A dead language is a language which has no native speakers alive in the world, the most commonly given example being Latin. An extinct language, however, not only has no native speakers, but in fact has no speakers at all or is no longer in use.
In linguistics, a dead language is (usually) defined as a language that some people still use, even if there are no native speakers left. Latin is probably the most widely known dead language.
Most languages, though, die out gradually as successive generations of speakers become bilingual and then begin to lose proficiency in their traditional languages. This often happens when speakers seek to learn a more-prestigious language in order to gain social and economic advantages or to avoid discrimination.
Latin essentially “died out” with the fall of the Roman Empire, but in reality, it transformed — first into a simplified version of itself called Vulgar Latin, and then gradually into the Romance languages: Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese and Romanian. Thus, Classical Latin fell out of use.
Most religious scholars and historians agree with Pope Francis that the historical Jesus principally spoke a Galilean dialect of Aramaic. Through trade, invasions and conquest, the Aramaic language had spread far afield by the 7th century B.C., and would become the lingua franca in much of the Middle East.
The archaeological proof we have today allows us to state that the oldest dead language in the world is the Sumerian language. 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.
What is Dead language? As we have discussed before, a dead language does not have any native speaker, but it has some uses. Still, people use this language for different purposes. For example, Latin, Sanskrit, Coptic, Biblical Hebrew, etc., are the dead language.
But what exactly is lost when an endangered language dies? Answers Lipski, we lose cultural identities and the richness and diversity of humanity's linguistic heritage.
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.
There are many reasons why languages die. The reasons are often political, economic or cultural in nature. Speakers of a minority language may, for example, decide that it is better for their children's future to teach them a language that is tied to economic success.
There has only been one successful instance of a complete language revival, the Hebrew language, creating a new generation of native speakers without any pre-existing native speakers as a model. Languages targeted for language revitalization include those whose use and prominence is severely limited.
Kawishana. Spoken near the Japura River in Brazil, Kawishana (Kaixana) was once a popular language utilized by many. The numbers began dwindling, eventually dropping down to 200. Now, there remains only one documented person still able to speak the language.
Sanskrit
A big reason for this is because most of the ancient scriptures regarding Buddhism, Jainism, and Hinduism were written in its language. Sanskrit's fame doesn't stop there. The dead language is actually a popular study for many students thanks to many philosophical works under it.
Many languages are failing out of use and being replaced by others that are more widely used in the region or nation, such as English in the U.S. or Spanish in Mexico. Unless current trends are reversed, these endangered languages will become extinct within the next century.
Every two weeks a language dies with its last speaker, 50 to 90 percent of them are predicted to disappear by the next century. (Read about what happens when a language dies.) In rare cases, political will and a thorough written record can resurrect a lost language.
While some people can remember their native language after years, even decades of not speaking or hearing it, many others begin to lose fluency after only 3-5 years.
Human language can be considered a culture's most important feature since complex human culture could not exist without language and language could not exist without culture.
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.
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.
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.
Greek is the third oldest language in the world. Latin was the official language of the ancient Roman Empire and ancient Roman religion. It is currently the official language of the Roman Catholic Church and the official language of the Vatican City. Like Sanskrit, it is a classical language.
Some Christians see the languages written on the INRI cross (Syriac, Greek and Latin) as God's languages.
"Elim or Elohim") is the Aramaic word for God and the absolute singular form of ܐܲܠܵܗܵܐ, ʾalāhā. The origin of the word is from Proto-Semitic ʔil and is thus cognate to the Hebrew, Arabic, Akkadian, and other Semitic languages' words for god.
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 ...