Raven Hughes English 10 Bell 1 September 9, 2013

Language: A Gift From God

Language is a gift given to us by God in order to communicate our feelings and thoughts with each other. Humans have been able to speak, create and translate languages for centuries. Over the course of history, people have been able to speak, using sign language, body and Foreign languages. All of these languages are forms of communication. The main language being the spoken one given to us by God. Language is defined by (Websters New World Thesaurus) as a means of communication, voice utterance, sound, expression, vocalization, gestures or written symbols. However, language is too complicated and exciting to be explained by such a brief definition.

God created languages for many purposes so that people can express themselves. (Psalms 19:3) says, There is no speech nor language; where their voice is not heard. Language is a special gift from God in which every human uses in some type of way. When God created man, He created language for man as well, for language was the core of creations purpose and it was A part of Gods image. God gave Adam the authority to name the animals, fowl and fish of the sea, therefore we know God created this language for man to communicate by naming these living creatures. A lot of people still ask the question, where language actually came from? Well language was originated by God. Just like the Bible says, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God. (John1:1) This verse shows us that God started off with communication by creating the heavens and the earth, when he said: Let there be, and all that He created was. So as you can see God spoke things into existence by communicating it using what we now call language.

Language to some is so important that they have been known to communicate quotes to explain how they feel about languages. Some examples are: The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.(Ludwig Wittgen, Philosophical Investigations,1953). Languages shapes the way we think and determines what we can think about. (Benjamin Lee Whorf, Language Thoughts and Reality, 1964). These are just two such people that feel so strongly

Hughes 2 about languages. There are all sorts of speculations about the origins of language. Some Linguist or language experts, as they call themselves feel language to be just a human gift, but they are not sure this is the case. Linguists still say that it has been in the last fifteen years that we have begun to understand how language came into being. There are various books written by these language experts, attempting to explain how language came to be. In the book, The First Word, which is a narrative which gives an account of how language developed, the account states the processes of evolution was wound together to produce a talking animal: Us. This is just one Linguists opinion. The second narrative in the book addresses why scientists are now able to explore the subject in more detail, like Noam Chomsky, a scientist that has suggested that language is a peculiarly human phenomenon, a trait so remarkable that evolutionary theory cannot explain it.

If you talk to different people they will conclude that language is a human gift given to mankind, but by whom they are not sure. Finally I would say with so many different beliefs, speculations, ideas, theories, and opinions by Linguist, evolutionist, and others concerning the origin of language are not very convincing. Based on my research and what I have learned biblically, I say language was originated by God and given to us as truly a gift from Him.