Ancient languages in the world
Currently, there are over 6,000 languages spoken worldwide. Determining which language is the oldest dates back thousands of years, and the argument is fierce. Despite the difficulty, researchers continue to look for evidence of the earliest known languages. Therefore, many contenders make a list of the oldest languages. Let’s look at the world’s top ten ancient languages.
10. Latin
- Origin Country: North of Rome
- Age: 2000 years
The Indo-European family of languages includes the classical language of Latin. Greek and Etruscan alphabets are the ancestors of the Latin alphabet. It becomes the primary language of the late Roman Republic (75 BC) era. Latin is the root language of all Roman languages. There are many educational institutions that teach Latin, and and many people speak the language.
9. Armenian
- Origin Country: Armenia
- Age:2400 years
The Armenian people speak an Indo-European tongue known as Armenian. The most recent text discovered uses the 405 CE-invented Armenian scripts. By the second century BC, just one language was used in Armenia. Its language has a rich literary heritage, with the earliest extant document being a Bible translation from the fifth century. Eastern and Western Armen are mutually inclusive literary genres; more than 5 million currently speak this language.
8. Korean
- Origin Country: South Korea
- Spoken Since: 2600 years
Korean was founded in 600 BC and is the official language of both North Korea and South Korea and one of the two official languages in China. Globally, 80 million people speak Korean. Koreans have used Hanja, or modified Chinese letters, to write for over a thousand years. The uniformity of the Korean language allows for historical classification.
7. Hebrew
- Origin Country: Israel (Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic)
- Age: 2222-2422 years
Nine million people speak Hebrew at this time in the world. Between 200 and 400 CE, the Hebrew language was widely used and continued to be used in Jewish liturgy during the Middle Ages. With 220,000 fluent speakers, largely from Israel, the United States has the second-largest number of Hebrew speakers behind Israel. Hebrew was known as the “holy language” since it was used to write sacred writings for a long time.
6. Aramaic
- Origin Country: Ancient Aram (Syria)
- Age: 2472 years
A family of languages includes Aramaic. Other languages widely adopted the Aramaic script. In the roughly 2,472 years of history written down, Aramaic served as both the imperial language and the language of worship. Jewish Aramaic, however, was distinct from the other dialects regarding letters and grammar. Many dispersed, mostly tiny, and usually unconnected communities of various Christian, Jewish, and Mandean ethnic groups in Asia still use modern Aramaic as their mother tongue.
5. Chinese
- Origin Country: Proto-Sino-Tibetan
- Age: 3000 years
Three thousand years ago, the Chinese language first appeared during the Zhou Dynasty, about 1200 BC. Chinese is the primary language spoken by countless numbers of people. Chinese is a tonal, analytical language. The Chinese language is the most widely spoken outside of China.
4. Greek
- Origin Country: Greece
- Age: 3400 years
Thirteen million people mostly speak Greek in Greece, Albania, and Cyprus. The Greek language is first recorded in writing around 1450 BC. New terms for other languages are frequently derived from Greek roots. Most of the vocabulary used in international science comes from Greek and Latin. Greek is one of the oldest languages in Europe and has a long and rich history.
3. Egyptian
- Origin Country: Ancient Egypt
- Age: 4700 years
It belongs to the family of Afro-Asiatic languages. One of the earliest languages known was Egyptian, which dates back to 2690 BC. Egypt has a huge and diverse body of literature. Coptic was the form of Egyptian until the latter part of the 17th century. The Coptic Church still uses Egyptian as its liturgical language today.
2. Sanskrit
- Origin Country: Ancient India
- Age: 5000 years+
According to researchers, Sanskrit descended from Tamil, which significantly impacted several European languages. Indian classical literature has been written in Sanskrit since 3000 BC. Despite having a small vocabulary, Sanskrit is one of India’s official languages. Vedic and classical Sanskrit are two of their variations.
1. Tamil
- Origin Country: Tamil Nadu, South India
- Age: 5000 years+
Tamil is a more than 5000-year-old language with a rich and diverse body of literature. Tamil is one of the oldest classical languages still in use. A survey conducted just 14 years ago found 1,863 newspapers produced in Tamil, demonstrating the language’s continued use.
Due to the need for additional data, many academics think the serious study of language origins is inappropriate. The oldest languages still in use today are the focus of this list. According to one view, the necessity for verbal communication developed due to man forming groups to improve his ability to hunt. Ancient man’s grunts and sounds have evolved into more complex words and expressions today.
