Uncover the Oldest Language within the World

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Even if you happen to’re not a linguist, you most likely know that languages evolve over time. English comes from Outdated English, Chinese language comes from Outdated Chinese language, and French comes from — nicely, you get the image.

However what’s the oldest language on the planet, and what languages did it evolve into? Observe our historical language information to study all concerning the oldest languages on the planet, how way back they originated, and whether or not or not folks nonetheless converse them at the moment.

What was the world’s first language?

In accordance with linguistic archaeologists, the world’s oldest language is known as Proto-Sapiens or Proto-Human language. Nevertheless, like all protolanguages, this early language is simply an idea of a language, and there’s no written proof for it.

Primarily based on archaeological research of human migration, many linguists consider that spoken language first emerged in early people over 135,000 years in the past within the Center Paleolithic interval on the African continent. As a result of that’s lengthy earlier than our earliest information of written language, we don’t have artifacts that describe how a Proto-Human language regarded or sounded.

What languages developed from Proto-Sapiens/Proto-Human?

Theoretically, each language people converse developed from a Proto-Human language. Proto-Indo-European, the ancestor language of English, Spanish, French, and Farsi, is a conceptual descendant of this early human language. So are Proto-Afroasiatic (ancestor language to Arabic and Hebrew), Proto-Niger-Congo (ancestor language to Swahili and Yoruba), and Proto-Sino-Tibetan (ancestor language to Mandarin and Tibetan). All of the world’s languages are probably linked!

The highest 5 oldest languages on the planet

People started retaining written information round 5,000 years in the past, making it doable for archaeologists and linguists to trace the evolution of the world’s oldest languages. Try how the 5 oldest written languages on the planet took place and adjusted over time, and the way they seem in trendy utilization at the moment.

1. Sumerian

Often called one of many oldest languages on the planet, the Sumerian language dates again to 3100 B.C.E. It was seemingly spoken all through the Sumer civilization in southern Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq and Kuwait) till round 2000 B.C.E. Though Sumerian was not spoken by a big inhabitants, its audio system created many written texts for enterprise, lecturers, authorized paperwork, and sacred literature.

Sumerian was a language isolate, that means that it was not carefully associated to different languages, and it didn’t evolve into languages we use at the moment. It was additionally an agglutinative language that used brief syllables to vary the that means of a phrase. It was more than likely the primary language to make use of the cuneiform writing system, a collection of pictographs reduce into clay, stone, or wooden.

As Sumerian is an extinct language with restricted written artifacts, it has no full dictionary. Nevertheless, linguist archaeologists have compiled educational Sumerian lexicons consisting of 1,000 indicators that seem in written tablets. 

Just a few examples of Sumerian phrases embody:

2. Akkadian

The Akkadian language emerged within the written report round 3000 B.C.E., and was believed to have changed Sumerian in Mesopotamia. A Semitic language within the Afro-Asiatic language household, Akkadian was named after town of Akkad in Sumer and have become a lingua franca (widespread language) within the Center East, Egypt, and Northern Africa.

Though folks don’t converse Akkadian at the moment, important dialects like Babylonian and Assyrian made a historic affect. Many historical mathematical and astronomy paperwork had been written in Babylonian, and Assyrian was carefully associated to Aramaic, a language nonetheless spoken at the moment within the type of Neo-Aramaic.

Like Sumerian, Akkadian used cuneiform script in its paperwork and artifacts. Over 600 phrase and syllable indicators seem in an Akkadian lexicon, together with these Akkadian phrases:

3. Egyptian

The traditional Egyptian language was primarily spoken within the Nile Valley. It’s finest identified for its hieroglyphic writing system, which appeared within the written report round 3000 B.C.E. and documented historic occasions, spiritual rituals, interpersonal communication, and particulars from Egyptians’ on a regular basis lives. 

Historic Egyptian was a part of the Afro-Asiatic language household. It went by way of many evolutionary adjustments over the following 5 millennia, together with adopting the demotic writing system (a cursive script learn proper to left) round 700 B.C.E. and the Greek alphabet in Coptic Egyptian. Individuals in Egypt spoke Coptic Egyptian till the seventeenth century C.E., when it was changed by Egyptian Arabic (a dialect of Arabic unrelated to historical Egyptian).

The traditionally important Rosetta Stone was written in Egyptian hieroglyphs, in addition to demotic Egyptian and historical Greek, permitting linguists to translate the hieroglyphs and create an Egyptian Hieroglyphic Dictionary that features phrases like:

4. Hittite

One of many earliest recorded languages of the Indo-European language household, the traditional Hittite language was spoken by the Hittite folks of Anatolia (modern-day Türkiye). It has no identified language descendants and is unrelated to trendy Turkish or different languages of the Center East. Nevertheless, it’s possible you’ll discover traces of Hittite in trendy Indo-European languages, together with English. (The Hittite phrase for “water” is watar!)

Also referred to as Hattic or Hattian, written information of Hittite utilization emerged round 2000 B.C.E., and most artifacts reference the Hittite language or the Hittite individuals who spoke it. Nevertheless, there are some information of cuneiform script written in Hittite, primarily spiritual texts and authorized paperwork.

Language tasks, together with the Hittite Dictionary of the College of Chicago, maintain information of the Hittite language to protect its place in historical past. Some examples of Hittite phrases embody:

5. Historic Greek

Of all of the oldest languages on the planet, you’re most likely most conversant in historical Greek. Spoken throughout the second millennium B.C.E. within the Aegean Islands and the Anatolian coast, historical Greek made its technique to cities across the Mediterranean Sea and all through southern Italy. It was changed in these areas by Latin within the sixth and seventh centuries B.C.E., however was nonetheless extensively spoken all through Greece.

Historic Greek is likely one of the most well-documented Indo-European languages, due to its prominence as a scholastic language in educational paperwork. It went by way of a number of language intervals earlier than evolving into trendy Greek, a language that’s distinctly completely different from its historical ancestor.

Many Indo-European languages, together with Latin, French, and English, use phrases from the historical Greek dictionary. You will have seen these historical Greek phrases in English:

The ten oldest languages nonetheless spoken at the moment

Most of the world’s oldest languages, together with Sumerian, Akkadian, and Hittite, aren’t in widespread utilization at the moment. However a lot of folks around the globe nonetheless converse languages that got here from way back, and a few historical languages are among the many most spoken languages on the planet!

Although they could have developed from their earliest variations, these 10 languages are nonetheless spoken within the Twenty first century: 

• Sanskrit* (1500 B.C.E.): 14,000 audio system
• Chinese language (1500 B.C.E.): 1.3 billion audio system
• Greek (1450 B.C.E.): 10 million audio system
• Aramaic (1100 B.C.E.): 500,000 audio system
• Hebrew (900 B.C.E.): 6 million audio system
• Farsi (550 B.C.E.): 70 million audio system
• Arabic (500 B.C.E.): 400 million audio system
• Tamil (500 B.C.E.): 91 million audio system
• Armenian (500 B.C.E.): 9 million
• Korean (57 B.C.E.): 75 million audio system

*Knowledge from britannica.com, worlddata.com, and ethnologue.com.

FAQ concerning the world’s oldest languages

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