Mondovortoj

A beautiful story related to the human language diversity is the "confusion of tongues", where the Tower of Babel is the center of it. The confusion of tongues ("confusio linguarum" in Latin) is the fragmentation of human languages described in the Bible after the collapse of the Tower of Babel.

According to the narrative in Genesis Chapter 11 of the Bible, the Tower of Babel was a tower built by a united humanity in order to reach Heaven. To prevent the project from succeeding (because their actions were a result of their prides), God confused their languages so that each one spoke a different language, they could no longer communicate to each another and their work could not proceed. Afterwards, people moved away to different parts of Earth. The story is used to explain the existence of many different languages and races:

"Now the entire earth was of one language and uniform words. And it came to pass when they traveled from the east, that they found a valley in the land of Shinar and settled there. And they said to one another, "Come, let us make bricks and fire them thoroughly"; so the bricks were to them for stones, and the clay was to them for mortar. And they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make ourselves a name, lest we be scattered upon the face of the entire earth". And the Lord descended to see the city and the tower that the sons of man had built. And The LORD said, "Lo! [they are] one people, and they all have one language, and this is what they have commenced to do. Now, will it not be withheld from them, all that they have planned to do? Come, let us descend and confuse their language, so that one will not understand the language of his companion". And the Lord scattered them from there upon the face of the entire earth, and they ceased building the city. Therefore, He named it Babel, for there the Lord confused the language of the entire earth, and from there the Lord scattered them upon the face of the entire earth."

The name Babylon is from Akkadian Bab-ilu, which means Gate of God. Its Hebrew version however, Babel, sounds similar to a word for "confusion".

Historical linguistics thoroughly rejects the idea of a single original language, certainly at least not before 10,000 BC, well before the existence of Babylon where the tale of Babel is set. Throughout history, several authors have claimed that some language was the original and the rest were corruptions, and each time has been disputed by the academic community. This has been the case with Hebrew, Latin, German or Basque (generally depending on the nationality of the proposer).

"Nobody wants a dominant international language, even if, by convenience, English is used. Recent events showed that Europe does not move towards the unification of languages, but towards their multiplication such as Lithuanian, Slovenian, Ukrainian, Catalan, Basque. Thus, a plan to adopt a common language can be considered to be used in the European Parliament, in the airports, in the congresses, and I would like Esperanto to be taken into account because it would certainly prevent the nations from tearing to shreds each other in order to impose their own langue." (La Stampa, June 6 th , 1993, p.20)

"Europe will never be built if the problem of mutual comprehension is not taken into account. When people from three or four different countries of the continent get gathered, it is necessary to establish communication between them. Regarding to this matter, we are underdeveloped. Languages are thought without worrying about their importance in the current world"(Le Figaro, August 19 th ,1993)

"I studied Esperanto's grammar - that does not mean that I know how to speak it - and I realized that it is a language built intelligently, and which history is very beautiful."(On Thursday's event)

"From the linguistic point of view, it really follows the economy and effectiveness basis which are admirable"(On Paris Première, 02/27/96 with Paul Amar)

Umberto Eco