The most widely spoken languages of Africa, Swahili (200 million), Yoruba (45 million), Igbo (30 million), and Fula (35 million) all belong to the Niger-Congo family. Learn more about the Niger-Congo language family on Ethnologue.
Dating back to at least 3500 BC, the oldest proof of written Sumerian was found in today's Iraq on an artifact known as the Kish Tablet. Thus, given this evidence, Sumerian can also be considered the first language in the world or one of the ancient languages.
It was originally written in Arabic script. The earliest known documents written in Swahili are letters written in Kilwa, Tanzania, in 1711 in the Arabic script that were sent to the Portuguese of Mozambique and their local allies.
The Swahili people originate from Bantu inhabitants of the coast of Southeast Africa, in Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique. These Bantu-speaking agriculturalists settled the coast at the outset of the first millennium.
With its origin in East Africa, Swahili speakers spread over more than 14 countries: Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), South Sudan, Somalia, Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia, Comoros, and as far as Oman and Yemen in the Middle East.
The Adamic language, according to Jewish tradition (as recorded in the midrashim) and some Christians, is the language spoken by Adam (and possibly Eve) in the Garden of Eden.
This is the second oldest language in the world which is still being used today. Sanskrit is the language of Jainism, Hinduism, and Buddhism. 7,000 people are Sanskrit speakers.
In the beginning, Sanskrit stood as mother of all languages and encouraged all languages and was the reason for their growth and prosperity. One may note that most of the works in Sanskrit have been translated into other Indian languages.”
Aramaic is best known as the language Jesus spoke. It is a Semitic language originating in the middle Euphrates. In 800-600 BC it spread from there to Syria and Mesopotamia. The oldest preserved inscriptions are from this period and written in Old Aramaic.
Hebrew (3000 years old)
With the rise of Zionism in the 19th and 20th century, Hebrew underwent a revival age and became the official language of Israel. Though the Modern Hebrew differs from the Biblical version, native speakers of the language can completely comprehend what is written in the ancient texts.
Across multiple sources, Mandarin Chinese is the number one language listed as the most challenging to learn. The Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center puts Mandarin in Category IV, which is the list of the most difficult languages to learn for English speakers.
Language originated 50,000 years ago, although some experts say it is at least 100,000 years old. New research suggests that language originated in southern Africa and that it evolved into different families — each developed unique characteristics.
The south was populated by Dravidian speakers even before the entry of Aryans into India, implying that the Dravidian languages existed long before Sanskrit. Of the Dravidian family, the Tamil language is the oldest.
Professor Quentin D. Atkinson is a biologist and works at the University of Auckland. He recently published a report in the journal known as Science. His report suggests that all languages may have originated from African language.
Tamil. Tamil is the oldest language still in use today. By order of appearance, the Tamil language (part of the family of Dravidian languages) would be considered the world's oldest living language as it is over 5,000 years old, with its first grammar book having made its first appearance in 3,000 BC.
The world's youngest language, coming in at only 100 years old (officially), is the South African language of Afrikaans. Surprised? Afrikaans, the natively spoken language of 7 million South Africans, was born from the white Dutch, French, and German colonizers in South Africa in the 17th and 18th centuries.
According to Hindu legend, Tamil or in personification form Tamil Thāi (Mother Tamil) was created by Lord Shiva. Murugan, revered as the Tamil God, along with sage Agastya, brought it to the people.
This is a question that is often asked, but the Bible doesn't specifically answer it. However, there are some Scripture hints that lead to several possible answers. The most obvious answer is that we'll speak the language God taught to Adam and Eve as he walked and talked with them in Genesis 3:8.
Their own particular ethnicity is not even mentioned, for the Bible seems to stress that they are the mother and father of all peoples of all ethnicities. Adam and Eve are presented as non-ethnic and non-national because they represent all people of all ethnicities.
The Aramaic word for God is alôh-ô ( Syriac dialect) or elâhâ (Biblical dialect), which comes from the same Proto- Semitic word (*ʾilâh-) as the Arabic and Hebrew terms; Jesus is described in Mark 15:34 as having used the word on the cross, with the ending meaning "my", when saying, "My God, my God, why hast thou ...
Swahili is predominantly a mix of local Bantu languages and Arabic. Decades of intensive trade along the East African coast resulted in this mix of cultures. Besides Arabic and Bantu, Swahili also has English, Persian, Portuguese, German and French influences due to trade contact.
Swahili is an African native language of Bantu origin which had been in existence before the arrival of Arabs in East Africa. The long period of interaction between Arabs and the locals led to linguistic borrowing mainly from Arabic to Swahili.
Around 35% of the Swahili vocabulary comes from Arabic. This is due to more than twelve centuries of contact with Arabic-speaking inhabitants of the coast of Zanj. Swahili has also gained Persian, English, Portuguese, German and French words through contact during the last five centuries.