Mesoamerican Theorists are always showing that there were numerous languages in Mesoamerica during the time of the Book of Mormon, and use this as a reason to create indigenous peoples in the land of promise that are never mentioned or eluded to in the scriptures. In the Book of Mormon, though, we find only two languages during the thousand year history of the Nephite nation—the Hebrew of the Nephites, and that of the Lamanites, being so corrupted from time to time from the Hebrew, they had to be retaught the Hebrew language by the priests of Noah.
Two Native American languages of South America predominate the Andean area today, as well as throughout its ancient history: Quechua and Aymara. Some linguists believe that because speakers of Aymara and Quechua have had a great deal of contact with each other over many centuries, even millennia, all over the Andes from central Peru southwards to Bolivia, that their languages have influenced each other very strongly, if not the originally same language.
These two languages suggest a connection to the Nephites and Lamanites. According to the record of Mosiah, Alma, Helaman and Mormon, the Lamanites settled in the southern highlands (Land of Nephi), while the Nephites were in the northern lands and coastal regions (Land of Zarahemla and Land of Bountiful) during the last centuries of the two nations’ 1000-year-history. Using the Andean model, the southern highlands would be from Cuzco to Lake Titicaca and Tiahuanaco (southern Peru and western Bolivia), while the Nephites were north of there, in the central highlands and coastal regions.
The Nephite and Lamanite languages were once the same, both originating from Hebrew within the family of Lehi who lived at Jerusalem all his days (1 Nephi 1:4). And after a separation of 400 years, both groups could still converse as evidenced by Zeniff communicating in 200 BC with the King of the Lamanites (Mosiah 9:6-7), and King Noah’s chief priest, Amulon, in 150 BC, pleading with the Lamanites for their safety (Mosiah 23:33).
However, Amulon then taught the Lamanites the Nephite language (Mosiah 24:4) despite the fact that they could talk to one another. Thus it might be that what Amulon taught the Lamanites was the written Nephite language (Mosiah 24:6), which opened the door to Lamanite commerce and business (Mosiah 24:7), enabling them to become rich through trade, but also wise and cunning in the ways of the world, though they had previously been a simple and friendly people toward each other.
Around 80 BC, the Lamanites and Nephites were communicating with one another on a large scale (Alma 23:18), and during the first two centuries AD, there was no longer a division between these people (4 Nephi 1:17) during which time they would have had a completely compatible common language. This probably lasted throughout the next two centuries, and by 385 AD, Mormon was communicating with the King of the Lamanites, at least through correspondence (Mormon 6:2).
Therefore, in the Land of Promise, we might expect to find a language that may well have been divisional through separation over some 1000 years, and somewhat changed from its original core. Such a division of language may well be found in Quechua and Aymara in the Andes. Take for example the change in our common English:
English sentence common in 1000 AD: Wé cildra biddaþ þé, éalá láréow, þæt þú taéce ús sprecan rihte, forþám ungelaérede wé sindon, and gewæmmodlíce we sprecaþ...
How this sentence appears in 2000 AD: We children beg you, teacher, that you should teach us to speak correctly, because we are ignorant and we speak corruptly...
This is taken from Ælfric's Colloquy or the Colloquy of Aelfric, a monk in Dorset and Oxfordshire about the end of the tenth and the beginning of the eleventh centuries, who took young pupils and wrote his colloquy (or dialogue) in Old English and also in Latin to teach them the Latin language. That is, he wrote a sentence in their known English language and the same sentence in Latin, then by showing them the difference, he was able to teach them Latin.
The example above of the Old English sentence compared to that of our day should show how much a language can change over a 1000 year period, even when found within a prolifically written language as English. Then consider how changes would have been made in early Hebrew among the Nephites, who also wrote profusely (Helaman 3:13-15), and among the Lamanites who had no written language for many centuries. Thus, Moroni, at the close of this 1000 year period, wrote: “..we have written this record according to our knowledge, in the characters which are called among us reformed Egyptian, being handed down and altered by us according to our manner of speech. And if our plates had been sufficiently large we should have written in Hebrew but the Hebrew hath been altered by us also..” (Mormon 9:32-33).
Thus, we find no need for numerous languages in the Land of Promise as Mesoamerican Theorists try to claim to satisfy their model.
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What about the language of the Jaredites and that language of the Mulekites-at a minimum that doubles your possible language variances.
ReplyDeleteDon't get me wrong I am absolutely no mesoamericanist, but it seems there is more possibilities for language devolution than just the two you mentioned.
David: The language of the Jaredites died out with their annihilation. The only Jaredite having any contact with either the Nephite (Mulekite) or Lamanite people was in Coriantumr, whose language was never known by the Mulekites for they knew nothing of his history, himself, etc., until his writings on a stone were interpreted by the prophet Mosiah. As for the Mulekites, their language was Hebrew, just like the Nephites, but it had been corrupted (altered) until it was not understandable to the Nephites. The Nephites then taught the Mulekites the proper use of their language (Hebrew) and it would be doubtful that Mulekites would have used it after that, once learning the correct pronunciation of words, etc., in their own lanauge. Also, since the Mulekites became Nephites for both a political and religioius purpose, it is doubtful their correupted language would have survived long. On the other hand, I was not suggesting that Quechua and Aymara are the only languages found from antiquity in the Andean area--they are the predominate languages spoken by the indigenous natives of the area. Having said that, there are other languages, dialects, etc., found in the Andes, but they would make up such a small percentage, they are not generally considered important by linguists. Because of this, the Andean area is considered to have two basic languages from antiquity--as a Land of Promise location should have--different from Mesoamerica which has dozens of equally important languages form antiquity. Hope this answers your question.
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