11:7 Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. Babylonian confoundation of languageevtl.

11:7 Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.

Babylonian confoundation of language

evtl.

sorry. LEO hat mal wieder meine Formatierung gefressen

http://fzarchiv.sachon.de/index.php?pdf=Fachz...


LANGUAGE TANGLE. Hungary and the National Realisation. of the EU Directive for Water Filling. Hungary’s EU entry comprises. the realisation of EU rules into ...

#4
Helmi, das hört sich sehr gut an. So modern hatte ich gar nicht gedacht :-(

It depends on the tone of the writing, I would say ("confusion of tongues" vs. "language tangle"). In defence of the "classical" solution, here's an example of its use from a document concerning the EU no less:

"... A theoretical understanding of the interrelationship in order to pave the way for orchestrated public policies for developing new societal sustainability implies a meta-concept of sustainability. This is lacking which causes a Babylonian confusion of tongues. With this in mind we may also conclude, that the concept of ‘social capital’ refers to propositions related with specific economic thinking and is applied dimensions of human existence that are not related. This will make a clear and unambiguous conceptualisation impossible. ..."

ec.europa.eu/citizens_agenda/social_reality_stocktaking/contributions/docs/contrib99-2.pdf

(Although it's being used in a figurative sense, of course.)

Man google mal "Babylonian language tangle": wenig vertrauenerweckend, das. Die Belegquelle ist von einem Ungarn verfasst, der schon im kursiv gesetzten Einleitungsabsatz danebenliegt ("easement" ist nicht normalerweise und insbes. nicht in juristischen Zusammenhängen "Lockerung"). Muss also wohl als apokryph gelten.

Und die "confoundation" ist zwar eine gute Idee, aber der Lateiner weiß: to confound < confundere > confusum > confusio > confusion. Also: confusion of tongues oder languages, wobei ersteres wesentlich mehr google-Treffer hat; was sich ganz einfach mit verschiedenen Bibelübersetzungen erklärt (das hebräische Wort kann "Lippe" oder "Sprache" bedeuten, aber in den europäischen Sprachen ist nun mal die Zunge die übliche Metonymie für Sprache).

You can say 'a Babylonian confusion of languages,' and it will certainly sound better than 'language tangle,' which, as New Yorker quite rightly suspects, is not idiomatic.

But the problem, as I pointed out in the previous thread

Siehe auch: Babylonisches Sprachgewirr - Babylonian confu... ,

is that in English, hardly anyone will associate the word 'Babylonian' with language confusion anyway, so it will basically be meaningless and you might as well just leave the word out.

The word we do associate with a confusion of tongues is the old word for Babylon: Babel, as in the Tower of Babel, which is how the traditional Bible story is referred to.

It exists also in lowercase as a figurative noun, so you could theoretically say 'a babel of languages,' but that's not very common.

The other option, 'babble,' is apparently not etymologically related to Babylon aka Babel, but it still might be the most familiar word.

Otherwise I think I would just leave it out and say 'confusion,' period. (And New Yorker is right again, 'confoundation' isn't a real word, and 'confound' in the sense of 'confuse' is near-obsolete anyway.)

I also would not use 'tongues'; in this sense it's now mainly only literary or poetic.

wow- ich hätte nicht so viele Antworten erwartet. Vielen Dank für all die Vorschläge, wobei weglassen (trotz des Hinweises von hm_us) leider keine Option ist. Macht wahrscheinlich auch nichts, weil es für ein gesamteuropäisches Publikum geschrieben ist und zumindest bei den deutschsprachigen oder nicht-englischsprachigen Europäern vielleicht einige etwas mit dem Bild anfangen können :-).

Ich werde also bei confusion of languages bleiben.

Have a great day!