List of languages by first written accounts

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List of languages by first written accounts

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"Ancient Language" redirects here. For other uses, see ancient language (disambiguation).

This is a list of languages by first written accounts which consists of the approximate dates for the first written accounts
Writing

Writing is the representation of language in a textual Media through the use of a set of signs or symbols . It is distinguished from illustration, such as cave drawing and painting, and the recording of language via a non-textual medium such as Magnetic tape sound recording....
that are known for various languages.

Because of the way languages change gradually, it is usually impossible to pinpoint when a given language began to be spoken with any precision. 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.

There are also various claims regarding still-undeciphered scripts without wide acceptance, which, if substantiated, would push backward the first attestation of certain languages.

A written record may encode a stage of a language corresponding to an earlier time — either as a result of oral tradition

Oral tradition

Oral tradition, oral culture and oral lore are messages or testimony transmitted orally from one generation to another. The messages or testimony are verbally transmitted in speech or song and may take the form, for example, of folktales, sayings, ballads, songs, or chants....
, or because the earliest source is a copy of an older manuscript that was lost. Oral tradition of epic poetry

Epic poetry

An epic is a lengthy narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation....
may typically bridge a few centuries, but in rare cases, over a millennium. An extreme case is the Vedic Sanskrit

Vedic Sanskrit

Vedic Sanskrit is an Old Indic language. It is the language of the Vedas, the oldest shruti texts of Hinduism, compiled over the period of the mid 2nd to mid 1st millennium BC....
of the Rigveda

Rigveda

The Rigveda is an ancient Indian subcontinent sacred collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns dedicated to the Rigvedic deities . It is counted among the four canonical sacred texts of Hinduism known as the Vedas....
: the earliest parts of this text are dated to ca. 1500 BC, while the oldest known manuscript dates to the 11th century AD, corresponding to a gap of approximately 2,500 years.

For languages that have developed out of a known predecessor, dates provided here are subject to conventional terminology. For example, Old French

Old French

Old French was the Romance languages dialect continuum spoken in territories which span roughly the northern half of modern France and parts of modern Belgium and Switzerland from around 1000 to 1300....
developed gradually out of Vulgar Latin

Vulgar Latin

Vulgar Latin is a blanket term covering the popular dialects and sociolects of the Latin which diverged from each other in the early Middle Ages, evolving into the Romance languages by the 9th century....
, and the Oaths of Strasbourg

Oaths of Strasbourg

The Oaths of Strasbourg were several historical documents which included mutual pledges of allegiance between Louis the German, ruler of East Francia, and his brother Charles the Bald, ruler of West Francia....
(842) listed are the earliest text that is classified as "Old French". Similarly, Danish

Danish language

Danish is one of the North Germanic languages , a sub-group of the Germanic languages branch of the Indo-European languages. It is spoken by around 6 million people, mainly in Denmark; the language is also used by the 50,000 Danes in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein in Germany where it holds the status of minority language....
and Swedish

Swedish language

Swedish is a North Germanic languages language, spoken by around 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along the coast and on the ?land islands....
separate from common Old East Norse in the 12th century, while Norwegian

Norwegian language

Norwegian is a North Germanic languages language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is an official language. It is also spoken as a second language among Norwegian-Americans in the United States of America, especially in the central northern states....
separates from Old West Norse around 1300.

Before 1000 BC

A very limited number of languages is attested from before the Bronze Age collapse

Bronze Age collapse

The Bronze Age collapse is the name given by those historians who see the transition from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age, as violent, sudden and culturally disruptive, expressed by the collapse of palace economy of the Aegean Region and Anatolia, which were replaced after a hiatus by the isolated village cultures of the Dark Ages of the Ancie...
and the rise of alphabetic writing: The Sumerian

Sumerian language

Sumerian was the language of ancient Sumer, spoken in Southern Mesopotamia since at least the 4th millennium BC. It was gradually replaced by Akkadian language as a spoken language somewhere around the turn of the 3rd and the 2nd millennium BC , but continued to be used as a sacred, ceremonial, literary and scientific language in Mesopotamia...
, Hurrian

Hurrian language

Hurrian is a conventional name for the language of the Hurrians , a people who entered northern Mesopotamia around 2300 BC and had mostly vanished by 1000 BC....
, Hattic

Hattic language

Hattic was a language spoken by the Hattians in Asia Minor between the 3rd millennium BC and the 2nd millennium BC millennia BC. Scholars call this language 'Hattic' to distinguish it from the Hittite language--the Indo-European language of the Hittite Empire....
and Elamite language

Elamite language

Elamite is an extinct language spoken by the ancient Iranian people Elamites. Elamite was an official language of the Persian Empire from the sixth to fourth centuries BC....
isolates, Afro-Asiatic in the form the Egyptian and a number of ancient Semitic languages

Semitic languages

File:Amarna Akkadian letter.pngThe Semitic languages are a group of related languages whose living representatives are spoken by more than 467 million people across much of the Middle East, North Africa and the Horn of Africa....
, and Indo-European

Indo-European languages

The Indo-European languages are a Language family of several hundred related languages and dialects, including most major languages of Europe, the Iranian plateau , Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent ....
(Anatolian languages

Anatolian languages

The Anatolian languages are a group of extinct Indo-European languages languages, which were spoken in Asia Minor, the best attested of them being the Hittite language....
, Mycenaean Greek and traces of Indo-Aryan

Indo-Aryan superstrate in Mitanni

Some theonyms, proper names and other terminology of the Mitanni exhibit an Indo-Aryan languages superstrate, suggesting that an Indo-Aryans elite imposed itself over the Hurrian population in the course of the Indo-Aryan migration....
). There are a number of undeciphered

Undeciphered writing systems

Many undeciphered writing systems date from several thousand years BC, though some more modern examples do exist. The difficulty in decipherment these systems can arise from a lack of known language descendants or from the languages being Language isolate, from insufficient examples of text having been found and even from the question of whe...
Bronze Age records, possibly encoding a Minoan (Cretan hieroglyphs

Cretan hieroglyphs

Cretan hieroglyphs are found on artifacts of Bronze Age Minoan civilization Crete . Symbol inventories have been compiled by Evans , Meijer , Olivier/Godart ....
, Linear A

Linear A

Linear A is one of two linear scripts used in ancient Crete before Mycenaean Greek language Linear B. In Minoan Civilization times, before the Greek Mycenaean dominion, Linear A was the official script for the palaces and the cult and Cretan Hieroglyphs were mainly used on seals....
), a Proto-Elamite

Proto-Elamite

The Proto-Elamite period is the time of ca. 3200 BC to 2700 BC when Susa, the later capital of the Elamites began to receive influence from the cultures of the Iranian plateau....
and a "Harappan language

Harappan language

The Harappan language is the unknown language of the Bronze Age Harappan civilization .The language being unattested in any contemporary source, hypotheses regarding its nature are reduced to purported loanwords and substratum influence, notably the substratum in Vedic Sanskrit and a few terms recorded in Sumerian cuneiform , in conjunct...
" (Indus script

Indus script

The term Indus script refers to short strings of symbols associated with the Indus Valley Civilization, in use during the Mature Harappan period, between the 26th century BC and 20th century BC centuries BC....
).

Date	Language	Attestation	Notes
c. 3100 BC	Sumerian Sumerian language Sumerian was the language of ancient Sumer, spoken in Southern Mesopotamia since at least the 4th millennium BC. It was gradually replaced by Akkadian language as a spoken language somewhere around the turn of the 3rd and the 2nd millennium BC , but continued to be used as a sacred, ceremonial, literary and scientific language in Mesopotamia...	Jemdet Nasr Jemdet Nasr Jemdet Nasr is an archaeological site in Iraq's Babil Governorate, situated to the north-east of Babylon and Kish and east of Kutha....	see Sumerian cuneiform; "proto-literate" period from about 3500 BC (see Kish tablet Kish tablet The Kish tablet is a limestone tablet found at Kish . It is dated to ca. 35th century BC . It is kept in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.It is inscribed with proto-cuneiform signs, and may be considered the oldest known written document.... )
c. 2700 BC	Egyptian Egyptian language Egyptian is a branch of the Afro-Asiatic languages language family along with the Chadic languages, Berber languages, Semitic languages, Cushitic languages and possibly Omotic languages languages....	tomb of Seth-Peribsen Seth-Peribsen Seth-Peribsen was a pharaoh during the Second dynasty of Egypt who ruled for seventeen years. He is considered to be the predecessor of Khasekhemwy and was buried in Umm el-Qa'ab in Abydos, Egypt, where a seal impression contains the first full sentence written in hieroglyphs.... (2nd Dynasty Second dynasty of Egypt The Second Dynasty of ancient Egypt is often combined with the First dynasty of Egypt under the group title, Early Dynastic Period of Egypt. The capital at that time was Thinis.... , Umm el-Qa'ab Umm el-Qa'ab Umm el-Qa`ab is the necropolis of the Early Dynastic Period of Egypt kings at Abydos, Egypt, in Egypt. Its modern name means 'Mother of Pots', as the whole area is littered with the broken pot shards of offerings made in later times ....	see Egyptian hieroglyphs Egyptian hieroglyphs Egyptian hieroglyphs was a formal writing system used by the ancient Egyptians that contained a combination of logographic and alphabetic elements.... ; "proto-hieroglyphic" inscriptions from about 3300 BC (Naqada III Naqada III Naqada III is the last phase of the Naqadan period of ancient Egyptian history. It is the period during which the process of state formation, which had begun to take place in Naqada II, became highly visible, with named kings heading powerful polities.... ; see Abydos, Egypt Abydos, Egypt Abydos , one of the most ancient cities of Upper and Lower Egypt, is about 11 km west of the Nile at latitude 26? 10' N. The Egyptian name of both the eighth Nome of Upper Egypt and its capital city was Abdju, technically, 3bdw as in the hieroglyphs shown to the right, *the hill of the symbol or reliquary, in which... , Narmer Palette Narmer Palette The Narmer Palette, also known as the Great Hierakonpolis Palette* or the Palette of Narmer, is a significant Egyptian archeological find, dating from about the 31st century BC, and containing some of the earliest Egyptian hieroglyphsic inscriptions ever found.... )
c. 2400 BC	Eblaite Eblaite language Eblaite is an extinct, perhaps East Semitic language, which was spoken in the 3rd millennium BCE in the ancient city of Ebla, in modern Syria. It is considered to be the oldest written Semitic language....
c. 2300 BC	Akkadian Akkadian language Akkadian or Assyrian-Babylonian is a Semitic language that was spoken in ancient Mesopotamia. The earliest attested Semitic language, it used the cuneiform writing system derived ultimately from ancient Sumerian language, an unrelated language isolate....
c. 2250 BC	Elamite Elamite language Elamite is an extinct language spoken by the ancient Iranian people Elamites. Elamite was an official language of the Persian Empire from the sixth to fourth centuries BC....	Awan dynasty Awan dynasty The Awan Dynasty was the first dynasty of Elam, founded by king Peli at the dawn of history. It must have been an important influence on Sumer from the earliest times, for their conflicts with Mesopotamia begin with Enmebaragesi of Kish , who defeated them, as did another Sumerian king, Eannatum I of Lagash.... peace treaty with Naram-Sin Naram-Sin Naram-Suen , ca. 2190 ? 2154 BC short chronology, was the third successor and grandson of Sargon of Akkad; under Naram-Suen the Akkadian Empire reached its zenith....
c. 2000 BC	Hurrian Hurrian language Hurrian is a conventional name for the language of the Hurrians , a people who entered northern Mesopotamia around 2300 BC and had mostly vanished by 1000 BC....		fragmentary, known only from a few gloss Gloss A gloss is a brief summary of a word's meaning, equivalent to the dictionary entry of that word, but only a word or two in length. It is typically used for the meaning of a word in another language, and hence a simple translation.... es in Hittite texts Hittite texts The corpus of texts written in the Hittite language is indexed by the *Catalogue des Textes Hittites* . Studies of selected texts are published in the StBoT series....
c. 1800 BC	West Semitic West Semitic languages The West Semitic languages are a proposed major sub-grouping of Semitic languages. One widely accepted analysis, supported by semiticists like Robert Hetzron and John Huehnergard, divides the Semitic language family into two branches: East Semitic languages and Western.... / proto-Canaanite Canaanite languages The Canaanite languages or Hebraic languages are a subfamily of the Semitic languages, which were spoken by the ancient peoples of the Canaan region, including Canaanites, Israelites, Phoenicians, and Philistines....	Middle Bronze Age alphabets Middle Bronze Age alphabets The Middle Bronze Age alphabets are two similar undeciphered scripts, dated to be from the Middle Bronze Age , and believed to be ancestral to nearly all modern alphabets:...
c. 1800 BC	Luwian Luwian language Luwian is an extinct language of the Anatolian languages of the Indo-European languages language family. Luwian is closely related to Hittite language, and was among the languages spoken by population groups in Arzawa, to the west or southwest of the core Hittites area....		Luwian hieroglyphs
c. 1650 BC	Hittite Hittite language Hittite or Nesili is the extinct language once spoken by the Hittites, a people who created an empire centered on ancient Hattusas in north-central Anatolia ....	Various cuneiform texts and Palace Chronicles written during the reign of Hattusili I Hattusili I Labarna II was the first king of the Hittite empire to reign from Hattusa , taking the throne name of Hattusili I on that occasion. He reigned ca.... , from the archives at Hattusas	see Hittite cuneiform Hittite cuneiform Hittite cuneiform is the implementation of cuneiform script used in writing the Hittite language. The surviving corpus of Hittite texts is preserved in cuneiform on clay tablets dates to the 2nd millennium BC .... , Hittite texts Hittite texts The corpus of texts written in the Hittite language is indexed by the *Catalogue des Textes Hittites* . Studies of selected texts are published in the StBoT series....
c. 1500 BC	Canaanite Canaanite languages The Canaanite languages or Hebraic languages are a subfamily of the Semitic languages, which were spoken by the ancient peoples of the Canaan region, including Canaanites, Israelites, Phoenicians, and Philistines....	Proto-Canaanite alphabet Proto-Canaanite alphabet The Proto-Canaanite alphabet is a consonantal alphabet of twenty-two Acrophony glyphs, found in Levantine texts of the Late Bronze Age , by convention taken to last until a cut-off date of 1050 BC, after which it is called Phoenician alphabet....
c. 15th 15th century BC The 15th century BC is a century which lasted from 1500 BC to 1401 BC.... -14th 14th century BC The 14th century BC is a century which lasted from the year 1400 BC until 1301 BC.... / 13th century BC	Greek	Linear B Linear B Linear B is a script that was used for writing Mycenaean language, an early form of Greek language. It predated the Greek alphabet by several centuries and seems to have died out with the fall of Mycenaean Greece civilization.... tablet archive from Bronze Age Knossos Knossos Knossos , also known as the Knossos Palace is the largest Bronze Age archaeological site on Crete and probably the ceremonial and political center of the Minoan civilization and culture....
c. 1400 BC	Hattic Hattic language Hattic was a language spoken by the Hattians in Asia Minor between the 3rd millennium BC and the 2nd millennium BC millennia BC. Scholars call this language 'Hattic' to distinguish it from the Hittite language--the Indo-European language of the Hittite Empire....
c. 1300 BC	Ugaritic Ugaritic language The Ugaritic language, discovered by France archaeology in 1928, is known only in the form of writings found in the lost city of Ugarit, near the modern village of Ras Shamra, Syria....		see Ugaritic script
c. 1400 BC - 1000 BC	Old Chinese Old Chinese Old Chinese , or Archaic Chinese as used by linguist Bernhard Karlgren, refers to the Chinese language spoken from the Shang Dynasty , well into the Former Han Dynasty ....	Oracle bone script Oracle bone script Oracle bone script refers to incised ancient Chinese characters found on oracle bones, which are animal bones or turtle shells used in divination in Bronze Age China.... and bronze inscriptions	Because of the logographic nature of the Chinese script, it is difficult to date the age of the oldest Chinese texts, and the Shi Jing Shi Jing *Shi Jing* , translated variously as the *Classic of Poetry, the Book of Songs* or the *Book of Odes, is the earliest existing collection of Chinese poetry.... may date to as early as 1000 BC, which would still correspond to the Chinese Bronze Age. Old Chinese is a reconstructed language, dependent on the reconstruction of Middle Chinese Middle Chinese Middle Chinese* , or Ancient Chinese as used by linguist Bernhard Karlgren, refers to the Chinese language spoken during Southern and Northern Dynasties and the Sui dynasty, Tang dynasty, and Song dynasty dynasties .... .

First millennium BC

With the appearance of alphabetic writing in the Early Iron Age, the number of attested languages increases. With the emergence of the Brahmic family of scripts, languages of India

Languages of India

The languages of India belong to several major Language family, the two largest being the Indo-European languages---Indo-Aryan languages and the Dravidian languages, ....
become attested from after about 300 BC.

Phoenician - about 1000 BC
Aramaic
Aramaic language

Aramaic is a Semitic languages with a 3,000-year history. It has been the language of administration of empires and the language of divine worship....
- c. 950 BC
Hebrew
Hebrew language

Hebrew is a Semitic languages of the Afro-Asiatic languages. Modern Hebrew is spoken by more than seven million people in Israel and Classical Hebrew is used for prayer or study in Jews communities around the world....
- c. 950 BC: Gezer calendar
Gezer calendar

The Gezer calendar is a tablet of soft limestone inscribed in a Paleo-Hebrew alphabet script. It is one of the oldest known examples of Hebrew language writing, dating to the 10th century BCE....
Phrygian
Phrygian language

The Phrygian language was the Indo-European language of the Phrygians, a people from Thrace who later migrated to Asia Minor.Inscriptions...
- c. 800 BC
Moabite
Moabite language

The Moabite language is an extinct Canaanite language language, spoken in Moab in the early first millennium BC. Most of our knowledge about Moabite comes from the Mesha Stele, as well as the ;....
- c. 800 BC
Ammonite
Ammonite language

The Ammonite language is the extinct Hebrew languages Canaanite language of the Ammon people mentioned in the Bible, who used to live in modern-day Jordan, and after whom its capital Amman is named....
- c. 800 BC
Old South Arabian
Old South Arabian

Old South Arabian is the term used for four closely related languages spoken in the southern portion of the Arabian Peninsula. These languages are distinct from Classical Arabic....
- c. 800 BC
Etruscan
Etruscan language

The Etruscan language was spoken and written by the Etruscan civilization in the ancient region of Etruria and in parts of Lombardy, Veneto, and Emilia-Romagna , in Italy....
- c. 700 BC
Umbrian
Umbrian language

Umbrian is an language death Italic languages formerly spoken by the Umbri in the ancient Italy region of Roman Umbria. It is closely related to Oscan language....
- c. 600 BC
North Picene
North Picene language

North Picene is an extinct language of eastern Italy that is known from a number of inscriptions dating from the 1st millennium BC, mostly from Picenum....
- c. 600 BC
Lepontic
Lepontic language

Lepontic is an extinct Celtic languages language that was spoken in parts of Rhaetia and Cisalpine Gaul between 700 BC and 400 BC. Sometimes called Cisalpine Celtic, it is considered a dialect of the Gaulish language and thus a Continental Celtic language ....
- c. 600 BC
Tartessian
Tartessian language

The Tartessian language , also known as southwestern or South Lusitanian is a paleohispanic languages once spoken in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula: mainly in the south of Portugal , but also in Spain ....
- c. 600 BC
Lydian
Lydian language

Lydian was an Indo-European languages language spoken in the region of Lydia in western Anatolia . It belongs to the Anatolian languages group of the Indo-European language family....
- c. 600 BC
Carian
Carian language

The Carian language was the language of the Carians. It was an Anatolian language, apparently closer to Lycian language than to Lydian language....
- c. 600 BC
Eteocypriot
Eteocypriot

Eteocypriot was a pre-Indo-European language spoken in Iron Age Cyprus. The name means "true" or "original Cyprian" parallel to Eteocretan, both of which names are used by modern scholarship to mean the pre-Indo-European languages of those places....
- c. 600 BC
Thracian
Thracian language

The Thracian language was the Indo-European language spoken in ancient times by the Thracians in South-Eastern Europe....
c. 6th c.BC
Venetic
Venetic language

Venetic is an extinct Indo-European languages that was spoken in ancient times in the North-Italy Veneto and modern Slovenia, between the Po River river delta and the southern fringe of the Alps....
c. 6th c.BC
Old Persian - 525 BC: Behistun inscription
Behistun Inscription

The Behistun Inscription is a multi-lingual inscription located on Mount Behistun in the Kermanshah Province of Iran, near the town of Jeyhounabad in western Iran....
Latin
Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
- c. 500 BC: Duenos Inscription
Duenos Inscription

The Duenos Inscription is one of the earliest known Old Latin texts, dating from the early 6th century BCE. It is inscribed on the sides of a kernos, in this case a trio of small globular vases adjoined by three clay struts....
South Picene
South Picene language

South Picene is an extinct Italic language, belonging to the Sabellic language subfamily. It was spoken by the Sabini in east-central and southern Italy during the first millennium BC....
- c. 500 BC
Ge'ez
Ge'ez language

Ge'ez is an ancient South Semitic language that developed in the current region of Eritrea and northern Ethiopia in the Horn of Africa. It later became the official language of the Kingdom of Aksum and Ethiopian imperial court....
- c. 500 BC
Messapian
Messapian language

Messapian is an extinct Indo-European languages of South-eastern Italy, once spoken in the region of Apulia. It was spoken by the three Iapygian tribes of the region: the Messapii, the Dauni and the Peucetii....
- c. 500 BC
Gaulish
Gaulish language

The Gaulish language is the Celtic language that was spoken in Gaul before the Vulgar Latin of the late Roman Empire became dominant in Roman Gaul....
- c. 500 BC
Old North Arabian - c. 500 BC
Mixe-Zoque
Mixe-Zoque languages

The Mixe-Zoque languages constitute a language family whose living members are spokenin and around the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Mexico. The Mexican government recognizes three distinct Mixe-Zoquean languages as official: Mixe languages or ayook with 188,000 speakers, Zoque languages or o'de p?t with 88,000 speakers, and the Popoluca...
- c. 500 BC: Isthmian script
Isthmian script

The Isthmian script is a very early Mesoamerican writing system in use in the area of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec from perhaps 500 Common Era to 500 CE, although there is disagreement on these dates....
(disputed)
Oscan
Oscan language

Oscan, the language of the Osci, is in the Sabellic branch of the Italic languages, which is a branch of Indo-European languages that also includes Umbrian language, Latin, and Faliscan language....
- c. 400 BC
Iberian
Iberian language

The Iberian language was the language of a people identified by Ancient Greece and ancient Rome sources who lived in the eastern and southeastern regions of the Iberian peninsula....
- c. 400 BC
Meroitic
Meroitic language

The Meroitic language was spoken in Meroe and the Sudan during the Meroitic period and went extinct about 400. It was written in two forms of the Meroitic alphabet: demotic, which was written with a stylus and was used for general record-keeping; and hieroglyphic, which was carved in stone or used for royal or religious documents....
- c. 300 BC
Faliscan
Faliscan language

The Faliscan language, the extinct language of the ancient Falisci, forms, together with Latin, the group of Latino-Faliscan languages. It is preserved in about 100 short inscriptions, dating from the 3rd century BC and 2nd century BC centuries BC, and is written in a variety of the Old Italic alphabet alphabet derived from the Etruscan, and...
- c. 300 BC
Mayan languages - c. between 300 BC and 200 BC
Volscian
Volscian language

'Volscian' was a Sabellic Italic language, which was spoken by the Volsci and closely related to Oscan and Umbrian.It is attested in an inscription found in Velitrae , dating probably from early in the 3rd century BC; it is cut upon a small bronze plate , which must have once been fixed to some votive object, dedicated to the god Declunus...
- c. 275 BC
Tamil
Tamil language

Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has Official language in India, Sri Lanka and Singapore....
- c. 250 BC: Tamil-Brahmi
Tamil-Brahmi

Tamil-Brahmi was an early variant of the Brahmi script used to write Tamil language characters. It is also known as the Tamili script. It is distinguished from standrad Asokan Brahmi, by an inherent vowel marker for pure consonants and consonants....
Indo-Aryan
Indo-Aryan languages

The Indo-Aryan languages are a branch of the Indo-European languages family.SIL International in a 2005 estimate counted a total of 209 varieties, the largest in terms of native speakers being Hindustani language , Bangla language , Punjabi language , Marathi , Gujarati language , Nepali language , Oriya language , Sindhi language , Sinhal...
(Prakrit
Prakrit

Prakrit refers to the broad family of the Indic languages and dialects spoken in ancient India. The Prakrits became literary languages, generally patronized by kings identified with the Kshatriya caste, but were regarded as illegitimate by the Brahmin orthodoxy....
) - c. 250 BC: Edicts of Ashoka
Edicts of Ashoka

The Edicts of Ashoka are a collection of 33 inscriptions on the Pillars of Ashoka, as well as boulders and cave walls, made by the Emperor Ashoka the Great of the Mauryan dynasty during his reign from 272 to 231 BC....
Galatian
Galatian language

Galatian is an extinct Celtic languages once spoken in Galatia in Asia Minor from the 3rd century BC up to the 4th century AD.Of the language only a few glosses and brief comments in classical writers and scattered names on inscriptions survive....
- c. 200 BC
Celtiberian
Celtiberian language

Celtiberian is an extinct language Indo-European language of the Celtic languages branch spoken by the Celtiberians in an area of the Iberian Peninsula lying...
- c. 100 BC

First millennium AD

From Late Antiquity

Late Antiquity

Late Antiquity is a periodization used by historians to describe the transitional centuries from Classical antiquity to the Middle Ages, in both mainland Europe and the Mediterranean world: generally from the end of the Roman Empire's Crisis of the Third Century to the Islamic conquests and the re-organization of the Byzantine Empire under...
, we have for the first time languages with earliest records in manuscript

Manuscript

A manuscript is any document that is written by hand, as opposed to being printed or reproduced in some other way. The term may also be used for information that is hand-recorded in other ways than writing, for example inscriptions that are chiselled upon a hard material or scratched as with a knife point in plaster or with a stylus on a wa...
tradition (as opposed to epigraphy

Epigraphy

Epigraphy is the study of wikt:inscriptions or wikt:epigraphs engraved into stone or other durable materials, or cast in metal, the science of classifying them as to cultural context and date, elucidating them and assessing what conclusions can be deduced from them....
). Thus, Old Armenian is first attested in the Armenian Bible translation

Armenian Bible translation

The Armenian Bible is due to Saint Mesrob's early 5th century translation.There are currently two commonly used version of the bible in Armenian....
.

Sanskrit
Sanskrit

Sanskrit is a historical Indo-Aryan language, one of the liturgical languages of Hinduism and Buddhism, and one of the 22 official languages of India....
: Epigraphical Hybrid Sanskrit (EHS) from the 1st to 3rd centuries AD
Bactrian
Bactrian language

The Bactrian language is an extinct Eastern Iranian language which was spoken in the Central Asian region of Bactria. Linguistically, it is classified as belonging to the Middle Iranian languages of the Northeastern Iranian languages branch....
- - c. 150: Rabatak inscription
Rabatak inscription

The Rabatak inscription is an inscription written on a rock in the Bactrian language and the Greek script, which was found in 1993 at the site of Rabatak, near Surkh Kotal in Afghanistan....
Common Germanic/Proto-Norse - c. 160: Vimose inscriptions
Vimose inscriptions

Finds from Vimose, Funen, Denmark include some of the very oldest datable Elder Futhark inscriptions in late Proto-Germanic or early Proto-Norse language ....
(c. 100 BC if the Negau helmet
Negau helmet

File:Elmo Negau.jpgNegau helmet refers to one of 28 bronze helmets dating to ca. 200 BC, found in 1811 in a cache in Zenjak, near Negau, now Negova, Slovenia....
inscription is accepted as Germanic)
Cham
Cham language

Cham is the language of the Cham people of Southeast Asia, and formerly the language of the kingdom of Champa in central Vietnam. A member of the Malayo-Polynesian languages branch of the Austronesian languages family, it is spoken by 100,000 people in Vietnam and up to 220,000 people in Cambodia ....
- c. 200
Basque
Basque language

Basque is the language spoken by the Basque people who inhabit the Pyrenees in North-Central Spain and the adjoining region of South-Western France....
- c. 300: Iruña-Veleia
Iruña-Veleia

Veleia was a Roman Empire town in Hispania, currently located in the Basque Autonomous Community, Spain. The site is located in the municipality of Iru?a de Oca, 10 kilometers west of Vitoria ....
archaeological site
Gothic
Gothic language

Gothic is an extinct language Germanic language that was spoken by the Goths. It is known primarily from Codex Argenteus, a 6th century copy of a 4th century Bible translation, and is the only East Germanic languages with a sizable corpus....
- c. 300: Gothic runic inscriptions
Gothic runic inscriptions

Very few Elder Futhark inscriptions in the Gothic language have been found in the territory historically settled by the Goths . This is due to the early Christianization of the Goths, with the Gothic alphabet replacing runes by the mid 4th century....
Armenian
Armenian language

The 'Armenian language' is an Indo-European language spoken by the Armenians. It is the official language of the Armenia as well as in the region of Nagorno-Karabakh....
- 395 - 405 Saint Mesrob Mashtots.
Primitive Irish - c. 300-400: Ogham
Ogham

Ogham is an Early Medieval alphabet used primarily to represent the Old Irish language, and occasionally the Brythonic languages ancestor of Welsh language....
inscriptions
Georgian
Georgian language

Georgian is the official language of Georgia , a country in the Caucasus .Georgian is the primary language of about 3.9 million people in Georgia itself, and of another 500,000 abroad ....
- c. 430: a Georgian church in Bethlehem
Bethlehem

Bethlehem is a Palestine city in the central West Bank, approximately south of Jerusalem, with a population of about 30,000 people. It is the capital of the Bethlehem Governorate of the Palestinian National Authority and a hub of Palestinian culture and tourism....
Kannada - c. 450: Halmidi inscription
Halmidi inscription

The Halmidi inscription is the oldest known Kannada language inscription in the Kannada script. Experts agree on the relative date , but differ on absolute date....
West Germanic - 6th century:

Old Low Franconian - c. 510: Salic law
Salic law

Salic law was an important body of traditional law codified for governing the Salian Franks in the early Middle Ages during the reign of King Clovis I in the 6th century....
Old High German
Old High German

The term Old High German refers to the earliest stage of the German language and it conventionally covers the period from around 500 to 1050. Coherent written texts do not appear until the second half of the 8th century, and some treat the period before 750 as 'prehistoric' and date the start of Old High German proper to 750 for this reason...
- c. 550: Pforzen buckle
Pforzen buckle

The Pforzen buckle is a silver belt buckle found in Pforzen, Ostallg?u in 1992. The Alemannic grave in which it was found dates to the end of the 6th century and was presumably that of a warrior, as it also contained a lance, spatha, seax and shield....
Old English - Undley bracteate
Undley bracteate

The Undley bracteate, a 5th century bracteate found in Undley Common, near Lakenheath, Suffolk . It bears the earliest known inscription that can be argued to be in Anglo-Frisian Futhorc ....
; c. 650: Franks Casket
Franks Casket

The Franks Casket is a small whalebone chest, carved with narrative scenes in flat two-dimensional low-relief and with Anglo-Saxon runes. The casket is dateable from the language of its inscriptions and other features to the mid-seventh century CE....
; West Heslerton brooch

Arabic
Arabic language

Arabic is a Central Semitic language, thus related to and classified alongside other Semitic languages languages such as Hebrew language and Aramaic language....
- 512: pre-Islamic Arabic inscriptions
Cambodian
Khmer language

Khmer , or Cambodian, is the language of the Khmer people and the official language of Cambodia. It is the second most widely spoken Austro-Asiatic languages, with speakers in the tens of millions....
- c. 600
Tibetan
Tibetan language

The Tibetan languages are a cluster of mutually unintelligible Tibeto-Burman languages spoken primarily by Tibetan peoples who live across a wide area of eastern Central Asia bordering South Asia, including the Tibetan Plateau and the northern Indian subcontinent in Baltistan, Ladakh, Nepal, Sikkim, and Bhutan....
- c. 600
Udi
Udi language

The Udi language, spoken by the Udi people, is a member of the Northeast Caucasian languages. It is believed this was the main language of Caucasian Albania, which stretched from south Dagestan to current day Azerbaijan....
- c. 600: Mount Sinai palimpsest M13
Telugu
Telugu language

Telugu or Telegu is one of the four classical languages of India. It is a South-Central Dravidian languages mostly spoken in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, where it is the official language....
- 620
Old Malay
Old Malay

The Old Malay is possibly the ancestor of Malay language, including Indonesian language. It was heavily influenced by Sanskrit, the lingua franca of Hinduism and Buddhism, as most of the Malays used to embrace these religions....
- c. 683: Kedukan Bukit Inscription
Kedukan Bukit Inscription

The Kedukan Bukit Inscription was discovered by the Dutchman M. Batenburg on 29 November 1920 at Kedukan Bukit, South Sumatra, on the banks of the River Tatang, a tributary of the River Musi....
Tocharian
Tocharian languages

Tocharian or Tokharian is one of the branches of the Indo-European language family. The name of the language is taken from people known to the Greeks as the Tocharians ....
- c. 700
Old Turkic - c. 700 Orkhon
Orkhon

Orkhon can refer to:* Orkhon River, Mongolia** Orkhon Valley, the landscape around that river* Orkhon Province, an Aimag in Mongolia* several Sums in different Mongolian Aimags:...
Old Irish - c. 700
Japanese
Japanese language

IPA: [n?iho?go] is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is related to the Ryukyuan languages....
- c. 700
Welsh
Welsh language

Welsh ]], is a member of the Brythonic branch of Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, in England by some along the Welsh Marches and in the Welsh settlement in Argentina in the Chubut Valley in Argentina Patagonia....
- c. 700: Tywyn
Tywyn

Tywyn is a town and seaside resort on the Cardigan Bay coast of southern Gwynedd , in north Wales. The name derives from the Welsh tywyn and the town is sometimes referred to as Tywyn Meirionnydd....
inscriptions
Old Frisian
Old Frisian

Old Frisian was the West Germanic languages spoken between the 8th and 16th centuries by the people who had settled in the area between the Rhine and Elbe on the European North Sea coast in the 4th and 5th centuries....
- c. 750
Old Hindi - 769: Dohakosh by Saraha
Saraha

Saraha or Sarahapa or Sarahapada , originally known as Rahula or Rahulbhadra, is considered to be the first poet of Hindi literature by Mahapandit Rahul Sankrityayan....
Malayalam
Malayalam language

Malayalam is a Dravidian language used predominantly in the States and territories of India of Kerala, in South India India. It is one of the 22 List of national languages of India, and it is used by around 36 million people....
- c. 800
Old Norse
Old Norse

Old Norse is a North Germanic languages that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300....
- c. 800 (runic)
Javanese
Javanese language

Javanese is the language of the people in the central and eastern parts of the island of Java, in Indonesia. In addition, there are also some pockets of Javanese speakers in the northern coast of western Java....
- 804
Old French
Old French

Old French was the Romance languages dialect continuum spoken in territories which span roughly the northern half of modern France and parts of modern Belgium and Switzerland from around 1000 to 1300....
- c. 842: Oaths of Strasbourg
Oaths of Strasbourg

The Oaths of Strasbourg were several historical documents which included mutual pledges of allegiance between Louis the German, ruler of East Francia, and his brother Charles the Bald, ruler of West Francia....
Bulgarian
Bulgarian language

Bulgarian is an Indo-European languages, a member of the Slavic languages linguistic group.Bulgarian demonstrates several linguistic innovations that set it apart from all other Slavic languages except Macedonian language, such as the elimination of grammatical case, the development of a suffixed definite article , the lack of a verb infin...
- c. 862
Bengali Language
Bengali language

Bengali or Bangla is an Indo-European languages language of the eastern Indian subcontinent, evolved from the Magadhi Prakrit and Sanskrit languages....
-c. 900 charyapada
Charyapada

The Charyapada is a collection of 8th-12th century Vajrayana Buddhist caryagiti, or mystical poems from the tantric tradition in eastern India....
Philippine languages (particularly Old Tagalog
Tagalog language

Tagalog is one of the major languages used in the Philippines. It is a basis for the Filipino language, which is the principal language of the national television and radio, though broadsheet newspapers are almost completely in English....
)- c. 900 Laguna Copperplate Inscription
Laguna Copperplate Inscription

The Laguna Copperplate inscription is the first written document found in a Languages of the Philippines. The plate was found in 1989 by Alfredo E....
Russian
Russian language

Russian is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages, and the largest native language in Europe....
- c. 950-1000: Gnezdovo inscription, Birch bark document
Birch bark document

A birch bark document is a document written on pieces of birch bark. Such documents existed in several cultures. For instance, some Gandharan Buddhist texts have been found written on birch bark and preserved in clay jars....
s, Novgorod Codex
Novgorod Codex

Novgorod Codex is a name for the oldest book of Kievan Rus', unearthed on July 13, 2000 in Novgorod. This is a book consisting of three wooden tablets containing four pages filled with wax, on which its former owner wrote down dozens, probably hundreds of texts during two or three decades, each time wiping out the preceding text....
Leonese
Leonese language

The Leonese language was developed from Vulgar Latin with contributions from the pre-Roman languages which were spoken in the territory of the Spanish provinces of Le?n , Zamora, and Salamanca and in some villages in the District of Bragan?a, Portugal....
- c. 959-974: Nodicia de Kesos.
Italian
Italian language

Italian is a Romance languages spoken by about 63 million people as a first language, primarily in Italy. In Switzerland, Italian is one of four Linguistic geography of Switzerlands....
- c. 960-963:
Old Church Slavonic
Old Church Slavonic

Old Church Slavonic, also known as Old Bulgarian, or Old Macedonian, was the first literary Slavic language, based on the old Solun dialect of the Thessaloniki region by the 9th century Byzantine Greeks missionaries, Saints Cyril and Methodius, who used it for translation of the Bible and other Ancient Greek language ecclesiastica...
- 993: Inscription on a gravestone erected by Tsar Samuil of Bulgaria
Samuil of Bulgaria

Samuel was the Emperor of the First Bulgarian Empire from 997 to 6 October 1014. From 980 to 997, he was a general under Roman I of Bulgaria, the second surviving son of Emperor Peter I of Bulgaria, and co-ruled with him, as Roman bestowed upon him the command of the army and the effective royal authority....

1000-1500 AD

Slovenian
Slovenian language

Slovene or Slovenian is a South Slavic languages spoken by approximately 2.4 million speakers worldwide, the majority of whom live in Slovenia....
- 972-1093: (Freising manuscripts
Freising manuscripts

The Freising Manuscripts are the first Latin alphabet continuous text in a Slavic languages and the oldest document in Slovene language.The monuments consisting of three texts in the oldest Slovene dialects were discovered bound into a Latin codex in Freising, Bavaria....
)
Hungarian
Hungarian language

Hungarian is a Uralic languages unrelated to most other languages in Europe. It is mainly spoken in Hungary and by the Hungarian minorities in the seven neighbouring countries....
- c. 1000: the Charter of the Nuns of Veszprémvölgy
Balinese
Balinese language

Balinese or simply Bali is a Malayo-Polynesian languages spoken by 3.9 million people on the Indonesian island of Bali, as well as northern Nusa Penida, western Lombok and eastern Java....
- c.1000
Ossetic
Ossetic language

Ossetian , also sometimes called Ossete, is an Eastern Iranian languages language spoken in Ossetia, a region on the slopes of the Caucasus Caucasus Mountains....
- c. 1000
Marathi
Marathi language

Marathi is an Indo-Aryan languages spoken by the Marathi people of western India. It is the official language of the state of Maharashtra. There are 90 million fluent speakers worldwide....
- c. 1000
Newari - c 1000
Aragonese
Aragonese language

Aragonese , is a Romance languages now spoken in a number of local varieties by between 10,000 and 30,000 people over the valleys of the Arag?n River, Sobrarbe and Ribagorza in Aragon....
and Spanish
Spanish language

Spanish or Castilian is a Romance languages that originated in northern Spain, and gradually spread in the Kingdom of Castile and evolved into the principal language of government and trade....
- ca. 1000: Glosas Emilianenses
Glosas Emilianenses

The Glosas Emilianenses are gloss written in a Latin codex.? The anonymous author is assumed to have been a monk at the monastery of Suso in San Mill?n de la Cogolla, La Rioja .? He wrote about a thousand years ago in three languages:...
Catalan
Catalan language

Catalan is a Romance languages, the national language and official language of Andorra, and a official language in the Autonomous Communities of Spain of the Balearic Islands, Catalonia and Valencian Community and in the city of Alghero in the Italy List of islands in the Mediterranean of Sardinia....
- c. 1028: Jurament Feudal
Middle High German
Middle High German

Middle High German , abbreviated MHG , is the term used for the period in the history of the German language between 1050 and 1350. It is preceded by Old High German and followed by Early New High German....
- 1050 (by convention)
Middle English
Middle English

Middle English is the name given by historical linguistics to the diverse forms of the English language spoken between the Norman conquest of England of 1066 and about 1470, when the #Chancery Standard, a form of London-based English, began to become widespread, a process aided by the introduction of the printing press into England by William...
- 1066 (by convention)
Piedmontese - 1080
Croatian
Croatian language

Croatian language is a South Slavic languages which is used primarily in Croatia, by Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in neighbouring countries where Croats are Indigenous peoples, in Italian region of Molise, and parts of the Croats diaspora....
- c. 1100: Baška tablet
Baška tablet

Ba?ka tablet is one of the first monuments containing an inscription in the Croatian language, dating from the year 1100.The tablet was found in the paving of the Romanesque architecture church of St....
Danish
Danish language

Danish is one of the North Germanic languages , a sub-group of the Germanic languages branch of the Indo-European languages. It is spoken by around 6 million people, mainly in Denmark; the language is also used by the 50,000 Danes in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein in Germany where it holds the status of minority language....
- c. 1100 (by convention)
Swedish
Swedish language

Swedish is a North Germanic languages language, spoken by around 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along the coast and on the ?land islands....
- c. 1100 (by convention; the Rök Stone (c. 9th century) is often cited as the beginning of Swedish literature)
Nepal Bhasa
Nepal Bhasa

Nepal Bhasa is one of the major languages of Nepal. It is one of roughly five hundred Sino-Tibetan languages, and belongs to the Tibeto-Burman branch of this family....
- 1114: "The Palmleaf from Uku Bahal"
Middle Dutch
Middle Dutch

Middle Dutch is a collective name for a number of closely related West Germanic dialects which were spoken and written between 1150 and 1500. There was at that time as yet no overarching standard language, but they were all mutually intelligible....
- 1150 (by convention)
Portuguese
Portuguese language

Portuguese is a Romance language that originated in what is now Galicia and Portugal. It is derived from the Latin language spoken by the Romanization Pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula around 2000 years ago....
and/or Galician
Galician language

Galician is a language of the Iberian Romance languages branch, spoken in Galicia , an Autonomous communities of Spain located in northwestern Spain, as well as in small bordering zones in the neighbouring autonomous communities of Asturias and Castile and Le?n and in Northern Portugal....
- 1189
Serbian
Serbian language

name=Serbian|nativename=|pronunciation=['sr?pski?]|familycolor=Indo-European|map=|states=See below under "Official status", besides that in Croatia and as an immigrant's language spread over Central Europe and Western Europe, as well as Northern America...
- between 1186 and 1190: The Gospels of Miroslav
Bosnian
Bosnian language

Bosnian , sometimes referred as Bosniak/Bosniac language , is a South Slavic languages native to the Bosniaks and all other citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina who consider it to be their mother tongue....
- 1189: The Charter of Kulin
Ban Kulin

Ban Kulin was a powerful List of rulers of Bosnia who ruled from 1180 to 1204 first as a vassal of the Byzantine Empire and then of the Kingdom of Hungary....
Czech
Czech language

Czech is a West Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers; it is the majority language in the Czech Republic and spoken by Czech people worldwide....
- c. 1200-1230
Western Lombard
Western Lombard

Western Lombard is a Romance language spoken in Italy, in the Lombardy provinces Province of Milan, Province of Monza and Brianza, Province of Varese, Province of Como, Province of Lecco, Province of Sondrio, a little part Province of Cremona , Province of Lodi and Province of Pavia, and the Piedmont provinces Province of Novara, Province of...
- c. 1250: Sordello da Goito, "Sirventese lombardesco"
Polish
Polish language

Polish , an official language of Poland, has the largest number of speakers of any West Slavic languages. Polish-speakers use the language in a uniform manner through most of Poland, and it has a regular orthography....
- c. 1270: Book of Henryków
Book of Henryków

The Book of Henryk?w is a Latin chronicle of the Cistercians abbey in Henryk?w, Lower Silesian Voivodeship in Lower Silesia. Originally created as a registry of belongings looted by the Mongol raids of 1241, with time it was extended to include the history of the monastery....
Yiddish - 1272
Thai
Thai language

Thai , is the national language and official language language of Thailand and the mother tongue of the Thai people, Thailand's dominant ethnic group....
- c. 1292
Old Norwegian
Old Norwegian

Old Norwegian is a term used for the old Norse language as spoken and written in Norway in the Middle Ages. The term old Norse language refers to the language spoken in the wider old Norse area, in addition to Norway also Denmark, Iceland, Sweden, Greenland and other islands in the North Sea....
- c. 1300
Batak
Batak (Indonesia)

Batak is a collective term used to identify a number of ethnic groups found in the highlands of North Sumatra, Indonesia. Their heartland lies to the west of Medan centred on Lake Toba....
- c.1300
Finnic
Finnic languages

Finnic languages may refer to:*Finno-Permic languages*Finno-Volgaic languages*Baltic-Finnic languages and/or Volga-Finnic languages...
- c. 1300 Birch bark letter no. 292
Birch bark letter no. 292

The Birch bark document given the document number 292 is the oldest known document in any Finnic languages. The document is dated to the beginning of the 13th century....
(Finnish
Finnish language

Finnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland and by Finnish people outside of Finland. It is one of the official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden....
proper: Abckiria
Abckiria

Abckiria , in English "The ABC book", is the first book published in Finnish language. It was written by a bishop and Protestant Reformation Mikael Agricola, and was first published in 1543....
, 1543)
Old Prussian
Old Prussian language

Prussian is an extinct Baltic languages language, once spoken by Old Prussians of Prussia in an area of what later became East Prussia and eastern parts of Pomerelia ....
- c. 1350
Kashmiri
Kashmiri language

Kashmiri belongs to the Dardic languages and is spoken primarily in the Kashmir Valley, in the indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. It had about 5,554,496 speakers in India according to the Census of 2001....
- c. 1350
Oghuz Turkic (including Azeri
Azerbaijani language

Azerbaijani is a language belonging to the Turkic languages language family, spoken in southwestern Asia, primarily in Azerbaijan and northwestern Iran....
and Ottoman Turkish
Ottoman Turkish

Ottoman Turkish may refer to:* Ottoman Turkish language* Ottoman Turks* Ottoman Empire...
) - c. 1350 (Imadaddin Nasimi)
Komi
Komi language

The Komi language, also known as Zyrian, or Komi-Zyrian, is a Finno-Permic languages language spoken by the Komi peoples in the northeastern European part of Russia....
- 1372
Korean
Hangul

Hangul is the native alphabet of the Korean language, as distinguished from the logogram Sino-Korean vocabulary hanja system. It was created in the mid-fifteenth century, and is now the official writing system of both North Korea and South Korea, being co-official in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture of China....
- 1446 (Hunmin Jeongeum
Hunmin Jeongeum

Promulgated in September or October 1446, Hunminjeongeum was an entirely new and native writing system for the Korean people. The script was initially named after the publication, but later came to be known as hangul....
)
Albanian
Albanian language

Albanian is an Indo-European languages spoken by nearly 6 million people, primarily in Albania and Kosovo but also in other areas of the Balkans in which there is an Albanian population, including the west of the Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, and southern Serbia....
- 1462 (Formula e Pagëzimit - Short baptismal formula in a letter of Archbishop Pal Engjëll
Pal Engjëlli

Pal Engj?lli was an Albanian Catholicism clergyman, Archbishop of Durr?s and Cardinal of Albania who in 1462 wrote the first known sentence in Albanian language....
)
Maltese
Maltese language

Maltese is the national language of Malta, and a co-official Languages of Malta alongside English language,while also serving as an Languages of the European Union European Union, the only Semitic languages so distinguished....
- c. 1470: Cantilena
Cantilena

"Il Cantilena" is the oldest known literary text in the Maltese language. It dates from the 15th century but was not found until 1966 or 1968 by Prof....
Early Modern English
Early Modern English

Early Modern English is the stage of the English language used from about the end of the Middle English period to 1650. Thus, the first edition of the King James Bible and the works of William Shakespeare both belong to the late phase of Early Modern English, although the King James Bible intentionally keeps some archaisms that were not comm...
- 1470s (by convention)

After 1500 AD

Date	Language	Attestation	Notes
1521	Romanian Romanian language Romanian or Daco-Romanian ; self-designation: limba rom?na, ) is a Romance languages spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova....	Neacsu's Letter.	The Cyrillic ortographic manual of Constantin Kostentschi from 1420 documents earlier written usage. Four XVIth century documents, namely Codicele Voronetean, Psaltirea Scheiana, Psaltirea Hurmuzachi and Psaltirea Voroneteana, are arguably copies of XVth century originals.
1530	Latvian Latvian language Latvian is the official state language of Latvia. Alternative names include Lettish and Lettisch. There are about 1.5 million native Latvian speakers in Latvia and about 150,000 abroad....
1535	Estonian Estonian language Estonian is the official language of Estonia, spoken by about 1.1 million people in Estonia and tens of thousands in various ?migr? communities....
1539	Classical Nahuatl Classical Nahuatl Classical Nahuatl is a term used to describe the variants of the Nahuatl language that were spoken in the Valley of Mexico — and central Mexico as a lingua franca — at the time of the 16th-century Spanish conquest of Mexico....	Breve y mas compendiosa doctrina cristiana en lengua mexicana y castellana	Possibly the first printed book in the New World New World The New World is one of the names used for the non-Eurasian/non-African parts of the Earth, specifically the Americas and Australasia. When the term originated in the late 15th century, the Americas were new to the Europeans, who previously thought of the world as consisting only of Europe, Asia, and Africa .... . No copies are known to exist today.
1543	Modern Finnish Finnish language Finnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland and by Finnish people outside of Finland. It is one of the official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden....	Abckiria Abckiria *Abckiria* , in English "The ABC book", is the first book published in Finnish language. It was written by a bishop and Protestant Reformation Mikael Agricola, and was first published in 1543.... by Mikael Agricola Mikael Agricola Mikael Agricola was a Finland clergyman who became de facto founder of written Finnish language and one of the prominent proponents of the Protestant Reformation in Sweden-Finland.... .
1545	Lithuanian Lithuanian language Lithuanian is the official state language of Lithuania and is recognised as one of the official languages of the European Union. There are about 2.96 million native Lithuanian speakers in Lithuania and about 170,000 abroad....	Katekizmas by Martynas Mažvydas Martynas Mažvydas Martynas Ma?vydas Variants of his name include Martinus Masvidius, Martinus Maszwidas, M. Mossuids Waytkunas, Mastwidas, Ma?vydas, Mosvidius, Maswidsche, and Mossvid Vaitkuna....	Katekizmas is the first printed book in Lithuanian. The earliest surviving text in Lithuanian is the hand-written Lord's Prayer and Hail Mary on a slip of paper dated between 1503 and 1525.
ca. 1550	New Dutch/Standard Dutch History of Dutch Dutch language is a West Germanic language, that originated from the Old Frankish dialects.Among the words with which Dutch has enriched the English vocabulary are: brandy, cole slaw, cookie, cruiser, dock, easel, freight, landscape, spook, stoop, and yacht....	Statenbijbel	The Statenbijbel is commonly accepted to be the start of Standard Dutch, but various experiments were performed around 1550 in Flanders and Brabant. Although none proved to be lasting they did create a semi-standard and many formed the base for the Statenbijbel.
1554	Wastek Wastek language The Wastek or Huastec language is a Mayan languages language of Mexico, spoken by the Huastec peoples living in rural areas of San Luis Potos? and northern Veracruz....	A grammar by Andrés de Olmos Andrés de Olmos Andr?s de Olmos , Franciscan priest and extraordinary grammarian and Ethnohistory of Mexico's Indians, was born in O?a, Burgos, Spain, and died in Tampico, Tamaulipas in New Spain .... .
1593	Modern Tagalog Tagalog language Tagalog is one of the major languages used in the Philippines. It is a basis for the Filipino language, which is the principal language of the national television and radio, though broadsheet newspapers are almost completely in English....	Doctrina Cristiana (Christian Doctrine), a book explaining the basic beliefs of Roman Catholicism
1600	Buginese Buginese language Buginese is the language spoken by about four million people mainly in the southern part of Sulawesi, Indonesia....
ca. 1650	Ubykh Ubykh language Ubykh or Ubyx is a language of the Northwest Caucasian languages, spoken by the Ubykh people up until the early 1990s.The word is derived from , its name in the Abdzakh Adyghe language language....	The Seyahatname Seyahatname Sey?hatn?me is a Persian language term, also used in Ottoman Turkish language, which means travel literature, denoting a literary form and tradition whose examples can be found throughout centuries in the Middle Ages around the Islamic world, starting with the Arab travellers of the Umayyad period.... of Evliya Çelebi Evliya Çelebi Evliya ?elebi , the son of the imperial goldsmith Dervis Mehmed Zilli was a famous Ottoman Empire traveler who journeyed throughout the territories of the Ottoman Empire and the neighbouring lands over a period of forty years.... .
1692	Sakha (Yakut) Sakha language Sakha, or Yakut, is a Turkic languages with around 460,000 speakers spoken in the Sakha Republic in the Russian Federation by the Yakuts or Yakuts....
ca. 1695	Seri Seri language Seri is a language isolate spoken by the Seri in two villages on the coast of Sonora, Mexico....	Grammar and vocabulary compiled by Adamo Gilg.	No longer known to exist.
1728	Swahili Swahili language Swahili is the first language of the Swahili people , who inhabit several large stretches of the Indian Ocean coastline from southern Somalia to northern Mozambique, including the Comoros Islands....	Utendi wa Tambuka Utendi wa Tambuka Utend?i wa Tambuka or Utenzi wa Tambuka , also known as Kyuo kya Here?ali , is an epic poem in the Swahili language dated 1728. It is one of the earliest known documents in Swahili....
1743	Chinese Pidgin English Chinese Pidgin English Chinese Pidgin English is a Pidgin language between English and Chinese. From the 17th to the 19th centuries, there was also a Chinese Pidgin English spoken in Yue Chinese-speaking portions of China....
1760	Greenlandic language		Kalaallisut is written with the Latin alphabet (Hans Edege)
1770	Guugu Yimithirr Guugu Yimithirr language Guugu Yimithirr is an Australian Aboriginal languages, the traditional language of the Guugu Yimithirr people of Far North Queensland. Most of the speakers today live at the community of Hopevale, Queensland, about 46 km from Cooktown....	Words recorded by James Cook James Cook Captain James Cook Royal Society Royal Navy was an English explorer, navigator and cartographer, ultimately rising to the rank of Captain in the Royal Navy.... 's crew.
1806	Tswana Tswana language Tswana , is a Bantu languages language written in the Latin Alphabet. Tswana is the national and majority language of Botswana, whose people are the Batswana ....	Heinrich Lictenstein - Upon the Language of the Beetjuana	First complete Bible Bible The Bible is the central religious text of Judaism and Christianity. The exact Books of the Bible is dependent on the religious traditions of specific denominations.... translation in 1857 by Robert Moffat Robert Moffat Robert Moffat was a Scotland Congregationalist missionary to Africa.Moffat was born of humble parentage in Ormiston, East Lothian. To find employment, he moved south to Cheshire in England as a gardener....
1814	Maori language Maori language Maori or te reo Maori, also commonly shortened to te reo , functions as one of the official languages of New Zealand. Linguists classify it within the Eastern Polynesian languages as closely related to Cook Islands Maori, Tuamotuan language and Tahitian language; somewhat less closely to Hawaiian language and Marquesan language; a...		systematic orthography from 1820 (Hongi Hika Hongi Hika Hongi Hika was a New Zealand Maori rangatira and war leader of the Ngapuhi iwi .Hongi Hika used European weapons to overrun much of northern New Zealand in the first of the Musket Wars.... )
1819	Cherokee Cherokee language Cherokee is an Iroquoian languages spoken by the Cherokee people which uses a Cherokee syllabary writing system. It is the only Southern Iroquoian languages language that remains spoken....
1823	Xhosa Xhosa language Xhosa is one of the official languages of South Africa. Xhosa is spoken by approximately Xhosa, or about 18% of the South African population. Like most Bantu languages, Xhosa is a Tone , that is, the same sequence of consonants and vowels can have different meanings when said with a rising or falling or high or low intonation....	John Bennie’s Xhosa Reading sheet printed at Twali	Complete Bible Bible The Bible is the central religious text of Judaism and Christianity. The exact Books of the Bible is dependent on the religious traditions of specific denominations.... translation 1859
1826	Aleut language Aleut language Aleut is a language of the Eskimo-Aleut language family. It is the tongue of the Aleut people living in the Aleutian Islands, Pribilof Islands, and Commander Islands....		Aleut is written with the Cyrillic alphabet (loann Veniaminov)
ca. 1830	Vai Vai language Vai language, alternately called Vy or Gallinas, is a Mande language. The majority of its speakers, roughly 105 000, are in Liberia with smaller populations residing in Sierra Leone....
1832	Gamilaraay Gamilaraay language The Gamilaraay or Kamilaroi language is a Pama-Nyungan languages language of the Wiradhuric languages subgroup found mostly in South East Australia....	Basic vocabulary collected by Thomas Mitchell Thomas Mitchell Major Sir Thomas Livingstone Mitchell , Surveyor and European exploration of Australia of south-eastern Australia, was born at Grangemouth in Stirlingshire, Scotland.... .
1833	Sesotho	Reduced to writing by French missionaries Casalis and Arbousset	First grammar book 1841 and complete Bible Bible The Bible is the central religious text of Judaism and Christianity. The exact Books of the Bible is dependent on the religious traditions of specific denominations.... translation 1881
1837	Zulu Zulu language Zulu , is a language of the Zulu people with about 10 million speakers, the vast majority of whom live in South Africa. Zulu is the most widely spoken home language in South Africa as well as being understood by over 50% of the population ....	First written publication Incwadi Yokuqala Yabafundayo	First grammar book 1859 and complete Bible Bible The Bible is the central religious text of Judaism and Christianity. The exact Books of the Bible is dependent on the religious traditions of specific denominations.... translation 1883
1844	Afrikaans Afrikaans Afrikaans is an Indo-European language, derived from Dutch language and thus classified as Low Franconian languages West Germanic languages. It is mainly spoken in South Africa and Namibia, with smaller numbers of speakers living in Botswana, Angola, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Zambia, Australia, New Zealand, United States of America, Taiwa...	Letters by Louis Henri Meurant (published in Eastern Cape newspaper - South Africa)	Followed by Muslim texts written in Afrikaans using Arabic alphabet Arabic alphabet The Arabic alphabet is the writing system used for writing several languages of Asia and Africa, such as Arabic language, Persian language, and Urdu language.... in 1856. Spelling rules published in 1874. Complete Bible Bible The Bible is the central religious text of Judaism and Christianity. The exact Books of the Bible is dependent on the religious traditions of specific denominations.... published 1933.
1870	Inuktitut Syllabary		Inuktitut is written with the Canadian Aboriginal Syllabary alphabet/The Netsilik adopted Qaniujaaqpait by the 1920s.(Edmund Peck Edmund Peck Edmund James Peck was an Anglican missionary in Canada. He is most notable for his work in developing Inuktitut syllabics, derived from the Cree syllabary and for writing the first substantial English language-Inuktitut dictionary.... )
1872	Venda Venda language Venda, also known as Tshiven?a, or Luven?a, is a Bantu languages language. The majority of Venda speakers live in South Africa , but there are also speakers in Zimbabwe....	Reduced to writing by the Berlin Missionaries	First complete Bible Bible The Bible is the central religious text of Judaism and Christianity. The exact Books of the Bible is dependent on the religious traditions of specific denominations.... translation 1936
ca. 1900	Papuan languages Papuan languages The term Papuan languages refers to those languages of the western Pacific which are neither Austronesian languages nor Australian Aboriginal languages....
ca. 1900	Other Austronesian languages Austronesian languages The Austronesian languages are a language family widely dispersed throughout the islands of Maritime Southeast Asia and the Pacific, with a few members spoken on continental Asia.... .
1903	Lingala Lingala language Lingala is a Bantu languages language spoken throughout the northwestern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and a large part of the Republic of the Congo , as well as to some degree in Angola and the Central African Republic....
1968	Southern Ndebele Southern Ndebele language The Southern Ndebele language is an African language belonging to the Nguni languages group of Bantu languages, and spoken by the amaNdebele . There are two dialects of Southern Ndebele in South Africa:...	Small booklet published with praises of their kings and a little history	Translation of the New Testament New Testament The New Testament is the name given to the second major division of the Christianity Bible, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament.... of the Bible Bible The Bible is the central religious text of Judaism and Christianity. The exact Books of the Bible is dependent on the religious traditions of specific denominations.... completed in 1986 - translation of Old Testament Old Testament In Western Christianity, the Old Testament refers to the books that form the first of the two-part Christianity Bible Biblical canon. These works correspond to the Hebrew Bible , with some variations and additions.... ongoing
1984	Gooniyandi Gooniyandi language Gooniyandi is an Australian Aboriginal languages now spoken by about 100 people, most of whom live in or near Fitzroy Crossing in Western Australia....

By family

Attestation by major language family

Language family

A language family is a group of languages related Genetic from a common ancestor, called the proto-language of that family.As with Alpha taxonomy, the evidence of relationship is observable shared characteristics....
:

Afro-Asiatic: since about the 28th c. BC

28th c. BC: Egyptian
Egyptian language

Egyptian is a branch of the Afro-Asiatic languages language family along with the Chadic languages, Berber languages, Semitic languages, Cushitic languages and possibly Omotic languages languages....
24th c. BC: Semitic
Semitic languages

File:Amarna Akkadian letter.pngThe Semitic languages are a group of related languages whose living representatives are spoken by more than 467 million people across much of the Middle East, North Africa and the Horn of Africa....
(Eblaite
Eblaite language

Eblaite is an extinct, perhaps East Semitic language, which was spoken in the 3rd millennium BCE in the ancient city of Ebla, in modern Syria. It is considered to be the oldest written Semitic language....
, Akkadian
Akkadian language

Akkadian or Assyrian-Babylonian is a Semitic language that was spoken in ancient Mesopotamia. The earliest attested Semitic language, it used the cuneiform writing system derived ultimately from ancient Sumerian language, an unrelated language isolate....
)

16th c. BC: West Semitic
West Semitic languages

The West Semitic languages are a proposed major sub-grouping of Semitic languages. One widely accepted analysis, supported by semiticists like Robert Hetzron and John Huehnergard, divides the Semitic language family into two branches: East Semitic languages and Western....
(Canaanite
Canaanite languages

The Canaanite languages or Hebraic languages are a subfamily of the Semitic languages, which were spoken by the ancient peoples of the Canaan region, including Canaanites, Israelites, Phoenicians, and Philistines....
)

Hurro-Urartian
Hurro-Urartian languages

The Hurro-Urartian languages are an extinct language language family of the Ancient Near East, which comprises only two languages, Hurrian language and Urartian language, both of which were spoken in the Taurus mountains area....
: ca. 20th c. BC
Indo-European
Indo-European languages

The Indo-European languages are a Language family of several hundred related languages and dialects, including most major languages of Europe, the Iranian plateau , Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent ....
: since about the 19th c. BC

19th c. BC: Anatolian
Anatolian languages

The Anatolian languages are a group of extinct Indo-European languages languages, which were spoken in Asia Minor, the best attested of them being the Hittite language....
15th c. BC: Greek
Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
14th c. BC: Indo-Iranian
Indo-Iranian languages

The Indo-Iranian language group constitutes the easternmost extant branch of the Indo-European languages family of languages. It consists of three language groups: the Indo-Aryan languages , Iranian languages and Nuristani languages....
(Indo-Aryan superstrate in Mitanni
Indo-Aryan superstrate in Mitanni

Some theonyms, proper names and other terminology of the Mitanni exhibit an Indo-Aryan languages superstrate, suggesting that an Indo-Aryans elite imposed itself over the Hurrian population in the course of the Indo-Aryan migration....
)
7th c. BC: Italic
Italic languages

The Italic subfamily is a member of the Indo-European languages language family's Centum branch. It includes the Romance languages derived from Latin , and a number of extinct languages of the Italian Peninsula, including Umbrian language, Oscan language, and the aforementioned Latin....
6th c. BC: Celtic
Celtic languages

The Celtic languages are descended from Proto-Celtic, or "Common Celtic", a branch of the greater Indo-European languages language family. The term "Celtic" was used to describe this language group by Edward Lhuyd in 1707, having much earlier been used by Greek and Roman writers to describe tribes in central Gaul....
2nd c. AD: Germanic
Germanic languages

The Germanic languages are a group of related languages that constitute a branch of the Indo-European languages language family. The common ancestor of all the languages in this branch is Proto-Germanic, spoken in approximately the mid-1st millennium BC in Pre-Roman Iron Age....
10th c. AD: Balto-Slavic
Balto-Slavic languages

The Balto-Slavic language group consists of the Baltic languages and Slavic languages, belonging to the Indo-European languages of languages. Having experienced a period of common development, Baltic and Slavic languages share several linguistic traits not found in any other Indo-European branch, which points to their close genetic relationsh...

Sino-Tibetan: about 1400 BC

roughly 1400 BC: Old Chinese
Old Chinese

Old Chinese , or Archaic Chinese as used by linguist Bernhard Karlgren, refers to the Chinese language spoken from the Shang Dynasty , well into the Former Han Dynasty ....
9th c. AD: Tibeto-Burman (Tibetan
Tibetan language

The Tibetan languages are a cluster of mutually unintelligible Tibeto-Burman languages spoken primarily by Tibetan peoples who live across a wide area of eastern Central Asia bordering South Asia, including the Tibetan Plateau and the northern Indian subcontinent in Baltistan, Ladakh, Nepal, Sikkim, and Bhutan....
)

Dravidian
Dravidian languages

The Dravidian Language families and languages includes approximately 73 languages and are mainly spoken in South India and northeastern Sri Lanka Tamils , as well as certain areas in Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, and eastern and central India, as well as in parts of Afghanistan, Iran, and overseas in other countries such as Malaysia and Si...
: 3rd c. BC
Austronesian
Austronesian languages

The Austronesian languages are a language family widely dispersed throughout the islands of Maritime Southeast Asia and the Pacific, with a few members spoken on continental Asia....
: 3rd c. AD
Mayan: 3rd c. AD
Basque
Basque language

Basque is the language spoken by the Basque people who inhabit the Pyrenees in North-Central Spain and the adjoining region of South-Western France....
: 4th c.
South Caucasian
South Caucasian languages

The South Caucasian languages are spoken primarily in Georgia , with smaller groups of speakers in Turkey, Azerbaijan, Iran, Russia and Israel....
: 5th c. (Georgian
Georgian language

Georgian is the official language of Georgia , a country in the Caucasus .Georgian is the primary language of about 3.9 million people in Georgia itself, and of another 500,000 abroad ....
)
Northeast Caucasian
Northeast Caucasian languages

The Northeast Caucasian languages, also called East Caucasian, Caspian, Nakho-Dagestanian, or Dagestanian, are a family of languages spoken in the Russian republics of Dagestan, Chechnya, and Ingushetia, in northern Azerbaijan, and in Georgia , as well as in diaspora populations....
: 7th c. (Udi
Udi language

The Udi language, spoken by the Udi people, is a member of the Northeast Caucasian languages. It is believed this was the main language of Caucasian Albania, which stretched from south Dagestan to current day Azerbaijan....
)
Austro-Asiatic: 7th c. (Khmer
Khmer language

Khmer , or Cambodian, is the language of the Khmer people and the official language of Cambodia. It is the second most widely spoken Austro-Asiatic languages, with speakers in the tens of millions....
)
Altaic
Altaic languages

Altaic is a disputed language family that is generally held by its proponents to include the Turkic languages, Mongolic languages, Tungusic languages, Korean language, and Japonic languages language families ....
: 8th c.

8th c.: Turkic
Turkic languages

The Turkic languages constitute a language family of some thirty languages, spoken by Turkic peoples across a vast area from Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean Sea to Siberia and Western China, and are sometimes considered to be part of the proposed Altaic languages....
(Old Turkic)
8th c.: Japonic
13th c.: Mongolic
Mongolic languages

The Mongolic languages are a group of languages spoken in Central Asia. Some linguists propose the grouping of Mongolic with Turkic languages and Tungusic languages as Altaic languages, but this hypothesis is not universally agreed upon....

Nilo-Saharan: 9th c. (Old Nubian
Old Nubian language

Old Nubian is an ancient variety of the Nubian languages, spoken until about the 15th century AD. It is ancestral to modern-day Nobiin language and other Nubian languages spoken in Nubia....
)
Uralic
Uralic languages

The Uralic languages constitute a language families of 39 languages spoken by approximately 25 million people. The healthiest Uralic languages in terms of the number of native speakers are Hungarian language, Finnish language, Estonian language, Mari language and Udmurt language....
/Finno-Ugric
Finno-Ugric

Finno-Ugric can refer to:* Finno-Ugric languages* Finno-Ugric peoplesExcess long comment to prevent listing on...
: 11th century

11th c. Ugric
Ugric

Ugric can refer to:* Ugric languages* Ugric peoples...
(Hungarian
Hungarian language

Hungarian is a Uralic languages unrelated to most other languages in Europe. It is mainly spoken in Hungary and by the Hungarian minorities in the seven neighbouring countries....
)
14th c. Finnic
Finnic

Finnic can refer to:* Finnic languages* Finnic peoples Adding long comment tag to protect...

Tai-Kadai: 13th c.
Uto-Aztecan
Uto-Aztecan languages

Uto-Aztecan is a Indigenous languages of the Americas language family. It is one of the largest and most well-established linguistic families of the Americas....
: 16th c.
Quechuan
Quechuan languages

The Quechuan languages are a language family of related languages in South America. Though it is traditionally referred to as a Quechua many linguists treat it as a family of languages....
: 16th c.
Niger-Congo (Bantu
Bantu languages

The Bantu languages constitute a grouping belonging to the Niger-Congo languages family. This grouping is deep down in the genealogical tree of the Bantoid grouping, which in turn is deep down in the Niger-Congo tree....
): 18th c.
Indigenous Australian languages: 18th c.
Iroquoian
Iroquoian languages

The Iroquoian languages are a First Nation and Native Americans in the United States language family. The language family, amongst others, includes Mohawk language, Wyandot language and Cherokee language....
: 19th c.
Papuan languages
Papuan languages

The term Papuan languages refers to those languages of the western Pacific which are neither Austronesian languages nor Australian Aboriginal languages....
: 20th c.

Constructed languages

Date	Language	Attestation	Notes
1879	Volapük Volapük Volap?k is a constructed language, created in 1879?1880 by Johann Martin Schleyer, a Roman Catholic Church priest in Grand Duchy of Baden, Germany....		created by Johann Martin Schleyer Johann Martin Schleyer Johann Martin Schleyer , Germany Catholic priest who invented the constructed language Volap?k. His official name was "Martin Schleyer"; he added the name "Johann" unofficially....
1887	Esperanto Esperanto is the most widely spoken constructed language international auxiliary language in the world. Its name derives from Doktoro Esperanto, the pseudonym under which L....	Unua Libro Unua Libro The Unua Libro was the first publication to describe the international language Esperanto . It was first published in Russian language on July 26, 1887 in Warsaw, by L....	created by L. L. Zamenhof L. L. Zamenhof Ludwik Lazarz Zamenhof was an Ophthalmology, philologist, and the inventor of Esperanto, a constructed language designed for international communication....
1907	Ido Ido Ido is a constructed language created with the goal of becoming a universal second language for speakers of different linguistic backgrounds as a language easier to learn than ethnic languages....		based on Esperanto
1917	Quenya Quenya Quenya is one of the fictional Languages of Arda spoken by the Elf , in the fantasy works of J. R. R. Tolkien. It was the language developed by those non-Telerin Elf who reached Valinor from an earlier language called Common Eldarin, which also evolved from the original Primitive Quendian....		created by J. R. R. Tolkien J. R. R. Tolkien John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, Order of the British Empire was an English people English literature, poetry, Philology, and university professor, best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion....
1928	Novial Novial Novial [nov- + IAL, International Auxiliary Language] is a constructed language international auxiliary language intended to facilitate international communication and friendship, without displacing anyone's native language....		created by Otto Jespersen Otto Jespersen Jens Otto Harry Jespersen or Otto Jespersen was a Denmark linguistics who specialized in the grammar of the English language language.He was born in Randers in northern Jutland and attended Copenhagen University, earning degrees in English, French language, and Latin....
1935	Sona Sona language Sona is an international auxiliary language created by Kenneth Searight and described in a book he published in 1935. The word Sona in the language itself means "auxiliary neutral object ", but the name was also chosen to echo "sonority" or "sound"....	Sona, an auxiliary neutral language	created by Kenneth Searight Kenneth Searight Kenneth Searight was the creator of the international auxiliary language Sona language. His book Sona; an auxiliary neutral language outlines the language's grammar and vocabulary....
1943	Interglossa	Later became Glosa Glosa Glosa is an isolating international auxiliary language . "Isolating" means that there are no inflections - words remain always in their original form, no matter what function they have in the sentence....	created by Lancelot Hogben Lancelot Hogben Lancelot Thomas Hogben was a versatile United Kingdom experimental zoologist and medical statistician. He is now best known for his popularising books on science, mathematics and language....
1951	Interlingua Interlingua Interlingua is an international auxiliary language , developed between 1937 and 1951 by the International Auxiliary Language Association . It is the second or third most widely used IAL and the most widely used International auxiliary language#Classification IAL: in other words, its vocabulary, grammar and other characteristics are largely...	Interlingua-English Dictionary Interlingua-English Dictionary The Interlingua-English Dictionary , developed by the International Auxiliary Language Association under the direction of Alexander Gode and published by Storm Publishers in 1951, is the first Interlingua dictionary....	created by the International Auxiliary Language Association International Auxiliary Language Association The International Auxiliary Language Association was founded in 1924 to "promote widespread study, discussion and publicity of all questions involved in the establishment of an international auxiliary language, together with research and experiment that may hasten such establishment in an intelligent manner and on stable foundations."...
1955	Loglan Loglan Loglan is a constructed language originally designed for linguistic research, particularly for investigating the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis. The language was developed beginning in 1955 by Dr....		created by James Cooke Brown James Cooke Brown Dr. James Cooke Brown was a sociologist and science fiction author. He is notable for creating the artificial language Loglan and for designing the Parker Brothers board game Careers ....
1962	Nadsat Nadsat Nadsat is a constructed language language used by the teenagers, also called nadsat, in Anthony Burgess' novel A Clockwork Orange. It is based on English with many Russian language influences....		created by Anthony Burgess Anthony Burgess John Burgess Wilson was an England author, poet, playwright, composer, linguist, translator and critic.His Utopian and dystopian fiction satire A Clockwork Orange, widely considered to be his magnum opus, is by far his most famous novel, and was adapted into a famous, if highly controversial, A Clockwork Orange by Stanley Kubrick.... in his book A Clockwork Orange A Clockwork Orange *A Clockwork Orange* is a dystopian novel novel by Anthony Burgess.The title is taken from an old Cockney expression, "as queer as a clockwork orange", and alludes to the prevention of the main character's exercise of his free will through the use of a classical conditioning technique....
1985	Klingon Klingon language The Klingon language is the constructed language spoken by Klingons in the fictional Star Trek universe. Deliberately designed by Marc Okrand to be "alien", it contains many peculiarities, such as Object Verb Subject word order....		created by Marc Okrand Marc Okrand 'Marc Okrand' is an United States of America linguist, and the creator of the Klingon language. He was hired by Paramount Pictures to develop the language and coach the actors on Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country and S...
1987	Lojban Lojban Lojban is a constructed language, syntactically unambiguous human language based on First-order logic. Its predecessor is Loglan, the original logical language by James Cooke Brown....		based on Loglan Loglan Loglan is a constructed language originally designed for linguistic research, particularly for investigating the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis. The language was developed beginning in 1955 by Dr.... , created by the Logical Language Group

List of languages by first written accounts

Before 1000 BC

First millennium BC

First millennium AD

1000-1500 AD

After 1500 AD

By family

Constructed languages

See also