dead language
No native speakers
A dead language is one no longer spoken as anyone's native tongue.
Latin, Ancient Greek, and Sanskrit are dead languages—studied, read, even written, but not learned in childhood or used in daily life.
The term distinguishes these from extinct languages, which have no speakers or scholarly use at all.
He studied classical Hebrew, a dead language revived as modern Hebrew.
Study of historical texts
- epigraphyStudy of ancient inscriptions
- deciphermentInterpreting unknown scripts
- paleographyStudy of ancient handwriting
- etymologyWord origin study
lexicography · reconstruction · translation · corpus · glossary · grammar · morphology · phonology
Ancient Roman language
- SanskritAncient Indo-Aryan language
- AkkadianAncient Semitic Mesopotamian language
- SumerianEarliest known civilization
- AramaicAncient Semitic language
Coptic · Phoenician · Hittite · Etruscan · Old Norse · Classical Greek · Old Church Slavonic · Prussian
No longer existing
Words carved into surfaces
- tabletsFlat portable computing devices
- manuscriptsHandwritten or typed originals
- papyrusAncient plant-derived writing material
- hieroglyphsAncient Egyptian picture-writing
cuneiform · scrolls · codex · parchment · vellum · stele · clay tablets · Rosetta Stone
Rebuilding after destruction
- academic studyFormal educational research
- cultural heritageInherited collective traditions
- endangered languagesSpeech nearing extinction
- documentationWritten proof or instructions
philology
Study of historical texts
- epigraphyStudy of ancient inscriptions
- deciphermentInterpreting unknown scripts
- paleographyStudy of ancient handwriting
etymology · lexicography · reconstruction · translation · corpus · glossary · grammar · morphology · phonology · syntax
Latin
Ancient Roman language
- SanskritAncient Indo-Aryan language
- AkkadianAncient Semitic Mesopotamian language
- SumerianEarliest known civilization
Aramaic · Coptic · Phoenician · Hittite · Etruscan · Old Norse · Classical Greek · Old Church Slavonic · Prussian · Cornish
extinct
No longer existing
inscriptions
Words carved into surfaces
- tabletsFlat portable computing devices
- manuscriptsHandwritten or typed originals
- papyrusAncient plant-derived writing material
hieroglyphs · cuneiform · scrolls · codex · parchment · vellum · stele · clay tablets · Rosetta Stone · Behistun Inscription
reconstruction
Rebuilding after destruction
- academic studyFormal educational research
- cultural heritageInherited collective traditions
- endangered languagesSpeech nearing extinction
- language varietiesdialect, idiolect, sociolect, vernacular, accent
- language lossendangered languages, critically endangered
- linguisticslinguistics, phoneme, phonemes, morpheme, morphemes
- language policyofficial languages, bilingual education, immersion programs, English-only, citizenship tests
- languageword, words, grammar, spelling, alphabet
- languagesEnglish, Arabic, Chinese, German, French
dead languageliving language
Language still naturally spoken
spoken language · vernacular · native language · mother tongue · natural language
dead languagemodern language
Currently spoken communication system
contemporary language · living language · world language · global language · Mandarin Chinese