Are you a language buff who enjoys looking at long-lost languages? Maybe you love history, and find the development of languages over time incredibly interesting? If either of these sounds like you, then checking out some dead languages might be something of interest. This article will seek to outline a small list of some dead languages which are no longer commonly used outside scholarly circles. While you may not be able to order pizza with any of these languages, there are still some pretty cool facts to learn. Use the information in this article to impress your friends, bug your family, or just to satisfy your own curiosity. Learning new things can be fun if you give it a chance.
Proto-Indo European
This language is an ancient one that people do not speak any longer. It served to influence many different languages that are now spoken today. Modern languages such as Russian, German, Italian, Spanish, English, Portuguese, and many others owe their origins and their roots to the proto-indo European language. This language is still the subject of study for many.
Iberian
The Iberian language was spoken primarily on the Iberian Peninsula in Western Europe, which now contains the countries of Spain and Portugal. It was gradually replaced by Latin, due to being conquered by the Romans in the first or second century AD. It was originally spoken by the native inhabitants of the Iberian Peninsula, who were focused on the Eastern and Southeastern portion of the peninsula.
Hunnic
This ancient language was spoken by the Huns in the Hunnic Empire, and eventually became extinct during the year 600-700 CE. The Hunnic Empire was largely based out of Eastern Europe, with it mostly being composed of groups of tribes. Several invasions occurred during the early 4th and 5th centuries. The Hunnic language is commonly compared with the Turkic, and Mongolic languages.
Latin
Latin is a language that is still used in modern times for some things but is largely considered a dead language and has no practical use outside of religious and scientific nomenclature. In pop culture, Latin is often spoken by priests, demons, and other types of paranormal creatures in order to invoke spells or communicate with humans. It also has some significance if you study ancient cultures or religions. Latin eventually developed into many of the commonly spoken romantic languages, such as French, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese.
Sanskrit
Sanskrit is a language that dates back thousands of years and has influenced many modern languages still spoken today. Dating back to roughly four thousand years ago, Sanskrit was first developed in the areas which are now modern India and was influenced by the aforementioned proto-indo European language, which was one of the oldest languages in the world. Sanskrit is still one of the official languages of Modern India, although most people do not speak it commonly. Most of its use is associated with rituals, religion, and other types of traditional Indian ceremonies.
Coptic
This language originated out of Egypt and was spoken until the mid-1700s. It began being used in writings around 2200 years ago, which means that it was spoken for quite some time. It is related to the language of Late Egyptian, which is commonly associated with pop culture by the use of hieroglyphs, and other pictology. There were some changes made to the language as it developed over time, most significantly due to the Islamic period of Egypt, which began around the 7th century. This resulted in changes to the language and the development of different dialects.
Biblical Hebrew
Biblical Hebrew is an ancient language spoken during the time in which the Hebrew Bible was written. It is different from modern Hebrew but maintains some similarities. It was spoken primarily by the Israelites located near the area now known as Israel. There is still lots of research going on regarding when exactly Biblical Hebrew began to be commonly used.
Hopefully, this article has been helpful and informative regarding the different languages which have been lost to time, their origins, and which modern languages they helped to develop. Whether you are a historian, linguistics student, anthropologist, or just another curious mind pursuing the internet, this article should have hopefully included some information that was informative. If any of these languages has significance to you or piques your interest, then consider doing some extra research on the topic in order to follow your interest. The world is a massive and beautiful place, and you can experience more of it by learning new things, and languages are one of the keys to many different types of knowledge.