, but - as a result of general use - it lost the purity, rigor and grammatical harmony of Hebrew.
Approximately the same can be said about another Semitic language - Arabic. Arabic as a living language surpasses the Hebrew of written monuments by the abundance of synonyms and the presence of precise designations of objects and expressions. These virtues, of course, had Hebrew in the era of the prophets. Therefore, when reading poetic passages of Scripture, we encounter completely different vocabulary, often with words that occur only once in Scripture. As a result of the long stay of the Jews in exile, the original wealth of the Holy Language was lost, and the language of the Bible that has come down to us is only a surviving remnant of ancient Hebrew. This is the tradition and point of view of Judaism, set forth in the book of Kuzari by Rabbi Yehuda a-Levi.

Scientists have long known intuitively origin of languages the world from a single source. Thus, the German philosopher of the 17th century Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, who spoke numerous languages ​​​​of various families, dealt with questions of family relations of languages ​​\u200b\u200band a general theory of language. Leibniz, although he rejected the "Jewish theory" of the origin of languages, that is, the biblical theory of the origin of all of them from the Holy language - Hebrew, was inclined to recognize a single original language. He preferred to call him "Adamic", that is, descending from Adam.

Linguists have come to the conclusion that if not all languages ​​of the world, then at least the vast majority have a related - common - origin.

We speak Russian is; in Latin est; in English is, in German ist. These are all Indo-European languages. Let us, however, turn to the Semitic languages: in Hebrew esh, in Aramaic it or is. Six in Hebrew is shesh, in Aramaic is shit or shis, in Ukrainian is shist, in English is six, in German is sechs. The word seven in English is seven, in German sieben, in Hebrew sheva. Numeral " three» in a number of Indo-European languages: Persian: tree, Greek: treis, Latin: tres, Gothic: threis.
Or take more complex example. The word idea, borrowed from ancient Greek, has a parallel root in Hebrew. De'a in Hebrew means "vision", "opinion". In Hebrew, as well as in other Semitic languages, the root of this word, consisting of the three letters yod, dalet and 'ayin, has a fairly wide use: Yode'a - "he knows", yada - "knew", yivada' - will known. Let us note that in the Russian language there is a verb to know, that is, “to know”, and in ancient Indian Vedas also means “knowledge”. In German, wissen means “to know”, and in English language this root appears in the words wise - “wise”, wisdom - “wisdom”.

Method comparative analysis languages ​​also makes it possible to penetrate deeply into the essence of the processes under study, to reveal a system of certain correspondences where superficial observation does not notice anything similar.

Nostratic language
The intuitive desire of scientists to at least partially reproduce the "single language" of mankind, which, according to the Torah, existed on earth before the division of mankind into nations, is, in our opinion, quite remarkable. Followers of the so-called "Nostratic school".
even compiled a small dictionary of the "Nostratic" language. "Nostratic" these scientists call a certain primitive proto-language, from which the Semitic-Hamitic, Indo-European, Ural-Altaic and other languages ​​\u200b\u200bare descended.

Of course, science has the right to deal with working theories and hypotheses, which, sooner or later, can be proved or refuted.

5. Conclusion

Evolutionists have put forward a great many theories of the origin and development of human language. However, all these concepts are broken down by own shortcomings. Proponents of the theory of evolution have not yet found an acceptable answer to the question of the emergence of language communication. But none of these theories provides an acceptable explanation for the extraordinary diversity and complexity of languages. So there is nothing left but faith in God the Creator, who not only created man, but also endowed him with the gift of speech. The Bible tells about the Creation of all things by God; its text is devoid of contradictions and contains answers to all questions. Unlike the theory of evolution, which lacks credibility in explaining the origin of language, the creation theory set out in the Bible (the theory of the divine creation of language) is able to withstand any objections. This theory retains its position to this day, despite the fact that all this time its opponents have been desperately searching for counterarguments against it.