Many cultures and religions have mythologies about the origin of language. Think of the Tower of Babel, which attempts to explain why there are so many languages in the world.
But did you know that many cultures also have mythologies about a divine language spoken by their god or gods?
This is the idea that the deity or deities of the culture in question spoke a ‘pure’ language that dates back to before human beings came into existence. Often, the faithful also believe that this language is still present in religious rite and ritual, and sometimes also in modern parlance. For example, some Christians see Aramaic-Hebrew, Greek and Latin as God’s languages. In Hinduism, Sanskrit is seen as the language of the gods, and in Islam, Arabic is seen as God’s language. Even modern mythologies like J.R.R. Tolkien’s ‘Lord of the Rings’ saga imagines a sacred language, Valar, spoken by the gods.
