Languages are considered to be the medium of communication between humans. There are languages in this world that are extinct with time and there are languages that are still spoken and are still kept alive by humans. All the languages consist of rich literature. It’s really amazing to see that there are still languages which are spoken for more than 400 or for more than 4000 years. Nowadays sign language is also considered a language. Now without any delay let’s explore the top 10 oldest languages in the world. (All the languages mentioned below are in ascending order for example- Egyptian is the oldest language known)
1) Italian
2) Korean
3)Tamil
4) Farsi
5) Hebrew
6) Aramaic
7)Chinese
8)Greek
9) Sanskrit
10) Egyptian
1)Italian(100BC – PRESENT)
It’s very difficult to find out that it is the oldest language in the world or not Are whether it’s an extinct language. It is possible that this language will be originated from 75 BCE or maybe before that when the Roman republic was in existence in 509 BC. Italian is a modern descendant of Latin. Its origin can be detected in Roman languages which are not sure. It descends directly from the vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire in Italy. Today there are 67 million native speakers of this language.
2) Korean (around 57 BC – present)
This language also dates back thousands of years ago. This is the language of both North and South Korea. Around 57 BCE, there were traces of the Korean language or proto-language which is similar to Korean. The old system of Korean is called Hanja which is based on the Chinese language and character which dates back to 400 BC. The phonetics of this language was the common language at that time and was developed in the 15th century. Today there are 77 million native speakers of this language.
3)Tamil (300 BC – present)
This is the official language of Singapore, Sri Lanka and the and the Indian state of Tamilnadu. This language has a very brief history. This language originated from India. It has always evolved with time. It is believed that Tamil descended from Proto Dravidian which was in use in the fourth millennium which makes it the oldest language is in the world but it is difficult to prove this as there were no proves available at that time. The first traces of this language can be found in 300 BC. The language traces were found in caves and pottery. There are more than 2000 poems that are still intact. There are currently 75 million native speakers of this language.
4)Farsi(522 BC – present)
Before this, there was no earliest known language all the indo- Iranian descend. This language has its roots in old Persian. This language is spoken around Afghanistan, Iraq, Russia, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Azerbaijan, and all over the Persian community. There are roughly 70 million to 110 million native speakers of this language. It is the cursive form of the Arabic language. The spoken language of Afghanistan is known as Dari. The main difference between Dari and Farsi is the same difference as Canadian French and the French spoken in France.
5) Hebrew (1000 BC- present)
This came into existence a thousand years after Aramaic. It is one of the most common mother tongues to date. It is still revived and still in use. They had their religious text, correspondence, and communications with Jewish people in the second century. This language was dead until the 19th century and it was revived again by the Germans. Currently, this language has 9 million speakers with speaking modern Hebrew. Out of 9 million, 5 million people speak it as their first language
6) Aramaic ( 1100 BC to present)
It is one of the oldest languages in the world but it does not follow the culture of Iran, Syria, Turkey, and Lebanon. The alphabets in this language For those both Hebrew and Arabic. It is believed that this language was spoken by Armenians in ancient Syria in 1100 BC. This means that this language is in existence since the 4th millennium. This makes it the oldest language in existence. It is also one of the oldest languages in existence and in full form after the Sanskrit and Copic languages. It is a very lively language. Today there are around 80 million to 10 million speakers of this language.
7) Chinese(1250 BC)
This is another competitor for the oldest speaking languages in the world. This is one the oldest spoken language in the world known to date. This has a very long history and dates back to 1250 BC. There are many dialects of Chinese. They were originally in Oracle bones. Among all the varieties in Chinese mandarin and Cantonese Armani is used. Chinese falls under the Sino Tibetan family and are direct descendants of old Chinese. This is one of the beliefs whereas on the other side there are archaeologists which believe that the topmost oldest language in the world is Chinese. Chinese is one of the widely spoken languages in the world right now. There are 1.1 billion speakers of Chinese in today date.
8) Greek (1450 BC)
This language has evolved from its old scripture. It was mainly derived from the spoken languages of Greece. Homer’s work was considered around the 7th and 8th centuries. Greek is derived from Mycenaean Greek which appeared around 700 years ago after which The Odyssey was written. Modern Greece that is spoken by 13.5 million people around the world has a rough origination from almost 3,500 years back.
9) Sanskrit
This is the second oldest language in the world which is still being used today. Sanskrit is the language of Jainism, Hinduism, and Buddhism. 7,000 people are Sanskrit speakers. These kinds of glitches are considered to be good for phonetics and the best language in the world. Sanskrit is also known as the mother of all languages as many of the languages are coming out of this (this includes Hindi, Marathi, and many such languages). This is the language for prayers and meditation and also ancient scriptures. This language is used in literature and music.
10) Egyptian (2690 BC)
This is the first known language of the African continent. This is the language used in Africa and Egypt. It is 4700 years old. This language has started Descended from Ancient Egyptian language. Today the same language is known as Coptic. Coptic is mainly used by the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria and the Coptic Catholic Church more than 56 million people speak Egyptian today.
There is also an additional language that can be considered as a very old language and that is Arabian. Arabian can be considered as the 11th oldest language or maybe the 10th oldest language in the world. The older version of Arabic can be traced back to the 10th century making it one of the oldest languages in the world. Arabic is spoken by 300 million people currently. This language can be easily learned about all the people including travelers. Arabic spread along with Islam. Arabic in the way is related to the Egyptians. So the incident goes like this. When the Egyptians were colonized, they were looking for reclaiming their culture and therefore They tried to create an Egyptian version of the Arabic language. during the middle ages, Arabic was known to be a culture of science, mathematics, and philosophy. This resulted in many European words having an origin in Arabic. Arabic has been successful in influencing many languages such as Persian, Turkish, Hindustani (a mixture of Hindi and Urdu), Kashmiri, Kurdish, Bengali, Bosnian, Kazakh, Maldivian, Malay (mixture of Indonesian and Malaysian), Punjabi, Spanish, Bulgarian, Sindhi, Odia, Hausa, and many such languages. Arabic is spoken by approximately 422 billion Muslims and Arabic people.
These were the top 10 oldest languages in the world. Languages indeed are a very good and the best gift to us. It’s because of these languages that we are able to convey whatever we want to through oral format, written format, or sign language. It’s amazing to know that most of the above-mentioned languages are still in existence and are still spoken by millions and billions of people across the globe. There are beliefs that either Sanskrit or Tamil is the oldest language in the world. No solid proof is available for this. Both languages are equally good for phonetics. They have a wide range of alphabets, letters, and rich literature. Before English plays, Sanskrit Plays existed. Like we humans have so many languages to speak even animals have languages to speak. There are few people in this world who can understand the language of the animals. Even in our ancient times were capable of talking to animals. Even if we don’t say anything, our eyes, face and body language speak everything. So it’s not always the language that is going to express our thoughts and feelings but it’s also How our body reacts are our mind reacts to that particular situation.
