17 August 2012

7 Classical Oldest Languages of the World




As a medium of communication, languages came to existence 100,000 years back. The first spoken language is difficult to justify, as ancient languages never had written script. Justifying first language on earth is mere impossible, however we can find some of the classical languages of the earth, along which the civilisation of the world developed.
In line with the fondness for 7, let we see in this post the most powerful 7 classical languages of the world.It is the duty of us to protect these languages, as earlier languages got extinct even before these classic languages came to existence.

7 Classical Languages of the World

GREEK

Family: Indo-European
Writing System: Greek alphabet
CivilisationGreek Civilization.
Standard forms/Dialects: Demotic/14 dialects
Origin: Beyond 3000 BC (Believed to still more than 5000BC)
Native Speaker: 15.2 million
Today: Greek spread across Mediterranean sea coast,Restricted to Greece nation. 
Specialty: Greek is the language of the scientific vocabulary and over 10,00,000 words are loaned to English language.
History: Proto-greek has origin well over 2nd millennium BC,Since Greek evolved along with Greek civilization its more orientated towards culture and tradition.Greek accounts for some of valuable treasured literacy like Odyssey,lliad,Aristotle philosophy & Plato, Greek New Testament etc       
Personality: Aristotle,Plato etc

SANSKRIT

Family: Indo-Aryan
Written System: No native script(Written in Devanagari)
CivilisationHindu Culture (Since language confined to Hindu Brahmin)
Standard forms/Dialects: No Spoken Form(Dead Language)
Origin: 3000 BC (Rig Veda)
Native Speaker: Less than 5,000
Today: Sanskrit is a dead language.Still its used only for Mantra's of Hindu worship. About Century Back Sanskrit lost its Spoken Form.
Specialty: Sanskrit is the mother of all European Language.
History: Sanskrit Script early found in Rig Veda.Its Hindu Veda believed to be sacred. Sanskrit was predominantly a language of priests and scholars. Sanskrit had never been a language of common man.  
Personality: Valmiki,Kalidas etc.


TAMIL

Family: Dravidian
Written System: Tamil Script
CivilisationIndus-Valley Civilization
Standard forms/Dialects: 7 Dialects
Origin: 3000 BC
Native Speakers: 90 million
Today: Tamil Spread across south Asia.It Enjoy Official status in India and 5 more countries.
Specialty: 55% of the epigraphical Inscription found in India are in Tamil. Tamil-Brahmi Script inscription are found in Egypt,Thailand,Sri Lanka, Which is about 2000 years old. Tamil is the only surviving classical language of the world. 
History: Tamil-Brahmi Script are first written form of Tamil. Tamil Language had well defined written grammar even 2500 years ago (Tholkkapium). There is a  belief that Tamil was one of the Language evolved during the origin of Communication.
Personality: Thiruvalluvar,Tholkkapiur,Bodhidharman etc.

LATIN
 
Family: Indo-European
Writing System: Latin alphabet
CivilisationRoman Civilization
Standard forms/Dialects: Latin 
Origin: Around 1000 BC
Native Speaker: Less than 1,00,000(Vatican City,Italy)
Today: Latin is confined to the christian community of Vatican. Considered as a dead language.
Specialty: Latin is the language of language of inventions and discoveries and most of biological terms are derived from Latin. About 70% of the incunabula are in Latin. 
History: Latin language evolved around the roman empire. Latin is one of the factor behind spread of Christianity.Since Many scientific finding took place in and around roman empire, Latin place a vital role in science forum.Latin is always confined within the lower half of the Mediterranean sea.  
Personality: Plautus,Caesar etc.

HEBREW

Family: Afro-Asiatic
Writing System: Hebrew alphabets
CivilisationPost-Mesopotamian
Standard forms/Dialects: Hebrew
Origin: Around 10th century BC
Native Speaker: Native Speaker extincted around 7 th century AD, less than 8 million(Modern Israel)
Today: Hebrew is restricted as language of Jewish people and popularly Spoken around Israel.
Specialty: Holy Language of Jewish and Hebrew's. Bible was first written in this language only. Most Jewish and christian History is documented in Hebrew language.  
History: Hebrew saw many periods from monarchic Period to Arabic period. Old testament is fully written in Hebrew 
Personality: Moses etc. 

CHINESE

FamilySino-Tibetan
Writing System: Chinese characters, zhuyin fuhao, pinyin, Xiao'erjing
CivilisationChinese Civilization
Standard forms/Dialects: Mandarin/16 Dialects
Origin: 2nd millennium BC
Native Speaker: 1.4 Billion
Today: Chinese is the largest spoken in the world. Chinese is spread across entire Asia.
Specialty: Chinese is the only language which is read top to bottom. Chinese have the largest culture share across the world.
History: Xia-Dynasty was official Empire which spread Chinese across the globe.Chinese language is believed to more than 10,000 years old.It has literature,Culture and tradition.Chinese Culture one of the few culture existing in the world.
Personality: Yu,Shan etc.

PERSIAN

Language Family: Indo-Iranian
Writing System: Persian Alphabet/Cyrillic Script
Civilization: Muslim Civilization
Standard forms/Dialects: 9 dialects
Origin: 5th century BC
Native Speaker: 110 million
Today: Its spread across 12 countries in the world. Persian Language inscription can be seen across the Mughal Construction.
Specialty: Persian language inspired Many Indo-Aryan Language. Persian Is the mother language of Urdu.
History: Persian was first originated along the Iraq and Iran.Persian Spread across the South Asia by Mughal Colonisation. Persian Has significant presence in Muslim community. Persian and Arabic both confined within Muslim Religion.
Personality: Mughal Empire Kings,Saaid etc.

Language are more than just a mode of communication. They make up a rich culture. Hence it's our duty to protect a language and ones mother tongue. Otherwise we will lose our rich culture and tradition which our fore fathers left for each and everyone of us. Let we not make the existing classical languages extinct, like some of the dead languages which brought civilisation to the world.
Extinct languages of cultural importance: 1.Sumerian (Mesopotamian Civilisation - 5000BC) 2. Akkadian (Mesopotamian Civilisation - 4500 BC) 3. Armenian (Jesus Christ Mother tongue) 4. Egyptian (Egypt Civilisation - 3000BC)