According to biblical legends, in ancient times people became so proud that they decided to build a city and a tower as high as heaven. The Lord God decided to hinder the builders by confusing their languages.

The result of God's wrath was not long in coming. The builders could not understand each other, thereby the construction of the skyscraper was stopped, and people dispersed throughout the globe.

There is an explanation in the differences in the language of people and from a scientific point of view. Linguists say that language, as a means of communication between people, is constantly changing. It is argued that there is no barrier that would protect him from change.

There are approximately 5,000 living languages ​​and dialects around the world. The multilingualism of the Earth's population developed for many reasons, for example, the fragmented life of ancient tribes who lived in groups and did not even suspect the existence of other people.

Each tribe created its own so-called proto-language, which subsequently developed and branched. All languages ​​that descend from one proto-language can be classified as one “family” of languages. There are about 13 families of languages ​​around the world, from which many of the existing languages ​​have evolved.

Why are there so many languages?

There is no single answer to this question, as there is to all questions concerning the distant past. There are several versions. According to one of them, there is common language from which all others were born. According to another version, Neanderthals developed a person with two mutations in the FOXP2 gene on chromosome 7, as a result of which this person’s body became capable of language.

People began to ask the question about language a very long time ago, from the time ancient egypt. Ancient people, when they encountered foreigners, did not understand their speech and considered them second-class citizens. The Greeks contemptuously called them “barbarians” because their speech seemed like a meaningless set of sounds: “bar-bar-var”. Nowadays, with the help of computers, people can recreate many ancient languages ​​based on the roots of modern words. Learning languages ​​with different sides, linguists have discovered that many languages, even at first glance completely different, have something in common. But why are they different? The answer can be based on observations of languages modern people. In the Russian language there are words that different regions are called differently. Some people call “beets” “buryak”, “Thursday” - “chetverik”, “curb” - “curb”. It all depends on the dialects. Neighbors have almost no differences in language; those who live further away have differences in individual words or sounds. But their speech can still be understood. But understanding neighbors' neighbors is no longer so easy. And it’s impossible to make out what those distant people are saying. This is how it appears new language. It is easy to determine that Russian and French are different languages: speakers of one do not understand speakers of the other at all. What is "pomme" in French? It is unlikely that a person who has not studied French will guess that this is an “apple”. And if you compare Russian and Ukrainian: “yabloko”, then there is no need for translation, the word is clear, of course. Despite the fact that the languages ​​are different, people who speak them can easily understand each other - there is a lot in common between them. But in addition to the distance of peoples from each other in terms of distance and time, the appearance of different languages ​​is greatly influenced by geography. On the island of New Guinea, the population speaks almost a thousand different languages! And all because the island’s territory is dotted with mountains and jungles. It is difficult for people to navigate through it, they rarely communicate, they hardly exchange new words, so each village has developed its own language. And linguists call the Caucasus the “mountain of languages”. There was even an old Arabic legend: “Allah had a bag in which different languages ​​were stored. While traveling around the world, he gave each nation one language. But when he traveled around the whole world, except the Caucasus, there were still a lot of languages ​​left in the bag. Allah just "He turned the sack over the mountains and poured out all the languages. Therefore, now each tribe there has its own dialect." There are a lot of such countries and localities with different dialects.

Why do people speak different languages? There is no clear answer to this question. Scientists and the Bible interpret it differently. The first claim that initially all people spoke the same language and understood each other perfectly. They resolved all issues that arose peacefully, without resorting to violence. To some extent this was due to their compact living. To put it simply, all the tribes lived in the same neighborhood and could easily communicate with each other, in the same language, understandable to everyone.

The Bible has a different point of view. To have access to heaven, people decided to build a tower, which was called the Tower of Babel. However, they did not ask God for permission, which angered him. As punishment, he settled people all over the planet and forced them to speak different languages, which led to serious difficulties in their communication.

This is how the Bible interprets multilingualism. Scientists agree that the process of the emergence of different languages ​​was quite long. At first, people lived on earth in small groups and communicated with each other using gestures. Their main occupation was hunting. But in the process of evolution, humans developed additional needs, which led to the unification of various tribes. Now a person needed not only to hunt, but also to build housing, engage in agriculture, make tools, sew clothes, etc. This could only be done together. This is exactly how peoples arose, with their own language of communication.

Initially, it differed little from its primitive counterpart, and only over time began to acquire its own dialect. At the same time, different nations this process took place individually. The end result is well known to us. Today, every nation has its own language, and in order to understand each other we are forced to resort to the help of a translator. At the same time, linguistic transformation continues. To some extent, this is facilitated by wars that lead to the seizure of foreign territories. As a result, a merging of languages ​​occurs, leading to the emergence of certain linguistic symbioses and completely unique dialects. This, for example, is the dialect of Transcarpathians. Their language contains many Slovak, Magyar, Ruthenian and Ukrainian words.

This is how new languages ​​arise. They may retain their grammar but include entirely new expressions. In this case, the language of the conqueror’s people always wins. This, for example, happened with the Frankish tribes, who lost their language and came under the influence of Gaul. All that remains of it is the name of the country, which we all know well. In this case we are talking about France.

According to biblical legends, in ancient times people became so proud that they decided to build a city and a tower as high as heaven. But God decided to thwart their plan by mixing the languages ​​of the ancient builders so that they no longer understood each other...

Before the great migration out of Africa began, something happened to humanity and a new form of communication emerged. Most modern languages born in glacial period. Having made this conclusion, linguists are getting closer and closer to the origins of speech, comparing their hypotheses with the biblical legend.

According to biblical legends, in ancient times people became so proud that they decided to build a city and a tower as high as heaven. But God decided to thwart their plan by mixing the languages ​​of the ancient builders so that they no longer understood each other. Grandiose construction stopped, and multilingual builders scattered throughout the land.

Linguists have their own view of the problem - language is constantly changing, and there is no barrier that could protect it from these transformations. Invented and borrowed words from other languages ​​are constantly wedged into our communication.

However, for reasons that are not entirely clear, some languages ​​evolve much faster than others. Italian, for example, has remained much closer to classical Latin than French. Lithuanian has many words that exactly correspond to Sanskrit, which was spoken 3.5 thousand years ago.

American linguists conducted a study in an attempt to reduce all the world's languages ​​to a single root. About 50 thousand years ago, something unusual happened to our ancestors in Africa. Moreover, the ancient people, who had existed for at least 150 thousand years, suddenly began to behave differently.

Until then, their behavior hardly differed from the customs of the Neanderthals. They used stone tools and had some form of communication, which scientists suggest was based on gestures, facial expressions and sounds.

The advent of speech accelerated progress. Scientists believe that the new means of communication has allowed humanity to make a huge leap forward. This event had higher value than the computer or biotechnological revolutions combined, experts say.

It is assumed that ancient people developed speech before the great migration from Africa. “Perhaps they were trying to discuss the routes of the upcoming migration to Europe and Asia, and it was not so easy to manage only with gestures in this regard,” the scientists joke.

A team of researchers from the Santa Fe Institute is working to find the “mother of all languages.” The Evolution of Human Languages ​​(EHL) project, led by Nobel laureate, physicist Murray Gell-Mann creates a unique etymological database about all the languages ​​of the world. EHL linguists are trying to reconstruct and then compare ancestral languages, moving ever closer to the origins human speech. The project has already caused a mixed reaction from the scientific community. Many linguists are convinced that beyond the threshold of eight thousand years, all attempts to find the root of a language are unreasonable.

EHL linguists were only provoked by the criticism. They grouped all the world's languages ​​into 12 linguistic superfamilies, four of which (including the languages ​​of Eurasia, North Africa, Oceania and possibly the Americas) were experimentally combined into one company, calling it Borean (meaning “northern”). The ancestor of most modern languages, according to researchers, appeared 16 thousand years ago, when glaciers covered most of North America and Europe.

Linguists continue to develop their hypothesis. They seem to have proven how the lion's share of Eurasian, American and North African languages ​​could be formed from one linguistic group.

In their opinion, the Ice Age is to blame for everything. 20 thousand years ago, at its peak, humanity had lost much of its linguistic diversity. As the glacier moved south, people migrated with it and mixed with each other, both genetically and linguistically. As a result, a very complex “linguistic puree” was formed, which scientists tried to disassemble.

“Why do people speak different languages?” - everyone asks this question in childhood, but not many people solve this riddle for themselves as adults. From time immemorial people have tried to answer this question: there are and biblical legend, and folk legends, and scientific hypothesis. All these versions are based on one simple fact, which is not difficult to notice even without special linguistic education: even very different languages ​​very often have a lot in common.

Legends

To the question of why people speak different languages, the Australian legend has its own, very original answer: once upon a time, peoples were divided into “pure” and “impure”. Both of them were cannibals, but they ate different parts of the body - the “clean” ones ate meat, the “unclean” ones - internal organs. According to the aborigines, linguistic differences arose from everyday differences.

Tribes from Indochina have their own vision of the problem: each of the races that make up humanity originally had its own dialect. There are six such races in total, and all of them, like branches, curl from the giant “progenitor” pumpkin.

Less exotic, but equally interesting is the version of the Amazon: God divided the languages ​​- he needed this so that, having ceased to understand each other, people began to listen to him more.

In the Iroquois tribe there is a belief that people who once understood each other quarreled and therefore lost their “common language” and began speaking different languages. This separation occurred, according to the myth, not even among strangers, but within the same family!

There is a beautiful legend about languages ​​belonging to the Navajo tribe of American Indians. According to their mythology, they were created by a certain deity, which they call the “changing woman.” It was she who created them in the first place and allowed them to speak her language. However, later she created bordering peoples, each of which she endowed with her own language.

In addition, many peoples have beliefs about the one true, correct language. Thus, the language of the Egyptians was given to them by the god Ptah, and the ancestors of the Chinese were taught their sacred language by the legendary emperors of ancient times.

Bible

There are, however, more familiar explanations for why people speak different languages; according to the Bible (book of Genesis, chapter 11), most are familiar with one of the most interesting Christian parables about the so-called Babylonian Pandemonium.

This legend tells about the sin of the Babylonian kingdom. Its inhabitants were so mired in vanity and moved away from obedience to the Lord that they decided to build such a high tower in their city that it would reach heaven - so people wanted to “get equal” with God. However, God did not allow the sinners to carry out their plan: he confused the languages ​​so that they could no longer communicate - so the Babylonians were forced to stop construction.

Many people know popular expression"Babel". It means confusion, confusion, turmoil and general misunderstanding - which is what happened when people lost their “common language”. Thus, the Bible gives a more substantiated answer than archaic folk legends about why people speak different languages.

Scientific theory

However, science also provides an equally interesting solution. After all, languages ​​not only differ from each other, but are also classified into families, branches and groups - depending on the degrees of kinship. Thus, the languages ​​of Europe come from the Proto-Indo-European language. Today it is not known to us (it can only be reconstructed), and no written monuments in this language have reached us. But many factors indicate its existence.

However, if there once was, why are there so many of them today? The question of why people speak different languages ​​is explained quite simply from a scientific point of view: language, by its nature, tends to divide almost indefinitely. This happens due to geographic separation. Since humanity began to divide into ethnic groups and states, such groups have ceased to communicate with each other - therefore, the language within each group has developed in its own way.

Language families

There are also more recent divisions into languages. So, for example, Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, Serbian and many others are related: their similarity is noticeable - more or less - even with the naked eye. This happened because they came from the same language family - Slavic. It would seem that the peoples are so close and border each other - but yet so many different ones came out of the Old Church Slavonic language! It turns out that even large areas and cultural differences (just look at the division between Catholics and Orthodox!) play such a significant role.

What's happening to languages ​​now?

But has language stopped dividing? No matter how it is. It turns out that even now within one language, separated by borders, there is a demarcation. For example, the descendants of Russians who remained in Alaska after its transition to the United States today speak a very strange version of Russian, which “ordinary” speakers, if they understand, obviously do so with great difficulty.

"Different languages" of one people

But even in not so distant areas there are differences. For example, it’s no secret that “entrance” and “front door”, “shawarma” and “shawarma” are one and the same thing, but for some reason both exist. Why does language change within even one country? All for the same simple reason: St. Petersburg and Moscow, Arkhangelsk and Krasnodar are so far from each other that even in the absence of isolation and the existence of federal media, their own characteristics inevitably arise everywhere.

The situation is different, for example, in Germany. If in Russia a resident of the capital is still able to intuitively guess what, for example, “greenery” is in some village dialect, then a German from one region of Germany may not understand at all a German speaking a different dialect.