Top 10 Extinct Languages
Top 10 Dead Languages
Dead and forgotten... well, sort of. Welcome to WatchMojo.com and today we’ll be counting down our picks for the Top 10 Dead Languages.
For this list, we’re looking at languages that no longer have any native speakers. While some are spoken in specific circumstances or developed into modern variants, these ancient languages have been lost to the passage of time.
#10: Iberian
If Sid Meier taught us anything, it would be that colonization and indigenous cultures do not mesh well together. A prehistoric civilization that existed in parts of Southern and Eastern Spain, Ibero was heavily influenced by Greek and Phoenician culture but maintained its own distinctive flavour, including a unique language. While a couple of Iberian scripts have survived, very few of the words can actually be translated, and the language fell out of use once the Iberian peninsula joined the Roman Empire and started to use Latin.
#9: Etruscan
Hailing from what is nowadays known as Tuscany, this language was primarily used by the Etruscan civilization, who lived in close proximity to Ancient Rome. Founded around 700 BC, thousands of inscriptions have been discovered in parts of Italy, the Mediterranean, and Egypt. While the alphabet was likely derived from Greek, scholars remain unsure about Etruscan's influence or origin, primarily due to the language being rather indecipherable. Interestingly, very little is known about the civilization itself, with both the Romans and Etruscans opting against preserving their history or literature.
#8: Hunnic
History tends to remember the Huns as barbaric savages who forced the Roman Empire to its knees, but there was more to this nomadic tribe than meets the eye. A multi-ethnic confederation consisting of subjugated societies, the Huns spoke Hunnic, Gothic, and a variety of other languages. As the Huns were not big on the written word, scholars depend on third-party accounts for information on Hunnic, and the vocabulary is limited to three nouns. Due to the civilization's cultural diversity and the limited evidence, Hunnic has been linked to a variety of languages, including Turkic, Indo-European, and Altaic.
#7: Coptic
Moving away from its predecessors’ reliance on hieroglyphs and cursive writing, Coptic served as Egypt's spoken language from the 2nd to the 17th century – the final evolution of Ancient Egyptian. Founded on the Greek alphabet and a handful of demotic signs, the Afro-Asiatic language birthed six unique dialects whose usage varied according to geographical position. While Coptic was rarely used outside of its territory – and eventually gave way to Egyptian Arabic – attempts have been made since the 19th century to revive its use. The language's influence can still be seen in the names of various cities, and survives as the religious language of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria.
#6: Old Norse
Ever dreamed of talking like a Viking? If yes, Old Norse is worth learning! Dating back to approximately the 9th century, Old Norse morphed from Proto-Norse, and marked the start of the Viking Era. Forming part of the North Germanic family, variants of Old Norse were spoken throughout Scandinavia and in areas conquered by the Vikings. Similarly to Latin and Catholicism, Old Norse held significant spiritual value for Germanic people, and the language presence can be felt in its Scandinavian descendants like Icelandic and Swedish. Luckily for Thor fans, Old Norse can still be learned today.
#5: Middle English
Partially inspired by Old Norse and French, Middle English transitioned from Old English's synthetic sentences to a more direct and analytical style. Due to Britain's defeat at the hands of William the Conqueror, Anglo-Saxon was pretty much eradicated and Middle English became associated with the uneducated masses. Regional and improvised, the language started to gain momentum during the Hundred Year War that saw the release of Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and John Wycliffe's daring translation of The Bible. Middle English established a grammatical focus on word order over inflectional endings, and a shift toward a more heterogeneous vocabulary.
#4: Aramaic
Even if Hebrew stole a bit of the spotlight, scholars believe that Jesus actually spoke Aramaic. With a history spanning 3,000 years, this Semitic language hails back to an ancient Mesopotamian civilization known as the Arameans. While Alexander the Great's subjugation of the Persian Empire established Greek as the Middle East's formal language, Aramaic continued to be spoken in Palestine and was used for a couple of sections of the Old Testament. It was not until the 7th century that Aramaic started to fade out in favour of Arabic. While a modern form of the language exists, Neo-Aramaic consists of a few different dialects.
#3: Ancient Egyptian
With the written word harbouring back to around 3400 BC, only Sumerian predates the dialect of the Pharaohs. Separated into four different periods, Ancient Egyptian found its footing with the establishment of the Old Kingdom and can be found scribbled onto the side of Pyramids and sarcophagi. Employed for religious, medical, and literary texts, Ancient Egyptian was a highly-developed language that lasted for nearly four millennia. As Coptic was influenced heavily by Greek and Arabic-speaking settlers, Ancient Egyptian barely holds any influence over Egypt's modern tongue.
#2: Ancient Greek
While Mesopotamia and early Ancient Egypt mostly used writing to maintain records, Ancient Greece embraced the written word's potential for individual expression. The language of Homer, Plato, and Sophocles, Ancient Greek can be traced back to 9th century BC, and continues to be taught. Although the Phoenicians served as a source of inspiration, Greece contributed the first full alphabet, and several letters – including A and B – have stood the test of time. While English has only been indirectly affected by the language, Greek Mythology has greatly influenced modern literature, and many scientific terms are derived from Ancient Greek.
#1: Latin
Until the 1960s, Latin acted as the Catholic Church's primary tongue for religious services, but the language no longer has any native speakers. Due to the Roman Empire's expansion and the later establishment of Christianity in Britain, Latin was the Western World's most influential language for over a thousand years, and continues to be practiced in certain academic or religious settings. Even if English's core vocabulary is inherited from Proto-Germanic, thousands of words – including vice versa, alter ego, and etcetera – are borrowed directly from Latin, and the works of Roman writers like Virgil are universally studied.