Classical language

A classical language is any language with an independent literary tradition and a large body of ancient written literature. Typically associated with civilizations of antiquity, these languages serve as foundational sources for historical, philosophical, religious, and scientific texts, often enduring long after their everyday spoken use has declined. Many classical languages are considered extinct or no longer in vernacular use, while some exist in liturgical or literary contexts. Those that are still in use today tend to show diglossic characteristics in areas where they are used, as the difference between spoken and written languages has widened over time. The term "classical language" may refer more narrowly to only Ancient Greek and Latin, especially in the context of classical studies.

A classical language is any language with an independent literary tradition and a large body of ancient written literature. Typically associated with civilizations of antiquity, these languages serve as foundational sources for historical, philosophical, religious, and scientific texts, often enduring long after their everyday spoken use has declined. Many classical languages are considered extinct or no longer in vernacular use, while some exist in liturgical or literary contexts. Those that are still in use today tend to show diglossic characteristics in areas where they are used, as the difference between spoken and written languages has widened over time. The term "classical language" may refer more narrowly to only Ancient Greek and Latin, especially in the context of classical studies. ===Antiquity=== Classical Sumerian (literary language of Sumer, c. 26th to 23rd centuries BC) Sumerograms were used in Cuneiform even for non-Sumerian texts until the writing system went out of use around the first century AD Middle Egyptian (literary language of Ancient Egypt from c. the 20th century BC to the 4th century AD) Old Babylonian (the Akkadian language from c. 20th to 16th centuries BC, the imitated standard for later literary works) Middle Assyrian (the Akkadian language from c. 16th to 13th centuries BC) Vedic Sanskrit (the form of Sanskrit before Classical standardization was used in Vedic texts from c. 15th to 5th centuries BC) Old Avestan (language of the Avesta, 15th to 5th centuries BC) Classical Hebrew (language of the Tanakh, in particular of the prophetic books of c. the 7th and 6th centuries BC) Imperial Aramaic (standardized language of Old Aramaic, 7th to 3rd centuries BC) Old Persian (court language of the Achaemenid Empire, 6th to 4th centuries BC) Classical Greek (Attic dialect of the 5th century BC; Koine dialect of the Hellenistic period and Roman era, 323 BC to 330 AD) Classical Chinese (based on the literary language, Yayan, used in the capital Luoyang of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty from c. the 5th century BC) Classical Sanskrit (described by Pāṇini's Ashtadhyayi of the 4th century BC) Classical Tamil (Sangam literature c. 3rd century BC to 3rd century AD, defined by Tolkāppiyam) Pali (Pali Canon used this language from 2nd centuries BC) Maharashtri Prakrit (a Prakrit language, was the official language of the Satavahana dynasty c. 2nd century BC) Classical Latin (literary language of the 1st century BC) Classical Mandaic (literary Aramaic of Mandaeism, 1st century AD) Classical Syriac (literary Aramaic of Syriac Christianity, 3rd to 5th centuries) Middle Persian (court language of the Sassanid Empire, 3rd to 7th centuries) Coptic (language of Egypt and the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, 3rd to 13th centuries, liturgical language to the present day) ===Middle Ages=== Buddhist Chinese (language of the Chinese Buddhist Canon, literary lingua franca of East Asian Buddhism) Classical Armenian (the oldest attested form of Armenian from the 5th century, literary language until the 18th century, and language of the Armenian Apostolic Church) Geʽez (language of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church; the Garima Gospels are dated from the 5th century to the 10th century by various scholars) Old Georgian (language of Georgia, 5th to 11th centuries) Sogdian (lingua franca of Central Asia, 6th to 8th centuries) Classical Arabic (language of the Qur'an, 7th century to present; liturgical language of Islam) Classical Odia (the earliest form of Odia language, attested in Ganga dynasty, 7th to 12th centuries) Classical Marathi (the earliest form of Marathi language, attested in Yadava dynasty, 7th to 12th centuries) Classical Assamese (the earliest form of Assamese language, attested in Kamarupa kingdom, 7th to 12th centuries) Classical Bengali (the earliest form of Bengali language, attested in Kingdom of Gauda, 7th to 12th centuries) Old Khmer (language of the Khmer Empire, 9th to 15th centuries) Classical Kannada (court language of Rashtrakuta empire; earliest available literary work is the Kavirājamārga of AD 850) Old Saxon (language of Saxon Christian literature, 9th to 12th centuries) Old English (language of Beowulf and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle with many divergent written dialects, but partially standardized in West Saxon form) Old French (language of chivalric romance, 8th to 14th centuries) Old East Slavic (language of the Kievan Rus', 9th to 13th centuries) Classical Persian (language of classical Persian literature, 9th to present) Old Uyghur (Turkic language spoken in Qocho from 9th to 14th centuries and in Gansu) Old Nubian (language of Nubia, 9th or 10th to 15th centuries) Old Javanese (language of Old Javanese literature, used primarily during Hindu-Buddhist Javanese kingdom era from 10th to 15th centuries) Old Church Slavonic (language of the First Bulgarian Empire during its Golden Age, 10th century earliest manuscript is Freising manuscripts) Classical Tibetan (religious and literary language of Tibet, 10th century to present) Classical Japanese (language of Heian period literature, 10th to 12th centuries) Middle Korean (language of Goryeo and Early Joseon, 10th to 16th centuries) Old Burmese (language of the Pagan kingdom, 11th to 13th centuries) Old Occitan (language of the troubadours, 11th to 14th centuries) Middle High German (language of Medieval German literature, 11th to 14th centuries) Old Serbian (language of Serbia before its conquest by the Ottoman Empire, 11th to 14th centuries) Classical Telugu (the earliest available literary work is the Telugu Mahabharata, AD 1067) Classical Malayalam (the earliest extant prose work is the Ramacharitam, 12th century) Classical Newar (lingua franca of Nepal Mandala, 12th to 18th centuries) Old Norse (language of the Viking Age, from the 12th century) Middle Bulgarian (language of the Second Bulgarian Empire, 12th to 15th centuries) Middle Low German (language of the Hanseatic League, 12th to 17th centuries) Old Icelandic (language of the Icelandic sagas, 13th century) Old Catalan (language of literature in the Crown of Aragon, 13th to 14th centuries) Manding (language of the Mali Empire, 13th to 16th centuries) Old Ruthenian (language of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, 13th to 16th centuries) Classical Irish or Classical Gaelic (language of the 13th to 18th centuries Scottish and Irish Gaelic literature) Middle English (language of The Canterbury Tales, 14th to 15th centuries, with many divergent written dialects, but partially standardized on London speech) Middle French (language of the French Renaissance, 14th to 17th centuries) Old Hungarian (language of Hungarian literature, 14th to 15th centuries) Songhay (lingua franca of the Songhai Empire, 14th to 16th centuries) Early New High German (language of the Holy Roman Empire, the German Renaissance, and the Protestant Reformation, 14th to 17th centuries) Classical Malay (language of Maritime Southeast Asia, 14th to 18th centuries) Chagatai (classical Turkic language of Central Asia and the Volga 14th to early 20th centuries) Rekhta (poetic language of Delhi and the Northern/Central Indian subcontinent, 13th to 18th centuries, became standardized as Urdu in the 19th century) ===Amerindian languages=== Classical Maya (language of the mature Maya civilization, 3rd to 9th centuries) Classical Nahuatl (lingua franca of 16th century central Mexico) Classical Quechua (lingua franca of the 16th century Inca Empire) Classical Kʼicheʼ (language of 16th century Guatemala) Classical Tupi (language of 16th century Brazil) Classical Guarani (language of 16th century Paraguay) ===Early modern period=== Awadhi (one of two major literary traditions of Northern India during Mughal rule led to its use by poets, 14th to 18th centuries) Braj Bhasha (the second of two major literary traditions in early modern Northern India used by poets, 15th-19th centuries) Renaissance Italian (language of the Italian Renaissance, 15th to 16th centuries) Late Old Portuguese (language of Portuguese Golden Age, 15th to 16th centuries) Early Modern Spanish (language of the Spanish Golden Age, 15th to 17th centuries) Classical Azeri (lingua franca of the Caucasus Mountain region and language of Azeri literature, 15th to 18th centuries) Old Lithuanian (the other language of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, 16th to 17th centuries) Early Modern English (language of the King James Bible, the Book of Common Prayer, and Shakespeare, 16th to 17th centuries) Middle Polish (language of the Polish Golden Age, 16th to 18th centuries) Classical Ottoman Turkish (language of poetry and administration of the Ottoman Empire, 16th to 19th centuries) Ryukyuan (language of the Ryukyu Kingdom, 16th to 19th centuries) Manchu (language of the Manchus who ruled China, 16th to 20th centuries) Classical Mongolian (language of Mongolian literature and translations of Tibetan Buddhist religious texts, 17th to 20th centuries) Early Modern Korean (language of Late Joseon, 17th to 19th centuries) Early Modern Dutch (language of the Dutch Golden Age, 17th century) Classical French (language of France under Louis XIV to Napoleon, 17th to 18th centuries) Classical Ladino (language of Sephardic Jewish literature, 17th to 19th centuries) Early Modern Russian (language of the Russian Empire, 18th to 19th centuries) Sadhu Bhasha (the modern language Bengali from 1820s to 1940s) Classical Yiddish (language of the Yiddish Renaissance, 19th–20th centuries) ==Sources== ==Further reading== Ashdowne, Richard. 2009. "Accidence and Acronyms: Deploying electronic assessment in support of classical language teaching in a university context." Arts and Humanities in Higher Education 8, no. 2: 201–16. Beach, Adam R. 2001. "The creation of a classical language in the eighteenth century: standardizing English, cultural imperialism, and the future of the literary canon." Texas Studies in Literature and Language 43, no. 2: 117+. Coulson, Michael. 1976. Sanskrit: An Introduction to the Classical Language. Sevenoaks, Kent: Hodder and Stoughton. Crooker, Jill M., and Kathleen A. Rabiteau. 2000. "An interwoven fabric: The AP Latin examinations, the SAT II: Latin test, and the national "standards for classical language learning." The Classical Outlook 77, no. 4: 148–53. Denizot, Camille, and Olga Spevak. 2017. Pragmatic Approaches to Latin and Ancient Greek. Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company. Eschbach-Szabo, Viktoria, and Shelley Ching-yu Hsieh. 2005. "Chinese as a classical language of botanical science: Semiotics of transcription." Kodikas/Code. Ars Semeiotica: An International Journal of Semiotics 28, nos. 3–4: 317–43. Gruber-Miller, John. 2006. When Dead Tongues Speak: Teaching Beginning Greek and Latin. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Hymes, Robert. 2006. "Getting the Words Right: Speech, Vernacular Language, and Classical Language in Song Neo-Confucian 'Records of Words'." Journal of Song-Yuan Studies 36: 25–55. https://www.jstor.org/stable/23496297. Koutropoulos, Apostolos. 2011. "Modernizing classical language education: communicative language teaching & educational technology integration in classical Greek." Human Architecture: Journal of the Sociology of Self-Knowledge 9, no. 3 (2011): 55–69. Tieken, Herman. 2010. "Blaming the Brahmins: Texts lost and found in Tamil literary history." Studies in History 26, no. 2: 227–43. Watt, Jonathan M. 2003. "Classical language instruction: A window to cultural diversity." International Journal of Diversity in Organisations, Communities, and Nations 3: 115–24. Whitney, William Dwight. 1971. Sanskrit Grammar: Including Both the Classical Language, and the Older Dialects, of Veda and Brahmana. 12th issue of the 2nd ed. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. ==External links==

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