Publish at March 10 2021 Updated September 20 2023
Are language and mythology linked? Yes, according to French politician Dominique de Villepin (b. 1953): "If we speak our adversary's language, we feed their propaganda and mythology."
But can we speak of a mythology of languages? We all know the famous story of the Tower of Babel, but is it universal? Do other cultures have a mythology specific to the appearance of languages in human history?
Whether you're throwing lightning bolts like Zeus in Greece, going to war with Minerva in ancient Rome, having your heart weighed by Anubis, Maat and Thoth in Egyptian mythology, seeking to always reach Vallhala in Norse mythology, flying alongside Quetzalcóatl, the Mayan feathered serpent, or the magnificent phoenix, the legendary Chinese bird, embark with us on the trail of language mythologies from the four corners of the globe!
First things first! The most popular myth, that of the Tower of Babel, made popular by the work of Bruegel (Flemish painter, 1525-1569), is the one told in the most widely read and sold book of all time: the Bible.
The story takes place after the flood (the one in the story of Noah's Ark), when the men - who all spoke the same language at the time - decide to build a city and undertake the construction of an oversized tower, with the sole aim of touching the sky and competing with God. God, displeased with their arrogance, decided to punish them by scrambling their language. Unable to understand each other, the men stopped their scaffolding and scattered all over the world. Babel (or Babylon) was born. The name comes from the Hebrew for "to stammer, to confuse", and was located in Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq).
Now let's go to Australia, to the oldest people on Earth, the Aborigines, more precisely the Iwaidja, where the first man on Earth was in fact... a woman, named Warramurunguji. She is said to have had several children, and to have given each of them a piece of land and a different language.
In another of these native tribes, the story is also told of Wurruri, an "old vixen" who amused herself by scattering, with her large stick, the fires made by the men at night to keep warm. When she died, the men of each tribe, happy that she was gone and no longer disturbed, came to eat a piece of her body. But Wurruri's vengeance was terrible: for this act of cannibalism, the languages of these tribes were mingled and they could no longer understand each other. From a single language on their arrival, there are now over 700 different languages spoken by the Aboriginal peoples of Australia (more than half of which have disappeared or are on the brink of extinction).
This story begins with the same origins as the Tower of Babel. The two survivors of the Flood, Coxcox and Xochiquétzal, arrive at the top of the Colhuacan mountain and have several children.
Alas, all are born mute. At their parents' prayers, a dove appears and gives them the gift of speech, enabling each of them to speak, but in a different language, and eventually to travel and populate the whole Earth.
The Chinese myth of the creation of languages refers to the first two humans, created by Pangu, who, worried that their three children could not speak, appealed again to their god.
He asked the father to fetch a bamboo tree and cut it into three pieces. He asked the mother to build a big fire in the house and summon the children. When the first piece of bamboo was thrown into the fire and burst into flames, one of the children shouted "Ma ya". At the second piece, which in turn burst, a second child shouted "A jian zhi zhe". On the third piece, the third child shouted "Ah la ye". These three cries became the languages of the three neighboring peoples, the Han, the Li and the Lisu.
Two stories are particularly famous on this great continent: the first is that Adam choked on his apple and "spat out the pieces, making various noises that became the languages of the world".
The second story is that of a united and supportive African people who, from one day to the next, find themselves struck by a terrible famine. Madness and despair take hold of everyone, until the day when evil ceases, peace and harmony return, but the common language has disappeared. They no longer understand each other, speaking different languages in each village.
In the end, although the Tower of Babel is the story we know best around the world, there are many other stories to explain the origins of languages. However, there are several elements common to all cultures: the idea of an original harmony that is suddenly disrupted by a catastrophe or disruptive element.
Can we say, then, that in the end, it's from a disrupted unity that differences are born?
Sources and illustrations
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