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Explore the World’s Oldest Languages Still Spoken Today

by viralbandit June 12, 2023, 8:38 pm 1.1k Views

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Tamil inscriptions on a Bragadeeshwara Temple in Tanjavur, Tamil Nadu, India. (Image: Shivz Photography by way of Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.)

Linguists routinely debate the origins of language, aided by anthropologists and biologists in seeking to ascertain just when, why, and how humans started to converse verbally—estimates selection from 50,000 to 2 million a long time ago. But no subject when speech developed, language has develop into the defining attribute of the human ailment. Though words and phrases spoken aloud may well vanish into the air of historical past, terms prepared down final generations and millennia. These penned texts give us clues to pinpointing what are the oldest languages in the entire world that are still spoken nowadays.

Of class, it isn’t wholly easy. These languages could nevertheless exist, but that’s not to say they have not developed about time. For one detail, lots of of the oldest languages are obvious ancestors of present day variations, but fashionable speakers would be only partly, or potentially fully, unable to fully grasp historical types. For example, Greek has been spoken for in excess of 3,000 several years. Nevertheless, ancient philosophers talking “Koine” Greek would uncover it challenging to recognize fashionable Greeks and vice versa. In the same way, Hebrew—also more than 3,000 yrs old—is extremely distinctive when overheard on the streets of modern Israel than it would have been 3,000 yrs prior in the same area. Curiously, Hebrew as a conversational (as opposed to liturgical) language fell out of use following about 200 CE and did not rebound until eventually the 18th century.

Tamil, a Dravidian language, is likewise really historical. It is a classical, literary language spoken by numerous thousands and thousands across Tamil Nadu (an Indian state), Sri-Lanka, Malaysia, and Singapore. The oldest extant Tamil literature, Tolkāppiyam, was very likely published by a Jain monk all over 200 CE. Other ancient languages still spoken now include Arabic (relationship back to the 8th century BCE), Chinese (it really is archaic kind stretches back again 3,000 several years with fairly a wealthy literature tradition), and Sanskrit (the language of the Vedas, also around 3,000 years outdated, although it is spoken by relatively number of people today as a key language currently). Latin, whilst historic, is not spoken conversationally. Some languages are historical mysteries, too, this sort of as Euskera, the ancient language of the Basque Nation, and Lithuanian and Latvian, all of which are really isolated on the language loved ones tree.

If you are fascinated in studying additional about the evolution of other historic languages, these types of as Gaelic, there are wealths of intriguing scientific tests to take a look at.

Hebrew, Aramaic, Tamil, Chinese, and Greek are amid the oldest languages which are continue to spoken in some variety currently.

Explore the World's Oldest Languages Still Spoken Today

A facsimile of the Excellent Isaiah Scroll, a next century B.C.E Dead Sea Scroll in Hebrew. (Photograph: Wikimedia Commons, Community area)

For example, the oldest archaic Hebrew inscriptions are 3,000 decades previous. Now, a edition of the language is continue to spoken by hundreds of thousands all around the entire world, in spite of remaining rarely applied past Jewish liturgy for the period of time from about 200 CE to 1800.

Text from a Sanskrit Manuscript on medication in the Wellcome Library, London. (Photograph: Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.)

“The E-book of Documents” (Shūjīng), a basic of Chinese literature. This duplicate dates to the 7th century CE. (Picture: Wikimedia Commons, General public area)