# Creationist view on Language Development? What language did Adam and Eve speak? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [August 19, 2005, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creationist-view-on-language-development-what-language-did-adam-and-eve-speak/317764 "2005-08-19T16:38:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2005, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creationist-view-on-language-development-what-language-did-adam-and-eve-speak/317764/41 "2005-08-24T03:45:03Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > Well, linguistics isn’t theology and your posting has nothing to do with what my professors taught, thankfully. Why would you enter a thread about the language Adam and Eve spoke and then be arbitrarily derisive of theology? Did I not tell you how proud I am that you accomplished getting your linguistics degree? I don’t understand why you are being competitive honestly. ---
**Author:** ![yBeayf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/e274bd/32.png) [@yBeayf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yBeayf)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2005, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creationist-view-on-language-development-what-language-did-adam-and-eve-speak/317764/42 "2005-08-24T04:38:23Z")
> [@](#): > > Interesting, that. In none of my linguistics courses did the professors use the term primitive. Now, the prefix proto- was used quite often. \ I’ve heard it used a fair bit. An example of its use wrt Semitic languages would be that the emphatic series of consonants are a primitive feature, retained (with some modifications) in Arabic but lost in modern Hebrew. ---
**Author:** ![yBeayf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/e274bd/32.png) [@yBeayf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yBeayf)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2005, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creationist-view-on-language-development-what-language-did-adam-and-eve-speak/317764/43 "2005-08-24T04:44:54Z")
> [@](#): > > Why would you enter a thread about the language Adam and Eve spoke and then be arbitrarily derisive of theology? He’s not being derisive towards theology, he’s being derisive towards your rather incoherent response to a point regarding linguistics. And the sefirot have nothing to do with linguistics (or anything else, really, for that matter). ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2005, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creationist-view-on-language-development-what-language-did-adam-and-eve-speak/317764/44 "2005-08-24T05:24:21Z")
Before this runs off the rails, I hope that everyone notes that **yBeafy** noted primitive _features_ and not primitive _languages_. Had there been a reference to a “primitive” language, I would find it uninformative and distracting, (and _wrong_, of course), but I have also heard languages and dialects mentioned as carrying primitive features within language groups. His original comment simply noted that within the entire Semitic language group, some languages such as Arabic continue to use earlier/more primitive features, not that Arabic (or any other language) was more primitive than any other. ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2005, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creationist-view-on-language-development-what-language-did-adam-and-eve-speak/317764/45 "2005-08-24T06:02:24Z")
I wonder if there was ever a human who spoke a Neanderthal language/dialect or if early Homo Sapien’s and Neanderthal’s proto languages shared any roots (assuming that Neanderthal had language, of course.)? I’ve always thought it funny imagining that there were probably ‘cavemen translators’ that had spent time among the Neanderthals and acted as a go between when they coexisted peacefully. I bet quite a few ‘cavemen’ were multilingual considering nomadicism and humanity’s tendency toward assimilation for survival. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2005, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creationist-view-on-language-development-what-language-did-adam-and-eve-speak/317764/46 "2005-08-24T13:02:39Z")
> [@yBeayf](#): > > He’s not being derisive towards theology, he’s being derisive towards your rather incoherent response to a point regarding linguistics. And the sefirot have nothing to do with linguistics (or anything else, really, for that matter). Exactly. Thanks also to Tom for his expansion regarding the use of _primitive_. An interesting thing to note, though, is that a proto-language may have features that the current language does not; however, later that language may pick up those features again, such as inflections. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2005, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creationist-view-on-language-development-what-language-did-adam-and-eve-speak/317764/47 "2005-08-24T21:54:58Z")
> [@yBeayf](#): > > He’s not being derisive towards theology, he’s being derisive towards your rather incoherent response to a point regarding linguistics. And the sefirot have nothing to do with linguistics (or anything else, really, for that matter). You’re right, the Sefer Yetzirah a book about the language of creation has no basis in this discussion whatsoever, what could I possibly have been thinking? We’ve got to get down to the serious SCIENCE!!! of what language Adam and Eve spoke! I’ll try not to be so stupid next time. Erek ---
**Author:** ![yBeayf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/e274bd/32.png) [@yBeayf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yBeayf)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2005, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creationist-view-on-language-development-what-language-did-adam-and-eve-speak/317764/48 "2005-08-24T22:06:45Z")
> [@](#): > > You’re right, the Sefer Yetzirah a book about the language of creation has no basis in this discussion whatsoever, what could I possibly have been thinking? We’ve got to get down to the serious SCIENCE!!! of what language Adam and Eve spoke! If the Sefer Yetzirah says that Hebrew was the first language, then it is wrong. There are written records of languages long before Hebrew came on the scene, and Hebrew is demonstrably not the ancestor of any other known language. Whatever language Adam and Eve spoke, it was not Hebrew. > [@](#): > > I’ll try not to be so stupid next time. Thanks. I appreciate it. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2005, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creationist-view-on-language-development-what-language-did-adam-and-eve-speak/317764/49 "2005-08-25T06:58:58Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > Did I not tell you how proud I am that you accomplished getting your linguistics degree? I don’t understand why you are being competitive honestly. Please refresh my memory. ---
**Author:** ![uglybeech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/82dd89/32.png) [@uglybeech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/uglybeech)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2005, 8:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creationist-view-on-language-development-what-language-did-adam-and-eve-speak/317764/50 "2005-08-25T08:01:41Z")
> [@yBeayf](#): > > I’m using “primitive” in the sense it’s used in linguistics, of “underived”, “unchanged” or “original”, as opposed to the common meaning of “crude” or “unsophisticated”. Just noticed that you answered my (uninformed) quibble. Thanks for the explanation/edification. I’d never have figured that out on my own. (As jargon goes, though, I have to say I find it an unfortunate choice. Imagine if evolutionary biologists started using the term “primitive” to mean ancestral. ☹ ) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creationist-view-on-language-development-what-language-did-adam-and-eve-speak/317764.md?page=2)