We’ve already known that
people around the world use a huge amount of languages – do you know which one is the oldest language? It’s quite difficult to determine it,
especially that even our great-great -great ancestors who lived in caves had to
use some language. Maybe it wasn’t similar to any other language which we know
now but still existed. It may be based on varied types of sounds, which symbolized
specific words, sentences? Who knows that :) Scientists tell us all the time that in some part of
the world has already died a person using some rare language. Therefore it’s
difficult to determine which of them is actually the oldest. Of course we can
still talk about several languages, which survived the long time – below I
present you a list of five of these:
1. Hebrew:
I think it can be called language "with a past" – why? So, after
Babylonian captivity it stopped to being used commonly. People used it only during
prayers, important ceremonies etc. The Jews began to use the language of
Aramaic and later Yiddish. However, in the end of XIX century the modern
version of it was created and since 1948 it’s the official language in Israel. It
was a kind of rebirth. Today it’s used by 5-8 million people. Written form uses
the Hebrew alphabet and the text direction is from right to left.
2. Greek:
it’s one of the official languages in Europe and at the same time the only Hellenic which
hasn’t died out yet. During its existence, it has changed and developed. Today,
people in Greece and Cyprus use Modern Greek. Written form is made in the Greek
alphabet, which is certainly known to you from Math or Physics – it consists of
24 letters.
3. Latin:
the official language of the Vatican – it comes from Latium which is in Italy. Latin was used by the ancient Romans. This language
is quite interesting due to the fact that neither died out nor people use it commonly.
It’s often referred as the language which vegetate – doesn’t grow and adapt to
a changing world.
4. Chinese:
varied language – the most popular and probably the most common is Mandarin. It’s
the official language of the Republic of China, Taiwan and Singapore. A
distinctive feature of the Chinese language is its handwriting based on signs. The individual characters mean
not only syllables but also whole words. It contains around 50,000 characters –
to be fluent in reading you should know 5-6 thousands. Nothing? – it can scares
may people ;)
5.
Sumerian language: at the end something extra ;) Sumerian language
which is the oldest ... written. It was used from about IV century BC in Sumer
and today scientists are discovering many writings from that period and are
trying read them. Writing is based on cuneiform – drawings which symbolize both
objects and abstract concepts. Of course today it’s extinct language which no
one longer speaks or writes.
Besides Sumerian
language, all these mentioned can be heard almost every day – of course more
often if you go abroad to Greece, Israel etc. The oldest languages in the world but still used :)
image source : www.community.plu.edu
0 komentarze :
Post a Comment