Thought for the Week: Language and diversity

Gethin Evans reflects on language and diversity

by Gethin Evans 17th November 2017

Reading or hearing the story of the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9) always depresses me: ‘There was a time when all the world spoke a single language and used the same words.’ These words represent a monotonic planet projecting a colourless, tuneless and utterly lifeless existence, bound by a uniformity of sound. Diversity of language was proclaimed as punishment, not something to be celebrated.