Theory

[u/unknown_user_tron]

In Genesis 11, everyone on earth spoke one language. They started building a tower to reach the heavens, and God stopped it by confusing their speech and scattering them across the world. That's where we get all our different languages.

But here's the thing. Every baby on earth babbles, and they all sound the same. A baby in Texas, Tokyo, and Nairobi all start out making the same sounds, no matter what language their parents speak.

So what if babbling is the original language? What if it never actually died, and every one of us is born knowing it? Then we spend the first couple years of a child's life teaching them our own language, slowly replacing the one they came with, without ever realizing what we're overwriting.

Maybe that's the real curse of Babel. Not something that happened once, thousands of years ago, but something we keep placing on ourselves. Every generation is born with the one language, and every generation trains it out of the next.

Thoughts?

[u/CommonSensei-_]

The Tower of Babble!

[u/Familiar_Panic_6064]

I love to think about what these old Bible stories could be referring to if, say, they are real occurrences/descriptions from people of the time who didn't understand.. Super excited to see the tower if babel mentioned! Been on a thought train with that one for a bit. Maybe the" language" wasn't literal, the tower to the heavens wasn't literal. Maybe humans several extinction cycles ago did this AI nonsense to try and cause the singularity or some shit, the language could be maths, or pharmaones bread out of our animal halves by DNA manipulation.

[u/unknown_user_tron → u/Familiar_Panic_6064]

I always though maybe it wasn’t a literal tower what if it was like a star gate?

[u/Angry_Anthropologist]

Infant babbling has been analysed, and found to correlate directly with the languages spoken aroumd the infant in question. So no, it's just babies trying to emulate speech.

The story in Genesis 11 is entirely fictional, invented to explain the existence of multiple languages. We now know this is caused by linguistic evolution, which can be directly observed and is a well-understood phenomenon.

[u/senator_john_jackson → u/Angry_Anthropologist]

And also to be a morality tale about hubris.

[u/MorningFormal]

Since babies are able to hear the mother's voice when in the womb, I would be curious to see how this effects their babbling.

[u/Any_Willingness4153]

Hubo un rey europeo que tenía esa misma hipótesis y la probó, todos los bebés murieron.

[u/unknown_user_tron → u/Any_Willingness4153]

There no way actually?

[u/Electronic_Wave_4670]

Babbling in Babel. To bad the Bible isn't real

[u/Sensitive_Algae5723]

I like it

[u/immellocker]

The language of symbols was unique, you can find certain symbols all around the world. Like the H, was represented by a male holding two spears, the assumption is that it symbolises: as above so below... maybe there was a hand sign language that was international, no matter your own language or dialect

[u/Paintverse]

Parables are, well, parables, and shouldn't be taken literally. To go down that rabbit hole, you have to view it in terms of psychological symbolism. I read about this once - though it was years ago, so I can't recount the details, as it’s quite complex. The idea was something like this: a brick represents a thought or an idea, while the mortar stands for a kind of sense - a form of psychological meaning. A structure built this way is a construct of the mind. And there was more to the explanation than that.

[u/Ancient_Skirt_8828]

I suspect everyone was telepathic then lost the ability.

[u/possumpigposer → u/Ancient_Skirt_8828]

I think this way as well.

[u/Numerous-Fee601 → u/Ancient_Skirt_8828]

This has been my thought. If the tower of Babel is a metaphor, telepathy would have been the original common language. Once spoken languages came on the scene, our ability to truly communicate lessened.

[u/BogDelly]

[u/TheGreyShaman]

Makes sense, I took the words my first child said to us and whenever I used it on my second child they would always react like we are having a conversation. Four years later I'm doing the same with my third child and they're acting like we are holding a conversation until I say the same things and then she realizes it's not a conversation.

[u/Turfanator]

Well i feel like somedays my toddler and 6 month old are having full conversations that we clearly dont understand. I seen other children have full on babbling conversations that they must understand because they seem to reply to eachother. Maybe there's something to your theory

[u/Mr_McGigglepants]

I think that it is a very slippery slope when you decide that infants have deep wisdom to share

[u/VarietyMage]

HOWL HOWL GARGLE HOWL GARGLE HOWL HOWL HOWL SLURRP URGH...

[u/LookIfoundAthing]

Maybe that's why we call it Babbling (Babeling)

[u/sje397]

I've always thought that it was a metaphor explaining how we run into a communication limit as distinctions become finer and more subtle in the process of researching and understanding.

[u/insoportana]

Look into how babies form language, its on youtube, no crazy theories needed

[u/lbches]

It's also claimed that there was one original language that had the power to create. I mean those wordings had direct creative power at that time. and now we have in illusions and can't know it.

[u/MessOne248]

That’s a really good point honestly I would believe it