List of languages by first written account: Difference between revisions
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==First millennium BC== |
==First millennium BC== |
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With the appearance of alphabetic writing in the [[Early Iron Age]], the number of attested languages increases. Because of the logographic nature of the [[Chinese script]], it is difficult to date the age of the oldest Chinese texts, and the ''[[Shi Jing]]'' may date to as early as 1000 BC, which would still correspond to the [[Chinese Bronze Age]]. |
With the appearance of alphabetic writing in the [[Early Iron Age]], the number of attested languages increases. Because of the logographic nature of the [[Chinese script]], it is difficult to date the age of the oldest Chinese texts, and the ''[[Shi Jing]]'' may date to as early as 1000 BC, which would still correspond to the [[Chinese Bronze Age]]. |
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With the emergence of the [[Brahmic family of scripts]], [[languages of India]] become attested from after about 300 BC.<ref>with earliest evidence of the presence of writing from the 6th century BC. ([http://www.hindu.com/2004/05/26/stories/2004052602871200.htm hindu.com article])</ref> |
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With the emergence of the [[Brahmic family of scripts]] in ca. 600 BC.<ref>[http://www.hindu.com/2004/05/26/stories/2004052602871200.htm resembling Tamil Brahmi inscriptions found for period 700-800 BC, certain inscriptions from 600 BC]</ref>, [[languages of India]] become attested from after about 300 BC. |
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*[[Written Chinese|Chinese]] - 1st millennium BC: ''[[Shi Jing]]'', [[Old Texts]].<ref>[[Old Chinese]] is mostly a [[reconstructed language]]. See [[History of the Chinese language]]</ref> |
*[[Written Chinese|Chinese]] - 1st millennium BC: ''[[Shi Jing]]'', [[Old Texts]].<ref>[[Old Chinese]] is mostly a [[reconstructed language]]. See [[History of the Chinese language]]</ref> |
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*[[Oscan language|Oscan]] - ''c.'' [[400 BC]] |
*[[Oscan language|Oscan]] - ''c.'' [[400 BC]] |
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*[[Iberian language|Iberian]] - ''c.'' [[400 BC]] |
*[[Iberian language|Iberian]] - ''c.'' [[400 BC]] |
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⚫ | *[[Tamil language|Tamil]] - ''c.'' [[300 BC]]<ref>Iravatham Mahadevan (2003). Early Tamil Epigraphy from the Earliest Times of 3rd BCE to the Sixth Century A.D. Cambridge, Harvard University Press.({{cite web |url= http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-5231785/Early-Tamil-Epigraphy-From-the.html|title=Early Tamil Epigraphy from the Earliest Times}}</ref> |
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*[[Meroitic language|Meroitic]] - ''c.'' [[300 BC]] |
*[[Meroitic language|Meroitic]] - ''c.'' [[300 BC]] |
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*[[Faliscan language|Faliscan]] - ''c.'' [[300 BC]] |
*[[Faliscan language|Faliscan]] - ''c.'' [[300 BC]] |
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*[[Maya script|Mayan languages]] - ''c.'' between [[300 BC]] and [[200 BC]]<ref>http://www.sanbartolo.org/science.pdf</ref> |
*[[Maya script|Mayan languages]] - ''c.'' between [[300 BC]] and [[200 BC]]<ref>http://www.sanbartolo.org/science.pdf</ref> |
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⚫ | *[[Tamil language|Tamil]] - ''c.'' [[300 BC]]<ref>Iravatham Mahadevan (2003). Early Tamil Epigraphy from the Earliest Times of 3rd BCE to the Sixth Century A.D. Cambridge, Harvard University Press.({{cite web |url= http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-5231785/Early-Tamil-Epigraphy-From-the.html|title=Early Tamil Epigraphy from the Earliest Times}}</ref> |
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*[[Volscian language|Volscian]] - ''c.'' [[275 BC]] |
*[[Volscian language|Volscian]] - ''c.'' [[275 BC]] |
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* |
*[[Prakrit]] - ''c.'' [[250 BC]]: [[Edicts of Ashoka]] |
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*[[Galatian language|Galatian]] - ''c.'' [[200 BC]] |
*[[Galatian language|Galatian]] - ''c.'' [[200 BC]] |
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*[[Celtiberian language|Celtiberian]] - ''c.'' [[100 BC]] |
*[[Celtiberian language|Celtiberian]] - ''c.'' [[100 BC]] |
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*[[Bactrian language|Bactrian]] - - ''c.'' [[150s|150]]: [[Rabatak inscription]] |
*[[Bactrian language|Bactrian]] - - ''c.'' [[150s|150]]: [[Rabatak inscription]] |
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*[[Sanskrit]] - ''c.'' [[150]]: [[Edicts of Ashoka]] by [[Scythians]]/[[Saka]] |
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*[[Common Germanic]]/[[Proto-Norse]] - ''c.'' [[160s|160]]: [[Vimose inscriptions]] (c. 100 BC if the [[Negau helmet]] inscription is accepted as Germanic) |
*[[Common Germanic]]/[[Proto-Norse]] - ''c.'' [[160s|160]]: [[Vimose inscriptions]] (c. 100 BC if the [[Negau helmet]] inscription is accepted as Germanic) |
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*[[Cham language|Cham]] - ''c.'' [[200s|200]] |
*[[Cham language|Cham]] - ''c.'' [[200s|200]] |
Revision as of 16:55, 26 July 2008
- "Ancient Language" redirects here. For other uses, see ancient language (disambiguation).
This is a list of languages by first written accounts which consists of the approximate dates for the first written accounts that are known for various languages.
Because of the way languages change gradually, it is usually impossible to pinpoint when a given language began to be spoken with any precision. In many cases, some form of the language had already been spoken (and even written) considerably earlier than the dates of the earliest extant samples provided here.
There are also various claims regarding still-undeciphered scripts without wide acceptance, which, if substantiated, would push backward the first attestation of certain languages.
A written record may encode a stage of a language corresponding to an earlier time — either as a result of oral tradition, or because the earliest source is a copy of an older manuscript that was lost. Oral tradition of epic poetry may typically bridge a few centuries, but in rare cases, over a millennium. An extreme case is the Vedic Sanskrit of the Rigveda: the earliest parts of this text are dated to ca. 1500 BC, while the oldest known manuscript dates to the 11th century AD, corresponding to a gap of approximately 2,500 years.
For languages that have developed out of a known predecessor, dates provided here are subject to conventional terminology. For example, Old French developed gradually out of Vulgar Latin, and the Oaths of Strasbourg (842) listed are the earliest text that is classified as "Old French". Similarly, Danish and Swedish separate from common Old East Norse in the 12th century, while Norwegian separates from Old West Norse around 1300.
Before 1000 BC
A very limited number of languages is attested from before the Bronze Age collapse and the rise of alphabetic writing: The Sumerian, Hurrian, Hattic and Elamite language isolates, Afro-Asiatic in the form the Egyptian and a number of ancient Semitic languages, and Indo-European (Anatolian languages, Mycenaean Greek and traces of Indo-Aryan). There are a number of undeciphered Bronze Age records, possibly encoding a Minoan (Cretan hieroglyphs, Linear A), a Proto-Elamite and a "Harappan" (Indus script) language.
Date | Language | Attestation | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
c. 3100 BC | Sumerian | Jemdet Nasr | see Sumerian cuneiform; "proto-literate" period from about 3500 BC (see Kish tablet) |
c. 2700 BC | Egyptian | tomb of Seth-Peribsen (2nd Dynasty, Umm el-Qa'ab | see Egyptian hieroglyphs; "proto-hieroglyphic" inscriptions from about 3300 BC (Naqada III; see Abydos, Egypt, Narmer Palette) |
c. 2400 BC | Eblaite | ||
c. 2300 BC | Akkadian | ||
c. 2250 BC | Elamite | Awan dynasty peace treaty with Naram-Sin | |
c. 2000 BC | Hurrian | ||
c. 1800 BC | West Semitic / proto-Canaanite | Middle Bronze Age alphabets | |
c. 1800 BC | Luwian | Luwian hieroglyphs | |
c. 1650 BC | Hittite | Various cuneiform texts and Palace Chronicles written during the reign of Hattusili I, from the archives at Hattusas | see Hittite cuneiform, Hittite texts |
c. 1500 BC | Canaanite | Proto-Canaanite alphabet | |
c. 15th-14th / 13th century BC | Greek | Linear B tablet archive from Bronze Age Knossos | |
c. 1400 BC | Hattic | fragmentary, known only from a few glosses in Hittite texts | |
c. 1300 BC | Ugaritic | see Ugaritic script |
First millennium BC
With the appearance of alphabetic writing in the Early Iron Age, the number of attested languages increases. Because of the logographic nature of the Chinese script, it is difficult to date the age of the oldest Chinese texts, and the Shi Jing may date to as early as 1000 BC, which would still correspond to the Chinese Bronze Age.
With the emergence of the Brahmic family of scripts in ca. 600 BC.[1], languages of India become attested from after about 300 BC.
- Chinese - 1st millennium BC: Shi Jing, Old Texts.[2]
- Phoenician - about 1000 BC
- Aramaic - c. 950 BC
- Hebrew - c. 950 BC: Gezer calendar
- Phrygian - c. 800 BC
- Moabite - c. 800 BC
- Ammonite - c. 800 BC
- Old South Arabian - c. 800 BC
- Etruscan - c. 700 BC
- Umbrian - c. 600 BC
- North Picene - c. 600 BC
- Lepontic - c. 600 BC
- Tartessian - c. 600 BC
- Lydian - c. 600 BC
- Carian - c. 600 BC
- Eteocypriot - c. 600 BC
- Thracian c. 6th c.BC
- Venetic c. 6th c.BC
- Old Persian - 525 BC: Behistun inscription
- Latin - c. 500 BC: Duenos Inscription[3]
- South Picene - c. 500 BC
- Ge'ez - c. 500 BC
- Messapian - c. 500 BC
- Gaulish - c. 500 BC
- Old North Arabian - c. 500 BC
- Mixe-Zoque - c. 500 BC: Isthmian script (disputed)
- Oscan - c. 400 BC
- Iberian - c. 400 BC
- Tamil - c. 300 BC[4]
- Meroitic - c. 300 BC
- Faliscan - c. 300 BC
- Mayan languages - c. between 300 BC and 200 BC[5]
- Volscian - c. 275 BC
- Prakrit - c. 250 BC: Edicts of Ashoka
- Galatian - c. 200 BC
- Celtiberian - c. 100 BC
First millennium AD
(This list is incomplete.You can help by expanding it!)
From Late Antiquity, we have for the first time languages with earliest records in manuscript tradition (as opposed to epigraphy). Thus, Old Armenian is first attested in the Armenian Bible translation.
- Bactrian - - c. 150: Rabatak inscription
- Sanskrit - c. 150: Edicts of Ashoka by Scythians/Saka
- Common Germanic/Proto-Norse - c. 160: Vimose inscriptions (c. 100 BC if the Negau helmet inscription is accepted as Germanic)
- Cham - c. 200
- Basque - c. 300: Iruña-Veleia archaeological site
- Gothic - c. 300: Gothic runic inscriptions
- Armenian - 395 - 405 Saint Mesrob Mashtots.
- Primitive Irish - c. 300-400: Ogham inscriptions
- Georgian - c. 430: a Georgian church in Bethlehem
- Kannada - c. 450: Halmidi inscription
- West Germanic - 6th century (Old Low Franconian - c. 510: Salic law[6]; Old High German - c. 550: Pforzen buckle; Old English - Undley bracteate; c. 650: Franks Casket; West Heslerton brooch[7])
- Arabic - 512: pre-Islamic Arabic inscriptions
- Cambodian - c. 600
- Tibetan - c. 600
- Udi - c. 600: Mount Sinai palimpsest M13
- Telugu - 620
- Old Malay - c. 683: Kedukan Bukit Inscription
- Tocharian - c. 700
- Old Turkic - c. 700 Orkhon
- Old Irish - c. 700
- Japanese - c. 700
- Welsh - c. 700: Tywyn inscriptions
- Old Frisian - c. 750
- Old Hindi - 769: Dohakosh by Saraha
- Malayalam - c. 800
- Old Norse - c. 800 (runic)
- Javanese - 804
- Old French - c. 842: Oaths of Strasbourg
- Bulgarian - c. 862
- Bengali Language -c. 900 charyapada
- Philippine languages - c. 900 Laguna Copperplate Inscription
- Russian - c. 950-1000: Gnezdovo inscription, Birch bark documents, Novgorod Codex
- Italian - c. 960-963: [8]
- Old Church Slavonic - 993: Inscription on a gravestone erected by Tsar Samuil of Bulgaria[9]
1000-1500 AD
(This list is incomplete.You can help by expanding it!)
- Slovenian - 972-1093: (Freising manuscripts)
- Hungarian - c. 1000: the Charter of the Nuns of Veszprémvölgy
- Balinese - c.1000
- Ossetic - c. 1000
- Aragonese and Spanish - ca. 1000: Glosas Emilianenses
- Catalan - c. 1028: Jurament Feudal[10]
- Middle High German - 1050 (by convention)
- Middle English - 1066 (by convention)
- Piedmontese - 1080
- Croatian - c. 1100: Baška tablet
- Danish - c. 1100
- Swedish - c. 1100
- Nepal Bhasa - 1114: "The Palmleaf from Uku Bahal"
- Middle Dutch - 1150 (by convention)[11]
- Portuguese and/or Galician - 1189
- Serbian - between 1186 and 1190: The Gospels of Miroslav
- Bosnian - 1189: The Charter of Kulin
- Czech - c. 1200-1230
- Western Lombard - c. 1250: Sordello da Goito, "Sirventese lombardesco"
- Polish - c. 1270: Book of Henryków
- Yiddish - 1272
- Thai - c. 1292
- Old Norwegian - c. 1300
- Batak - c.1300
- Finnic - c. 1300 Birch bark letter no. 292 (Finnish proper: Abckiria, 1543)
- Old Prussian - c. 1350
- Kashmiri - c. 1350
- Oghuz Turkic (including Ottoman Turkish) - c. 1350 (Imadaddin Nasimi)
- Komi - 1372
- Korean - 1446 (Hunmin Jeongeum)
- Albanian - 1462
- Maltese - c. 1470: Cantilena
- Early Modern English - 1470s (by convention)
After 1500 AD
Date | Language | Attestation | Notes | |
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1521 | Romanian | Neacşu's Letter. | ||
1530 | Latvian | |||
1535 | Estonian | |||
1539 | Classical Nahuatl | Breve y mas compendiosa doctrina cristiana en lengua mexicana y castellana | Possibly the first printed book in the New World. No copies are known to exist today.[12] | |
1543 | Modern Finnish | Abckiria by Mikael Agricola. | ||
1545 | Lithuanian | |||
ca. 1550 | New Dutch/Standard Dutch | Statenbijbel | The Statenbijbel is commonly accepted to be the start of Standard Dutch, but various experiments were performed around 1550 in Flanders and Brabant. Although none proved to be lasting they did create a semi-standard and many formed the base for the Statenbijbel. | |
1554 | Wastek | A grammar by Andrés de Olmos. | ||
1593 | Tagalog | Doctrina Cristiana (Christian Doctrine), a book explaining the basic beliefs of Roman Catholicism | ||
1600 | Buginese | |||
ca. 1650 | Ubykh | The Seyahatname of Evliya Çelebi. | ||
1692 | Sakha (Yakut) | |||
ca. 1695 | Seri | Grammar and vocabulary compiled by Adamo Gilg. | No longer known to exist.[13] | |
1728 | Swahili | Utendi wa Tambuka | ||
1743 | Chinese Pidgin English | |||
1770 | Guugu Yimithirr | Words recorded by James Cook's crew. | ||
1806 | Tswana | Heinrich Lictenstein - Upon the Language of the Beetjuana | First complete Bible translation in 1857 by Robert Moffat | |
1814 | Māori language | systematic orthography from 1820 (Hongi Hika) | ||
1819 | Cherokee | |||
1823 | Xhosa | John Bennie’s Xhosa Reading sheet printed at Twali | Complete Bible translation 1859 | |
ca. 1830 | Vai | |||
1832 | Gamilaraay | Basic vocabulary collected by Thomas Mitchell.[14] | ||
1833 | Sesotho | Reduced to writing by French missionaries Casalis and Arbousset | First grammar book 1841 and complete Bible translation 1881 | |
1837 | Zulu | First written publication Incwadi Yokuqala Yabafundayo | First grammar book 1859 and complete Bible translation 1883 | |
1844 | Afrikaans | Letters by Louis Henri Meurant (published in Eastern Cape newspaper - South Africa) | Followed by Muslim texts written in Afrikaans using Arabic alphabet in 1856. Spelling rules published in 1874. Complete Bible published 1933. | |
1872 | Venda | Reduced to writing by the Berlin Missionaries | First complete Bible translation 1936 | |
ca. 1900 | Papuan languages | |||
ca. 1900 | Other Austronesian languages. | |||
1903 | Lingala | |||
1968 | Southern Ndebele | Small booklet published with praises of their kings and a little history | Translation of the New Testament of the Bible completed in 1986 - translation of Old Testament ongoing | |
1984 | Gooniyandi |
By family
Attestation by major language family:
- Afro-Asiatic: since about the 28th c. BC
- Hurro-Urartian: ca. 20th c. BC
- Indo-European: since about the 19th c. BC
- 19th c. BC: Anatolian
- 15th c. BC: Greek
- 14th c. BC: Indo-Iranian (Indo-Aryan superstrate in Mitanni)
- 7th c. BC: Italic
- 6th c. BC: Celtic
- Sino-Tibetan: about 1000 BC
- roughly 1000 BC: Old Chinese
- 9th c. AD: Tibeto-Burman (Tibetan)
- 13th c. AD: Tai-Kadai
- Dravidian: 3rd c. BC
- Austronesian: 3rd c. AD
- Mayan: 3rd c. AD
- Basque: 4th c.
- South Caucasian: 5th c. (Georgian)
- Northeast Caucasian: 7th c. (Udi)
- Austro-Asiatic: 7th c. (Khmer)
- Altaic: 8th c.
- 8th c.: Turkic (Old Turkic)
- 8th c.: Japonic
- 13th c.: Mongolic
- Nilo-Saharan: 9th c. (Old Nubian)
- Uralic/Finno-Ugric: 11th century
- Uto-Aztecan: 16th c.
- Quechuan: 16th c.
- Niger-Congo (Bantu): 18th c.
- Indigenous Australian languages: 18th c.
- Iroquoian: 19th c.
- Papuan languages: 20th c.
Constructed languages
Date | Language | Attestation | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1879 | Volapük | created by Johann Martin Schleyer | |
1887 | Esperanto | Unua Libro | created by L. L. Zamenhof |
1907 | Ido | based on Esperanto | |
1917 | Quenya | created by J. R. R. Tolkien | |
1928 | Novial | created by Otto Jespersen | |
1935 | Sona | Sona, an auxiliary neutral language | created by Kenneth Searight |
1951 | Interlingua | Interlingua-English Dictionary | created by the International Auxiliary Language Association |
1955 | Loglan | created by James Cooke Brown | |
1985 | Klingon | created by Marc Okrand | |
1987 | Lojban | based on Loglan, created by the Logical Language Group |
References
- ^ resembling Tamil Brahmi inscriptions found for period 700-800 BC, certain inscriptions from 600 BC
- ^ Old Chinese is mostly a reconstructed language. See History of the Chinese language
- ^ Vine, Brent. "A Note on the Duenos Inscription" (PDF). Retrieved 2006-09-20.
- ^ Iravatham Mahadevan (2003). Early Tamil Epigraphy from the Earliest Times of 3rd BCE to the Sixth Century A.D. Cambridge, Harvard University Press.("Early Tamil Epigraphy from the Earliest Times".
- ^ http://www.sanbartolo.org/science.pdf
- ^ "Onze Taal". Livios.org. Retrieved 2006-09-20.
- ^ "Oldest written English?". Cronaca.com.
- ^ "History of the Italian language". Retrieved 2006-09-24.
{{cite web}}
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(help) - ^ Krause, Todd B. (2007). "Old Church Slavonic Online: Series Introduction". Linguistics Research Center, College of Liberal Arts, The University of Texas at Austin. Retrieved 2007-07-14.
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suggested) (help) - ^ MORAN, J. i J. A. RABELLA (ed.) (2001). Primers textos de la llengua catalana. Proa (Barcelona). ISBN 84-8437-156-5.
{{cite book}}
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has generic name (help) - ^ Various texts, among whom the Servaaslegende by Henderik van de Veldeke
- ^ Schwaller, John Frederick (1973). "A Catalogue of Pre-1840 Nahuatl Works Held by The Lilly Library". The Indiana University Bookman. 11: 69–88.
- ^ Marlett, Stephen A. (1981). "The Structure of Seri" (PDF).
{{cite journal}}
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(help) - ^ Austin, Peter K. The Gamilaraay (Kamilaroi) Language, northern New South Wales — A Brief History of Research