Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Studies of the Book of Mormon/Book of Mormon Difficulties: A Study/Linguistics

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A FAIR Analysis of:
Criticism of Mormonism/Books
A work by author: B.H. Roberts, edited by Brigham D. Madsen
 Animals, metals, grains and textiles

Linguistics

And we place our revealed truths in the Book of Mormon against the alleged facts resulting from the investigations of Ethnologists and Philogists and the deductions of their science, and calmly await the vindication we feel sure that time will bring to the Book of Mormon.
—B.H. Roberts, “Book of Mormon Difficulties: A Study,” ‘’Studies of the Book of Mormon’’, p. 94.
∗       ∗       ∗

63

Claim
  • The current diversity of Native American tongues would not exist if they were all the descendants of ancient Hebrews. The time period between Lehi's landing and the present is not sufficient to account for this diversity.

Response
  • This claim assumes a hemispheric geography and that the people of Lehi and Mulek occupied an empty continent. Although B.H. Roberts believed in a hemispheric geography, the Book of Mormon does not support this assumption.
  • For a detailed response, see: Book of Mormon/Geography/New World/Limited Geography Theory

65

Claim
  • B.H. Roberts notes, "It should be remarked that there was contact with no other people or source of literature that would influence the character of Nephite and Lamanite language than this national literature of the Jews."

Response

66

Claim
  • Roberts notes, "this people of Zarahemla came in contact with the last survivor of the race which had previously occupied the region of what we now call Central America and northward for about sixteen centuries.

Response
  • It is interesting to note that Roberts places the Jaredites in Central America.
  • Robert's assumes that Coriantumr was indeed the one and only survivor of the Jaredite nation.

91

Claim
  • "[T]here are a large number of separate language stocks in America that show very little relationship to each other—not more than that between English and German."

Response

Claim
  • "[I]t would take a long time—much longer than that recognized as 'historic times'—to develop these dialects and stocks where the develpment is conceived of as arising from a common source of origin—some primitive language."

Response
  • Roberts is again presuming that all Amerindian peoples and languages must descend only from Lehite stock, and that the Lehite group reached an empty continent.
  • For a detailed response, see: Book of Mormon/Anachronisms/Demographics

Claim
  • "[T]here is no connection between the American languages and the language of any people of the Old World. New World lanugages appear to be indigenous to the New world."

Response
  • Roberts is again presuming that all Amerindian peoples and languages must descend only from Lehite stock, and that the Lehite group reached an empty continent.
  • Roberts also assumes that the small Lehite group's language would predominate, instead of the more likely scenario in which they were assimilated into Amerindian culture(s) already present.
  • However, some tentative links between Hebrew and some Mesoamerican languages have been postulated.
  • For a detailed response, see: Book of Mormon/Anachronisms/Hebrew and Native American languages

92

Claim
  • "[T]he time limits named in the Book of Mormon—which represents the people of America as speaking and writing one language down to as late a period as 400 A.D.—is not sufficient to allow of these divergencies into the American langauge stocks and their dialects."

Response

Claim
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Response


Claim
  • Roberts presents the following questions regarding the development of languages in the Americas to what might be assumed from the Book of Mormon:

Can we in the face of the authorities here presented say that the independent language stocks and their inclusive dialects do not exist?

Can we say that it does not require long periods of time—much longer than that which may be derived from the Book of Mormon Nephite period of occupation of the New World—the only period that can be considered in connection with this subject—to develop the dialects and the language stocks of the American race?

Can we successfully affirm that the time limits represented in the Book of Mormon—a thousand years from the close of the Nephite period to the discovery of America and the advent of the Europeans— are sufficient in which to produce from one common source, viz. the Hebrew, the noted development of stocks and dialects?

Can we assert from any well grounded facts known to us or established by any authority that there is a connection between the American and some of the Old World languages, and especially with the Hebrew, as would seem to be required by the Book of Mormon facts?


Response

  • Roberts anticipates a limited geography as one possible response:

Can we answer that the Nephites and the people of Mulek—really constituting one people—occupied a very much more restricted area of the American continents than has heretofore been supposed, and that this fact (assumed here for the argument) would leave the rest of the continents—by far the greater part of them say— to be inhabited by other races, speaking other tongues, developing other cultures, and making, though absolutely unknown to Book of Mormon people, other histories? This might account for the diversity of tongues found in the New World, and give a reason for the lack of linguistic unity among them.

  • Roberts then anticipates the response to the limited geography proposal:

To this answer there would be the objection that if such other races or tribes existed then the Book of Mormon is silent about them. Neither the people of Mulek nor the people of Lehi or after they were combined, nor any of their descendants ever came in contact with any such people, so far as any Book of Mormon account of it is concerned…Then could the people of Mulek and of Lehi, being such a people as they are represented to be in the Book of Mormon—part of the time numbering millions and occupying the land at least from Yucatan to Cumorah…live and move and have their being in the land of America and not come in contact with other races and tribes of men, if such existed In the New World within Book of Mormon times? To make this seem possible the area occupied by the Nephites and Lamanites would have to be extremely limited, much more limited, I fear, than the Book of Mormon would admit of our assuming.

  • Note that Roberts assumes that the land was occupied “at least from Yucatan to Cumorah.” This represents the hemispheric geography model, which requires that the Hill Cumorah in which Mormon hid his records be assumed to be the same hill in which Moroni buried the gold plates. It should be noted, however, that the text of the Book of Mormon itself does not provide support for this assumption.
  • For a detailed response, see: Book of Mormon/Geography/Hill Cumorah/Location
  • Does the Book of Mormon prevent us from assuming a limited geography, as Elder Roberts suggests?
  • For a detailed response, see: Book of Mormon/Geography/Roberts/Prevented from assuming a limited geography


Further reading

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