look news india
The world's oldest languages: It is not possible to give an exact answer as to how many languages there are in the world. According to an estimate, the total number of languages in the world is approximately 6809, out of which the number of speakers of 90 percent is less than 1 lakh. There are about 200 to 150 languages spoken by more than a million people. There are about 357 languages which are spoken by only 50 people. Not only this, there are also 46 languages which have only one speaker. So today we will learn about the 10 oldest languages of the world.
Sanskrit
Sanskrit is an ancient Indian language. Sanskrit language was spoken 5000 years before the birth of Christ. Many universities and educational institutions around the world consider Sanskrit as the oldest language. Sanskrit language is the oldest language in the world. Sanskrit is now rarely used in conversation, but this language is still used in worship and rituals.
tamil
Tamil language is also one of the oldest languages in the world, it is the oldest language of the Dravidian family. Tamil language is considered older than Sanskrit language. It was used about 5,000 years ago. According to a survey, 1863 newspapers are published daily in Tamil language and currently the number of Tamil language speakers is around 8 crores. Apart from this, Tamil is currently spoken only in India, Sri Lanka, Singapore and Malaysia.
Latin
Latin was the official language of the ancient Roman Empire. Like Sanskrit, this language is also a classical language. It gave rise to French, Italian, Spanish, Romanian, Portuguese and today's most popular language, English. It is currently the liturgical language of the Roman Catholic Church and the official language of Vatican City. Due to the dominance of Christianity in Europe, Latin was the international language of almost all of Europe in the medieval and early modern periods.
Egyptian/Mixed
Egyptian civilization is considered to be one of the oldest civilizations in the world. The Egyptian language belongs to the Afro-Asiatic linguistic family. This language was spoken around 3400 BC. However, only a handful of people use this language today.
Jewish
The Hebrew language is approximately 3000 years old. It was the common language of the Jews and is currently the official language of Israel. It has been saved from extinction because of the Israeli people. It is considered a 'sacred language' by the Jewish community and includes the Old Testament of the Bible. This language is written in Hebrew script.
Greek
Greek is the oldest language in Europe, spoken before 1450 BC. The Greek language was spoken in Greece, Albania and Cyprus. More than 15 million people used this language. Currently, Greek speakers are found in countries such as Greece, Albania and Cyprus, as well as in the United States and Australia.
Chinese language
Chinese language is the most spoken language in the world. This language is spoken in China and East Asian countries. The Chinese language comes from the Sino-Tibetan language family, which is actually a group of several languages and dialects. Standard Chinese is actually a language called “Mandarin”. This language is about 1200 years older than the arrival of Jesus Christ. Currently, about 1.2 billion people speak Chinese.
Hebrew
Today the Aramaic language has merged with the Hebrew and Arabic languages. It is commonly known as the language of the Bible. Scholars believe that this language is the language spoken by Lord Jesus and his disciples. However, this language is now on the verge of extinction as most of its speakers are of retirement age. Even today this language is spoken by a few people in Iraq, Iran, Syria, Israel and Lebanon.
armenian
The Armenian language, which is also part of the Indo-European linguistic group, is spoken by the Armenian people. The Bible, written in the fifth century, is its oldest extant form. The Armenian language originated in 450 BC. Now about 5 percent people speak this language. This language is spoken in Mesopotamia and the central valleys of the Caucasus and in the south-eastern region of the Black Sea. This region falls in Armenian Georgia and Azerbaijan (north-western Iran). It is the official language of the Republic of Armenia.
Korean language
The Korean language has been spoken since about 600 BC. Currently about 80 million people speak Korean. The script of this language is Hangul. Chinese people settled in Korea in ancient times, so the Korean language is greatly influenced by the Chinese language.