I have come to believe that modern language made inroads in use much earlier than I had thought. In the early days it was mostly dullards who couldn't keep up with science but it would appear scientific knowledge was making great progress even earlier than I had believed. Also in these early days with so few words it was more difficult even for speakers to differentiate between the languages. It would be obvious the speaker was none too bright. By 3200 BC there were so many speakers that writing was invented to help prevent drift in meaning as edicts were relays to them. Even by the time the Great Pyramid was built I doubt more than 10% of the population spoke AL. By ~2000 BC there were too few AL speakers to operate the states so the official language was changed to the various pidgin languages and their dialects. This set off an 800 year dark ages.
In this context "ancient" generally means "before 2000 BC". It includes "Adam" and "Eve" right up through the Tower of Babel.
One has only checked a limited area of the world to form one's opinion and generalized to other regions of the world. Right?
How does one know that people in other parts of the world did not have equivalent of the word "belief", please? Right?
The natural languages and the natural words existed in the world though they the people did not know writing or were not used to write them, so one cannot say with certainty that they did not have any equivalent of the word " belief" . Right?
I know that the word for belief existed in Arabic though they were not used to writing much. Quran mentions the word for belief since the time of Abraham for sure, please:
2:261
وَ اِذۡ قَالَ اِبۡرٰہٖمُ رَبِّ اَرِنِیۡ کَیۡفَ تُحۡیِ الۡمَوۡتٰی ؕ
قَالَ اَوَ لَمۡ تُؤۡمِنۡ ؕ قَالَ بَلٰی وَ لٰکِنۡ لِّیَطۡمَئِنَّ قَلۡبِیۡ ؕ قَالَ فَخُذۡ اَرۡبَعَۃً مِّنَ الطَّیۡرِ فَصُرۡہُنَّ اِلَیۡکَ ثُمَّ اجۡعَلۡ عَلٰی کُلِّ جَبَلٍ مِّنۡہُنَّ جُزۡءًا ثُمَّ ادۡعُہُنَّ یَاۡتِیۡنَکَ سَعۡیًا ؕ وَ اعۡلَمۡ اَنَّ اللّٰہَ عَزِیۡزٌ حَکِیۡمٌ ﴿۲۶۱﴾٪
And
remember when Abraham said, ‘My Lord, show me how Thou givest life to the dead.’ He said, ‘
Hast thou not believed?’ He said, ‘Yes, but
I ask this that my heart may be at rest.’ He answered, ‘Take four birds and make them attached to thyself. Then put each of them on a hill; then call them; they will come to thee in haste. And know that Allah is Mighty, Wise.’
Holy Quran: Read, Listen and Search
Right?
Regards
____________
*leubh-
Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to care, desire, love."
It forms all or part of:
belief;
believe;
furlough;
leave (n.) "permission, liberty granted to do something;"
leman;
libido;
lief;
livelong;
love;
lovely;
quodlibet.
It is the hypothetical source of/evidence for its existence is provided by: Sanskrit lubhyati "desires," lobhaya- "to make crazy;" Persian ahiftan "to be tangled, be hit down, be in love;" Latin lubet, later libet "pleases," libido, lubido "desire, longing; sensual passion, lust;" Old Church Slavonic l'ubu "dear, beloved," ljubiti, Russian ljubit' "to love;" Lithuanian liaupsė "song of praise;" Old English lufu "feeling of love; romantic sexual attraction," German Liebe "love," Gothic liufs "dear, beloved."
*leubh- | Origin and meaning of root *leubh- by Online Etymology Dictionary