English
water
dog (hound)
clock
Dutch
water
hond
klok
German
Wasser
Hund
Uhr (related to Latin hora = English “hour”)
Table 1: Just a few
examples of the obvious
relatedness between
German, Dutch and
English.
transmitted down a chain, speak of the
immense creative power and intelligence
of God, the master Programmer and
Designer.
Consider this, too: Adam and Eve,
created as adults, had to have full
language ability from the first, so as to
understand God and each other in that
perfect world before sin. None of us
pops into the world with that ability;
even though we have the mechanisms
to learn, even to create language with
astonishing ease, we have to absorb word
meanings and the rules of grammar from
the world around us as we grow up.
10 We
do this via our designed vocal equipment
and brain machinery. But the first couple
required more—a “built-in” knowledge
of the language rules (grammar) and
word meanings (vocabulary).
11 Unless
they already knew the meaning of each
word God spoke to them soon after their
creation, they could not have understood
Him.
12
LANGUAGES—ALWAYS
CHANGING
There is another historical instance
recorded in Genesis of God directly
programming new language—in fact
several languages—into people. That
happened at the Tower of Babel, Genesis
10–11.
There are thousands of languages in
the world today. In one modest-sized
country alone, Papua New Guinea
(PNG), there are well over six hundred
separate languages. Does that mean that
each one of those thousands of languages
arose at Babel? Definitely not. For one
thing, Genesis implies that the extended
family group associated with named
individuals stayed together; it makes
sense for God to ensure that each such
group spoke the same language. Being
so soon after the Genesis Flood, this was
not a huge population, and it seems there
were at most several dozen languages
created instantly.
ENGLISH—ALWAYS
CHANGING TOO
Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales were
written in the English of six
hundred years ago: “. . . The yonge
sonne hath in the ram his half
cours yronne, and small fowls
maken melodye, that slepen all the
night with open yë.” Even though
today’s King James Bible (the
1769 revision) is not modern-day
English, it, too, is dramatically
different from its original 1611
edition, 14 with tens of thousands
of changes deemed necessary
to make it comprehensible to a
populace whose own English
had changed and continues to do
so. The spread of writing slowed
down the pace of language change,
which can be dramatic in cultures
with no writing.
All the other languages arose
afterwards, by a simple process for which
there is evidence. When groups with the
same language then live apart without
Table 2: Comparisons of nine Indo-European languages compared to Hungarian (red bold font). Hungarian is in a different language family,
despite being in Europe, and shows no pattern of relatedness to the others in this table, as they obviously do to each other. The ancient Sanskrit
of India is also in the Indo-European family.
English
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Mother
Father
I
You
House
Dog
Cat
Lion
Monkey
Bear
German
Eins
Zwei
Drei
Vier
Fünf
Mutter
Vater
Ich
Du
Haus
Hund
Katze
Löwe
Affe
Bär
Danish
En
To
Tre
Fire
Fem
Mor
Far
Jeg
Du
Hus
Hund
Kat
Løve
Abe
Bjørn
Latin
Unus
Duo
Tres
Quattuor
Quinque
Mater
Pater
Ego
Tu
Domus
Canis
Feles*
Spanish
Uno
Dos
Tres
Cuatro
Cinco
Madre
Padre
Yo
Tu
Casa
Perro
Gato
León
Mono
Oso
Italian
Uno
Due
Tre
Quattro
Cinque
Madre
Padre
Io
Tu
Casa
Cane
Gatto
Leone
Scimmia
Orso
French
Un
Deux
Trois
Quatre
Cinq
Mère
Père
Je
Tu
Maison
Chien
Chat
Lion
Singe
Ours
Greek
(mod.)
Ena
Dhyo
Tria
Tessera
Pente
Metera
Pateras
Ego
Esy
Spiti
Skylos
Gata
Leontari
Maimouda
Arkoudha
Fidhi
Alogo
Vodi
Russian
Odyin
Dva
Tri
Chyetirye
Pyat’
Mat’
Otyetz
Ya
Ti
Dom
Sobaka
Koshka
Lyev
Obiez’yana
Myedvyed’
Hungarian
Eggy
Kettö
Három
Négy
Öt
Anya
Apa
Én
Ón
Ház
Kutya
Macska
Oroszlán
Majom
Medve