As far as the world knew, Sanskrit stood as the first spoken language because it dated as back as 5000 BC. New information indicates that although Sanskrit is among the oldest spoken languages, Tamil dates back further. Tamil dates as far back as 350 BC—works like the 'Tholkappiyam,' an ancient poem, stand as evidence.
- 1.1 1. One of Top 10 Hardest Languages To Learn – Arabic.
- 1.2 2. Mandarin Is Really Hard to Learn.
- 1.3 3. Japanese Comes In The List Of Top 10 Hardest Languages To Learn.
- 1.4 4. Hungarian Is Beneficial But Hard to Learn.
- 1.5 5. Korean.
- 1.6 6. Top 10 Hardest Languages To Learn – Finnish.
- 1.7 7. Basque.
- 1.8 8. Navajo.
Seven oldest surviving languages in the world.
- Tamil: Origin (according to first appearance as script) - 300 BC.
- Sanskrit: Origin (according to first appearance as script) - 2000 BC.
- Greek: Origin (according to first appearance as script) - 1500 BC.
- Chinese: Origin (according to first appearance as script) - 1250 BC.
Ongoing costs include website maintenance, security, and paying researchers to update the databases whenever new information comes in from independent researchers or SIL's 5000 field linguists. “We thought the bulk of the people using Ethnologue were academic researchers,” Moitozo says.
A recent UNESCO report indicates that India has the largest number of endangered languages in the world.
Though a dormant language has no proficient users, it retains some social uses. In contrast, an extinct language is no longer claimed by any extant community as the language of their heritage identity. Extinct languages are lacking in both users and societal uses.
The Ethnologue is intended to be used as a catalog that provides summary data of identified languages. Information comes from numerous sources and is confirmed by consulting both reliable published sources and a network of field correspondents.
Ethnologue: Languages of the World (stylized as Ethnolo?ue) is an annual reference publication in print and online that provides statistics and other information on the living languages of the world.
Although indigenous peoples make up less than 6% of the global population, they speak more than 4,000 of the world's languages. Conservative estimates suggest that more than half of the world's languages will become extinct by 2100.
List of Extinct Languages
| Language | Code | Family |
|---|
| Akkadian | akk | Afroasiatic |
| Alanic | xln | Indo-European |
| Algonquian, Carolina | crr | Algic |
| Alsea | aes | Penutian |
In addition to naming languages, The Ethnologue also classifies them into language families, rates their health using the Expanded Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale (EGIDS), and lists basic typological elements, countries in which the language is spoken, population of speakers, and which, if any, writing system
Between 1950 and 2010, 230 languages went extinct, according to the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger. Today, a third of the world's languages have fewer than 1,000 speakers left.
The Pacific island nation of Papua New Guinea has the highest number of 'living' indigenous languages in the world (840), while India stands fourth with 453. 2019 is the United Nations' International Year of Indigenous Languages.
Kannada is one of oldest languages in South India. The spoken language is said to have separated from its proto-language source earlier than Tamil and about the same time as Tulu. However, archaeological evidence would indicate a written tradition for this language of around 1600–1650 years.
Kannada had a huge boost during the Vijayanagar period. Shri Vinoba Bhave called "Kannada" script the "Queen of World Scripts" – "Vishwa Lipigala Raani".
More than 19,500 languages or dialects are spoken in India as mother tongues, according to the latest analysis of a census released this week. There are 121 languages which are spoken by 10,000 or more people in India, which has a population of 121 crore, it said.
English Speaking Countries 2021
| Rank | Country | 2021 Population |
|---|
| 1 | India | 1,393,409,038 |
| 2 | United States | 332,915,073 |
| 3 | Pakistan | 225,199,937 |
| 4 | Nigeria | 211,400,708 |
6 of the Rarest Languages Still Spoken Today
- Njerep. Having already become extinct in one country (Cameroon), Njerep, a Bantoid language, is spoken in Nigeria by only 4 individuals.
- Kawishana.
- Paakantyi.
- Liki.
- Sarcee.
- Chemehuevi.
One language dies every 14 days. By the next century nearly half of the roughly 7,000 languages spoken on Earth will likely disappear, as communities abandon native tongues in favor of English, Mandarin, or Spanish.
So, the German language is not dying. Much too many people speak German as a native language, and the fact that it's an Indoeuropean language makes it less likely to die out. It's also important to note that foreign influences on German are nothing new. Right, so the language isn't dying, but it has definitely changed.
Although languages have always become extinct throughout human history, they are currently dying at an accelerated rate because of globalization, imperialism, neocolonialism and linguicide (language killing). Furthermore, 96% of the world's languages are spoken by 4% of the population.
It is thus, a sad truth that Urdu lacks significantly as compared to many foreign languages. Millions of Urdu speakers, readers and writers not only enjoy the language but also take immense pride in it. To call Urdu a dying language as of yet, is rather harsh, but it is indeed, in a gradual decline.
When a language dies, we lose cultures, entire civilizations, but also, we lose people. We lose perspectives, ideas, opinions, most importantly, we lose a unique way of being human.
Supposing the percentage of people who speak these languages in each country remain constant, English will still be the the language with the most speakers in the year 2100. The number of English speakers will grow from 1.5 billion people today to well over 2.3 billion.
Speak up!The world's most endangered languages and where to hear them
- 1: Resígaro, Peru. Sunrise in the Peruvian Amazon (Dreamstime)
- 2: Ainu, Japan. Ainu village in Hokkaido (Dreamstime)
- 3: Dunser, Papua New Guinea.
- 4: Vod, Estonia/Russia.
- 5: Pawnee, USA.
- 6: Chulym, Russia.
- 7: Mudburra, Australia.
- 8: Machaj Juyay, Bolivia.
The Beauty Of Languages
- Arabic language. Arabic is one of the most beautiful languages in the world.
- English language. English is the most gorgeous language in the world.
- Italian language. Italian is one of the most romantic languages in the world.
- Welsh language.
- Persian language.
