extinct languages
No native speakers
Extinct languages are languages no longer spoken by any living community.
A language dies when its last native speakers pass away or when communities shift entirely to another tongue.
Latin, Ancient Egyptian, and thousands of indigenous languages have gone extinct.
Some, like Hebrew, have been revived; others survive only in written records or not at all.
Linguists race to document extinct languages before the last speakers die.
Earliest known civilization
- AkkadianAncient Semitic Mesopotamian language
- LatinAncient Roman language
- SanskritAncient Indo-Aryan language
- Old NorseMedieval Scandinavian language
Classical Greek · Aramaic · Coptic · Hittite · Phoenician · Etruscan · Manx · Cornish
Inherited cultural legacy
- traditionsLong-established customs passed down
- mythologyBody of traditional tales
- folkloreInherited cultural narratives
- civilizationAdvanced organized human society
ancestry · indigenous · cosmology · rituals · ceremonies · oral tradition · storytelling · proverbs
Symbolic picture-based writing
- cuneiformStylus-impressed ancient script
- runesOld Germanic script
- hieraticRelating to priests
- syllabaryWriting using sound-units
logographic · alphabet · inscription · tablet · stele · papyrus · manuscript · epigraphy
Restoring vigor or vitality
- documentationWritten proof or instructions
- preservationMaintaining something's condition
- endangeredAt risk of extinction
- fieldworkResearch conducted on location
language family · corpus · grammar · lexicon · phonology · morphology · reconstruction · proto-language
Ancient stamped clay tablet
Sumerian
Earliest known civilization
- AkkadianAncient Semitic Mesopotamian language
- LatinAncient Roman language
- SanskritAncient Indo-Aryan language
Old Norse · Classical Greek · Aramaic · Coptic · Hittite · Phoenician · Etruscan · Manx · Cornish · Dalmatian
heritage
Inherited cultural legacy
- traditionsLong-established customs passed down
- mythologyBody of traditional tales
- folkloreInherited cultural narratives
civilization · ancestry · indigenous · cosmology · rituals · ceremonies · oral tradition · storytelling · proverbs · place names
hieroglyphics
Symbolic picture-based writing
syllabary · logographic · alphabet · inscription · tablet · stele · papyrus · manuscript · epigraphy · glyphs
revitalization
Restoring vigor or vitality
- documentationWritten proof or instructions
- preservationMaintaining something's condition
- endangeredAt risk of extinction
fieldwork · language family · corpus · grammar · lexicon · phonology · morphology · reconstruction · proto-language · decipherment
Phaistos Disc
Ancient stamped clay tablet
- endangered languagesendangered language, language preservation, language revival, revitalization, language loss
- ancient languagesLatin, Greek, Sanskrit, Ancient Greek, Aramaic
- historical linguisticslanguage families, cognates, proto-language, Indo-European, Grimm's Law
- Language familiesIndo-European, Afro-Asiatic, Sino-Tibetan, Austronesian, Dravidian
extinct languagesliving languages
Languages with native speakers
mother tongues · native languages · first languages · oral traditions
extinct languagesworld languages
Systems of human communication globally
lingua francas · English · Mandarin Chinese · Spanish · national languages
extinct, languages, extinction, extinctions, extinct language