Linguists named 5 oldest languages spoken to this day (6 photos)

We started communicating with languages anywhere from 50,000 to 2 million years ago. Since then, language has become a defining feature human existence and the main means of communication. Recently linguists told what ancient languages and their forms people are still talking.





As linguists have determined, people began to communicate using languages from 50,000 to 2 million years ago. At some point in history Language has become a defining feature of human existence. Concerning ancient languages, their origin and history can be traced only by texts and writings that have survived and come down to us from antiquity. Recently, linguists once again found out which ancient languages are all are still in use around the world.



Tamil inscriptions on the Bragadiswara temple in Thanjavur, India

The list includes Hebrew, Aramaic, Tamil, Chinese and Greek languages. They are one of the oldest languages in which one form or another is still spoken today. Of course, many languages evolved over time. For example, in Greek spoken for over 3000 years. But the ancient philosophers who spoke Greek “Koine” (a common form of the Greek language that arose in postclassical antiquity), it would be difficult to understand modern Greeks and vice versa. Same with Hebrew, which is also over 3000 years. Hebrew on the streets of modern Israel is very different from what how it was 3000 years ago even in the same region.





Facsimile of the Great Isaiah Scroll, one of the first Qumran manuscripts, Hebrew. Refers to the second century BC.

Tamil is also quite an ancient language. This is the southernmost Dravidian languages, but now it is one of the 22 state languages of India. The oldest extant Tamil text, Tolkappiyam, written by a Jain monk around 200 AD. This a classic literary language, but it is still spoken by millions of people in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, as well as Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Singapore. As for other languages, Arabic originated in the 8th century BC, an archaic form of Chinese has been around for 3,000 years, and Sanskrit also over 3000 years old. Also of interest is Euskera - the ancient language of the Country Basque, as well as Lithuanian and Latvian, differentiation between which began in the first century AD. e.



Text of a Sanskrit manuscript on medicine held at the Wellcome Library, London



Ancient Chinese "Book of Documents" or "Shu Ching". Includes texts from different eras and dates back to the 7th century AD



Tamil inscription dating back to the second century AD