The Mother of all Languages

By: Russell Derrickson

March 19, 2014

The question of a universal language has plagued humanity since the dawn of recorded history. There are myths and legends of a time when all of humanity did speak the same language. The legends tell of a time when any person of any land could communicate completely with any person from any other land. The loss of this is often mourned, with a particular note on the potential for peace lost.

This myth is most commonly brought down to us in the Judea-Christian tales of the infamous Tower of Babel and it's inevitable fall. This tale does not stay as euro-centric as one might believe though. Brahma, the full manifestation of all facets of the Hindu Gods is also said to have confused languages in the ancient past. Early Mesopotamians also have this tale, unsurprising as all Semitic religions and languages evolved from this area.

The story becomes interesting when the history and archaeological evidence is considered. While the story of the Tower of Babel does sound entirely fictitious, there does appear to be evidence of a tower structure in the middle of ancient Babylon (Krystak, Tower of Babel). Archeologists have found that it would have stood nearly 275 feet and was rebuilt by King Nebuchadnezzar in the middle of the 600's C.E. (Krystak, Tower of Babel).

King Nebuchadnezzar just so happens to be the King of Babylon who conquered Jerusalem and began the Babylonian Exodus. The first books of the Torah were not recorded until after the Assyrian defeated the Babylonians and let the people return to Jerusalem and only those who returned can consider themselves Jewish. It is plausible that the tales of the Tower of Babel originated from the Tower being rebuilt in Nebuchadnezzar's time.

The idea of a single spoken language has not been missed in scholarly and linguistic fields as well. Professors Peter MacNeilage and Barbara Davis reported in their paper “On the Origin and Internal Structure of Word Forms” who found “ similar words in different languages that are presumed to derive from a common source” (Davis, Pg 1). They found 27 globally universal words that seemed to originate from the same root language (Davis, Pg 1). This would suggest that at one point in history, this language was spoken by peoples who now live on all parts of the globe.

The language is generally referred to as P.I.E. or Proto-Indo-European and there is a religion as well of the same name. This language is the origin of both Semitic and Sanskrit, the precursors of the Alphabet, Greek, Latin, English, Slavic and most writing and speaking systems for India thus most Asian languages as well (Slocum, Indo-European Languages). This would also include the languages of North America, deriving from Asiatic migrations to to North America. In fact, the seemingly independent languages of Hungary and Japan are actually very closely linked is another example of the potential commonality in the past.

The possibility of a universal language is often idealized, thought of as having the potential to finally even bring peace through communication. This would seem logical as it would make communication itself easier by default. It is interesting to note that the point in history where there last appears to have been a “lingua franca” was marked by the most violent and horrible times for humanity ever recorded. It was a time of warlords and petty thugs posing as lords; strong-arming the peasants for everything they could obtain. Religions of the time are notable for the practice of sacrifices, both human and animal, and wars between various tribe or nation states was so commonplace as to be just another inevitable part of everyday life.

The ability to communicate is one of humanity's greatest gifts, it is what enables us to accomplish the magnificent wonders we have created over time, but it has also that which has enabled us to coordinate massive troop movements globally with a goal of human devastation. Language brought us the idea of “love”, but it also brought us “hate”. It could be possible that we might be better off not knowing what the other person is thinking, they are not always pleasant thoughts. It would be wonderful for all the world to understand the peaceful message of the Dali Lama, but they would also hear the message of the KKK and the words of Hitler. Perhaps, before we start wondering if we can all communicate to the rest of the world, we should first begin by learning how to communicate with each other.