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READERS’ BLOG

NEWS / READERS’ BLOG / OTHERS / TOP 10 OLDEST LANGUAG

OTHERS

Top 10 oldest languages

in the world
Ramya Neelakantan @
Top 10 oldest languages in the world
OCT 11, 2021, 16:55 IST

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.

TOP COMMENT

then why can't you mention the year of

oddness for sanskrit alone ð ¤ this is
completely ridiculous making people's fool
without proof.

Human Being

READ 26 COMMENTS ADD COMMENT

Ramya Neelakantan
@TOP 10 OLDEST LANGUAGES
IN THE WORLD
I am a Master's student of Journalism and Mass
Communication. I love to write articles and I
have written a book as well. Reading and writin…
has always been my passion More +

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