A classical language, is a language with a literature that is "classical"—ie, "it should be ancient, it should be an independent tradition that arose mostly on its own, not as an offshoot of another tradition, and it must have a large and extremely rich body of ancient literature."¹ (George L. Hart of UC Berkeley) Old book bindings at the Merton College library. ... I have been a Professor of Tamil at the University of California, Berkeley, since 1975 and am currently holder of the Tamil Chair at that institution. ... The University of California, Berkeley (also known as Cal, UC Berkeley, UCB, or simply Berkeley) is a prestigious, public, coeducational university situated in the foothills of Berkeley, California to the east of San Francisco Bay, overlooking the Golden Gate and its bridge. ...

In another sense of the word, an important criterion is that a language should have a broad influence over an extended period of time, even after it is no longer a colloquial mother tongue in its original form. If one language uses roots from another language to coin words (in the way that many European languages use Greek and Latin roots to devise new words such as "telephone" etc.), this is an indication that the second language is a classical language. Also, the writing system of such a classical languages will often have spread to be used by other languages.

Thus classical languages tend to be either dead languages (except for Sanskrit and Tamil), or show a high degree of diglossia, as the spoken varieties of the language diverge further and further away from the classical written language over centuries. An extinct language is a language which is no longer natively spoken: it is estimated that one natural human language dies every two weeks. ... The Sanskrit language ( , for short ) is an old Indo-Aryan language from the Indian Subcontinent, the classical literary language of the Hindus of India[1], a liturgical language of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism, and one of the 23 official languages of India. ... Tamil (Thamizh) is a classical language of the Dravidian language family. ... In linguistics, diglossia is a situation where, in a given society, there are two (often) closely-related languages, one of high prestige, which is generally used by the government and in formal texts, and one of low prestige, which is usually the spoken vernacular tongue. ...

Note that the judgment as to whether a language is "classical" is made on the basis of external factors, and not the nature of the language itself.

List of classical languages

• Indo-European languages:
  • Classical Greek
  • Classical Sanskrit
  • Latin
  • Classical Persian
• Afro-Asiatic languages:
  • Classical Arabic
  • Classical Hebrew
• Dravidian languages:
  • Tamil
• Sino-Tibetan languages:
  • Classical Chinese

The Indo-European languages comprise a family of several hundred related languages and dialects [1], including most of the major languages of Europe, as well as many spoken in the Indian subcontinent (South Asia), the Iranian plateau (Southwest Asia), and Central Asia. ... The History of Greece extends back to the arrival of the Greeks in Europe some time before 1500 BC, even though there has only been an independent state called Greece since Turkey, Italy and Libya. ... ... Latin is an ancient Indo-European language originally spoken in Latium, the region immediately surrounding Rome. ... The Afro-Asiatic languages constitute a language family with about 375 languages (SIL estimate) and more than 300 million speakers spread throughout North Africa, East Africa, the Sahel, and Southwest Asia (including some 200 million speakers of Arabic). ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Categories: Language stubs | Judaism-related stubs | Canaanite languages | Hebrew language ... The Dravidian family of languages includes approximately 73 languages[1] that are mainly spoken in southern India and Sri Lanka, as well as certain areas in Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, and eastern and central India, as well as in parts of Afghanistan and Iran, and by overseas Dravidians in other countries... Tamil (Thamizh) is a classical language of the Dravidian language family. ... Sino-Tibetan languages in red. ... Classical Chinese or Literary Chinese is a traditional style of written Chinese based on the grammar and vocabulary of very old forms of Chinese , making it very different from any modern spoken form of Chinese. ...

Quote

"When we realize that an educated Japanese can hardly frame a single literary sentence without the use of Chinese resources, that to this day Siamese and Burmese and Cambodgian bear the unmistakable imprint of the Sanskrit and Pali that came in with Hindu Buddhism centuries ago, or that whether we argue for or against the teaching of Latin and Greek [in schools] our arguments are sure to be studded with words that have come to us from Rome and Athens, we get some indication of what early Chinese culture, Buddhism, and classical mediterranean civilization have meant in the world's history. There are just five languages that have had overwhelming significance as carriers of culture. These are classical Chinese, Sanskrit, Arabic, Greek, and Latin. In comparison with these, even such culturally important languages such as Hebrew and French sink into a secondary position." — Edward Sapir, Language (1921).

Edward Sapir. ...

See also

• History of the Greek language
• History of Latin
• History of the Persian language
• History of the Chinese language
• Literary language
• Official language
• Sacred language
• Standard language
• List of languages by first written accounts

The History of the Greek language Origins There are many theories about the origins of the Greek language. ... The Duenos inscription, from the 6th century BC, is the second-earliest known Latin text. ... The relevance of particular information in (or previously in) this article or section is disputed. ... Most linguists classify all of the variations of Chinese as part of the Sino-Tibetan language family and believe that there was an original language, called Proto-Sino-Tibetan, analogous to Proto-Indo-European, from which the Sinitic and Tibeto-Burman languages descended. ... A literary language is a register of a language that is used in writing, and which often differs in lexicon and syntax from the language used in speech. ... An official language is a language that is given a privileged legal status in a state, or other legally-defined territory. ... A sacred language is a language, frequently a dead language, that is cultivated for religious reasons by people who speak another language in their daily life. ... A standard language (also standard dialect or standardized dialect) is a particular variety of a language that has been given either legal or quasi-legal status. ... This is a list consisting of the approximate dates when the first written accounts of various languages were found. ...

External links

• George L. Hart of UC Berkeley's support for the inclusion of Tamil as a Classical language

Notes

Note 1: According to UC Berkeley linguist George L. Hart: The University of California, Berkeley (also known as Cal, UC Berkeley, UCB, or simply Berkeley) is a prestigious, public, coeducational university situated in the foothills of Berkeley, California to the east of San Francisco Bay, overlooking the Golden Gate and its bridge. ... I have been a Professor of Tamil at the University of California, Berkeley, since 1975 and am currently holder of the Tamil Chair at that institution. ...

[To] qualify as a classical tradition, a language must fit several criteria: it should be ancient, it should be an independent tradition that arose mostly on its own not as an offshoot of another tradition, and it must have a large and extremely rich body of ancient literature.