Misplaced Pages

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Fresheneesz (talk | contribs) at 20:40, 31 May 2024 (→Before 1000 BC: Updating Sumerian as having an older attestation in the 2800s BC with a source.). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

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, though there are various claims without wide acceptance, which, if substantiated, would push backward the first attestation of certain languages. 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 beginning of the 3rd 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, Vinča symbols and the marks on the Dispilio Tablet, are believed to be proto-writing, rather than representations of language.

The first tablets using syllabic elements date to the Early Dynastic I–II periods c. 2800 BC, and they are agreed to be clearly in Sumerian.

• Seal impression from the tomb of Seth-Peribsen, containing the oldest known complete sentence in Egyptian, c. 2690 BC
• Letter in Sumerian cuneiform sent by the high-priest Lu'enna, informing the king of Lagash of his son's death in battle, c. 2400 BC
• Greek Linear B tablet from Pylos, recording the distribution of hides, c. 1200 BC
• Ox scapula inscribed with three records of divinations in the reign of Wu Ding of the Chinese Shang dynasty, c. 1200 BC

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

This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (July 2009)

After 1500

This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (July 2009)

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)
  • 7th century AD: Cushitic (Beja)
• 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. 500 BC: Iranian (Old Persian)
  • c. 260 BC: Indo-Aryan (Ashokan Prakrit)
  • 4th century AD: Germanic (Gothic)
  • 4th century AD: Tocharian (Tocharian B)
  • 4th century AD: Armenian (Classical Armenian)
  • 10th century AD: Balto-Slavic (Old Church Slavonic)
• Sino-Tibetan: c. 1250 BC
  • c. 1250 BC: Old Chinese
  • 8th century AD: Tibeto-Burman (Tibetan)
• Dravidian: c. 200 BC (Tamil)
• Mayan: 3rd century AD
• Austronesian: 4th century AD (Cham)
• South Caucasian: 5th century (Georgian)
• Northeast Caucasian: 7th century (Udi)
• Austroasiatic: 7th century (Khmer)
• Turkic: 8th century (Old Turkic)
• Japonic: 8th century
• Nilo-Saharan: 8th century (Old Nubian)
• Basque: c. 1000
• Uralic: 12th century
  • 12th century: Hungarian
  • c. 1200: Finnic
  • 14th century: Permic (Komi)
• Mongolic: 13th century (Possibly related Khitan language: 10th century)
• Kra–Dai: 13th century (Thai)
• Uto-Aztecan: 16th century (Classical Nahuatl)
• Quechuan: 16th century
• Niger–Congo (Bantu): 16th century (Kikongo)
• Northwest Caucasian: 17th century (Abkhaz, Adyghe, Ubykh)
• Indigenous Australian languages: 18th century
• Iroquoian: 19th century (Cherokee)
• 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

1. Jamison, Stephanie W. (2008). "Sanskrit". In Woodward, Roger D. (ed.). The Ancient Languages of Asia and the Americas. Cambridge University Press. pp. 6–32. ISBN 978-0-521-68494-1. pp. 6–7.
2. Witzel, Michael (1997). "The Development of the Vedic Canon and its Schools : The Social and Political Milieu" (PDF). In Witzel, Michael (ed.). Inside the Texts, Beyond the Texts. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Department of Sanskrit and Indian Studies. pp. 257–348. ISBN 978-1-888789-03-4. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2020-08-04. Retrieved 2018-10-04. p. 259.
3. Hale, Mark (2008). "Avestan". In Woodward, Roger D. (ed.). The Ancient Languages of Asia and the Americas. Cambridge University Press. pp. 101–122. ISBN 978-0-521-68494-1.
4. Woodard (2008), p. 2.
5. Woodard (2008), p. 3.
6. ^ Walker, C. (1987). Reading The Past Cuneiform. British Museum. pp. 11-12.
7. ^ Allen, James P. (2003). The Ancient Egyptian Language. Cambridge University Press. p. 2. ISBN 978-1-107-66467-8.
8. Vita, Juan-Pablo, ed. (2021). "Akkadian and Cuneiform". History of the Akkadian Language (Volume 1: Linguistic Background and Early Periods). Handbook of Oriental Studies. Leiden: Brill Publishers. pp. 66–74. doi:10.1163/9789004445215_004. ISBN 978-90-04-44520-8. S2CID 240743074. The oldest known Akk text is a hymn to the sungod Šamaš⁵ found in Ereš (Tell Abū Ṣalābīḫ, ca. 2600).⁶
9. Andrew George, "Babylonian and Assyrian: A History of Akkadian", In: Postgate, J. N., (ed.), Languages of Iraq, Ancient and Modern. London: British School of Archaeology in Iraq, pp. 31–71.
10. Clay, Albert T. (2003). Atrahasis: An Ancient Hebrew Deluge Story. Book Tree. p. 34. ISBN 978-1-58509-228-4. Archived from the original on 2021-10-17. Retrieved 2020-11-30.
11. Hasselbach, Rebecca (2005). Sargonic Akkadian: A Historical and Comparative Study of the Syllabic Texts. Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. p. 8. ISBN 978-3-447-05172-9.
12. Huehnergard, John; Woods, Christopher (2008). "Akkadian and Eblaite". In Woodard, Roger D. (ed.). The Ancient Languages of Mesopotamia, Egypt and Aksum. Cambridge University Press. pp. 83–145. ISBN 978-0-521-68497-2.
13. "Earliest Semitic Text Revealed In Egyptian Pyramid Inscription". ScienceDaily. Archived from the original on 2019-01-07. Retrieved 2019-01-06.
14. "לחשים בקדם־כנענית בכתבי הפירמידות: סקירה ראשונה של תולדות העברית באלף השלישי לפסה"נ | האקדמיה ללשון העברית". hebrew-academy.org.il (in Hebrew). 2013-05-21. Archived from the original on 2018-01-06. Retrieved 2019-01-06.
15. Stolper, Matthew W. (2008). "Elamite". In Woodard, Roger D. (ed.). The Ancient Languages of Mesopotamia, Egypt and Aksum. Cambridge University Press. pp. 47–82. ISBN 978-0-521-68497-2.
16. Potts, D.T. (1999). The Archaeology of Elam: Formation and Transformation of an Ancient Iranian State. Cambridge University Press. p. 111. ISBN 978-0-521-56496-0.
17. van Soldt, Wilfred H. (2010). "The adaptation of Cuneiform script to foreign languages". In De Voogt, Alexander J.; Finkel, Irving L. (eds.). The Idea of Writing: Play and Complexity. BRILL. pp. 117–128. ISBN 978-90-04-17446-7.
18. ^ Watkins, Calvert (2008). "Hittite". In Woodard, Roger D. (ed.). The Ancient Languages of Asia Minor. Cambridge University Press. pp. 6–30. ISBN 978-0-521-68496-5.
19. Melchert, H. Craig (2008). "Palaic". In Woodard, Roger D. (ed.). The Ancient Languages of Asia Minor. Cambridge University Press. pp. 40–45. ISBN 978-0-521-68496-5.
20. Shelmerdine, Cynthia. "Where Do We Go From Here? And How Can the Linear B Tablets Help Us Get There?" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-10-03. Retrieved 2008-03-27.
21. Olivier (1986), pp. 377f.
22. "Clay tablets inscribed with records in Linear B script". British Museum. Archived from the original on 2015-05-04. Retrieved 7 May 2015.
23. Bennett, Emmett L. (1996). "Aegean scripts". In Daniels, Peter T.; Bright, William (eds.). The World's Writing Systems. Oxford University Press. pp. 125–133. ISBN 978-0-19-507993-7.
24. ^ Baldi (2002), p. 30.
25. Pardee, Dennis (2008). "Ugaritic". In Woodard, Roger D. (ed.). The Ancient Languages of Syria-Palestine and Arabia. Cambridge University Press. pp. 5–35. ISBN 978-0-521-68498-9.
26. Tropper, Josef; Vita, Juan-Pablo (2019). "Ugaritic". In Huehnergard, John; Pat-El, Na'ama (eds.). The Semitic Languages (2nd ed.). Routledge. pp. 482–508. ISBN 978-0-429-65538-8. p. 482.
27. Bagley (1999), pp. 181–182.
28. Keightley (1999), pp. 235–237.
29. DeFrancis, John (1989). "Chinese". Visible Speech. The Diverse Oneness of Writing Systems. University of Hawaii Press. pp. 89–121. ISBN 978-0-8248-1207-2. Archived from the original on 2017-08-04. Retrieved 2010-02-12.
30. "Lettre du grand-prêtre Lu'enna". Louvre. Archived from the original on 16 September 2018. Retrieved 16 September 2018.
31. Woodard (2008), pp. 4, 9, 11.
32. Woodard (2008), p. 4.
33. Dimitrov, Peter A. (2009). Thracian Language and Greek and Thracian Epigraphy. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. pp. 3–17. ISBN 978-1-4438-1325-9.
34. Robinson, Andrew (2008). Lost Languages: The Enigma of the World's Undeciphered Scripts. Thames & Hudson. p. 263. ISBN 978-0-500-51453-5.
35. Cook, Edward M. (1994). "On the Linguistic Dating of the Phoenician Ahiram Inscription (KAI 1)". Journal of Near Eastern Studies. 53 (1): 33–36. doi:10.1086/373654. JSTOR 545356. S2CID 162039939.
36. Creason, Stuart (2008). "Aramaic". In Woodard, Roger D. (ed.). The Ancient Languages of Syria-Palestine and Arabia. Cambridge University Press. pp. 108–144. ISBN 978-0-521-68498-9.
37. Silvan, Daniel (1998). "The Gezer Calendar and Northwest Semitic Linguistics". Israel Exploration Journal. 48 (1/2): 101–105. JSTOR 27926502.
38. Fulco, William J. (1978). "The Ammn Citadel Inscription: A New Collation". Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research. 230 (230): 39–43. doi:10.2307/1356612. JSTOR 1356612. S2CID 163239060.
39. Wilhelm, Gernot (2008). "Urartian". In Woodard, Roger D. (ed.). The Ancient Languages of Asia Minor. Cambridge University Press. pp. 105–123. ISBN 978-0-521-68496-5.
40. Brixhe, Claude (2008). "Phrygian". In Woodard, Roger D. (ed.). The Ancient Languages of Asia Minor. Cambridge University Press. pp. 69–80. ISBN 978-0-521-68496-5.
41. Nebes, Norbert; Stein, Peter (2008). "Ancient South Arabian". In Woodard, Roger D. (ed.). The Ancient Languages of Syria-Palestine and Arabia. Cambridge University Press. pp. 145–178. ISBN 978-0-521-68498-9.
42. "A manual of the historical grammar of Arabic" (PDF). Ahmad Al Jallad. Retrieved 13 October 2022.
43. F. W. Walbank; A. E. Astin; M. W. Frederiksen, eds. (1990). Part 2 of The Cambridge Ancient History: The Hellenistic World. Cambridge University Press. p. 12. ISBN 978-0-521-23446-7.
44. Clackson, James (2011). A Companion to the Latin Language. John Wiley & Sons. p. 13. ISBN 978-1-4443-4336-6. Archived from the original on 2021-10-17. Retrieved 2015-11-14.
45. Bakkum, Gabriël C. L. M. (2009). The Latin dialect of the Ager Faliscus: 150 years of scholarship, Volume 1. University of Amsterdam Press. pp. 393–406. ISBN 978-90-5629-562-2.
46. Wallace, Rex E. (1998). "Recent Research on Sabellian Inscriptions". Indo-European Studies Bulletin. 8 (1): 1–9. p. 4.
47. Macdonald, M.C.A (2008). "Ancient North Arabian". In Woodard, Roger D. (ed.). The Ancient Languages of Syria-Palestine and Arabia. Cambridge University Press. pp. 179–224. ISBN 978-0-521-68498-9. p. 181.
48. Macdonald (2000), p. 42.
49. Clackson, James; Horrocks, Geoffrey (2007). The Blackwell History of the Latin Language. Blackwell. p. 49. ISBN 978-1-4051-6209-8.
50. Wallace, Rex E. (2008). "Venetic". In Woodard, Roger D. (ed.). The Ancient Languages of Europe. Cambridge University Press. pp. 124–140. ISBN 978-0-521-68495-8.
51. Lexicon Leponticum Archived 2014-04-21 at the Wayback Machine, by David Stifter, Martin Braun and Michela Vignoli, University of Vienna.
52. Stifter, David (2012). "Celtic in northern Italy: Lepontic and Cisalpine Gaulish" (PDF). Archived from the original on 14 March 2017. Retrieved 24 October 2016.
53. Buck, Carl Darling (1904). A Grammar of Oscan and Umbrian: With a Collection of Inscriptions and a Glossary. Boston: The Athenaeum Press. pp. 247–248.
54. Buck (1904), p. 4.
55. Eska, Joseph F. (2008). "Continental Celtic". In Woodard, Roger D. (ed.). The Ancient Languages of Europe. Cambridge University Press. pp. 165–188. ISBN 978-0-521-68495-8.
56. Baldi (2002), p. 140.
57. Rogers, Henry (2004). Writing Systems. Black Publishing. ISBN 978-0-631-23464-7. p. 204
58. Pollock (2003), p. 60.
59. Ray, Himanshu Prabha (2006). "Inscribed pots, emerging identities". In Olivelle, Patrick (ed.). Between the Empires: Society in India 300 BCE to 400 CE. Oxford University Press. pp. 113–143. ISBN 978-0-19-977507-1., pp. 121–122.
60. Coningham, R.A.E.; Allchin, F.R.; Batt, C.M.; Lucy, D. (1996). "Passage to India? Anuradhapura and the Early Use of the Brahmi Script". Cambridge Archaeological Journal. 6 (1): 73–97. doi:10.1017/S0959774300001608. S2CID 161465267.
61. Fernando, P. E. E. (1949). "Palaeographical Development of the Brahmi Script in Ceylon from 3rd Century B. C. to 7th Century A. D". University of Ceylon Review. 7 (4): 282–301. pp. 282–283.
62. Mahadevan, Iravatham (2003). Early Tamil Epigraphy. Harvard University Press. pp. 7, 97. ISBN 978-0-674-01227-1.
63. Zvelebil, Kamil Veith (1992). Companion Studies to the History of Tamil Literature. BRILL. p. 42. ISBN 978-90-04-09365-2.
64. Salomon, Richard (1998). Indian Epigraphy. Oxford University Press. p. 35. ISBN 0-19-509984-2.
65. Sivanantham, R.; Seran, M., eds. (2019). Keeladi: an Urban Settlement of Gangam Age on the Banks of the River Vigai (Report). Chennai: Department of Archaeology, Government of Tamil Nadu. pp. 8–9, 14.
66. Rajan, K. (2016). "Situating Iron Age moduments in South Asia: a textual and ethnographic approach". In Robbins Schug, Gwen; Walimbe, Subhash R. (eds.). A Companion to South Asia in the Past. Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 310–318. ISBN 978-1-119-05548-8. Archived from the original on 2021-10-17. Retrieved 2020-11-30. p. 311.
67. Rajan, K. (2014). Iron Age – Early Historic Transition in South India: an appraisal (PDF). Institute of Archaeology. p. 9. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2019-01-10. Retrieved 2019-01-10.
68. Falk, Harry (2014). "Owner's graffiti on pottery from Tissamaharama". Zeitschrift für Archäologie Außereuropäischer Kulturen. 6: 46, with footnote 2. Archived from the original on 2021-10-17. Retrieved 2019-04-20. Falk has criticized the Kodumanal and Porunthal claims as "particularly ill-informed"; Falk argues that some of the earliest supposed inscriptions are not Brahmi letters at all, but merely misinterpreted non-linguistic Megalithic graffiti symbols, which were used in South India for several centuries during the pre-literate era.
69. Rilly, Claude; de Voogt, Alex (2012). The Meroitic Language and Writing System. Cambridge University Press. p. 6. ISBN 978-1-139-56053-5.
70. "Frieze, Mausoleum of Ateban". British Museum. Archived from the original on 2 July 2020. Retrieved 30 June 2020.
71. Tafazzoli, A. (1996). "Sassanian Iran: Intellectual Life, Part One: Written Works" (PDF). In Litvinsky, B.A (ed.). History of Civilizations of Central Asia, volume 3. UNESCO. pp. 81–94. ISBN 978-92-3-103211-0. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2016-08-21. Retrieved 2016-11-03, page 94.
72. Salomon, Richard (1998). Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the other Indo-Aryan Languages. Oxford University Press. pp. 86–87. ISBN 978-0-19-535666-3.
73. Salomon (1998), p. 89.
74. Bricker, Victoria R. (2008). "Mayab". In Woodward, Roger D. (ed.). The Ancient Languages of Asia and the Americas. Cambridge University Press. pp. 163–1922. ISBN 978-0-521-68494-1.
75. Saturno, William A.; Stuart, David; Beltrán, Boris (2006). "Early Maya Writing at San Bartolo, Guatemala" (PDF). Science. 311 (5765): 1281–1283. Bibcode:2006Sci...311.1281S. doi:10.1126/science.1121745. PMID 16400112. S2CID 46351994. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2021-02-25. Retrieved 2008-07-16.
76. Henning, W. B. (1948). "The Date of the Sogdian Ancient Letters". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. 12 (3/4): 601–615. doi:10.1017/S0041977X00083178. JSTOR 608717. S2CID 161867825.
77. Gragg, Gene (2008). "Ge'ez (Aksum)". In Woodard, Roger D. (ed.). The Ancient Languages of Mesopotamia, Egypt and Aksum. Cambridge University Press. pp. 211–237. ISBN 978-0-521-68497-2.
78. Thurgood, Graham (1999). From Ancient Cham to Modern Dialects: Two Thousand Years of Language Contact and Change. University of Hawaii Press. p. 3. ISBN 978-0-8248-2131-9.
79. Jasanoff, Jay H. (2008). "Gothic". In Woodard, Roger D. (ed.). The Ancient Languages of Europe. Cambridge University Press. pp. 189–214. ISBN 978-0-521-68495-8.
80. Pan, Tao (2017). "A Glimpse into the Tocharian Vinaya Texts". In Andrews, Susan; Chen, Jinhua; Liu, Cuilan (eds.). Rules of Engagement: Medieval Traditions of Buddhist Monastic Regulation. Numata Center for Buddhist Studies. pp. 67–92. ISBN 978-3-89733428-1. Archived from the original on 2021-10-17. Retrieved 2019-09-13.
81. Mallory, J.P. (2010). "Bronze Age languages of the Tarim Basin" (PDF). Expedition. 52 (3): 44–53. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2021-01-09. Retrieved 2019-09-13.
82. Hewitt, B.G. (1995). Georgian: A Structural Reference Grammar. John Benjamins. p. 4. ISBN 978-90-272-3802-3.
83. ^ Krishnamurti (2003), p. 23.
84. "Historian's study pushes earliest record of Kannada writing back by a century". Bangalore Mirror. Retrieved 10 March 2013.
85. Ghafadarian, Karo (1962). "Տեկորի տաճարի V դարի հայերեն արձանագրությունը և Մեսրոպյան այբուբենի առաջին տառաձևերը [The Armenian Inscription on the Cathedral of Tekor and the Initial Forms of the Mesropian Alphabet]". Patma-Banasirakan Handes (in Armenian) (2): 39–54. Archived from the original on 2018-10-15. Retrieved 2021-04-09.
86. Clackson, James P.T. (2008). "Classical Armenian". In Woodard, Roger D. (ed.). The Ancient Languages of Asia Minor. Cambridge University Press. pp. 124–144. ISBN 978-0-521-68496-5.
87. ^ Willemyns, Roland (2013). Dutch: Biography of a Language. Oxford University Press. pp. 40–41. ISBN 978-0-19-932366-1.
88. Düwel, Klaus (2004). "Runic". In Murdoch, Brian; Read, Malcolm Kevin (eds.). Early Germanic Literature and Culture. Boydell & Brewer. pp. 121–147. ISBN 978-1-57113-199-7.
89. Lee, Iksop; Ramsey, S. Robert (2000). The Korean Language. SUNY Press. p. 276. ISBN 978-0-7914-4831-1.
90. Lee, Ki-Moon; Ramsey, S. Robert (2011). A History of the Korean Language. Cambridge University Press. p. 55. ISBN 978-0-521-66189-8.
91. Zakharov, Anton O. (2019). "The earliest dated Cambodian inscription K. 557/600 from Angkor Borei, Cambodia: an English translation and commentary". Vostok (Oriens) (1): 66–80. doi:10.31857/S086919080003960-3. S2CID 198885161. Archived from the original on 2021-10-17. Retrieved 2019-09-27.
92. Frellesvig, Bjarke (2010). A History of the Japanese Language. Cambridge University Press. p. 22. ISBN 978-0-521-65320-6.
93. Mahdi, Waruno (2005). "Old Malay". In Adelaar, Alexander; Himmelmann, Nikolaus P. (eds.). The Austronesian languages of Asia and Madagascar. Routledge. pp. 182–201. ISBN 978-0-7007-1286-1.
94. Emmerick, Ronald E. (2009). "Khotanese and Tumshuqese". In Windfuhr, Gernot (ed.). The Iranian languages. Routledge. pp. 378–379. ISBN 978-0-7007-1131-4.
95. Browne, Gerald (2003). Textus blemmyicus in aetatis christianae. Champaign: Stipes. ISBN 978-1-58874-275-9.
96. Wedekind, Klaus (2010). "More on the Ostracon of Browne's Textus Blemmyicus". Annali dell'Università Degli Studi di Napoli l'Orientale. 70: 73–81.
97. McCone, Kim (2005). A first Old Irish grammar and reader. National University of Ireland. p. 4. ISBN 978-0-901519-36-8.
98. Edwards, Nancy (2006). The Archaeology of Early Medieval Ireland. Routledge. p. 103. ISBN 978-0-415-22000-2.
99. McManus, Damien (1991). A Guide to Ogam. Maynooth, Co. Kildare: An Sagart. p. 51. ISBN 978-1-870684-17-0.
100. Walter, Michael L.; Beckwith, Christopher I. (2010). "The Dating and Interpretation of the Old Tibetan Inscriptions". Central Asiatic Journal. 54 (2): 291–319. JSTOR 41928562.
101. Schaeffer, Kurtis R.; Kapstein, Matthew; Tuttle, Gray, eds. (2013). Sources of Tibetan Tradition. Columbia University Press. p. 47. ISBN 978-0-231-13599-3.
102. Kerlouégan, François (1987). Le De Excidio Britanniae de Gildas. Les destinées de la culture latine dans l'île de Bretagne au VIe siècle (in French). Publications de la Sorbonne. pp. 171–172. ISBN 978-2-85944-064-0.
103. de Casparis, J. G. (1975). Indonesian Palaeography: A History of Writing in Indonesia from the Beginnings to C. A.D. 1500, Volume 4, Issue 1. BRILL. p. 31. ISBN 978-90-04-04172-1.
104. ^ Krishnamurti (2003), p. 22.
105. Mahadevan, Iravatham (7 June 2012). "The earliest inscription in Malayalam". The Hindu. Retrieved 17 November 2021.
106. Gayathri, Sasibhooshan (10 July 2012). "Historians contest antiquity of Edakkal inscriptions". The Times of India. Retrieved 10 July 2012.
107. Vousden, N. (2012). "St Cadfan's Church, Tywyn". Coflein. Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 13 October 2015.
108. Ayres-Bennett, Wendy (1996). A history of French language through texts. London: Routledge. p. 29. ISBN 9780203986738.
109. Humphrey Illo, « Quelques observations sur les Serments de Strasbourg et sur le manuscrit qui les contient (Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, latin 9768 Xe s., f. 13 recto : 2e col., 13 verso : 1re col.) : commentaire, transcription critique, étude codicologique, fac-similé », in Bulletin de la Société des Fouilles Archéologiques et des Monuments Historiques de l'Yonne, no. 16, June 1999, pp. 83-92 ; G. de Poerck, « Le manuscrit B.N. lat. 9768 et les Serments de Strasbourg », in Vox Romanica, t. 15, 1956, pp. 188-214.
110. De Casparis, J. G. (1978). Indonesian Chronology. BRILL. p. 25. ISBN 978-90-04-05752-4.
111. Geary, Patrick J. (1999). "Land, Language and Memory in Europe 700–1100". Transactions of the Royal Historical Society. 9: 169–184. doi:10.2307/3679398. JSTOR 3679398. S2CID 163917488. p. 182.
112. Indovinello Veronese (Italian) Archived 2014-03-14 at the Wayback Machine treccani.it
113. Lunt, Horace G. (2001). Old Church Slavonic Grammar (7th revised ed.). New York: Mouton de Gruyter. p. 9. ISBN 3-11-016284-9.
114. Pollock (2003), p. 289.
115. "Kamat's Potpourri- The origin and development of the Konkani language". www.kamat.com. Archived from the original on 2016-09-24. Retrieved 2016-09-15.
116. Saradesāya, Manohararāya (2000). A History of Konkani Literature: From 1500 to 1992. Sahitya Akademi. ISBN 9788172016647. Archived from the original on 2021-10-17. Retrieved 2020-11-30.
117. Liver, Ricarda (1999). Rätoromanisch: eine Einführung in das Bündnerromanische. Gunter Narr. p. 84. ISBN 978-3-8233-4973-0.
118. Pereltsvaig, Asya; Lewis, Martin W. (2015). The Indo-European Controversy. Cambridge University Press. p. 104. ISBN 978-1-107-05453-0. Archived from the original on 2016-05-12. Retrieved 2015-04-01.
119. "They discover 'the oldest written testimony in the Basque language' in a bronze from the 1st century BC found in Navarra". Time News. 2022-11-14. Retrieved 2022-11-14.
120. Olaya, Vicente G. (2022-11-14). "Researchers claim to have found earliest document written in Basque 2,100 years ago". EL PAÍS English Edition. Retrieved 2022-11-14.
121. Josep Moran; Joan Anton Rabella, eds. (2001). Primers textos de la llengua catalana. Proa (Barcelona). ISBN 978-84-8437-156-4.
122. Wilhelm, James J., ed. (2014). Lyrics of the Middle Ages: An Anthology. Routledge. p. 227. ISBN 978-1-135-03554-9.
123. Sayahi, Lotfi (2014). Diglossia and Language Contact: Language Variation and Change in North Africa. Cambridge University Press. p. 211. ISBN 978-0-521-11936-8.
124. Aronson, Howard Isaac (1992). The Non-Slavic Languages of the USSR. Chicago Linguistic Society, University of Chicago. p. 242. ISBN 978-0-914203-41-4.
125. Malla, Kamal P. (1990). "The Earliest Dated Document in Newari: The Palmleaf From Ukū Bāhāh NS 235/AD 1114". Kailash. 16 (1–2): 15–26. Archived from the original on 2019-04-28. Retrieved 2019-04-28.
126. Kane, Daniel (1989). The Sino-Jurchen Vocabulary of the Bureau of Interpreters. Research Institute for Inner Asian Studies, Indiana University. p. 59. ISBN 978-0-933070-23-3.
127. "Documentos relativos a Soeiro Pais, Urraca Mendes, sua mulher, e a Paio Soares Romeu, seu segundo filho e Notícia de Fiadores". Torre do Tombo National Archive. 2008. Archived from the original on 15 November 2017. Retrieved 4 April 2017.
128. Azevedo, Milton M. (2005). Portuguese: A Linguistic Introduction. Cambridge University Press. pp. 177–178. ISBN 978-0-521-80515-5.
129. Agência Estado (May 2002). "Professor encontra primeiro texto escrito em português". O Estado de S. Paulo (in Portuguese). Archived from the original on 27 June 2017. Retrieved 4 April 2017.
130. Wolf, H.J. (1997). "las glosas emilianenses, otra vez". Revista de Filología Románica. 1 (14): 597–604. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 30 March 2019.
131. Jenner, Henry (1904). A handbook of the Cornish language. London: David Nutt. p. 25.
132. Sims-Williams, Patrick (2005). "A New Brittonic Gloss on Boethius: ud rocashaas". Cambrian Medieval Celtic Studies. 50: 77–86. ISSN 1353-0089.
133. Breeze, Andrew (2007). "The Old Cornish Gloss on Boethius". Notes & Queries. 54 (4): 367–368. doi:10.1093/notesj/gjm184.
134. Das, Sisir Kumar (2005). A history of Indian literature, AD.500–1399: from courtly to the popular. Sahitya Akademi. p. 193. ISBN 978-81-260-2171-0. Archived from the original on 2016-05-16. Retrieved 2016-03-14.
135. Baldi (2002), p. 35.
136. https://www.juls.savba.sk/ediela/ks/1981/9/ks1981-9.lq.pdf
137. https://www.ilonas.net/valal/pdf/Kacala_Krajcovic_Prehlad_dejin_spis_slovenciny.pdf
138. ^ Thompson, Hanne-Ruth (2012). Bengali. John Benjamins. p. 3. ISBN 978-90-272-3819-1.
139. MacLeod, Mark W.; Nguyen, Thi Dieu (2001). Culture and customs of Vietnam. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 68. ISBN 978-0-313-30485-9.
140. Nguyễn, Đình Hoà (1990). "Graphemic borromings from Chinese: the case of Chữ Nôm – Vietnam's demotic script" (PDF). Bulletin of the Institute of History and Philology. 21 (2): 383–432. p. 395.
141. Elsie, Robert (1986). "The Bellifortis Text and Early Albanian" (PDF). Zeitschrift für Balkanologie. 22 (2): 158–162. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2015-09-23. Retrieved 2008-12-05.
142. Wulff, Christine. "Zwei Finnische Sätze aus dem 15. Jahrhundert". Ural-Altaische Jahrbücher NF Bd. 2 (in German): 90–98.
143. Zhou, Minglang; Sun, Hongkai, eds. (2004). Language Policy in the People's Republic of China: Theory and Practice since 1949. Springer. p. 258. ISBN 978-1-4020-8038-8.
144. Bhat, D.N.S. (2015) . "Tulu". In Steever, Sanford B. (ed.). The Dravidian Languages. Routledge. pp. 158–177. ISBN 978-1-136-91164-4.
145. Schmalstieg, Walter R. (1998). "The Baltic Languages". In Ramat, Anna Giacalone; Ramat, Paolo (eds.). The Indo-European Languages. Routledge. pp. 454–479. ISBN 978-0-415-06449-1. page 459.
146. Istoria Romaniei in Date (1971), p. 87
147. Roegiest, Eugeen (2006). Vers les sources des langues romanes: un itinéraire linguistique à travers la Romania. ACCO. p. 136. ISBN 978-90-334-6094-4.
148. Frias e Gouveia, Maria Carmen de (2005). "A categoria gramatical de género do português antigo ao português actual" (PDF). Faculdade de Letras da Universidade do Porto. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2017-01-17. Retrieved 2016-03-05.
149. Islam, Muhammad Ashraful (2012). "Sylheti Nagri". In Islam, Sirajul; Jamal, Ahmed A. (eds.). Banglapedia: National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh (Second ed.). Asiatic Society of Bangladesh. Archived from the original on 2020-06-27. Retrieved 2020-01-15.
150. ^ Schwaller, John Frederick (1973). "A Catalogue of Pre-1840 Nahuatl Works Held by The Lilly Library". The Indiana University Bookman. 11: 69–88. Archived from the original on 2007-08-19. Retrieved 2007-04-13.
151. (in French) Balandier, Georges, Le royaume de Kongo du XVIe au XVIIIe siècle, Hachette, 1965, p. 58.
152. Salomon, Frank; Urioste, George L., eds. (1991). The Huarochirí Manuscript: A Testament of Ancient and Colonial Andean Religion. University of Texas Press. p. 24. ISBN 978-0-292-73053-3.
153. Russell, Paul (1995). An Introduction to the Celtic Languages. Routledge. p. 28. ISBN 978-0-582-10081-7.
154. Korhonen, Mikko (1988). "The history of the Lapp language". In Sinor, Denis (ed.). The Uralic Languages. Brill. pp. 264–287. ISBN 978-90-04-07741-6.
155. Voorhoeve, C. L. (1994). "Contact-induced change in the non-Austronesian languages in the north Moluccas, Indonesia". In Dutton, Thomas Edward; Tryon, Darrell T. (eds.). Language Contact and Change in the Austronesian World. de Gruyter. pp. 649–674. ISBN 978-3-11-012786-7. pp. 658–659.
156. Gippert, Jost (1992). "The Caucasian language material in Evliya Çelebi's 'Travel Book'" (PDF). In Hewitt, George (ed.). Caucasian Perspectives. Munich: Lincom. pp. 8–62. ISBN 978-3-92907501-4. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2016-02-03. Retrieved 2016-01-26.
157. ^ MacKenzie, D.N. (1997). "The Development of the Pashto Script". In Akiner, Shirin; Sims-Williams, N. (eds.). Languages and Scripts of Central Asia. Routledge. pp. 137–143. ISBN 978-0-7286-0272-4.
158. ^ (in French) Fakhfakh, N. (2007). Le répertoire musical de la confrérie religieuse" al-Karrâriyya" de Sfax (Tunisie) (Doctoral dissertation, Paris8). Archived 2016-03-03 at the Wayback Machine
159. Marlett, Stephen A. (1981). The Structure of Seri (PhD thesis). University of California, San Diego. doi:10.13140/RG.2.2.20898.07363.
160. Philips, John Edward (2004). "Hausa in the twentieth century: an overview" (PDF). Sudanic Africa. 15: 55–84. JSTOR 25653413. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2017-11-16. Retrieved 2018-07-25.
161. "AM 987 4to / Vocabula Gallica. Basque-Icelandic Glossary". Árnastofnun (in Icelandic). Árnastofnun / The Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies. Retrieved 27 April 2023.
162. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2019-04-26. Retrieved 2019-04-26.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
163. E. A. Alpers, Ivory and Slaves in East Central Africa, London, 1975.., pp. 98–99; T. Vernet, "Les cités-Etats swahili et la puissance omanaise (1650–1720), Journal des Africanistes, 72(2), 2002, pp. 102–105.
164. "The History of Sranan". Linguistic Department of Brigham Young University. Retrieved 25 May 2020..
165. ^ Nowak, Elke (1999). "The 'Eskimo language' of Labrador: Moravian missionaries and the description of Labrador Inuttut 1733–1891". Études/Inuit/Studies. 23 (1/2): 173–197. JSTOR 42870950.
166. ^ Nielsen, Flemming A. J. (2012). "The Earliest Greenlandic Bible: A Study of the Ur-Text from 1725". In Elliott, Scott S.; Boer, Roland (eds.). Ideology, Culture, and Translation. Society of Biblical Literature. pp. 113–137. ISBN 978-1-58983-706-5.
167. Baker, Philip; Mühlhäusler, Peter (1990). "From Business to Pidgin". Journal of Asian Pacific Communication. 1 (1): 87–116.
168. Högström, Pehr (1980) . Beskrifning öfwer de til Sweriges krona lydande lapmarker. Umeå, Sweden: Två förläggare bokförlag. p. 77.
169. Ayoun, Dalila, ed. (2008). Studies in French Applied Linguistics. John Benjamins Publishing. p. 230. ISBN 978-90-272-8994-0. Archived from the original on 3 August 2020. Retrieved 4 September 2017.
170. Jenson, Deborah, ed. (2012). Beyond the Slave Narrative: Politics, Sex, and Manuscripts in the Haitian Revolution. Liverpool University Press. p. 257. ISBN 978-1-84631-760-6. Archived from the original on 3 August 2020. Retrieved 4 September 2017.
171. Troy, Jakelin (1992). "The Sydney Language Notebooks and responses to language contact in early colonial NSW" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2018-11-05. Retrieved 2018-03-26.
172. "The notebooks of William Dawes on the Aboriginal language of Sydney". Archived from the original on 2018-02-27. Retrieved 2018-03-26.
173. Mesthrie, Rajend, ed. (2002). Language in South Africa. Cambridge University Press. p. 83. ISBN 9780521791052. Archived from the original on 2020-08-05. Retrieved 2020-05-20.
174. Ghosh, Arun (2008). "Sandali". In Anderson, Gregory D.S. (ed.). The Munda Languages. Routledge. pp. 11–98. ISBN 978-0-415-32890-6.
175. Vereščagin, Vasilij (1849). ru:Очерки Архангельской губернии (in Russian). Saint Petersburg: Jakov Trej.
176. Austin, Peter K. (2008). "The Gamilaraay (Kamilaroi) Language, northern New South Wales — A Brief History of Research" (PDF). In McGregor, William (ed.). Encountering Aboriginal languages: studies in the history of Australian linguistics. Australian National University. pp. 37–58. ISBN 978-0-85883-582-5. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-08-21. Retrieved 2007-04-13.
177. Dupratz, P. (1864). Lettre du P. Dupratz. Annales de l'Oeuvre pontificale de la Sainte-Enfance, 6.
178. Ferreira, M. Barros. "A descoberta do mirandês – Marcos principais". Sítio de l Mirandés (in Portuguese). Lisbon: Universidade de Lisboa. Archived from the original on 2016-03-09.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
179. LUSA (2015-06-20). "Portugueses e espanhóis assinam protocolo para promoção das línguas mirandesa e asturiana". Expresso (in Portuguese). Archived from the original on 2018-10-03. Retrieved 2018-07-29.
180. Roth, Walther (1910). North Queensland Ethnography, Bulletin 2: The Structure of the Koko Yimidir Language. Brisbane: Government Printer.
181. Haviland, John B. (1979). "Guugu Yimidhirr" (PDF). In Dixon, R. M. W.; Blake, Barry J. (eds.). Handbook of Australian Languages, Volume 1. Canberra: John Benjamins. pp. 26–181. ISBN 978-90-272-7355-0. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2015-04-27. Retrieved 2018-03-26. p. 35
182. Haviland, John B. (1974). "A last look at Cook's Guugu Yimidhirr word list" (PDF). Oceania. 44 (3): 216–232. doi:10.1002/j.1834-4461.1974.tb01803.x. JSTOR 40329896. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2019-02-27. Retrieved 2018-03-26.
183. ^ Voorhoeve, C.L. (1975). "A hundred years of Papuan Linguistic Research: Western New Guinea Area" (PDF). In Wurm, Stephen A. (ed.). New Guinea Area Languages and Language Study, Volume 1: Papuan Languages and the New Guinea Linguistic Scene. Australian National University. pp. 117–141. Archived from the original on 2016-03-02. Retrieved 2016-01-25.
184. Hellwig, Birgit (2019). A Grammar of Qaqet. Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter. p. 3. ISBN 978-3-11-061334-6.
185. ^ Curtis, Ervino (1992). "La lingua, la storia, la tradizione degli istroromeni" (in Italian). Trieste: Associazione di Amicizia Italo-Romena Decebal. pp. 6–13. Archived from the original on 2018-07-05. Retrieved 2019-06-16.
186. Foley, William A. (1986). The Papuan Languages of New Guinea. Cambridge University Press. p. 13. ISBN 978-0-521-28621-3.
187. McGregor, William (1990). A Functional Grammar of Gooniyandi. John Benjamins. p. 26. ISBN 978-90-272-3025-6.
188. "Transcendental Algebra". Archived from the original on 2019-08-22. Retrieved 2019-11-30.

Works cited

• Bagley, Robert (1999), "Shang Archaeology", in Loewe, Michael; Shaughnessy, Edward L. (eds.), The Cambridge History of Ancient China, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 124–231, ISBN 978-0-521-47030-8.
• Baldi, Philip (2002), The Foundations of Latin, Walter de Gruyter, ISBN 978-3-11-017208-9.
• Keightley, David N. (1999), "The Shang: China's first historical dynasty", in Loewe, Michael; Shaughnessy, Edward L. (eds.), The Cambridge History of Ancient China, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 232–291, ISBN 978-0-521-47030-8.
• Krishnamurti, Bhadriraju (2003), The Dravidian Languages, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-77111-5.
• Macdonald, M. C. A. (2000), "Reflections on the linguistic map of pre-Islamic Arabia", Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy, 11 (1): 28–79, doi:10.1111/j.1600-0471.2000.aae110106.x.
• Olivier, J.-P. (1986), "Cretan Writing in the Second Millennium B.C", World Archaeology, 17 (3): 377–389, doi:10.1080/00438243.1986.9979977.
• Pollock, Sheldon (2003), The Language of the Gods in the World of Men: Sanskrit, Culture, and Power in Premodern India, University of California Press, ISBN 978-0-520-24500-6.
• Woodard, Roger D. (2008), "Language in ancient Europe: an introduction", in Woodard, Roger D. (ed.), The Ancient Languages of Europe, Cambridge University Press, pp. 1–13, ISBN 978-0-521-68495-8.
• Woods, Christopher, ed. (2010), Visible Language: Inventions of Writing in the Ancient Middle East and Beyond (PDF), Chicago: The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, ISBN 978-1-885923-76-9, archived from the original (PDF) on 2021-08-26, retrieved 2014-02-23.

• Earliest known manuscripts by language
• Lists of languages
• Lists of firsts
• Languages by time
• Language histories
• Historical linguistics