Bald and proud ya turkeys! But really though, who got a wig for ya boi?
- I'll let you guys contribute to the captions
of this video to translate what that means.
Today there are over 7,100 living languages in the world.
That's a lot of people talking a lot of different stuff.
However, if you think that's a lot,
there used to be even more.
And despite some of those languages being very popular,
they one day completely disappeared.
(speaking in foreign language)
Here are 10 ancient languages that disappeared.
Number 10 is Biblical Hebrew.
An ancient form of Hebrew, Biblical Hebrew,
was the language spoken by the Israelites
during Biblical times.
Records of Biblical Hebrew go back
to at least the 10th century B.C.
Along the way, the language was modified and changed
into another form of Hebrew known as Mishnaic Hebrew.
Hoo, that's a lot of Hebrew.
The version of Hebrew which many speak now
was only made popular in the 19th century.
Believe it or not, a lot of effort
was put into bringing back what was once a dead language.
Today, there's a new version of Hebrew
that was created called Modern Hebrew
with Biblical Hebrew consigned
mostly to religious and academic uses.
I don't know if you've ever tried to speak it,
but it's a very difficult language.
The only thing I know is mazel tov!
That's where they break the glass.
It's kind of dangerous.
Number nine is Middle English.
Middle English gave birth to the language
that I'm speakin' now.
But it was very different.
It was used in England between the 12th and 15th centuries.
The language was a mixture of influences,
including Old English, Norman French,
Old Norse, and Germanic vocabularies.
Yeah, try getting an interpreter for that.
There aren't many existing documents
in Middle English because after the Normans
invaded England from France in 1066,
those who could write tended to do so
in French for the prestige.
Luckily, there are a few exceptions,
like Chaucer's Canterbury Tales,
which have preserved the language.
But later, Middle English was replaced
by early Modern English.
You might recognize this as the language
that Shakespeare used.
Hm, I still findeth all of this confusing.
Number eight is Dacian.
Dacian is an extinct language
dating back to the Roman times.
Those who used it, the Dacians,
were a warrior people who lived
near the Carpathian Mountains in modern day Romania.
Their language seems to be a precursor
to the modern European languages.
Though there's so little left of it,
it's difficult to study or even know.
Some researchers believe that many of the place names
found where they lived may have evolved
out of their long-forgotten language.
After being conquered by the Romans
in the 1st century, the Dacians seemed
to have abandoned their language,
either through force or choice,
and adopted Roman Latin as their chosen tongue.
This was actually common practice
when the Romans came calling,
essentially assimilating other cultures into their own.
It's kinda like the Borg, except without the spaceships.
Number seven is Egyptian.
Egyptian as a language dates back thousands of years.
A version of it was still used
as recently as the 17th century, however.
It's no longer used, however, there is still a form
of it called Coptic, which is the only remnant
of this ancient language.
Ancient Egyptian can be traced back
as far as 2600 B.C., when an archaic version
of the language was first used.
While the language developed across thousands of years,
it began to be replaced by Arabic
as early as the 7th century,
following the Arab-Muslim conquest of the country,
although many remained bilingual for centuries.
Though Coptic is still used
in Christian religious ceremonies in Egypt,
the national language of Egypt is now Arabic.
Basically, all that remains of these ancient languages
are the hieroglyphs.
Bird, baby basket, Pharaoh.
That means sad, translated it for you.
Number six is Hattic.
Living around 5,000 years ago
in what is now modern-day Turkey,
the Hattians spoke an almost completely-forgotten language.
In fact, it's so forgotten, no one really knows
what it was called at the time.
But researchers have settled on the name Hattic,
so we'll just go with that.
Though no direct evidence from the Hattians
has been discovered so far, a few tantalizing clues
about their language have been found.
One example of this is on a few religious tablets
carved by the ancient Hittites,
who lived at the same time as the Hattians.
They refer to the forgotten language of their neighbors,
even using a few Hattic words.
One theory as to why we know so little about Hattic
is that it's an isolated language,
disconnected from any existing language.
So basically, it's going to remain a mystery.
That is unless like, Rosetta Stone
has a class on it, but that's not gonna happen.
Number five is Harappan.
Harappan isn't just extinct,
it's so dead, it's unknown.
Spoken by the Indus Valley civilization
over 4,000 years ago, archeologists and linguists
have no point of reference from which to decode it.
Written forms of the language have been found
carved in pottery, copper tablets,
ivy rods, and even tools.
Harappan seems to contain as many as 400 symbols.
Given the fact that most languages
have alphabets of less than 36 letters,
it would appear that the language
is either the most complex language ever discovered,
or, more likely, that is uses pictures and symbols
to depict full words and phrases.
So it appears as though the Indus Valley people
only wrote in one language,
but it's possible they spoke in several.
Look at that, even more dead languages to go around.
Number four is Ancient Greek.
Alongside Latin, Ancient Greek is considered
one of the most important languages ever devised.
Academics pour over it,
mythological stories are born from it,
and yet, it's dead as a doornail.
Ancient Greek was spoken between about the 9th century B.C.
and the 6th century A.D.
Greece itself is considered by many
to have been the cradle of modern society,
producing everything from democracy
to the modern play.
And born out of that sophistication,
the ancient Greeks wrote a lot.
In fact, so many plays, historical accounts,
and philosophical concepts were written in this language,
that it would be difficult to understand
our development as a species without it.
Ancient Greek was eventually replaced by Medieval
and then Modern Greek, but you gotta love the classics.
Side note, in university, Greek mythology
was one of my favorite classes
'cause I'm a bit of a nerd, (chuckles).
It was good times.
Number three is Old Norse.
When the Viking warriors of Northern Europe
weren't raiding, pillaging, and uh, heh,
doing other stuff, they were speaking and writing
a complex language known as Old Norse.
This language was spoken as wide as Iceland
to parts of Russia.
In Scotland, remnants of the language
can still be found on the east coast of the country,
where Vikings tended to land during raiding parties.
The written version of this language
used a complex range of characters
known as runes to depict sounds and letters.
Old Norse was still used up to the 14th century,
but was then replaced by modern North Germanic languages.
While the language is dead, it can still be learned,
which is great during parties
if you wanna do a Viking impersonation.
It really adds authenticity, I'm just, just saying.
Number two is Latin.
Latin is definitely one of
the most famous dead languages in the world.
It was derived from an earlier Roman version
of the language and was spoken commonly
by nobles and aristocrats throughout Europe.
Taking its name from a place called Latium in Italy,
the language was spread across Europe
by the military successes of the Roman Empire.
By about the time of Christ,
Classical Latin was in full flow,
though it was more a common version of the language
known as Vulgar Latin, which was spoken by most people.
When the Roman Empire fell in the 5th century,
Latin's influence was still felt
and developed into several languages,
such as Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, and French.
It even had an impact
on the development of the English language.
And number one is Hunnic.
During the 4th and 5th centuries,
a large tribal network exerted dominance
over much of Europe.
They were called the Huns,
with their most famous leader being Attila.
And yet despite all of their successes,
we know very little about their language.
Known as Hunnic, it was never documented, ever.
But the strangest thing is that nobody knows
quite for sure why the Huns never wrote their language down.
One historian, however, was able to transcribe
three words from interactions with some Hun tribes.
Medos, which was a drink similar to mead,
kamos, another drink made of barley,
and strava, which was a feast served at a funeral.
So that's it, at least we know
that the Huns like to drink at funerals a lot!
So those were 10 ancient languages that disappeared.
And if you guys enjoyed this,
remember to give it a big thumbs up.
Also, be sure to subscribe to my channel,
and click the bell beside the subscribe button
to enable notifications so that you never miss a thing
because I release new videos all the time.
Thank you guys for watching, I'll see you in the next one.
(speaking in foreign language) bye!