Really? I thought eternal salvation and love are suppose to be his greatest gifts. And languages are a curse put upon the human race when the tribes were scattered at the tower of Babel, so they could never again be unified and work together again, or something like that.

My experience is much more limited, but the only Amerind language I ever learned much of--Osage--is Siouan. Navajo kicked my sorry ass more thoroughly than I think any language has ever.

I bet it does that to everybody.

It most likely does. A month or so ago I thought I might try learning it, but once I learned about its verbs, I realized my dream was totally impossible.

For me, learning Navajo is comparable to attacking a mother grizzly bear and her cubs using an eraser. Sure some Macgyver might be able to pull it off, but your average person would be eaten alive.

I think he means LANGUAGE as a concept is a gift; as the verse says, the tongue were confused because man tried to build his own way to Heaven. So the concept of speech is a blessing; the fact that many tongues exist is not.

However, it's important to note that Jehovah turns curses into blessings all the time(The Joseph story, anyone?). So what was originally a punishment has turned into something good that gives every land its own flair, and teaches man that to reach a goal, you must work and learn.

Good point, but to me, it seemed he meant that there is more than one language. And I think many people would find them a curse. To people like us that enjoy languages it's a wonderful blessing but to a lot of people it's just a boundary that separates. Although your point about curses into blessings is nice.

Navajo verbs are CRAZY!
On a side note, it seems that the Na-Dené & Yeniseian language families are now excepted as belonging to single Dené-Yeniseian family. This links some languages of North America with some languages of Siberia.

Hmm? What's so difficult about Navajo?

*reads the Wikipedia article*

Ok, ok.

I did the same thing.