Have you ever wondered about the world’s oldest languages? Are they just words, or are they bridges connecting us to the distant past? The answer isn’t simple, as determining a language’s age depends on different criteria: are we talking about the first appearance of a spoken language, or the oldest written text ever discovered?
In this article, we’ll take you on a journey through time to discover the oldest language in the world and explore a world oldest language list of 10 ancient languages that are still alive and spoken by millions today.
What is the oldest language in the world?
It’s difficult to definitively pinpoint the oldest language because languages evolve and change over thousands of years. However, we can look at languages that have the oldest known written documents or those that linguists believe trace back to the most ancient historical roots. Below, we present a world oldest language list that includes the most significant languages considered to be among the oldest of all time.
How Do We Measure a Language’s Age?
Linguists face significant challenges in pinpointing the exact age of the world’s oldest languages. Most languages began as spoken forms long before writing was invented. Therefore, historians and linguists rely on two main factors:
- Oldest Written Documents: Inscriptions, manuscripts, and ancient texts are the best evidence of a language’s existence.
- Historical Continuity: Has the language evolved naturally and remained in continuous use, or did it “die” only to be revived later?
Based on these criteria, we present you with a top 10 oldest language in the world list.
A List of the World’s Oldest Languages: 10 Time-Defying Tongues
Now, let’s explore our list of the 10 oldest languages still used today.
Sanskrit: The Sacred Language
Sanskrit is considered a jewel among ancient languages and one of the oldest documented languages of the Indo-European family. Appearing around 1500 BCE, it’s a sacred language in India, used to write Hindu and Buddhist religious texts. Although a small number of people speak it as a first language, it remains vibrant in religious rituals and is still taught in Indian universities.
Tamil: The Living Classic
This is one of the oldest Dravidian languages in the world, with its earliest texts dating back to 300 BCE. What’s special about Tamil is that it never died out; it has remained a living, continuously evolving language. Today, it’s spoken by over 75 million people and is an official language in India, Sri Lanka, and Singapore. Its rich literary history includes the ancient work “Tholkappiyam,” a treasure of world literature.
Greek: The Language of Philosophy
The language of philosophers and scientists, Greek dates back to around 1450 BCE. It’s the cradle of Western philosophy and science and has profoundly influenced many modern European languages. Unlike Latin, which stopped being a daily language, Greek has remained alive and has evolved through the ages into its current form, spoken by approximately 13.5 million people today.
Chinese: The Enduring Script
Chinese is one of the oldest written languages in the world, with its earliest inscriptions found on oracle bones dating back to around 1250 BCE. What makes the Chinese language unique is its writing system, which relies on logograms rather than a phonetic alphabet. Despite the vast differences in its spoken dialects, the unified writing system has allowed communication across thousands of years.
Aramaic: The Ancient Lingua Franca
Aramaic was the lingua franca of the ancient Near East, with its history going back to around 1100 BCE. It was the language of empires and the language spoken by Jesus Christ. It hasn’t completely disappeared; a small number of communities still speak it in the Middle East, and it’s the parent language of several alphabets, including the Arabic and Hebrew ones.
Hebrew: A Revival Story
The story of the Hebrew language is one of the most fascinating. It began as a spoken language around 1000 BCE but fell out of daily use by the 3rd century CE. It remained a sacred language for the Jewish people, used in religious texts and prayers. In the 19th century, it was revived to become a modern, spoken language, a unique success story in language revitalization.
Farsi (Persian): The Language of Poetry
Farsi is the successor to Old Persian, which dates back to 522 BCE. It’s a language rich in poetry and literature and has significantly influenced the languages of Central and South Asia. It is the mother tongue of around 70 million people today in Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan.
Latin: The Ancestor of Romance Languages
Latin was the language of the Roman Empire, with its earliest inscriptions dating back to around 75 BCE. Although it’s no longer a daily spoken language, it is still alive as the official language of the Vatican and is the ancestor of many modern languages, including Spanish, French, Italian, and Portuguese. Most scientific, medical, and legal terms also have Latin roots.
Korean: A Unique Script
The Korean language is an ancient one, dating back to the 1st century BCE. Spoken by more than 77 million people in North and South Korea, it’s known for having evolved separately from its neighboring languages and possesses a unique writing system called “Hangul” that is considered one of the easiest alphabets to learn.
Arabic: A Lingua Franca
Arabic is one of the oldest Semitic languages, with its earliest discovered inscriptions dating to the 3rd century CE. Thanks to the Quran, Arabic has preserved its grammar and sounds, evolving into the Modern Standard Arabic we know today. It’s the language of over 400 million people and has significantly influenced global languages like Spanish and Portuguese.
Why Do These Ancient Languages Matter?
These languages are more than just communication tools; they are treasure chests of human history. Studying them helps us understand how civilizations developed, how people interacted, and how words shaped the world we live in today.
We hope this journey has inspired you to learn more about the incredible world of languages!
If you wish to learn more about the Arabic language, download our Arabic learning app.
