Based on a story in
Genesis Chapter 11, this was a tower built by a united humanity in order to reach the heavens. To prevent the project from succeeding,
God confused their languages so that each spoke a different language and the work could not proceed. After that time, people moved away to different parts of the earth. The story is used to explain the existence of many different languages and races.
I think this story is used by Bob Jones University to justify their rule not allowing interracial dating or marriage. The rationale is that God still doesn't want the races to mix.
In the novel
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by
Douglas Adams, a
babel fish was a fish which, when inserted in a person's ear, would interact with the person's brain waves in such a way as to allow the person to understand any spoken language.
External link:
Altavista has a [Babel Fish]
that tranlates half a dozen languages.
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