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Classical Languages in Africa
თემის ავტორი: Thomas Johansson
Thomas Johansson
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Mar 16, 2024

I've been trying to compile a comprehensive list of all "classical languages" (defined very broadly as any dead, historical language that has an important body of ancient written literature of historical interest). The general idea is to make a practical list that can be used as a basis for organizing digital resources, such as document archives, for historical languages. I will now share my list here in a few separate posts for the general reference of anyone who might be interested. Feedback w... See more
I've been trying to compile a comprehensive list of all "classical languages" (defined very broadly as any dead, historical language that has an important body of ancient written literature of historical interest). The general idea is to make a practical list that can be used as a basis for organizing digital resources, such as document archives, for historical languages. I will now share my list here in a few separate posts for the general reference of anyone who might be interested. Feedback will be most welcome (omissions, errors, suggestions etc.). To avoid repetitions, each language will be listed only once, namely, under the country or region it is most likely to be associated with.

Here are the languages for Africa. Did I miss any?
(Arabic will be listed under Saudi Arabia in another post.)


--EGYPT--
Old Egyptian (2600-2000 BC)
Middle Egyptian (2000-1350 BC)
Late Egyptian (1350-700 BC)
Demotic Egyptian (700 BC-400 AD)
Coptic (300-1400 AD)

--ETHIOPIA--
Ge'ez (300-1700 AD)

--SUDAN--
Old Nubian (700-1500 AD)

--ZANZIBAR, TANZANIA--
Old Swahili (1700-1885 AD) (*)
Middle Swahili (1885-1928 AD) (*)


(*) For the sake of completeness, I added Old and Middle Swahili on my own initiative, since Swahili has been written for a long time. I cannot find these specific terms ("Old Swahili" and "Middle Swahili") used much, but it seems reasonable to distinguish at least 3 stages of the language: Until 1885, it was mainly written with Arabic letters, then the Germans changed the writing to Latin letters from about 1885, and finally the English standardized the language in 1928. ▲ Collapse
 


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Classical Languages in Africa






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