OLDEST LANGUAGES OF THE WORLD
1. TAMIL : Tamil Language is more than 5000 years old and its literature is vast and varied. Tamil is one the longest surviving classical languages in the world, just 14 years ago, a survey concluded there were 1,863 newspapers published in Tamil proving that the language is still used today.
2. SANSKRIT: Researchers believe that Sanskrit, which heavily influenced many European languages, originated from Tamil. Sanskrit is the classical language of India, dating back to 3000 BC. Sanskrit is still one of India's official languages, although its use in the vernacular is limited.
3. EGYPTIAN : Egyptian is the oldest known language of Egypt. It comes from the Afro - Asiatic language family. Tomb walls bearing autobiographical writings in old Egyptian have been found dating back to 2600 -2000 BC. There is considerable and varied literature in Egyptian. Today, Egyptian survives as the liturgical language of the Coptic Church.
4. GREEK : The earliest written evidence of the Greek language dates back to 1450 BC. Greek is mostly spoken in Greece, Albania and Cyprus, by roughly 13 million people. The Greek language has a long and rich history which makes it among the oldest of European languages.
5. CHINESE : The first written records of Chinese language date back 3000 years to 1200 C and the Zhou Dynasty. Over time, the Chinese language has evolved and nearly 1.2 billion people speak some form of Chinese as their first language. This is the most popular language spoken in the world.
6. ARAMAIC : Research has shown that large parts of Hebrew and Arabic languages are borrowed from the Aramaic language. Diplomatic documents between Aramaean city states dating back to the 10th century BC ( 1000 BC ) prove this to be one of the oldest languages. Modern Aramaic, in its various dialects, is spoken in modern - day Iraq, Iran, Syria, Israel, Lebanon and various Western Countries to which the native speakers had emigrated, including Russia, Europe, Australia and USA.
7. HEBREW : Hebrew is 3000 years old, originating around 1000 BC. It is an ancient Semitic language and the official language of the State of Israel. For many years, Hebrew was a written language mostly for sacred texts thereby give the name of " holy language ". Today, it is both a spoken and written language that ties the Jewish community together.
8. KOREAN : The Korean language dates back to 600 BC. The Korean language is spoken by more than 65 million people living on the peninsula and is outlying islands as well as 5.5 million Koreans living in other parts of the world. The fact that all Koreans speak and write the same language has been a crucial factor in their strong national identity.
9. ARMENIAN : Armenian is an Indo - European language spoken by Armenians, its language has a long literary history, with a fifth - century Bible translation as its oldest surviving text. The last text found makes it likely that Armenian began around 450 BC. Today, Armenian is the mother tongue of over 5 million people.
10. LATIN : Old Latin refers to the Latin language in the period before 75 BC. Latin was the language of the victors of many wars and battles fought on the Italian peninsula. It gained most importance when it became the formal language of the Roman Empire. All Romance languages are descended from Latin, and many words based on Latin are found in other modern languages such as English. Today, Latin is taught in higher education courses and still endures.
Jeni & Santo
