Where did all these languages come from?
Being a language enthusiast, I strongly believe that all the languages around the world branched only from one language. I will explain in this article why I have come to this conclusion after years of personal research. In fact, this perception totally changes how we see the world because it helps us understand that our origins are from one region and that our ancestors migrated to different regions of the earth in a later period of time. This conclusion gives rise to some questions, like, did our ancestors actually live in one region in the past? If yes, why didn’t they live together? What forced them to migrate to different geographical locations? Is that migration the reason for all these different cultures and religions that we have today? I believe this article can provide you with the answers to those questions.
Before we discuss answers to those questions, I would also like to tell you the only historical record that touches on this topic: “Where did all these languages come from?”
By the way, what is that historical record? It is the Bible. You may see it as a religious book, but it also has a lot of history contained in it. Even if you believe in the Bible or not, my request is that when you read this article, consider its historical aspect. In the 11th chapter of Genesis, it says, “All the earth continued to be of one language and of one set of words.” It continues, “They discovered a valley plain in the land of Shinar, and they began dwelling there.” To understand what the location of Shinar is, we refer to Genesis 10:10, where it says, “Ba’bel, E’rech, Ac’cad (also Akkad) and Cal’neh, in the land of Shinar.” Does it not point to the Akkadian Empire, the first empire in human history? Does it mean that the people at that time lived only in the regions surrounding the Akkadian Empire? Does it mean the people of the Akkadian Empire and its surrounding regions spoke only one language, and then something resulted in new languages and their migration? We will find out. If we continue to read Genesis chapter 11, we understand that this history states that, due to divine intervention, there was an event of language confusion at a later time. Because of that confusion, the people scattered or migrated with their same language group to different regions of the earth.
Apart from what we considered, there are no other written historical records touching on this topic: “Where did all these languages come from?”
How can we find out if that written text is reliable? Let’s refer to some other resources. To begin with, let’s find the answer to the question: Did our ancestors really live in one region, i.e., in the Akkadian Empire and its surrounding regions? The Britannica says the world’s earliest civilization developed in the region of Mesopotamia. And Mesopotamia is the region in which we find the Akkadian Empire and its surrounding locations. So, it gives us a reason to believe that our ancestors, or at least most of the population, lived in one region before they migrated to different parts of the world.
The world’s earliest civilization developed in the region of Mesopotamia.
And obviously, we can understand that if there is only one empire, there should be only one or a very few languages for people to communicate in, maybe with some accent differences based on the surrounding areas. But definitely, not as many languages as we have today.
If we take the history of the Bible into consideration again, the confusion of languages took place between the time period of 2269 B.C.E. and 2030 B.C.E. based on the lifetime of a man named Peleg (Genesis 10:25). The Akkadian Empire existed during 2334–2154 BC (180 years), and it’s exactly overlapping with the lifetime of Peleg. Could this history mentioned in the Bible be true? It could be. It seems reasonable for me to believe this because world history and the written record in the Bible are perfectly overlapping.
This means that during or sometime after Peleg was born, the confusion of languages took place and people migrated to different regions to form new civilizations. When did the other early civilizations or kingdoms come into existence? The early Chinese civilization, the Xia Dynasty came into existence around 2100 BC. And the nuclear dates of the Indus Valley civilization appear to be about 2500–1700 BCE, though the southern sites may have lasted later into the 2nd millennium BCE. Both the Chinese and Indus Valley civilizations are said to be among the earliest civilizations, but they began to exist only after the year 2269 B.C.E. (as per Peleg’s birth year), which shows that they could have migrated and settled in their regions after a possible language confusion or a similar event. Even the most debated Aryan invasion into India seems to have occurred between 2000 B.C.E. and 1500 B.C.E. as per the historians, which is also after the year 2269 B.C.E. Here, I am not including the Egyptian civilization, one of the earliest civilizations; as it is a surrounding region of the Akkadian Empire, it could have co-existed during that time, not as an empire but as a separate civilization.
Looking at that research, I believe that most of our modern-day languages emerged from only one or a very few languages. Even the vocabulary that we have in different languages proves that they are somehow interrelated and increases the possibility of believing that a single set of words has been modified into other languages. For example, the word 'mother or mom’ constantly contains the phonetic sound /m/, irrespective of the language. You may check how the word ‘mother or mom’ is pronounced in various languages. This is just an example. There are various similarities among the languages, not only the languages that came into existence some hundreds of years ago but also among the so-called ancient languages.
In conclusion, based on the above references, the only written historical text that actually touches on this aspect and the overlapping harmony of the timelines that were considered, I believe that most of the languages, including the so-called ancient or earliest languages that exist today, have emerged from one or a very few languages from Mesopotamia at some point in history after 2269 B.C.E.
References —
- “Mesopotamia, historical region, Asia.” Encyclopædia Britannica, inc., 2023. https://www.britannica.com/place/Mesopotamia-historical-region-Asia.
- Wikipedia Contributors. “Akkadian Empire.” Wikipedia, 16 November 2023. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akkadian_Empire.
- Editors, World Atlas. “A Brief History of Chinese Civilization.” WorldAtlas, 2023. https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/a-brief-history-of-chinese-civilization.html.
- “Indus civilization.” Encyclopædia Britannica, inc., 2023. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Indus-civilization.
- “The new reports clearly confirm ‘Arya’ migration into India — The Hindu”. https://www.thehindu.com/society/history-and-culture/theres-no-confusion-the-new-reports-clearly-confirm-arya-migration-into-india/article61986135.ece
