Language

[Tongues, Confusion Of, CONFUSION OF]

LAN'GUAGE. Gen 2:20; Dan 11:1. It is generally supposed that Adam was endued with the power of speech and furnished with a language at his creation, and that it was sufficiently perfect and comprehensive for all the purposes of his being. This was the language of the whole earth for nearly 2000 years, or until about a century after the Flood. It was then that the Tower of Babel was erected, and God caused a confusion of languages — an event which forms the antitype of the speaking in tongues by the apostles at the first Pentecost. Some of the older divines supposed, without any good reason, that the Hebrew was the original language given by God to Adam, and that all the other languages resulting from the division and dispersion of mankind over the face of the earth are derived from that as the root. The modern science of comparative philology distinguishes three distinct families of languages — the Shemitic (to which the Hebrew belongs), the Indo-Germanic or Aryan (which includes the Greek), and the Turanian, For a brief account of the languages in which the Bible was written, see Bible.

LAN'GUAGE. Gen 2:20; Dan 11:1. It is generally supposed that Adam was endued with the power of speech and furnished with a language at his creation, and that it was sufficiently perfect and comprehensive for all the purposes of his being. This was the language of the whole earth for nearly 2000 years, or until about a century after the Flood. It was then that the Tower of Babel was erected, and God caused a confusion of languages — an event which forms the antitype of the speaking in tongues by the apostles at the first Pentecost. Some of the older divines supposed, without any good reason, that the Hebrew was the original language given by God to Adam, and that all the other languages resulting from the division and dispersion of mankind over the face of the earth are derived from that as the root. The modern science of comparative philology distinguishes three distinct families of languages — the Shemitic (to which the Hebrew belongs), the Indo-Germanic or Aryan (which includes the Greek), and the Turanian, For a brief account of the languages in which the Bible was written, see Bible.

Part of speech: noun (n.)

1. Any means of conveying or communicating ideas; specifically, human speech; the expression of ideas by the voice; sounds, expressive of thought, articulated by the organs of the throat and mouth.

2. The expression of ideas by writing, or any other instrumentality.

3. The forms of speech, or the methods of expressing ideas, peculiar to a particular nation.

4. The characteristic mode of arranging words, peculiar to an individual speaker or writer; manner of expression; style. Others for language all their care express. Pope.

5. The inarticulate sounds by which animals inferior to man express their feelings or their wants.

6. The suggestion, by objects, actions, or conditions, of ideas associated therewith; as, the language of flowers. There was . . . language in their very gesture. Shak.

7. The vocabulary and phraseology belonging to an art or department of knowledge; as, medical language; the language of chemistry or theology.

8. A race, as distinguished by its speech. [R.] All the people, the nations, and the languages, fell down and worshiped the golden image. Dan. iii. 7. Language master, a teacher of languages.[Obs.]

Synonyms: Speech; tongue; idiom; dialect; phraseology; diction; discourse; conversation; talk. Language, Speech, Tongue, Idiom, Dialect. Language is generic, denoting, in its most extended use, any mode of conveying ideas; speech is the language of articulate sounds; tongue is the Anglo- Saxon tern for language, esp. for spoken language; as, the English tongue. Idiom denotes the forms of construction peculiar to a particular language; dialects are varieties if expression which spring up in different parts of a country among people speaking substantially the same language.

Part of speech: verb (v.)

To communicate by language; to express in language. Others were languaged in such doubtful expressions that they have a double sense. Fuller.