The Mystery of the Oldest Language in the World
We know there are languages that span over thousands of years, but figuring out the oldest language in the world is a tad difficult. That’s because it can be very hard to prove when a language becomes popular and widespread. There are records about various languages, but obviously, due to their age, it can be very difficult for anyone to know exactly what’s the oldest language in the world. But there are some languages that are known to be very old, and that might very well be a case to say those are the oldest ones in the world.
Do we know what’s the oldest language in the world?
As we mentioned earlier, it’s close to impossible to figure out what language was spoken first. But according to various historical records, we have some strong candidates. Tamil, Egyptian and Sumerian are known for being some of the oldest languages ever spoken. Sanskrit and Tamil in particular are said to be the oldest, but that’s very difficult to cover and follow.
Tamil language records are found in the 3rd millennium BCE, whereas Sanskrit records go back to the 2nd millennium BCE. Obviously, they could have been spoken well before that, but we don’t have any mention or record of that happening. What we do know is that the Tamil language is still being used today, and many consider it to be one of the oldest languages in the world.
Tamil is the official language spoken in Singapore and Sri Lanka, and it does offer quite a unique perspective over how people spoke over the years. It’s said that there are some significant differences between the original Tamil and the modern one. However, it’s still rather similar, and a great testament of how the language managed to change over the years.
What’s the oldest written language in the world?
The oldest written language in the world, according to records, is the Sumerian language. It was the first written language and they were using cuneiform scripts and pictograms on a clay tablet in order to represent their ideas and share them with others. Having a written language was a breakthrough and it just went to show that people created a record of their ideas and things that were said.
Speaking of the Sumerian language, there are texts going back to the 31st century BCE, and that does make it one of the oldest languages. It’s said that Sumerian was spoken around 4500 years ago, maybe even more, and people consider it to be the cradle of civilization. Those inscriptions are very detailed, and they offer an insight into literature, but also economic transactions and other things happening during those times.
Tamil
Tamil is considered to be the oldest language in the world and it originates around 2500 years ago. It belonged to the Dravidian language family and it’s still an official language for regions like the Union Territory of Puducherry or the Tamil Nadu state, along with Singapore and Sri Lanka. Tamil has a great tradition, especially from a literary standpoint. Many historical events were covered by Tamil literature and instructions, with the earliest ones dating to the 3rd century BCE.
Hebrew
Another contender for the oldest language in the world is ancient Hebrew. What a lot of people don’t know is that it was used in the 10th century BC in various writings, so this is definitely a very old language. Even if the language did encounter some decline over the centuries, it eventually transformed into modern Hebrew. And now we have it as the official language for Israel. Millions of people speak Hebrew these days, albeit in a modern format.
Chinese
Chinese is a language that has been used for at least 3000 years. In fact, some of the oldest Chinese written records are from the Shang Dynasty, and that was around 1250 BCE. With that being said, over the years the Chinese language has expanded and now we can find a lot of variations for the language, such as Cantonese or Mandarin. They are variations from ancient Chinese, which is something to consider.
Greek
We should also note Greek here when we talk about the oldest language in the world. Greek is a language that’s known to be spoken since the 14th century BCE. Ancient Greek is especially important because it covers a lot of the events in that era in written format. The literature written in Ancient Greek is studied even today, a testament of the importance that this language managed to have over the years. Even today, Greek is a language spoken by over 13 million people.
Farsi
Farsi has roots in the old Persian language. It’s been spoken for centuries, and it continues to be very popular in many regions. It’s the official language for Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Iran. It’s been around since the 6th century BCE, and it is used in many locations even for conversational purposes.
Basque
Basque is a language isolate, it doesn’t really have any known linguistic relatives. But what we need to note is that it was and still is spoken in the Northern Spain and SW part of France. It ‘s said to be over 2000 years old, although pinpointing the origins of that language can be very difficult to do. However, there are still close to 1 million people still using the Basque language.
Conclusion
Figuring out the oldest language in the world can be difficult, since we can only rely on written records from a very long time ago. Unfortunately, that also means many of the dates can be hard to pinpoint. Despite that, researchers have suggested that Tamil, Hebrew and Chinese are among some of the oldest languages in the world, along with the Sumerian language. These are languages that have been around for thousands of years, and are still spoken worldwide, albeit in different forms. It’s amazing to see that while many languages perished or were modified a lot, there are still some ancient languages that got modernized and many people still use them to this date!
