This is a list of languages arranged by age of the oldest existing text recording a complete sentence in the language. It does not include undeciphered writing systems. It also does not include inscriptions consisting of isolated words or names from a language. In most cases, some form of the language had already been spoken (and even written) considerably earlier than the dates of the earliest extant samples provided here. A written record may encode a stage of a language corresponding to an earlier time, either as a result of oral tradition, or because the earliest source is a copy of an older manuscript that was lost. An oral tradition of epic poetry may typically bridge a few centuries, and in rare cases, over a millennium. An extreme case is the Vedic Sanskrit of the Rigveda: the earliest parts of this text date to c. 1500 BC, while the oldest known manuscripts date to c. 1040 AD. Similarly the oldest Avestan texts, the Gathas, are believed to have been composed before 1000 BC, but the oldest Avestan manuscripts date from the 13th century AD.
Before 1000 BC
Writing first appeared in the Near East at the end of the 4th millennium BC. A very limited number of languages are attested in the area from before the Bronze Age collapse and the rise of alphabetic writing:
the Sumerian, Hattic and Elamite language isolates, Hurrian from the small Hurro-Urartian family, Afro-Asiatic in the form of the Egyptian and Semitic languages and Indo-European (Anatolian languages and Mycenaean Greek). In East Asia towards the end of the second millennium BC, the Sino-Tibetan family was represented by Old Chinese. There are also a number of undeciphered Bronze Age records:
the Proto-Elamite script the Indus script (speculated to record a "Harappan language") Cretan hieroglyphs and Linear A (encoding a possible "Minoan language") the Cypro-Minoan syllabary Earlier symbols, such as the Jiahu symbols or Vinča symbols, are believed to be proto-writing, rather than representations of language.
First millennium BC
The earliest known alphabetic inscriptions, at Serabit el-Khadim (c. 1500 BC), appear to record a Northwest Semitic language, though only one or two words have been deciphered. In the Early Iron Age, alphabetic writing spread across the Near East and southern Europe. With the emergence of the Brahmic family of scripts, languages of India are attested from after about 300 BC. There is only fragmentary evidence for languages such as Iberian, Tartessian, Galatian and Messapian. The North Picene language of the Novilara Stele from c. 600 BC has not been deciphered. The few brief inscriptions in Thracian dating from the 6th and 5th centuries BC have not been conclusively deciphered. The earliest examples of the Central American Isthmian script date from c. 500 BC, but a proposed decipherment remains controversial.
First millennium AD From Late Antiquity, we have for the first time languages with earliest records in manuscript tradition (as opposed to epigraphy). Thus, Classical Armenian is first attested in the Armenian Bible translation. The Vimose inscriptions (2nd and 3rd centuries) in the Elder Futhark runic alphabet appear to record Proto-Norse names. Some scholars interpret the Negau helmet inscription (c. 100 BC) as a Germanic fragment.
1000–1500 AD
After 1500
By family Attestation by major language family:
Afro-Asiatic: since about the 27th century BC 27th century BC: Egyptian 24th century BC: Semitic (Eblaite, Akkadian) 2nd century BC: Berberic (Numidian) 7th century: Cushitic (Blemmyan) Hurro-Urartian: c. 21st century BC Indo-European: since about the 17th century BC 17th century BC: Anatolian (Hittite) 15th century BC: Greek 7th century BC: Italic (Latin) 6th century BC: Celtic (Lepontic) c. 6th century BC: Iranian (Old Persian) c. 3rd century BC: Indo-Aryan (Ashokan Prakrit) 4th century AD: Germanic (Gothic) 4th century AD: Tocharian (Tocharian B) 4th century AD: Armenian (Classical Armenian) 10th century: Slavic (Old Church Slavonic) c. 14th century: Baltic (Old Prussian) c. 15th century: Albanian Sino-Tibetan: c. 13th century BC c. 13th century BC: Old Chinese 8th century: Tibeto-Burman (Tibetan) Dravidian: c. 3rd century BC (Tamil) Mayan: 3rd century AD 3rd century AD: Cholan (Classical Maya) 16th century: Huastecan (Wastek) Austronesian: 4th century AD (Cham) South Caucasian: 5th century AD (Georgian) Koreanic: mid-6th century (Old Korean) Mongolic: 6th century (Mongolian) Northeast Caucasian: 7th century 7th century: Lezgic (Udi) 9-12th century: Nakh (Chechen) Austroasiatic: 7th century (Khmer) Turkic: 8th century 8th century: Old Turkic 11th century: Oghuz Japonic: 8th century Nilo-Saharan: 8th century (Old Nubian) Basque: c. 11th century Uralic: 12th century 12th century: Ugric (Hungarian) c. 13th century: Finnic 14th century: Permic (Komi) 17th century: Sámic (Pite Sámi) 18th century: Mari (Hill Mari) Kra–Dai: 13th century (Thai) Tupian: 16th century (Classical Tupi) Purépecha: 16th century Uto-Aztecan: 16th century (Classical Nahuatl) Quechuan: 16th century (Classical Quechua) Niger–Congo (Bantu): 16th century (Kikongo) Papuan: 17th century (Ternate) Northwest Caucasian: 17th century (Abkhaz, Adyghe, Ubykh) Algic: 17th century 17th century: East Algonquian (Massachusett) 19th century: Ojibwe 19th century: Cree Muskogean: 17th century (Apalachee) Seri: c. 17th century Eskaleut: 18th century 18th century: Inuit (Greenlandic) 19th century: Aleut Australian Aboriginal: 18th century Iroquoian: 19th century (Cherokee) Na-Dene: 19th century (Carrier) Hmong-Mien: 20th century
Constructed languages
See also Ancient text corpora History of writing List of writing systems Undeciphered writing systems Origin of language Ancient literature § Incomplete list of ancient texts List of oldest documents
References Notes
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