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The ancient Greek word "γλῶσσα" ≈ "tongue, language" and is the source of the English word "glossa" and "glossary" through the Latin word "glossa" ≈ "language" (with several other meanings).

• Language is a "code" by which humans communicate in both real and abstract ways.
• Writing is a "technology" by which humans communicate in both real and abstract ways.



More: Parables and secret codes used and explained by Jesus

More: An opinion on hyperbole compared to code word models

The original "writing" was a way to reproduce the auditory sounds made when speaking. There were no spelling dictionaries.

Modern variation: Greeklish

Writing, such as in sheet music, has more legal standing than, say, music created from memory of hearing music, without writing being involved.

Here we concentrate on language and, in particular, verbal and auditory language.

Language as we know it appears to be a learned skill and is not an innate.skill (i.e., via instinct, DNA, etc.).

• Language is acquired by children by listening to parents, others, etc.
• Writing must be taught to children. Children must learn to write.

Children have a cutoff of about 10 years after which an accent is almost always present.

• All children when exposed to language will learn that language, until about age 10.
• Children who are exposed to Greek will learn Greek.
• Greek was the language of commerce, etc., in Judea, for 350 years.
• Jesus and the disciples spoke Aramaic and Greek and had picked up some Latin.

[map of Greek language]

It is known, from various experiments and historical happenings that a child without any example to follow will not learn language. After a certain age, this learning ability appears to disappear and that person will never be able to really learn a language and communicate in real and abstract thoughts.

Learning a language after that age, one will almost always have a detectable "accent" when using that language.

Noam Chomsky is a modern linguist, with controversial and liberal political views (that are not relevant here), and whose proposal of a UG (Universal Grammar) is of interest here.

Chomsky has speculated that UG might be extremely simple and abstract, for example only a mechanism for combining symbols in a particular way, which he calls "merge". (Wikipedia, (as of 2021-09-13)).

DNA (Deoxyribonucleic Acid) is a 4x4x4 = 64 codes to make proteins, with start codes, stop codes, etc.

Each person has about 7,000,000,000,000 (7 trillion) cells each with a copy of DND of about 6,000,000,000 (2 billion) bits.
The UG theory is that there is a genetic component that is, built into the DNA of humans and manifested in the developed brain that provides an innate ability to learn language, construct grammar, etc., given minimal learning experiences (e.g., from parents, others, etc.).

In data science, a neural network is a trained collection of nodes that takes one or more inputs and makes a prediction.
It is known from the field of machine learning (previously called artificial intelligence) that networks such as learning networks must be appropriately trained using example data.

Neural networks and machine learning are an important part of AI (Artificial Intelligence) - as contrasted with NS (Natural Stupidity).

From the field of programming languages it is known (and routinely used) that it is often easier to write a program that writes a program to do something than it is to manually write a program to do that something.

Thus, instead of encoding an ability in the DNA, the DNA might create the necessary structure to "learn" what is needed.

More: Programs that write programs

One might program a robot with certain innate learning capabilities and then train the robot to do and learn things.
This is part of the animated movie Big Hero 6 where the robot is programmed to do some things but also to learn new things.

More: Psalms 2: 1-12 Self-reference of robots and humans rebelling

In the beginning, God created Adam (and then Eve) and provided them with a mechanism to learn and use language.

It would appear that God might have trained Adam to talk by example, in the same manner that children must be taught to talk by example. Later, Eve would have initially learned from Adam (and, perhaps, God).

Apparently neither was programmed to say "no" as in "What part of no do you not understand?".

This would appear to be the case of God with Adam (in the above verse). That is, once Adam is trained with the initial words and grammar, Adam can then construct new names. In the GNT (Greek New Testament),

Once a child has learned the basic patterns of language and some vocabulary, the child can start constructing their own words. Parents are often amused and delighted by the words created by the child.

Small children may extend patterns to other activities, such as "swimming" and "running" to "tennising".

Paul constructs many new words that appear only once - in the GNT. Some are puns or play on words.

It has been noted in various linguistic areas that a finite set of symbols, such as letters, can express a countable infinite number of meanings.

In the beginning, it appears there was a Universal Language, perhaps like the idea of a Universal Grammar, that allowed God to speak directly with humans and humans with other humans (and even, it appears, serpents or an angel posing as a serpent).

Many mythologies, such as Greek mythology, have animals that can speak and listen with understanding. One such mythical creature is the centaur which is half-human and half-animal. From where did these ideas originate? Some support for this may be in Genesis 6.

The Greek gods lived to an old age but eventually died. An interesting conjecture is that they based these ideas on the sons of Noah and the people who lived to a long age immediately after the flood.

For example, Zeus in Latin is Jupiter or, literally "Zeus father" which is very similar linguistically to Japheth, the son of Noah whose generations span much of what is today the area of PIE (Proto Indo-European) languages.

More: Sky father: Jupiter, Zeus and Japheth

The parrot bird can speak a limited trained vocabulary, but appears not to fully understand what is being said other than what related to immediate needs such as food.
Animals cannot be asked what they think they will want to do a week from now or how they enjoyed a special treat last week.

Many animals communicate, some very well, but not using abstract thought. Most communication is related to food or other immediate physical needs.

Dolphins are considered by some to be very intelligent.

More: Whales, dolphins, fish, etc.

At an international linguistics conference in 2014 in Baltimore, MD, I went to lunch with some other attendees.
One of them was going on and on at lunch about how the Baltimore Aquarium (visible across the street from the restaurant) had recently removed the dolphins from the water shows as it was not right to make such intelligent animals perform for humans.

I then asked him in front of the group, "If they are such intelligent animals, why don't we ask them what they want to do?". He nervously gave a little laugh, said something about "that's the trick", and changed the subject.

In Genesis, it is often recorded that God "walked" and inspected the creation as an inductive or bottom-up way of verifying aspects of the creation.

This is similar to a good building contractor checking on what is happening as it is happening rather than later.

This unlocked condition of the Universal Language appears to have continued for some time.

No longer would God speak directly to anyone but just to those chosen, such as Moses, the prophets, etc. Others hear just noise or nothing.
This is a very secure system. Someone listening (e.g., an eavesdropper) would not understand. Some security concepts are important as they appear to be relevant to the discussion that follows.

Only those selected (Moses, prophets, etc.) would hear and understand the message. There could be, however, false prophets (e.g., Balaam, etc.)

Jesus says to Nicodemus in John 3.
The original Greek in this verse appears to say that the Holy Spirit breaths where it desires and selects who it chooses.

In the Universal Language model, when the Holy Spirit breaths where it desires, one is enabled and hears (with understanding) but cannot tell from where it comes or where it goes.

As will be discussed below, one may fully understand what is being said without being able to determine the exact language in which the meaning was expressed or conveyed.

There are interesting references to this "voice" in the raising of Lazarus.

Details are left as a future topic.

(story of Lazarus)

Let us return to the Universal Language model.

An interesting aspect of this model is that it does not require any special changes to the sound waves propagating from speaker to listener (in all directions). The model only requires the enabling of the Universal Language for listeners.
A network (Ethernet) or satellite broadcast network (going both ways) is based in the following idea.

• The same message is sent to all nodes in a network. This is called a broadcast.
• Every node hears the message. In some cases, this can be a security issue.
• The appropriate nodes listen and, if needed, respond to that message.
• All other nodes ignore the message.

In the Universal Language model, certain nodes (people) are enabled to both receive and recognize the message. Some nodes may be enabled to create or pass through messages. All other nodes may hear the message, but not be enabled, for security purposes, to know the meaning of the message.

This conceptual model is similar in many respects to the network communication models developed and used in computer networks.

This idea can be applied to sight or vision in addition to spoken language. In some cases, armies of angels are hidden from those who are not to see what is happening. (Details omitted, 2 Kings 6, etc).

Details are left as a future topic.

On the Road to Damascus, Jesus speaks directly to Saul (to be named Paul). Paul hears and understands the voice. The others with him hear just noise or nothing.

As Paul repeats the story later in Acts, he adds that the others heard nothing (or just noise) but saw the light. The speaking needs to be to someone within auditory distance who is enabled to hear with understanding.

Aside: Some will claim that the vision and hearing of Paul was similar to a (one-time) epileptic seizure.

It appears that a channel or switch needs to be activated for God or Jesus or the Holy Spirit to speak to someone. In that Universal Language, they can then understand and/or speak using that Universal Language.

It would appear that those on whom the "cloven tongues" appeared enabled those to "speak" the Universal Language to others who were chosen.

In a fanciful way, the "cloven tongues" appear to serve the function of some form of "antenna" that acts as a "repeater" which is then "enabled" as the Holy Spirit gave "utterance".

It is not clear if the speakers were able to generate their own independent thoughts or if they were a channel through which the Holy Spirit would direct them what to say, in the same manner that God in times past would tell prophets what to say.

There is no Biblical record of what actually was said by the enabled speakers or heard by the enabled listeners.

According to Peter, the prophets received messages from God, perhaps in the Universal language, as they were enabled or moved. They were not creating their own messages of their own private interpretation.

More: 2 Peter 1:16-21 eyewitness testimony and prophecy

At Pentecost, they began to "speak with other tongues". As a technical point, the Universal Language would be "another tongue".

The word for "other" is that of a "different" tongue. Does "different" mean just a different human language or could it include a Universal Language? There are more comments on this below.

Here we have the same word (root) used at the Tower of Babel in the LXX.

• The ancient Greek word "συνεχυθη" ≈ "confused, confounded".

What was confused at the Tower of Babel was not undone (for the moment) by the Holy Spirit.

More: A mania for confusing commotions

(same link as previously provided)

The "listeners" are enabled.

Interestingly, there appears to be no record of what was actually "said" or what actually was "heard" (as understood).

In software engineering, a "beta test" is a test to see if the software is ready for full use. Was this demonstration at Pentecost a "beta test" or POC (Proof of Concept) to show how things might be after the confusion at the Tower of Babel is fully reversed some time in the future?

Versions:

• alpha: ready for programmers
• beta: ready to testers
• release: ready for customers

The phrase "hear we every man in our own tongue" is interesting as it appears to be a functional black box experience.

What did they actually hear?

What did they think they heard?

Suppose that someone is speaking the Universal Language and we are listening to and understanding the Universal Language. How would we distinguish that language from our native language?

One would understand as if it were spoken in ones native language. That is, without even thinking about it.

More: Discerning doubts about doubts

In linguistics, the conscious or unconscious use of mixing languages in either random or nonrandom ways is called code switching.

I have found that when I need to think of a word in a different language, say German, the word from Greek may be called into the mind rather than the German word, where both words have the same meaning.

I have learned several languages other than my native language. When one really learns a language, or parts of a language, there is no translation involved. It happens immediately without thought of translation.

There have been many times when I heard a phrase out of context and I immediately knew what it meant. I had to stop and think for a long while as to what language I had heard.

In the case of the Universal Language, one would immediately know what was being said. But how would one know it was not in one's native language? It would be indistinguishable from one's native language.

Without a model of a Universal Language, one could only perceive and conclude that it was spoken in one's own tongue.

The brain can create things that do not actually exist (in reality).

Later in life, Beethoven was deaf but could hear and compose music in his head.

Much of mathematics (e.g., real numbers) is in the brain and has no basis in reality.

More: Have you ever met a prefix like this?

People who have never seen, but experienced, say, upper case letters, could immediately read text written in upper case letters.

De-clawed cats, and humans with amputated limbs, can feel those phantom limbs as if they were there.

The Greek word for "other" here indicates that they are somehow "different" than the ones speaking and listening (with understanding).

This group appears to be the group that is not speaking nor listening (with understanding). They appear to be hearing nothing or just noise or perceiving babbling.

The "others" appear to be another (different) group that heard nothing or just noise.

This group was not selected to have that Universal Language unlocked.

On the day of Pentecost, Jesus through the Holy Spirit enables some to be speakers, some to be listeners, and others not to understand what is being said.

• The speakers through the Holy Spirit can be related to Jesus.
• The listeners can be related to the prophets and others chosen to hear.
• The others either hear noise or nothing.

This can be depicted using the following diagram, in the same format as the previous diagrams. The idea of tongues is addressed by Paul in 1 Corinthians 12, 13 and 14.
The idea exploded from the Azusa Street Revival in Los Angeles in 1906 until 1915 and developed into the modern Pentecostal movement.

More: Gnosticism and the point in time fallacy

Details are left as a future topic.

There have been several times throughout Biblical history where there have been discontinuities. That is, something appears to have been very different before and after the event. The main ones are as follows.

• The creation
• The flood of Noah
• The Tower of Babel
• Jesus and Pentecost
• End times era (including today)

All except, perhaps the flood of Noah and today, involved that unique human feature of real and abstract language to communicate.

The following general time-line may help put these events into perspective.

In the beginning, the Universal Language was understood by all.

The Universal Language was confused a the tower of Babel. After this event, only these selected, such as Moses, prophets, etc., would understand.

Paul is selected to understand the Universal Language on the road to Damascus.

At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit enabled speakers to speak and listeners to listen (with understanding) to the Universal Language.

Speaking in tongues and listening to those tongues has the potential to be spoofed or imitated. A security analysis can be used to help determine decision procedures and policies to detect and avoid such spoofing or imitations.