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The 'confusion of tongues' (''confusio linguarum'') is the initial fragmentation of human languages described in the Bible after the collapse of the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9).
It is implied that prior to the event, humanity spoke a single language, either identical to or derived from the "Adamic language" spoken by Adam and Eve in Paradise. In the confusion of tongues, this language was split into seventy or seventy-two dialects, depending on tradition. This has sometimes been interpreted as being in contradiction to ,
:''Of these were the isles of the nations divided in their lands, every one after his tongue, after their families, in their nations''
suggesting that even before Babel, human languages were separated, at least among the descendants of Japheth.
During the Middle Ages, the Hebrew language was widely considered the language used by God to address Adam in Paradise, and by Adam as nomothete (the Adamic language) by various Jewish, Christian, and even Muslim scholastics. Dante in the ''Divina commedia'' implies however that the language of Paradise was different from later Hebrew by saying that Adam addressed God as ''I'' rather than ''El''.
Preceding the acceptance of the Indo-European language family, these languages were considered to be "Japhetite" by some authors (e.g. Rasmus Rask in 1815; see Indo-European studies). Beginning in Renaissance Europe, priority over Hebrew was claimed for the alleged Japhetic languages, which were supposedly never corrupted because their speakers had not participated in the construction of the Tower of Babel. Among the candidates for a living descendant of the Adamic language were: Gaelic (see ''Auraicept na n-Éces''); Tuscan (Giovanni Battista Gelli, 1542, Piero Francesco Giambullari, 1564); Flemish (Goropius Becanus, 1569, Abraham Mylius, 1612); Swedish (Andreas Kempe, 1688, Olaus Rudbeck, 1675); German (Georg Philipp Haurdörffer, 1641, Schottel, 1641); and among the candidates for Adamic language itself were: Hebrew (see Middle Ages); Proto-Indo-European (Anne Catherine Emmerich, 1790).

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References

★ Anne Catherine Emmerich, ''Life of Jesus Christ And Biblical Revelations'' (1790).

★ Umberto Eco, ''The search for the perfect language'' (1993).

See also

★ Origin of language

★ Fenius Farsa