Tower of Babble (a bunch of baseless babble)

Also, an interesting thing about linguistics (refering back to the Tower of Babel, and the creation of the worlds languages) is that languages ( dare I say it ) evolve over time ( note: not refering the theory of evolution : ) . This is evident. Take the romantic languages of French, Spanish, and Italian. By looking at each, we see alot of similarities. The roots of words between all three languages are extrodanairly similar. There are a few reasons for this. First off, all are derived from Latin. While Latin is essentially a dead language, it has given birth to several new languages. Considering that various regions are isolated from each other by distance and geography. Consequently, each language changed over time to reflect the conditions and styles of the region. However the common roots of these languages is still evident, and if we compare them to Latin, we find a common link to these languages. However, languages also change over time to adapt to new ideas, and will borrow from other languages, if they don't have similar equivelants in their own languages. While english is a germanic language, it is heavily influenced by Latin and Gaelic. Also, english is notorious for borrowing words from other languages, such as french and spanish.
We can see similar adaptation between non-related languages. While russian is based on a cyrillic base, modern russian is borrowing alot of modern english words for fairly new ideas that the language has no words for. (for example, russian uses the the english word "computer" in there language, though its pronounciation reflects russian pronounciation of words. In fact, alot of modern technology and equipment are described in russian using english cognates).
Generally speaking, the more isolated a language is from other languages, or even its own root stock, the faster it mutates from the original. Culutures with more contact will not only perserve common language, they will borrow new terms from other languages with which they have contact to describe items or concepts for which their own language has no equivelant.
Thus over time we see language change and adapt. If you have ever read Shakespear, you will quickly notice that modern english is quite different from that spoken in the 1600's . Also, slang rapidly adapts far faster than overall linguist differences, another area of change within a given language.
While I can readily except the possibility that there was a tower of babel, I doubt it was smote down by god ( more likely gravity was the culprit). As for language diversification, we can see even today how language changes, adapts, and grows. There is a whole field of research that delves into the development of modern languages from ancient roots.

I know alot of the arguements on this board tie in, but lets try to keep each thread semi-focused on the topic. ID is being addressed in other threads. I believe the discussion was the Tower of Babel and linguistics.

Actually, I just wanted to state that the development and diversification of language didn't require and event, such as the fall of the Tower of Babel, to cause the earth's vast array of languages to develope. I think linguistics is a very interesting area of study. I know some of my notions are rough, and a bit inaccurate, but that is mostly due to lack of formal study on the subject. I have, however, read alot about the histories of various languages, and have learned russian as a second language. ( I know a smattering of spanish, but nothing substantial beyond a few phrases.) It seems that you can learn quite a bit about a culture by its use of language, vocabulary, and slang.