List Of Old Languages Of The World | Top 20 Oldest Language In The World
List Of Old Languages Of The World | Top 20 Oldest Language In The World
List Of Old Languages Of The World | Top 20 Oldest Language In The World. Many of today’s languages evolved and sprung from previous languages, some of which are extinct. Even the English spoken today differs from that spoken during the middle ages.
If you are wondering, English is not among the oldest languages. Modern English is among the youngest languages at only five centuries old. Languages have always been fascinating because of the role they played as one of the pillars of civilization on Earth.
What are the Top 10 world’s oldest languages?
- Chinese: 1250 BC – Present (circa. 3300 years old).
- Aramaic: 1100 BC – Present (circa. 3100 years old).
- Hebrew: 1000 BC–200 CE, 1800 – Present (circa. 3000 years old).
- Egyptian: 2690 BC – Present (circa. 4700 years old).
- Sanskrit: 1500 BC – Present (circa. 3500 years old).
- Greek: 1450 BC – Present (circa. 3500 years old).
- Farsi: 522 BC – Present (circa. 2500 years old).
- Italian: as a descendent of Latin, 100 BC – Present (circa. 2100 years old).
- Arabic: roughly 100 CE – Present (circa. 1900 years old).
- Tamil: 300 BC – Present (circa. 2300 years old).
- Korean: no later than 57 BC – Present (circa. 2100 years old).
Why is it important to preserve endangered languages?
Preserving endangered languages is important because they are vital to cultural preservation and identity. When a language disappears, it often takes with it a unique perspective of the world, including knowledge about traditions, stories, medicinal practices and more. Moreover, endangered languages offer useful insight into linguistics and cognitive science while also contributing to linguistic diversity. All languages, no matter how big or small, offer unique perspectives and ideas about the world we live in.
20 Oldest Languages in the World
1. Sanskrit (4,000 years old)
Sanskrit is one of the oldest languages in the world is Sanskrit. An ancient Indo-Aryan language, Sanskrit is widely used in Jainism, Buddhism, and Sikhism — its effects are seen in poetry, drama, and sciences, as well as religious and philosophical texts. Sacred texts like the “Mahabharata” (of which the Hindu scripture Bhagavad Gita is part of) and “Ramayana” were all written in Sanskrit.
2. Sumerian (3,200 years old)
Sumerian is among the earliest languages for which written evidence exists. It was written in the cuneiform script. Known to be the greatest contribution from the Sumerian people, cuneiform is a way of writing distinct from the alphabet. It uses between 600 and 1,000 characters impressed on clay to spell words by dividing them up into syllables. Now Sumerian was spoken in ancient Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq) but suffered a decline, with many saying a drought killed off the language with many of its people.
3. Greek (3,000 years old)
Spanning over three millennia, the Greek language is one of the oldest languages in the world. Ancient Greek was developed in the classical era and was the choice of language for mathematicians, philosophers, and playwrights. Then, Modern Greek became the official language of the Kingdom of Greece in the 19th century. Today, Greek is spoken by the majority of its population and is used in business, education and government policies; 13 million people use it as their first language.
4. Chinese (6,000 years old)
The Chinese language is the oldest written language in the world. Its oldest writing has been sighted on animal bones, known as oracle bones, that date back to the Shang dynasty. This means it was some 3,600 years ago when the written language was first used. The standard spoken form of Chinese, known as Mandarin or Putonghua, is spoken in the northern, central and southwestern provinces of China.
5. Egyptian (4,000 years old)
The Egyptian language, specifically Ancient Egyptian, originated in the Nile Valley of Northeastern Africa and has had connections to Semitic languages. The language underwent many variations — Old Egyptian, Middle Egyptian, Late Egyptian until its last phase, the Coptic alphabet. As the language evolved, it became more widely spoken by the common man as well as the elite for various reasons, including religious ceremonies, legal proceedings, and literature.
6. Farsi (3,000 years old).
Farsi, also known as Persian, is an Indo-European language. The language originated in Iran and is still the official language there. Farsi is also spoken in neighbouring countries like Afghanistan and Tajikistan. The language is rich; its literary works have been widely recognised as being one of the four main bodies of world literature.
7. Hebrew (cc. 3000 years old).
The fascinating thing about Hebrew is that it had ceased to be an everyday spoken language somewhere between 200 and 400 AD. Then, it continued to be used throughout the medieval period as the language of Jewish liturgy, rabbinic literature and poetry. Modern Hebrew is now the official language of Israel, and it is taught and spoken by the majority of people living there.
8. Tamil (5000 years old).
Official language in Sri Lanka and Singapore, Tamil is the oldest language in the world. It is the only ancient language that has survived all the way to the modern world. Part of the Dravidian family, which comprises of some native southern and eastern Indian languages, Tamil is the most widely spoken language in the state of Tamil Nadu and is also one of the official languages of India.
9. Basque (2200 years old)
Basque is spoken natively by a small population of people residing in Spain and France.However, it is completely unrelated to French and Spanish, or any other languages in the world. Linguists have contemplated for centuries about the roots of this mysterious language, but none of the theories has been able to hold water.
10. Italian (2,100 years old)
Italian, as we know it today, originated from Vulgar Latin, the colloquial form of the Latin language spoken by the common people during the decline of the Roman Empire. After the fall of the Roman Empire, the language’s first developments began forming from a variety of regional dialects. One dialect that was spoken in Florence stood out. The Tuscan dialect, with its phonetic and grammatical features, became the foundation of what would later become the Italian language.
11. Lithuanian (5000 years old)
Lithuanian forms a part of the group of the Indo-European language, which gave birth to various modern languages like German, Italian and English. Lithuanian is closely related to Sanskrit, Latin and Ancient Greek, and has retained the sounds and grammar rules from the ancient era in a far better way than any of its linguistic cousins. It is thus considered amongst one of the oldest languages in the world.
12. Irish Gaelic (1500 years old)
Irish Gaelic, Gaelic, Erse, or Irish has 2,76,000 speakers around the world. Irish Gaelic has Celtic origins from the Bronze Age. However, the literary tradition can be traced back to the 6th century AD. The Irish language is related to Manx, Scottish Gaelic, Welsh, Cornish and Breton languages.
13. Korean (2,100 years old).
The language is spoken by more than 75 million people today – 48 million living in South Korea and 24 million living in North Korea. Korean has unique linguistic characteristics and belongs to the Koreanic language family, which is a language isolate, meaning it does not have any known close relatives. It is not directly related to Chinese, Japanese, or other neighbouring languages. The earliest evidence of this language comes from Old Korean inscriptions such as the Samguk Yusa and the Gwanggaeto Stele, which date back to the 4th century.
15. Icelandic (1200 years old)
Icelandic, the national language of Iceland, is spoken by 3,30,000 people. Icelandic in also spoken in some parts of Denmark, USA and Canada. Icelandic is a North Germanic Language. The language had been developed from Norse which was brought by the settlers of Norway in the 9th and 10th century.
16. Arabic (cc. 2800 years old).
There are 25 countries that have Arabic as an official or co-official language. Old Arabic is the ancestor of the Arabic language and it is believed that its earliest inscription is a prayer to the three gods of the Transjordanian Canaanite kingdoms dated to the early 1st millennium BC.
17. Latin (2700 Years Old)
Ancient Rome made Latin its official language for the empire and religion, explaining why the Roman Church considers it its official language. Latin emerged sometime in 700 BC. Scholars categorize Latin as an Indo-European language. The other languages that fall under this category include Italian, French, Romanian, Spanish, and Portuguese. Even English is an Indo-European language. Interestingly, the people who originally spoke Latin were called Romans. The name “Romans” is derived from Romulus, the founder of the language.
18. Aramaic: 1100 BC – Present (3000 Years Old).
Aramaic is a language of the Semitic language group, along with Hebrew and Arabic. It is 3,000 years old, one of the few ancient languages in the world that has survived for thousands of years, and is considered to be the everyday language of the Jews at the time of Jesus Christ. In the 12th century B.C., the Aramaic-speaking Aramaic people began to migrate in large numbers into what is now the Middle East.
19. Nahuatl
This language is one of the most common indigenous languages in North America. It has been spoken in central Mexico since the seventh century and was once the language of the Aztec Empire. Today, somewhere between 1.5 and two million people speak some form of the Nahuatl language. Despite this, the language is endangered because it’s no longer taught to younger generations.
20. German
German was the first language to be printed. It was not the first language to be written, but it was the first to be printed on a book.
