A Word On Polyglots Of The Ancient World

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A Word On Polyglots Of The Ancient World

The most well-known tale of how different languages came to be, at least in areas where Judaism and Christianity are prevalent, is recorded in the Bible, in Genesis 11:1–9. According to the narrative, at one point in history, everyone who had survived the Great Flood caused by God's wrath, spoke the same language and settled in a place in the southern region of Mesopotamia called Shinar. As they began their new lives there, the people believed it would be a good idea to begin construction on a skyscraper as tall as the heavens, to reach God. However, God was not impressed by these ambitions and cursed everyone working on the tower, by turning their speech incomprehensible to one another and dispersed them all over the world. The city in which the tower was built was later named Babel and the narrative is the Tower of Babel.

The  Confusion of Tongues, depicting the Tower of Babel from Abrahamic myth, by Gustave Doré,  (1865) (Public Domain)

The  Confusion of Tongues, depicting the Tower of Babel from Abrahamic myth, by Gustave Doré,  (1865) (Public Domain)

There is also a Hindu tale about the birth of languages. The story tells that there was once a very tall tree that sprouted from the earth's core. The tree was known as the "World Tree" or "Knowledge Tree”. The tree grew to be nearly as tall as the heavens. Instead of stopping, the tree chose to keep growing so that its head would be in heaven and its branches would be on earth, allowing all humans to congregate under it and never separate. However, when Brahma, the god of creation, discovered the tree's plans, he punished the tree by cutting off all its branches and scattered them all over the land. Where each branch fell, a new tree sprouted, bringing with it a new language and culture for humanity.


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