- By Sakshi Gupta
- Tue, 27 Aug 2024 03:53 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
Oldest Languages In The World: Humans used to communicate with hand gestures and crude mouth sounds back in the prehistoric era, before civilizations, kingdoms, and social standards were founded. About 10,000 years ago, the idea of languages came into being, and it fundamentally altered human history.
Language brought us the evolution of the human race and to our current state. Despite intense global disagreement on the origin of the first language, some of the world's oldest languages can be found in certain ancient scriptures and cave art.
After the first language was created, thousands more languages have been created. Many of these languages have endured the ages and are still spoken in various regions of the world, only to be relegated to mythology. These serve as a living example of the resilience of the human spirit and the idea that certain things are eternal.
List of oldest spoken languages in the world
Language | Time Period |
Tamil | 5000 years old |
Sanskrit | 5000 years old |
Egyptian | 5000 years old |
Hebrew | 3000 years old |
Greek | 2900 years old |
Basque | 2200 years old |
Lithuanian | 5000 years old |
Farsi | 2500 years old |
Irish Gaelic | 1500 years old |
Icelandic | 1200 years old |
Chinese | 6000 years old |
Arabic | 1500 years old |
Details of Oldest Languages In The World
- Tamil:
Tamil is the oldest language in the world, spoken by 78 million people and the official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore. It is the only language from antiquity that has persisted until the present era. Tamil is the most widely spoken language in the state of Tamil Nadu and one of the official languages of India. It is a member of the Dravidian family, which also includes other native languages spoken in eastern and southern India. Tamil inscriptions from the third century B.C. have been discovered.
- Sanskrit:
Though it was no longer commonly used around 600 B.C., Sanskrit is the oldest language in the world, older than Tamil, which is still extensively spoken today. These days, it is used in liturgies and is one of the sacred languages of Buddhism, Hinduism, and Jainism. The Rigveda, a compilation of Vedic Sanskrit hymns, is the first known written record of Sanskrit and dates to approximately the second millennium B.C. Studies show that Sanskrit is still an official language in India and serves as the foundation for many European languages.
- Arabic:
Arabic is considered sacred since it is the language of the Quran. Approximately 260 million people speak Arabic. Arabic is the mother tongue of numerous dialects, including Malay and Urdu. Arabic is the source of several English words, including sugar, algebra, alcohol, and emir.
- Egyptian:
Egyptian Coptic is the oldest language spoken natively in Egypt, which is home to one of the oldest civilizations in the world. Since its use has been documented in writing from 3400 BC, it is considered an old language. Before the Muslim invasion in the late 17th century AD, Egyptian Arabic was the most widely spoken language in Egypt. At the Coptic Church in Egypt, the language of liturgy is still in Coptic. Nowadays, very few people speak the language well.