ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Linguistics and the Book of Mormon

Linguistics is like figuring out how people use words to communicate with each other. Imagine you have a bunch of different toys that you want to share with your friends. You have to use words to tell them which toys you want to play with and how to play with them.

The Book of Mormon is a religious book that talks about people who lived a long time ago. Some people think that the words in the Book of Mormon are special because they came from God. But other people think that the words were made up by someone who wrote the book.

Linguistics can help us figure out if the words in the Book of Mormon were really from a long time ago or if they were made up by the person who wrote the book. Linguists look at things like grammar, vocabulary, and word choices to see if the words in the Book of Mormon match what people said a long time ago.

Some people argue that the words in the Book of Mormon match what people said a long time ago, which means that the book is real. But other people argue that the words in the book were made up, which means that the book is not real. It's like a big puzzle that people are still trying to figure out!