Tamil: The earliest discovered written examples of Tamil date back to BC. However, based on other evidence, scientists believe that it first appeared around BC. And while it may not be known to a lot of people on our planet, today Tamil is spoken by around 78 million people which makes it the longest surviving language in the world. Sanskrit: Next in line is Sanskrit, the ancient language of India which can be traced back to BC in its earliest written form.
While today only a very small group of people still speak the language, it has had a large influence on several western languages as part of the common Indo—European language root. What you might not know is that the basic language of computers were also constructed along the principles of Sanskrit. Greek: Best known as the language of philosophers and scholars, Greek is still spoken by more than 13 million people.
Records reveal that the language dates back to around BC and is recognised as an official language by the European Union. Chinese: Chinese is the single most spoken language in the world today with around 1. Studies of Hebrew are relatively popular nowadays in Western universities. Latin Language Greek is the third oldest language in the world. Latin was the official language of the ancient Roman Empire and ancient Roman religion.
It is currently the official language of the Roman Catholic Church and the official language of the Vatican City. Like Sanskrit, it is a classical language. Latin comes in the romance branch of the Indo-European language family. From this, French, Italian, Spanish, Romanian, Portuguese and the most popular language of the present time, English has originated. Due to the dominance of Christianity in Europe, Latin language in medieval and pre-modern times was the international language of almost all Europe, in which books of all religions, science, higher literature, philosophy and mathematics were written.
Tamil Language The Tamil language is recognized as the oldest language in the world and it is the oldest language of the Dravidian family. This language had a presence even around 5, years ago. According to a survey, newspapers are published in the Tamil language only every day.
At present, the number of speakers of Tamil language is around 7. The Sanskrit language is called Devbhasha. All the universities and educational institutions spread across the world consider Sanskrit as the most ancient language. The Sanskrit language has been spoken since 5, years before Christ. For example, shokoladai is the word for chocolatier, but nobody ever uses it. Pure Hebrew words are always based on a three letter root word sometimes four , but lots of non-Hebrew words have entered the language especially in the last years.
For example, the word for car is mechonit but people also call it an auto. While the word bible is from the Greek, many Hebrew words from it have entered the English language. For example: hallelujah praise God , amen, mammon money , satan and even abracadbra.
Hebrew is very close to Arabic — they are both Semitic languages. Although they have different scripts, they have parallel grammar systems and often similar words; for example, shalom in Hebrew is salam in Arabic meaning both peace and hello. Many words in Arabic are used by Hebrew speakers as slang words. For example, sababa great and m absut satisfied. The Noah Webster of the Hebrew language is Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, who not only wrote the first Modern Hebrew dictionary but also raised the first only-Hebrew speaking children in years.
When Ben-Yehuda heard about it he fumed, and the kid started to speak. The truth was that even if Hebrew was not spoken by all, the alphabet — that written-backwards alphabet with odd looking letters, each representing a consonant, without vowels — was known to all Jews.
Perhaps the alphabet that the Hebrew language uses today, which is in fact Aramaic, should really be called Jewish. Michael Handelzalts Aug. Get email notification for articles from Michael Handelzalts Follow. Open gallery view. The ostracon found at Mesad Hashavyahu, bearing a plaint in ancient Hebrew writing.
Credit: Hanay, Wikimedia Commons. This is the form of modern Hebrew writing - which is, really, based on Aramaic. Credit: Jewish Publication Society. Click the alert icon to follow topics: Jewish culture Jewish Diaspora Jewish education Jewish studies. Tel Aviv Is Over. Gay Haredim Turn to Her for Help. Sometimes She Prescribes Chemical Castration. Israel Could Soon Reopen to Tourists.
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