Oldest languages in the World
Updated on Oct 05 2020
3,000 BC
5,000 years old
1. Tamil
Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken by the Tamil people of India and Sri Lanka. Linguistic reconstruction suggests that was spoken around the 3rd millennium BC, possibly in the region around the lower Godavari river basin in peninsular India.
2,600 BC
4,700 years old
2. Egyptian
Egyptian was spoken in ancient Egypt and was a branch of the Afro-Asiatic languages. One of the oldest recorded languages.
2,000 BC
4,000 years old
3. Sanskrit
Sanskrit is the primary liturgical language of Hinduism and some of the principal texts of Buddhism and Jainism. Sanskrit has had a considerable influence on East Asian languages such as Chinese and several languages in Europe. Many words have been adopted from Sanskrit into the Chinese.
1800 BC
3,800 years old
4. Sumerian
Sumerian is the language of ancient Sumer and a language isolate that was spoken in Mesopotamia and in Syria.
1,450 BC
3,500 years old
5. Greek
Greek is the is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, native to Greece, Cyprus, Albania and other parts of the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea.
1,250 BC
3,250 years old
6. Chinese
Chinese is a group of languages that forms the Sinitic branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages. Chinese languages are spoken by many ethnic groups in China. Chinese is the most spoken languages in the world.
1,000 BC
3,000 years old
7. Aramaic
Aramaic was the language of the Arameans, a Semitic-speaking people of the region between the northern Levant and the northern Tigris valley. By around 1000 BC, the Arameans had a string of kingdoms in what is now part of Syria and Mesopotamia.
1,000 BC
3,000 years old
8. Hebrew
Modern Hebrew is the official language of the State of Israel, while Hebrew is used for prayer or study in Jewish communities around the world today.
450 BC
2,450 years old
9. Armenian
Armenian is an Indo-European language. Speakers of Armenian are located in Iran, Georgia, Russia and Ukraine.
300 BC
2,300 years old
10. Korean
Korean is the official language of both Koreas: North Korea and South Korea.
75 BC
2,075 years old
11. Latin
Latin was originally spoken in the area around Rome, known as Latium. Through the power of the Roman Republic, it became the dominant language in Italy, and subsequently throughout the western Roman Empire. Latin has contributed many words to the English language.