|
This is a list of languages arranged by the approximate dates of the oldest existing texts recording a complete sentence in the language. It does not include undeciphered scripts, 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. 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 may date to 1500 BC, while the oldest known manuscript dates to the 11th century AD, a gap of over 2,500 years. 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. Because of the way languages change gradually, it is usually impossible to pinpoint when a given language began to be spoken. In many 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. For languages that have developed out of a known predecessor, dates provided here are subject to conventional terminology. For example, Old French developed gradually out of Vulgar Latin, and the Oaths of Strasbourg (842) listed are the earliest text that is classified as "Old French". Similarly, Danish and Swedish separated from common Old East Norse in the 12th century, while Norwegian separated from Old West Norse around 1300. ==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, Hurrian, Hattic and Elamite language isolates, * 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: * Proto-Elamite script and Linear Elamite * the Indus script (claimed to record a "Harappan language") * Cretan hieroglyphs and Linear A (encoding a possible "Minoan language") * the Cypro-Minoan syllabary File:Peribsen2.JPG|Seal impression from the tomb of Seth-Peribsen, containing the oldest known complete sentence in Egyptian, 2690 BC File:Letter Luenna Louvre AO4238.jpg|Letter in Sumerian cuneiform sent by the high-priest Lu'enna, informing him the king of Lagash of his son's death in battle, 2400 BC File:NAMA Linear B tablet of Pylos.jpg|Greek Linear B tablet from Pylos, recording the distribution of hides, 1200 BC File:Shang dynasty inscribed scapula.jpg|Ox scapula inscribed with three records of divinations in the reign of Wu Ding of the Chinese Shang dynasty, 1200 BC 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「List of languages by first written accounts」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|