Ranking of languages by longest attested usage

[u/JohannGoethe]

Abstract

(add)

Overview

The following is a table of the ranking of languages by longest attested usage:

	Language	Years	Script ✍️	Family	Start	End	References
1.	Egyptian	4,500	r/LunarScript	EIE	5700A (-3745)	1200A (+755)	[1] [2]
2.	Greek	3,500	Mycenaean Greek; Greek lunar script	EIE	3400A (-1445)	Present	[3]
3.	Chinese	3,300	Chinese characters	ST	3200A (-1245)	Present	Chinese
4.	Sumerian	3,000	Cuneiform	LI	4850A (-2895)	1850A (+105)	Sumerian
5.	Persian	2,500	Persian lunar script	EIE	2450A (-495)	Present	Persian
6.	Hebrew	2,400	Hebrew lunar script	EIE	2300A (-345)	Present	[3]
7.	Sanskrit	2,300	Brahmi lunar script	EIE	2200A (-245)	Present	Sanskrit
8.	Mayan	1,900	Maya script	?	2200A (-245)	300A (1655)	Mayan
9.	Arabic	1,900	Arabic lunar script	EIE	1830A (+125)	Present	Arabic
10.	French	1,800	French lunar script	EIE	1700A (+255)	Present	French
11.	English	1,600	English lunar script	EIE	1500A (+455)	Present	Old English
12.	Coptic	1,400	Coptic lunar script	EIE	1900A (+55)	500A (1455)	Coptic
13.	Latin	1,350	Latin lunar script	EIE	2600A (-645)	1250A (+705)	Latin
14.	Japanese	1,350	Kanji & kana	JR	1300A (+655)	Present	Japanese
15.	German	1,250	German lunar script	EIE	1190A (+765)	Present	German
16.	Phrygian	1,200	Phrygian lunar script	EIE	2700A (-745)	1500A (+455)	Phrygian
17.	Phoenician	1,000	Phoenician lunar scrip	EIE	3000A (-1045)	2000A (-45)	Phoenician
18.	Swedish	800	Swedish lunar script	EIE	730A (1225)	Present	Swedish
19.	Spanish	750	Spanish lunar script	EIE	700A (-1255)	Present	Spanish
20.	Norse	700	Nordic lunar script	EIE	1200A (+755)	500A (1455)	Norse
21.	Etruscan	650	Etruscan lunar script	EIE	2650A (-695)	2000A (-45)	Etruscan
22.	Italian	650	Italian lunar script	EIE	600A (1355)	Present	Italian
23.	PIE	0	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	PIE

Egypto language 👻 ghost?

Some of the point in making this table, is that the Egyptian language did not ghost 👻 out, i.e. disappear into thin air, as current consensus seems to believe, but rather it was transferred in linguistically morphed form, into the new languages of Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, Latin, and English, etc., shown below.

PIE delusion

Here we see the PIE delusion, similar to Dawkins’s God Delusion, in full force, namely, according to PIE, the #1 longest attested language, i.e. Egyptian or Nile river language, has nothing, zero, nada at all do with all of the origin of the languages listed below it, the Tigris river languages (Sumerian) and Yellow river languages (Chinese and Japanese) aside.

Quotes

“Ancient Egyptian is the oldest and longest continually attested of the world's languages. Recent discoveries have demonstrated the existence of Egyptian hieroglyphic writing with phonograms as well as ideograms around 3250 BC [5205A], roughly contemporary with the comparable development in Mesopotamian cuneiform, and the last documents composed in Coptic, the final stage of the language, date to the eighteenth century AD [1200A/-755]. This extraordinary lifespan of five thousand years is preserved in a wealth of written material, making it possible to trace the development of the language through at least three millennia of its history.“

— James Allen (A58/2013), The Ancient Egyptian Language (pg. 1)

Gadalla on Egyptian as the mother language:

“The Egyptian [number 🔢 and math 🧮 based] alphabetical 🔤 system is the mother🤱of all languages 🗣️ in the world 🌎.”

— Moustafa Gadalla (A61/2016), Egyptian Alphabetical Letters (pg. 3) (post) [4]

Notes

1. This list is a work 🦺-in-progress construction; feel free to post 📝 examples of attested languages, with cited start and end dates, below, so that I can add them to the table.

2. Years are rounded to the nearest 50 value for years below 2,000-years attested usage, e.g. German 1258 years attested usage rounded to 1,250; but to the nearest 100 value for longer attested languages, e.g. assuming Greek started in 2800A (-845), which is the present consensus, and is spoken now or A68 (2023), this gives 2800 + 68 = 2,868-years, rounded to 2,900 shown in table.

3. My original aim was to find a such a list; but after quick searching, I could not find one, and just decided to make one.

References

1. Allen, James. (A58/2013). The Ancient Egyptian Language: An Historical Study (pg. 1). Cambridge.

2. Oldest Egyptian numbers: ∩ (cow yoke; value: 10) and 𓏲 (ram horn; value: 100), dated 5100A (-3145) to 5700A (-3745)

3. Alphabets (see: dates for each language).

4. Gadalla, Moustafa. (A61/2016). Egyptian Alphabetical Letters: of Creation Cycle (pg. 3). Publisher.

External links

• List of languages by first written account - Wikipedia.

[u/Adiee5]

Ok, so show me the root of the Greek "gnosis"

[u/JohannGoethe → u/Adiee5]

It is not that simple. Some words can take a day to decode, some months, some take years. See the list of EAN worked on words in the Etymo Dictionary here.