The original Semitic language spoken by Noah and Shem was lost when the Tower was destroyed, except as far it was preserved by Jared and his brother, their families and a few of their friends (Ether 1:35-37). The twenty-four plates must have been written in that vernacular (v. 24). Being lost as a common mode of speech, it could not have been read, particularly in an age when reading was an art, mastered by few.
Semitic languages. These at one time were spoken by inhabitants of Abyssinia, Arabia, Palestine, Phoenicia, Syria, Mesopotamia, parts of Elam, the Nile Valley, Ethiopia, and parts of northern Africa. Arabic, Hebrew, Phoenician, Moabitic, Aramean, Assyrian, Babylonian, Samaritan, Syriac, are all classed as Semitic. A Semitic dialect was at one time the official language of Persia. All these linguistic branches must have had a common stem in a tongue spoken by Noah and Shem. It was also the vernacular of the Jaredites until the dispersion, and of Jared and his friends after that event.
Origin of languages. Some have suggested that words were invented in imitation of such sounds as hiss, buzz, roar, etc. Others have thought that languages were developed from interjections, such as, Oh, alas, etc. Others think that a gesture language preceded a sound language. But the Scriptures tell us that Adam could speak even before the creation of Eve. He must have been taught to use a highly developed language of none other than his Heavenly Father.
Turn to Genesis 2:19-23. There we read that God brought beasts of the field and fowls of the air before Adam "to see what he would call them." Adam gave them names, but he found no help, meet for him, until Eve had been given being and life. Then he exclaimed, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh." He recognized that there was no affinity between him and the brute creation. Here Adam is represented as conversing with his divine Tutor, and as having a vocabulary sufficient for a work on Zoology.
We know not how long a time our venerable ancestor and his wife, Eve, remained in the Garden of Eden, but it is evident that when they entered the world outside they were full equipped, mentally and otherwise, for their earthly mission. They even had a written language and kept a record thereby, a Book of Remembrance. This was written by inspiration in the language of Adam, which was the tongue spoken by the antediluvian patriarchs presumably down to Noah and his sons (Pearl of Great Price, 6:46).