Editing Adamic language (section)

== Middle Ages ==
{{further|Confusion of tongues|Lingua ignota}}

Traditional Jewish exegesis such as [[Midrash]]<ref>[[Genesis Rabbah]] 38</ref> says that Adam spoke the [[Hebrew language]] because the names he gives Eve – ''Isha''<ref>[[Book of Genesis]] 2:23</ref> and ''Chava''<ref>Genesis 3:20</ref> – only make sense in Hebrew. By contrast, [[Kabbalah]] assumed an "eternal Torah" which was not identical to the [[Torah]] written in Hebrew. Thus, [[Abraham Abulafia]] in the 13th century assumed that the language spoken in [[Paradise]] had been different from Hebrew, and rejected the claim then-current also among Christian authors, that [[language deprivation experiments|a child left unexposed to linguistic stimulus]] would automatically begin to speak in Hebrew.<ref>Umberto Eco, ''The Search for the Perfect Language'' (1993), p. 32 f.</ref> Both Muslim and Christian Arabs, such as [[Sulayman al-Ghazzi]], considered [[Syriac language|Syriac]] the language spoken by Adam and Eve.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Noble |first1=Samuel |last2=Treiger |first2=Alexander |title=The Orthodox Church in the Arab World, 700–1700: An Anthology of Sources |date=15 March 2014 |publisher=Cornell University Press |isbn=978-1-5017-5130-1 |page=164 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q6rMDwAAQBAJ |access-date=17 March 2024 |language=en}}</ref>

[[Umberto Eco]] (1993) notes that [[Book of Genesis|Genesis]] is ambiguous on whether the language of Adam was preserved by Adam's descendants until the [[confusion of tongues]],<ref>Genesis 11:1–9</ref> or if it began to evolve naturally even before Babel.<ref>Genesis 10:5</ref><ref>Umberto Eco, ''The Search for the Perfect Language'' (1993), 7–10.</ref>

[[Dante Alighieri]] addresses the topic in his ''[[De vulgari eloquentia]]'' (1302–1305). He argues that the Adamic language is of divine origin and therefore unchangeable.<ref>Mazzocco, p. 159</ref> He also notes that according to Genesis, the first speech act is due to Eve, addressing [[Serpents in the Bible|the serpent]], and not to Adam.<ref>''mulierem invenitur ante omnes fuisse locutam''. Umberto Eco, ''The Search for the Perfect Language'' (1993), p. 50.</ref>

In his ''[[Divine Comedy]]'' (c. 1308–1320), however, Dante changes his view to another that treats the Adamic language as the product of Adam.<ref>Mazzocco, p. 170</ref> This had the consequence that it could no longer be regarded as immutable, and hence Hebrew could not be regarded as identical with the language of Paradise. Dante concludes (''Paradiso'' XXVI) that Hebrew is a derivative of the language of Adam. In particular, the chief Hebrew name for God in scholastic tradition, ''[[El (god)|El]]'', must be derived of a different Adamic name for God, which Dante gives as ''[[Close front unrounded vowel|I]]''.<ref>Pria ch’i’ scendessi a l’infernale ambascia,<br>
''I'' s’appellava in terra il sommo bene<br>
onde vien la letizia che mi fascia<br>
<br>
Before I was sent down to Hell’s torments,<br>
on earth, the Highest Good—from which derives<br>
the joy that now enfolds me—was called ''I''.<br>

''Paradiso'' 26.133f.; Mazzocco, p. 178f.</ref>