What Are The Top 10 Oldest Languages In The World?
Ever wondered what is the origin of your language? What was the language of your ancestors? Anthropologists say there are about 7000 and most of the present-day languages are evolved from the ancient languages some of them are extinct.
If you are interested to know what are the top 10 oldest languages in the world, join us in this article to give you a brief overview of the ancient languages.
➡ A podcast of this article has been provided for your listening pleasure:
1. Sumerian
5,000 Years Ago
● The Sumerian language is the oldest in the world which emerged approximately in 3200 BC.
● This language is birthed by ancient Sumerians that lived in southern Mesopotamia.
● Sumerians used cuneiforms for writing this language hence it is the oldest written language.
● Sumerian language fell in 2000 BC when Sumerians began speaking Semitic Akkadians.
2. Egyptian
5000 Years Ago
It was one of the oldest languages in the world that originated in Africa around 3000 BCE. The ancient Egyptians used symbols of humans, animals, and various artificial objects to write their language known as Hieroglyphic scripts.
Egyptian was developed during 5 stages including:
● Old Egyptian (2600 BC – 2100 BC)
● Middle Egyptian (2100 BC- 1500 BC)
● Late Egyptian (1500 BC -700 BC)
● Demotic (700 BC -400 AD)
● Coptic (400 AD-onset of the Islamic era)
when the Arabs conquered Egypt in 641 AD, Arabic gained popularity in the region and then the Egyptian language (Coptic) got extinct gradually.
3. Tamil
5000 Years Ago
● The ancient language Tamil emerged in 3000 BC. And even earlier.
● Tamil is still spoken in some areas including India, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Mauritius, Malaysia, and South Africa.
● The word Tamil means natural, sweet, and beautiful and is the name of an ancient god: Thai
● Thai means “mother, hence some people believe Tamil is the mother of other languages.
4. Sanskrit
3500 Years Ago
● Sanskrit emerged around 1500 BC however some scholars believed this language is the mother of all tongues.
● This ancient language is still used in some religious texts and ceremonies of India and the government of India recognizes it as one of its official tongues.
● Scholars put it in the Indo-European family as an Indo-Aryan language.
5. Greek
3450 Years Ago
● Greek emerged in the Balkans about 1450 BC. And still exist in present-day Greece, however, this ancient language has evolved.
● Proto-Greek: it was the earliest version of this language.
● Mycenaean, Ancient, Koine, and Medieval versions are other versions of this language.
● Neo-Hellenic Greek: it is the modern Greek language that emerged in the 11th century during the Byzantine era.
6. Han Ethnic Chinese
3250 Years Ago
● Han ethnic Chinese is the language of Ancient Chinese that emerged around 1250 BC. However, some scientists believe that Han ethnic Chinese is older than it.
● You may be surprised if know that today, there isn’t any language as the Chinese language. Indeed, the present-day language that the Chinese speak is the languages of Mandarin and Cantonese.
● Mandarin and Cantonese emerged in 220 AD and 1300s AD respectively.
7. Hebrew
3000 Years Old
● Hebrew is a Semitic language that emerged about 1000 BC.
● Hebrew is written and read from right to left.
● This language disappeared many years ago but Israelites revived it again and nowadays is the official language of Israel.
8. Aramaic
2900 Years Old
● The Aramaic language was birthed by The Aramaeans about 900 BCE.
● it became the second language of the Assyrians and this language gets replaced by Akkadian by 600 BCE.
● Before it, Akkadian was the official language of the Middle East.
9. Latin
2700 Years Old
● Romulus is the founder of Latin in 700 BC hence the people that speak Latin were known as Romans.
● Latin was selected as the official language of Ancient Rome and because of the spread of the Roman empire, people in many areas around the world spoke Latin.
● Nowadays Latin is known as the Indo-European language and a lot of languages such as Italian, French, Romanian, Spanish, Portuguese and even English are belonged to the Indo-European language.
10. Persian
(2500 Years Old)
The old Persian language was birthed about 525 BC to 300 BC. This language was used to write the Kermanshah inscriptions that were written by Darius (the Persian King) in 500 BC. The modern Persian language emerged about 800 AD it is today the official language in some countries such as:
● Iran
● Tajikistan (Tajik)
● Afghanistan (Dari)
● Uzbekistan
Nowadays a lot of people (more than 100 million people) speak Modern Persian.
Conclusion
The oldest language in the world is Sumerian, Egyptian, Tamil, Sanskrit, Greek, Han Ethnic Chinese, Hebrew, Aramaic, Latin and Persian. Some of these ancient languages are still alive like Greek and some of them fell many years ago such as Sumerian. Some languages were extinct and revival again like Hebrew.
Are you familiar with ancient languages? Which one? Which one of the above ancient languages is the origin of your tongue? Do you think what is important about learning ancient languages? Please share your idea with our readers below.