-          How do we decipher ancient languages that have been lost?

-          What is the oldest surviving language?

In researching this topic, there were not a lot of resources explaining exactly how archaeologists and linguists decipher ancient unknown languages. I did conclude however that once an ancient language is found which is not recognizable from the languages we know today, linguists can look for similarities in other languages, and use that to decipher and discover the origin of the language. For example, Mayan and Linear B (ancient Mycenaean Greek) syllabic scripts were recently deciphered from stone tablets. Using computer programs, and comparing elements in the ancient scripts with similar languages, this was able to happen.

Controversy surrounds the mystery of the oldest surviving language. There are many different opinions on the topic, but one of the more popular beliefs is that the oldest surviving spoken language is either: Greek, Mayan or Albanian. Albanian (which is spoken in Northern Greece) wasn’t recorded or written down until roughly the 15^th century AD, however Greek astronomer and geologist Ptolemy had apparently cited something about the Albanian language in his work from the first century BCE (Before Common Era). This however is all just rumour and legend, as the factual answer is not known.

The candidates for the oldest written language are: Egyptian, Chinese or possibly even Hebrew or Arabic. Chinese was first written down in approximately 1500 BCE. Another contender for the oldest written language, (although this is not a surviving language, as they don’t still use it) is Linear B. This is an early form of Greek, used in Mycenae. This was first written in roughly 1500 BCE. As you can tell, all these dates and languages are very unspecific, and there is little solid, scientific fact which supports one definite oldest language out of the many possibilities.