Month: September 2024

Many ancient mythologies recount stories about the origins of language. One of the most well-known is the story of the Tower of Babel from Judeo-Christian tradition, which provides a mythological explanation for the multiplicity of languages in the world. It relates a story about how people originally all spoke one language. When they decided to build a tower so high it reached the sky, God punished them for their arrogance by scattering them about the earth and giving them many different languages so that they would never again be able to communicate and cooperate to such a sophisticated degree

Image Source: https://www.ancient-origins.net/myths…/tower-babel-001751

Only human beings speak languages per se, but of course other animals also use vocalisations and body language to communicate. Mammals and birds with greater cognitive abilities can use relatively complex systems to get their message across. Whales, dolphins, and porpoises, for example, use a wide variety of sounds, and researchers have discovered that there are dialectal differences between particular pods or extended family groups.

In the Ubang community in Nigeria, women and men speak different – but related – languages. Until the age of about ten, children spend time primarily with their mothers, and girls and boys alike speak the “women’s language,” but after that age, boys move into the world of men, and learn a different lexicon. Although this language system is threatened today, as members of the community increasingly speak more dominant Nigerian languages, it has persisted because Ubang women and men tend to live and work in different spheres, with a lot of communication taking place in same-sex environments. 

Image Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-45262081