Many languages vie for the title of being the oldest language in the world. However, there is only one that can be the oldest, so what language is it?
17. Icelandic (1200 years)
Icelandic is perhaps one of the oldest languages that is still spoken in the world today. Icelandic is native to the island of Iceland, as well as 350,000 native speakers.
Icelandic began as a combination of Danish and indigenous languages. However, once the Danish stopped bringing new colonizers during the twelfth century, Icelandic became akin to a language isolate.
Icelandic is a very good indication of what Old Norse and Old Danish looked and sounded like.
As a result of its age and its isolation, Icelandic has become one of the hardest languages to learn!
16. German (1500 years)
German was officially “invented” in the 15th century, by Martin Luther, combining both Old High German and Old Low German dialects. However, its roots are far older than that.
German has its roots in the Germanic invasions of Europe. Unlike many other languages however, that lost much of is Germanic influence thanks to Roman conquest, Germany retained it.
Today, German is spoken by 220 million speakers worldwide, mainly in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Namibia, Luxembourg and Belgium.
15. Arabic (1500 years)
Arabic is considered to be one of the holiest and most sophisticated languages, it also happens to be one of the oldest too!
The rise of Arabic came with the rise of Islam, the last of the Abrahamic religions. In roughly the seventh century, people started preaching Islam to the world.
They used a relatively new Semitic language which has come to be known as Arabic. It is likely to have come about as a dialect of Amharic or a similar language that is now extinct.
The first books trace back to the 8th century CE, mostly religious texts pertaining to the Quran, or Qurans themselves. However, we know that it must have been older than that as Arabic has always been the language of Islam.
Arabic is spoken all over the world, but mainly in North Africa and the Middle East. Arabic currently has around 420 million speakers to accompany that too!
14. Gaelic (1700 years)
Despite having been forgotten for several centuries, Gaelic has seen a resurgence in recent years.
Gaelic first came about from settlers on Ireland by the Picts and the Scots, two groups of Celtic people. Over time, they advanced further and took in more Norwegian and Danish words.
Eventually, the language became almost entirely replaced by English over the centuries following their occupation of Ireland.
Gaelic is currently spoken by 4.75 million people mostly in Southern Ireland. However, there is a small amount of people in the UK who can speak it, plus many members of Irish America.
13. Korean (2100 years)
Korean is a language isolate, and as is the case with other language isolates, Korean predates many other languages. In fact, it is a whole 1700 years older than Japanese- one of its closest geographical neighbors.
Korean, despite being incredibly difficult to learn, Korean actually has one of the easiest alphabets to learn!
Korean is spoken on the Korean Peninsular- in both North and South Korea. As is common in many North-South divides, there is a distinct variation of Korean used in North Korea- something that uses Russian and older vocabulary, that South Korean does not.
Korean is actually one of the most spoken languages in the world, especially so given its age! Currently, there are 75 million speakers of Korean, mainly in North and South Korea, as well as a minority in Japan, China and the US.
12. Latin (2100 years)
Many people are quick to write off Latin as a dead language. However, it is very much still alive! Medicine is full of Latin words, as is engineering and law and finance (and just about everything else!)
Latin was the language of the Romans. They brought it with them through their conquests and maintained it through their occupations. After they left, much of the populous still spoke Latin, or at least a crude form of it.
This led (inadvertently) to the Romance language family, containing French, Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian and Italian! (As well as several others too!)
However, what truly keeps it alive is the church. Whilst Catholic church services aren’t done in Latin (anymore), much of their stuff is still in Latin. This is especially so for the Vatican!
11. Basque (2200 years)
Basque, just like Korean is a language isolate. Just as with many other language isolates, Basque is incredibly old. In fact, basque predates even the Romans and their occupation of Hispania!
Basque is a small language, spoken by an estimated 751,500 people. Mostly, these speakers live in the Basque Country, a part of France and Spain at the base of the Pyrenees and the Bay of Biscay.
Despite its proximity to both the Spanish and French languages- both romance languages, it has nothing to do with them. It is completely unrelated to both of them.
There have been several theories as to the origins of Basque. In fact, the oldest theories date back to the sixteenth century! However, none of these theories have held up to scrutiny and have no concrete facts supporting them.
10. Armenian (2500 years)
Armenian probably isn’t a language you think of too often. However, it is one of the oldest languages in the world! It is also one of the most instrumental languages in Christianity.
How? Armenian was how the first (legal) Bibles were transported to Europe. Armenian scholars translated the Bible from Aramaic into Armenian and sold them all over Europe.
Armenian is currently spoken by 6.7 million people. The vast majority of these people are in Armenia but also encompass many nearby countries as well as the UK and US.
9. Farsi (2500 years)
Farsi was the language of the Persian Empire, therefore it has to be one of the oldest languages in the world. Farsi, or Persian as it is known in the West, was the official language of Persia from before the reign of Khosrow.
Farsi has been the uniting factor between the Shahs of Iran and the people for thousands of years. Unlike many other monarchs, the Shahs actually poke the same language as the common man did!
In fact, Farsi is still spoken today, by 110 million people! Most of these people reside in Persia (Iran) however there is a large minority in Iraq and in the US.
8. Aramaic (3000 years)
As stated before, Aramaic was instrumental in the beginning of Christianity. However, it is also one of the oldest languages in the world!
Aramaic has been instrumental in lending words to both Arabic and Hebrew (which Aramaic came before!)
Although the original Aramaic has been lost to the pages of history, it has remained alive. Currently, there are several variants of Aramaic that closely resemble Old Aramaic.
Today, Aramaic is spoken by 850,000 people, mainly in Syria, Iraq, Kuwait, Jordan, Israel and Lebanon. However there are also small communities in the UK and Us who speak Aramaic as well!
7. Hebrew (3000 years)
Hebrew has actually gone extinct, or near enough to it, on several occasions throughout history. However, it is still going strong.
The first Hebrew scripts date back almost 3000 years. Hebrew is currently the official language of Judaism and the official language of Israel. It’s also likely that Jesus knew how to read, if not speak Hebrew.
Hebrew is currently spoken by nine million people. Most of these people are Jewish and live in Israel, however many Jews who live in the US, UK and other countries also speak Hebrew too!
In fact, many non-Jews also speak Hebrew as well!
6. Chinese (3250 years)
By Chinese, we mean Mandarin Chinese, the most spoken variant. Although Mandarin wasn’t always the dominant dialect, so it is difficult to pinpoint the exact date that Mandarin began.
As a result, theories about its origins are abundant. Linguists can’t even agree how old Mandarin even is! Some linguists argue that Mandarin is over 6000 years old, where others argue it is only half that.
Mandarin is spoken by 1.3 billion people. The majority of these people live on mainland China, however, there are also small pockets of Mandarin-speakers all over the world.
Some of these small pockets range from 15,000 speakers to 15 million speakers.
5. Greek (3450 years)
Greek is older than I thought it was, I have to admit. Although Greece came to prosperity during the 8th Century BC, their language was around long before that.
The first instances of Greek date back to 1350 BC, almost 500 years before their rise to power. Greek remained an important language until Latin over took it at the end of the first century BC.
However, Greek did not disappear. Although it has changed dramatically, almost to the point of nonrecognition, the fundamentals of the language are still there!
Greek is spoken by a mere 10.7 million, making it one of the most spoken languages in the Mediterranean (after Spanish, Italian, Catalan and Turkish!)
Most of these people reside in Greece however many also reside in the US.
4. Egyptian (5000 years)
Egyptian is perhaps one of the most changes languages on this list. Whilst spoken Egyptian (the actual language, not the dialect of Arabic) has changed a fair bit since its inception, it’s nothing compared to its writing system!
Think about it… 5000 years ago is even before Ancient Egypt. The first instances of the Egyptian language being written is a form of hieroglyphics that is more picture than hieroglyphic.
That also means that hieroglyphics are apart of Egyptian too!
However, Egyptian isn’t spoken as much as it once was. Now, most Egyptians speak a dialect of Arabic. However, almost no one speaks Egyptian now, and haven’t done for some time, it’s mostly used in an academic sense for historical purposes.
3. Tamil (5000 years)
Tamil is very different from Egyptian. Whilst it hasn’t changed much in its almost 5000 year history, it is still very much spoken in many parts of the world.
Many people believe that Tamil is the oldest language in the world, however, this is heavily disputed with Sanskrit (more on them in a minute!)
Tamil is spoken by 77 million speakers in the world, making it not only one of the oldest languages on the planet, but also the seventeenth most spoken language on the planet!
The majority of Tamil speakers live in India, Sri Lanka and Singapore. However, many Tamil speakers are found throughout the world, including sizable minorities in the UK and US!
2. Lithuanian (5000 years)
Lithuanian may surprise you. Often, we view it as roughly as old as any other Easter European language- if we even think of it at all! Despite this, Lithuanian is one of the oldest languages in the world!
Although Lithuanian has changed a lot since its beginning, having incorporated much of the language of their occupiers, it is still fundamentally the same.
Lithuanian is spoken by three million people. Most of these people mainly reside in Lithuania, however minorities in Poland, Russia, Estonia and Latvia all speak Lithuanian as well!
1. Sanskrit (6000 years)
Despite the fact that Sanskrit isn’t spoken as much as it once was, it is nevertheless one of the oldest languages in the world. In fact, by most accounts, it is the oldest language in the world!
Whilst we will likely never know for sure, most estimates put Sanskrit between 5000 and 6000 years old. This means that the language predates most things in the west- the Romans, the Greeks and the Persians.
For a 6000 year old language, you’d expect the language to have changed dramatically in its history. However, you’d be wrong! The language has experienced minor changes over the years, but only minor ones.
Sanskrit is spoken in India, mainly by Hindu priests and monks. Sanskrit was once the most spoken language in India, but saw a major decline. Now, only 15,000 people speak Sanskrit!