If the Tower of Babel was a real event, wouldn't there be evidence?

The study of language is fascinating, one can trace how a langauge changes and evolves into a new langauge when speakers of that language were isolated from them. (Look at American and British English --the differences a few hundred years have made). Typically consonants and vowels lengthen or shorten from the original root language. It would be very easy to trace the origin of a language back to a central nexus (tower of babel) that is--to a central location. Yet there is no evidence whatsoever that all languages had their origins in the middle east--and a lot of evidence to the contrary. So isn't the tower of Babel an allegorical event the biblical authors used to describe the reason for different languages?