It is very difficult to determine the exact number of languages being spoken around the world. Humans once communicated using hand gestures and primitive oral sounds before civilisations, kingdoms, and the norms of society were established. The concept of languages emerged about 10,000 years ago and it changed the course of humanity. The use of languages led to the development of societies and has brought us where we are today. Although the origin of the very first language is highly debated throughout the world, certain ancient scriptures and cave carvings reveal some of the oldest languages in the world.
Some Oldest Languages Still in Use
Tamil, spoken by around 80 million people and an official language in Sri Lanka and Singapore, is one of the oldest languages (over 2,500–3,000 years old though with earlier oral tradition) in the world. It is one of the few ancient languages that has survived with continuous literary and spoken tradition. Part of the Dravidian family, which comprises native southern and eastern Indian languages, Tamil is the first state and official language in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. Inscriptions belonging to the 3rd century BCE have been found in this language.
Sanskrit emerged between 6500 to 1500 BCE, though its oral traditions go further back. However, it remains a liturgical and scholarly language found in the scriptures of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. The first written record of Sanskrit can be seen in Rigveda, a collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns, which was composed somewhere around 1500 BCE to 1000 BCE. According to studies, Sanskrit forms the base for many Indo-European languages and is still one of India's official languages. It began to fall out of common usage around 600 BCE.
Egyptian (Coptic) is considered as one of the world's oldest and indigenous languages of Egypt. Written records of its use can be dated back to 3,400 BCE. Coptic was the most widely spoken language in Egypt till the late 17th century CE until it was replaced by Egyptian Arabic, following the Arab conquest of Egypt between 639 and 642 CE, with most people switching to Arabic between the 12th and 15th centuries. Today, Coptic is still used as the liturgical language at the Coptic Church in Egypt. Only a handful of people fluently speak this language. It belongs to the Afro-Asian linguistic family.
Hebrew (3,000 years old) is another ancient language. It lost its common usage around 400 CE but preserved as a liturgical language for Jews across the world. With the rise of Zionism in the 19th and 20th century, Hebrew underwent a revival and became the official language of Israel. Though the Modern Hebrew differs from the Biblical version, the native speakers of this language fully understand the ancient texts. In many ways, modern Hebrew is influenced by other Jewish languages too.
Greek is the official language of Greece and Cyprus. It was first spoken in Greece and Asia Minor, which is now a part of Turkey. It has the longest and uninterrupted history of being used as a written language for over 3,000 years—longer than any other Indo-European languages spoken today. This history is divided into Ancient Greek, Medieval Greek, and Modern Greek. A significant portion of English vocabulary has Greek origins, specially in science and technology. Today, about 15 million people, mostly residing in Greece and Cyprus, speak Greek with a sizable Greek-speaking community in the United States of America and Australia too.
Basque is another ancient language, spoken natively by a small population in Spain and France. But it is totally unrelated to French and Spanish, or any other languages in the world. No theories have been able to hold water regarding its origins. It is, however, clear that Basque existed in Europe way before the arrival of Romance languages (Spanish, French, Italian, etc.) and has survived through ages in tiny parts of the area.
Lithuanian, part of the Baltic branch of the Indo-European family, preserves many ancient linguistic features found in Sanskrit and Ancient Greek. It 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. Today, Lithuanian serves as the official language of the Republic of it and is also one of the official languages of the European Union. Special institutions and linguistic laws have been made to protect it. Written in a 32-letter Latin alphabet, it is based on the West High Lithuanian dialect, used in the region bordering East Prussia.
Farsi (Persian) is another ancient language, still spoken in modern day Iran (Farsi), Afghanistan (Dari), and Tajikistan (Tajik). (Dari and Tajik/Tajiki are two varieties of Farsi language.) Farsi is the direct descendant of Old Persian language, which was the official language of the Achaemenid Empire (mid-6th Century BCE). Modern Persian emerged around 800 CE, and it has changed sparsely since then. Belonging to the Indo-Iranian language family, Farsi is written in Arabic letters and has many Arabic loan-words. It is the official language of Iran.
Irish Gaelic, Gaelic, Erse, or Irish is another ancient language. Irish Gaelic has Celtic origins from the Bronze age. However, the literary tradition can be traced back to the 8th century CE. The Irish language is related to Manx, Scottish Gaelic, Welsh, Cornish, and Breton languages. Oldest inscriptions of the language can be seen in Ogham stones of the 5th and 6th centuries CE. The overall number of daily speakers outside the education system was 71,968, as per the 2022 census. Similarly, those who could speak Irish were 1,761,420 in 2016. Those who reported speaking Irish both within and outside the education system were 623,961.
Icelandic, the national language of Iceland, is another ancient language which is spoken by around 3,30,000 people. Icelandic is also spoken in some parts of Denmark, USA, and Canada. Icelandic is a North Germanic language developed from Norse which was brought by the settlers of Norway in the 9th and 10th centuries. The written script of Icelandic is quite similar to Old Norse and can be traced back in the 10th century works of Ari Thorgilsson.
Chinese (Mandarin) is another an ancient language which is still spoken by about 1.8 billion people in the world. Chinese belongs to the Sino-Tibetan group of languages. The language has many complex dialects. The Chinese characters date back to about 3,000 years. The hieroglyphs can be traced back to the Shang Dynasty of the 16th – 11th century BCE. However, its written script was simplified in 1956 for the ease of understanding.
Arabic, which is the language of the Quran, is considered a sacred language by Muslims. It is also one of the ancient languages and is spoken by about 450 million people (native and non-native) around the world. Arabic holds official status in nearly 25 countries. It is one of the six official languages of the United Nations—the other five being Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish. Arabic has many dialects and is the origin of languages like Urdu and Malay. Some English words like sugar, algebra, alcohol and emir have Arabic origins.
Conclusion
Thousands of languages came into existence ever since the creation of the first-ever language. Many languages among them are lost in time and are now only found in legends; having survived through ages and are still used in different parts of the world.
These languages are nothing but a testament to the human spirit and the fact that some things never die.
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