Adamic language: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 05:58, 25 January 2025

Latest revision as of 20:55, 6 May 2025

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{{Short description|Language spoken by Adam in the Garden of Eden}}

{{redirect|Adamic}}

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{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2020}}

[[File:Adam naming the animals. Etching. Wellcome V0034186.jpg|thumb|Adam naming the animals as described in [[Book of Genesis|Genesis]]. In some interpretations, he uses the “Adamic language” to do so.]]

The '''Adamic language''', according to [[Jews|Jewish]] tradition (as recorded in the ''[[midrash]]im'') and some [[Christians]], is the language spoken by [[Adam]] (and possibly [[Eve]]) in the [[Garden of Eden]]. It is variously interpreted as either the language used by [[God]] to address Adam (the [[divine language]]), or the language invented by Adam with which he named all things (including Eve), as in the [[Genesis creation narrative|second Genesis creation narrative]] ({{biblerefbibleverse|Genesis|2:19|KJV}}).

In the [[Middle Ages]], various Jewish commentators held that Adam spoke [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]], a view also addressed in various ways by the late medieval Italian poet [[Dante Alighieri]]. In the [[early modern period]], some authors continued to discuss the possibility of an Adamic language, some continuing to hold to the idea that it was Hebrew, while others such as [[John Locke]] were more skeptical. According to [[Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church|Ethiopian]] and [[Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church|Eritrean]] traditions, the ancient [[Semitic languages|Semitic language]] of [[Geʽez]] is the language of Adam, the first and original language.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Is 'Ge'ez' the original language of humanity? {{!}} Ethiopia The Kingdom of God |url=https://ethiopiathekingdomofgod.org/content/%E2%80%98geez%E2%80%99-original-language-humanity |access-date=2023-01-03 |website=ethiopiathekingdomofgod.org}}</ref> More recently, a variety of [[Mormon]] authors have expressed various opinions about the nature of the Adamic language.

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===Goidelic languages===

Nicholas Wolf writes that 19th-century [[Irish language]] speakers and publications claim that Irish (or some [[Goidelic language]]) is a language of Biblical primacy comparable to Hebrew, with some claiming it was the language of Adam.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Wolf |first1=Nicholas M. |title=When Irish was still the greatest little language in the world |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/when-irish-was-still-the-greatest-little-language-in-the-world-1.2082623 |access-date=9 February 2019 |newspaper=The Irish Times |language=en |postscript=,}} citing {{cite book| last=Wolf |first=Nicholas M. |title=An Irish-Speaking Island: State, Religion, Community, and the Linguistic Landscape in Ireland, 1770–1870 |publisher=University of Wisconsin Press |date=November 2014 |isbn=978-0-299-30274-0 |pagepages=36-3736–37}} See also an overview at {{cite web |last1=McEwan |first1=Emily |title=Gaelic design for the 21st century: A laptop decal |url=https://gaelic.co/gaelic-laptop-decal/ |access-date=9 February 2019 |website=Gaelic.co |date=27 February 2015 |language=en}}</ref>

== In popular culture ==

In the videogame ''[[Indiana Jones and the Great Circle]]'', the language Adamic is discovered by the protagonist as an early human language spoken by [[nephilim|giants]], which was adapted into [[Egyptian language|Egyptian]] and [[Sumerian language|Sumerian]] in ancient times. It is also represented on stone tablets, resembling [[List_of_writing_systemsList of writing systems#Logographic_systemsLogographic systems|logographic]] writing systems of the early Bronze ageAge.

==See also==