The Wonder of Language

Of all God’s creation, only people can truly converse. Some years go some scientists purported the idea that porpoises had a more complex language than humans do. If they are so smart, why are they the ones jumping through hoops for a free fish held by a person? The truth is, no animal’s communication even comes close to the complexity of human language. We not only are able to transfer thoughts into words so that others understand what we mean, but we are able to record these words for others’ benefit at other times and places.  Yes, animals do have an instinct, and they are able to communicate in subtle ways that we are not good at duplicating. Deer raise their tail as a sign of danger; offspring understand warning signals from parents; giraffes signal other animals of impending doom. But this is immature communication compared to the words and voice intonation and gestures we all understand. If evolution were true, then language, of course, also evolved from grunts to words to sentences and eventually to a written form. This would mean that ‘primitive’ people, isolated from civilization for centuries, would surely still have a primitive language structure, a ‘cave man communication,’ wouldn’t it? How contradictory to such a view is this excerpt from Peace Child by Don Richardson. Working with the Sawi Indians of New Guinea, he describes the difficulty in learning their language. “Speaking Sawi was proving far more than an exercise in stringing simple terms together. Often a single word turned out to be only a stem to which a seemingly limitless number of suffixes or chains of suffixes could be attached. Each verb, for example, has nineteen tenses in its indicative mood alone . . . Also, each of the nineteen tenses occurred in both a first-person and a non-first-person form, making a total of thirty-eight verb endings to choose from every time I wanted to make a simple indicative statement in Sawi.” He goes on to explain the subjunctive and imperative moods. “Apparently concrete verb stems became etymological phantoms which could assume any one of fifteen different shapes even before one began extending them with suffixes.” (p. 171) I encourage you to read the entire explanation of their complex language. Though you may not understand all he explains, one thing you will come away with is a belief their language is far from primitive! And, like every other known language in the world, words are put together into sentences to convey a concept. In all languages, syntax is similar. In other words, like the rest of nature, language too declares a common origin and, thus, a common Originator.  The Bible says God talked with Adam and Eve, and they talked with Him. Language did not evolve from primitive grunts but was the design of God so He could convey His truth to us, and we could, in return, praise and worship Him.