Which civilization or country its from and when did it arise? Is it still widely used nowadays?
2006-07-15 16:38:25 · 18 answers · asked by michelle.c 3 in Society & Culture ➔ Languages
Oldest SPOKEN language, I mean.
2006-07-15 17:23:36 · update #1
languages have evolved since old times.. the roots are the same but the words might be different.. but i don't think there is any language used today that is exactly the same as it was used 2000 years ago.. but indo-european languages such as latin, sanskrit, farsi (which is a new version of Pahlavi), and some trib languages such as Hebrew or arabic have survived from a very long time ago, but I think they have older version and modern version such as English, French and so on..
English is not derived from sanskrit.. sanskrit is one of the indo-european languages which in most cases has common root with english, Latin, French, Greek, and Farsi.. and I don't think sanskrit is spoken today, it is like latin, no one speak it, but they just use it for literature and prayers..
2006-07-15 22:07:51 · answer #1 · answered by Nazanin 2 · 1⤊ 2⤋
By "oldest language" I am assuming you mean language with the oldest written documents. All languages are equally "old" since all language evolved from the same ancestor about 100,000 years about. No language survives unchanged from its ancestors. All languages that are native languages are in a constant state of change, so no living language is identical from one generation to the next. The oldest written documents in the world are in Sumerian, but Sumerian became extinct without descendants. Egyptian's descendants became extinct in the 18th or 19th centuries although Coptic is still used as a religious language by the Coptic Christian Church. If use as a second language counts, then Coptic is the language with the oldest written history that is still learned and used (about 4500 years of written records) since it is the direct descendant of Ancient Egyptian. If you are considering languages that are still spoken as native languages, then Aramaic and Greek are tied since there are written records in each going back nearly 3000 years, predating anything written in Chinese or Latin. Hebrew doesn't count since Hebrew was extinct as a native language from the 5th century BC until 1948.
BTW, the "bird" story told by the previous poster is a complete hoax.
EDIT AFTER DETAIL: All spoken languages are equally old since all languages are constantly evolving. No spoken language is "older" than any other since all have a direct lineage to the first human language spoken about 100,000 years ago. Modern English is just as "old" as Modern Tamil or Modern Mandarin or Modern Cherokee. Since all languages are constantly in a state of change, there is no modern spoken language that is "older" than a generation or two.
2006-07-16 00:12:39 · answer #2 · answered by Taivo 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Hebrew and Arabic
Land of Canaan, Abraham and his seeds/offsprings. I believe some Egyptian also communicate in these languages back then ( the story of Joseph ). People started speaking different languages when Nimrod was building the tower of Baala and wanted the tower to reach heaven.......
These languages (Hebrew and Arabic) are still used today maybe not popular since Latin, Greek, English and other languages are commonly used among scholars.
2006-07-16 00:51:50 · answer #3 · answered by Reidi 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
the oldest languages are sanskrit and tamil.
sanskrit is still being learnt in all of india. moreover sanskrit is the mother of all languages for which there is proof. even english was derived from sankrit. Tamil is being spoken by a whole state in india. tamilians have immigrated to almost all the countries in the world so dont be surprised to find one in your neighbourhood.
2006-07-16 00:25:10 · answer #4 · answered by ANU 1 · 1⤊ 0⤋
there are a few members of a tribe (village now )in eastern europe which speak in a birdlike chatter. they have had little contact with the outside world until after the fall of communism. I don't know their name but i think they are in mountainious region of easter europe. (This language may well be from prehistoric timesue to the tribes isolation)
they became known because one of their members spent 27 years in a mental institution after going to new york city to visit her daughter and got lost. the cops brought her to a mental hospital as they thought she was under drugs due to her language. the intern on duty in turn sent her to a mental hospital where she spent 27 years until a young doctor who had relatives in the region where she was born heared her and recognized her chatter as a language. she was regularly shown to all doctors and nurses ariving there as the bird lady and was kept under drugs all those years. but her language is probley one of the oldest known if it still exists today after interminlging with the modern world. you could seek help on this woman from the new york city news papers where she was confined so many years . I think she was released about 10yrs ago. until than very few people on earth knew of this bird like language as it was described.
2006-07-15 23:55:26 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Basque language is one of the oldest in Europe together with Slavic
2006-07-15 23:45:22 · answer #6 · answered by ? 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Sanskrit! Who 'uses' sanskrit.
Probably Arabic, Aramaic, Hebrew or
some dialect of chinese.
http://linguistlist.org/ask-ling/oldest.html
2006-07-15 23:42:15 · answer #7 · answered by Jim 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Sanskrit
2006-07-15 23:41:04 · answer #8 · answered by nkmy83@yahoo.com 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Tamil is the oldest language and Chinese.
2006-07-16 00:14:44 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
Sloavic language :)
2006-07-15 23:40:49 · answer #10 · answered by Polka :) 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋