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| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adamic language | 2/2 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adamic_language | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T09:33:42.683318+00:00 | kb-cron |
=== Latter Day Saint movement === Joseph Smith, founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, in his revision of the Bible, declared the Adamic language to have been "pure and undefiled". Some Mormons believe it to be the language of God. Glossolalia, or speaking in tongues, was commonplace in the early years of the movement, and it was commonly believed that the incomprehensible language spoken during these incidents was the language of Adam. However, this belief seems to have never been formally or officially adopted. Some other early Latter Day Saint leaders, including Brigham Young, Orson Pratt, and Elizabeth Ann Whitney, claimed to have received several words in the Adamic language by revelation. Some Latter Day Saints believe that the Adamic language is the "pure language" spoken of by Zephaniah and that it will be restored as the universal language of humankind at the end of the world. Apostle Orson Pratt declared that "Ahman", part of the name of the settlement "Adam-ondi-Ahman" in Daviess County, Missouri, was the name of God in the Adamic language. An 1832 handwritten page from the Joseph Smith Papers, titled "A Sample of the Pure Language", and reportedly dictated by Smith to "Br. Johnson", asserts that the name of God is Awman. The Latter Day Saint endowment prayer circle once included use of the words "Pay Lay Ale". These untranslated words are no longer used in temple ordinances and have been replaced by an English version, "O God, hear the words of my mouth". Some believe that the "Pay Lay Ale" sentence is derived from the Hebrew phrase "pe le-El" (פה לאל), "mouth to God". "Pay Lay Ale" was identified in the temple ceremony as words from the "pure Adamic language". Other words thought by some Latter Day Saints to derive from the Adamic language include deseret ("honey bee") and Ahman ("God"). The Book of Moses refers to "a book of remembrance" written in the language of Adam.
=== 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.
== 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 giants, which was adapted into Egyptian and Sumerian in ancient times. It is also represented on stone tablets, resembling logographic writing systems of the early Bronze Age.
== See also == History of linguistics Mythical origins of language Origin of language Proto-Human language Universal language Enochian Sacred language
== References ==
== Bibliography == Allison P. Coudert (ed.), The Language of Adam = Die Sprache Adams, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1999. Angelo Mazzocco, Linguistic Theories in Dante and the Humanists, (chapter 9: "Dante's Reappraisal of the Adamic language", 159–181). Umberto Eco, The Search for the Perfect Language (1993).