[Avodah] Did Adam Speak Hebrew?

[Micha Berger]

I know we all assume Adam spoke Lashon haQodesh, but...

Sanhderin 38b has Rav Yehudah amar Rav, "Adam haRishon spoin in the
Aramaic language." Citing Tehillim 139:17-19 that slips into Aramaic in
retelling what Adam said upon his creation -- "im tiqtol Eloak rasha".

I have a theory that both are true.

We know that HLashon haQodesh evolved during the course of Tanakh. Hashem
didn't dictate to Moshe in the same language Ezra spoke.

For example, there is no "she-" prefix in Chumash, it only uses the full
word "asher". When Shemu'el haNavi wrote Shofetim and Rus, the prefix
was "sha-" even when it wasn't short for "she-" + "ha-". But Nevi'im
Acharonim use the "she-" common ever since.

If if we take Adam, Noach, and Migdal Bavel as history, we have to also
accept the evolution of language.

Which means that it could well be that in Adam's day, Hebrew and Aramaic
hadn't branched off yet. The language Adam spoke, being an ancestor of
the Torah's Hebrew and containing the tools to best communicate with the
RBSO, was Lashon haQodesh. Even if it was also the ancestor of Aramaic.
Maybe he spoke proto-Semitic, proto-Afroasiatic, or something yet earlier.

The Rosh explains the idea that Qaddish is in Aramaic to hide it from
mal'akhim. He says that Aramaic is "Lashon haQodesh hamequlqul", so
mal'akhim don't want to use it. Perhaps we could say that it's in the
"uncanny valley", where something looking almost right is worse than
not trying to imitate at all.

:-)BBii!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger                 Take time,
http://www.aishdas.org/asp   be exact,
Author: Widen Your Tent      unclutter the mind.
- https://amzn.to/2JRxnDF          - Rabbi Simcha Zissel Ziv, Alter of Kelm