Museum of the alphabet

Museum of the Alphabet

What an elementary idea! We have a National Aerospace Museum (https://airandspace.si.edu/), Museum of Broadcast Communications (https://www.museum.tv/), and even a National Museum of Funeral History (https://www.nmfh.org/)  So why not a Museum of the Alphabet (https://jaarsmuseumvirtualtour.stqry.app/)? After all, that's where language began!

To tell you the truth, as an author and lover of words, I was highly impressed with this tiny, award-winning museum, jam-packed with well-researched exhibits located on the outskirts of Waxhaw, a small town at the southern border of North Carolina. It shares a campus with JAARS (Jungle Aviation and Relay Service) (https://www.jaars.org/), an organization that serves missionaries who spend their lives translating God’s Word in heart languages around the world, and sharing the Good News of Christ found in the Bible. Most of these needy people have nothing written in their language, nor can they read, of course. Imagine the life-changing experience the missionaries bring to these isolated cultures. Since access to these villages is only possible with an airplane (or walking for miles and miles on a bush path with all sorts of creepy-crawlies), JAARS trains and provides the pilots for this necessary service.

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Where Did Languages Originate?

So where did they begin? When God created the world, along with the first humans who inhabited and cared for His creation, everyone spoke one language. At that time, history was passed down through storytelling, so the past would not be forgotten. Along the way, studies show that people would communicate or preserve information via pictographs on animal skins,  cave walls, or found as markings on a stick as you see below.

The book of Genesis tells us that one day, man decided he wanted to do his own thing, instead of ‘being fruitful, multiplying and replenishing/inhabiting the whole earth’ as the Creator had commanded. God chose to confuse their language at the tower of Babel so they would be forced to move to other parts of the world in family groups.

​Imagine: one day, as the tower was being built, a workman begins speaking another language that his neighbor did not understand. Confusion! So, people broke off into language groups and settled in different parts of the earth, which is why we have Africans in the southern hemisphere and Scandinavians in the north. Well, it's a bit more complicated than that, but let's move on.

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The Development of Languages

Slowly, through the ages, beginning around 4,000 BC in the Middle East, known as the Cradle of Civilization, pictographs morphed into letters (below):

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Greek and Roman Languages

Now, the alphabet letters are looking familiar to us. English is derived from Greek, Latin (Roman), German, French with contributions from a few other languages. My favorite class in High School was Etymology—the study of the origin of words, mainly English (in my case.) Once you are familiar with the roots of English words, the meaning of everyday words becomes clear. Sometimes, when I come across a word I don't know, I'll use my knowledge of root words to figure out the meaning. It's rather a fun challenge!

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The Gutenberg Press

And, of course, although the printing press was first invented in east Asia, thanks to Gutenberg’s Press (only a model below), the Bible was printed for the masses to read. Unfortunately, at that time, only the elite few were literate, which is why churches in Medieval Times had Bible stories portrayed within their gorgeous stained glass windows. In that way, the common folk could "read" the Bible in pictures.

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Russian/Cyrillic

Because I am of Slavic descent, the Russian language display was of particular interest. Notice the placement of the tongue when speaking certain sounds. It's been said that if a child speaks two languages before the age of four, they can twist their tongues into almost any configuration to speak a variety of languages with ease during their lifetime. We start far too late to teach another tongue by waiting until Junior High or High School. What a missed opportunity.

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Languages in the time of Jesus

Jesus would have known Hebrew, but also Aramaic, which was the trade language in those days, bridging Arabic and Hebrew. Since he related more to the common people, Jesus would have communicated in Aramaic often.

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Moses was Multi-lingual!

This was the most fascinating of all exhibits. I knew that Moses was educated in Pharoah’s court since his daughter drew Moses from the Nile and raised him in the ways and culture of Egypt. But I had no idea he knew five languages! Take a close look at the photos below. As God moved him from place to place, and mission to mission, he gained knowledge of these languages detailed in the photos below:

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The Language Tree

Although there are hundreds of languages to explore, the museum focuses on the branch of the language tree that produced English, which is North America's mother tongue. But, take a close look at the other branches below. Amazing, isn't it?

Questions. Always questions!

Are you as fascinated with languages as I am? How many languages do you speak? Which language (if any) did you learn in High School?

Is there a language you wish you spoke? Do you have a favorite English word? And lastly, what was the first word you spoke as a baby? I'd love to know!

​Tell me in the comments below. . .