Editing Adamic language (section)

== Early modern period ==
=== Proponents ===
{{more citations needed section|date=January 2018}}
Elizabethan scholar [[John Dee]] makes references to a language he called "[[Enochian|Angelical]]", which he recorded in his private journals and those of [[scryer]] [[Edward Kelley]]. Dee's journals did not describe the language as "[[Enochian]]", instead preferring "Angelical", the "Celestial Speech", the "Language of Angels", the "First Language of God-Christ", the "Holy Language", or "Adamical" because, according to Dee's Angels, it was used by Adam in Paradise to name all things. The language was later dubbed Enochian, due to Dee's assertion that the [[Patriarchs (Bible)|Biblical Patriarch]] [[Enoch]] had been the last human (before Dee and Kelley) to know the language.

Dutch physician, linguist, and humanist [[Johannes Goropius Becanus]] (1519–1572) theorized in ''Origines Antwerpianae'' (1569) that [[Antwerp]]ian [[Brabantian Dutch|Babrantic]], spoken in the region between the [[Scheldt]] and [[Meuse]] Rivers, was the original language spoken in Paradise. Goropius believed that the most ancient language on Earth would be the simplest language, and that the simplest language would contain mostly short words. Since Brabantic has a higher number of short words than do Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, Goropius reasoned that it was the older language.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Gorporius Becanus |first=Johannes |date=2014 |title=Van Adam tot Antwerpen: Een bloemlezing uit de Origines Antwerpianae en de Opera van Johannes Goropius Becanus |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bgWyCAAAQBAJ&pg=265 |location=Hilversum |publisher=Uitgeverij Verloren |pages=265–77 |isbn=9789087044312}}</ref> His work influenced that of [[Simon Stevin]] (1548–1620), who espoused similar ideas in "Uytspraeck van de weerdicheyt der Duytse tael", a chapter in ''[[De Beghinselen Der Weeghconst]]'' (1586).

=== Opponents ===
By the 17th century, the existence and nature of the alleged Adamic language was commonly discussed amongst European Jewish and Christian mystics and primitive linguists.<ref name="Noordegraaf">{{Cite journal |last=Noordegraaf |first=Jan |date=1983 |title=Nog eens Hedendaagsch fetischisme |url=http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/_voo004198301_01/_voo004198301_01_0009.php |journal=Voortgang |publisher= Stichting Neerlandistiek VU |volume=4 |issue=10 |pages=193–230 |access-date=16 January 2018}}</ref> [[Robert Boyle]] (1627–1691) was skeptical that Hebrew was the language best capable of describing the nature of things, stating:
<blockquote>I could never find, that the Hebrew names of animals, mentioned in the beginning of Genesis, argued a (much) clearer insight into their natures, than did the names of the same or some other animals in Greek, or other languages (1665:45).<ref name="Noordegraaf"/></blockquote>

[[John Locke]] (1632–1704) expressed similar skepticism in his ''[[An Essay Concerning Human Understanding]]'' (1690).<ref name="Noordegraaf"/>