This is a great BBC article on endangered languages.

Click here

great article Marco
some languages died long ago;
hieroglyphic, classic Greek, Latin, cuneiform, Coptic, Aramaic

Very good article. I, for one, despise the notion of dwindling languages. A person’s language, in my opinion, is a reflection of the soul and demonstrates many different ways of expressing oneself. Let’s look at English, for example. Depending on a person’s choice of vocabulary, we can make a guess as to that person’s character, and that’s just within one language!

Great topic Marco & informative site :)

But , I assure you that languages of the Torah, the Bible(The old testament ), and the Qura’n will never die out .

actually, Hebrew died for centuries and then it was revived 1948

Isn’t the old testiment written in ancient Greek, not Hebrew?

I doubt if Mohamed wrote the verses of the Quran in Hebrew.

Hi Dave !

Prophet Mohammed ( peace be upon Him ) didn’t write the verses of the Holy Quran . the verses were sent down in special circumstances known as asbab ( causes ) …. said to be delivered to Muhammad through the angel Gabriel .

I think it is quite a complicated story, but Hebrew ancient scriptures (with some variations) were translated into Ancient Greek (in the Septuagint) and then on into Latin. Then, St Jerome went back to a Hebrew text (which was possibly a variant of the one used to produce the Ancient Greek) for his translation of the Old Testament in the Vulgate Bible …. perhaps The White Prince can tell us more as I think the Septuagint originated in Alexandria.

By the way, the Septuagint is in Koine Greek rather then Classical Ancient Greek and is therefore much easier to read :-)

it is the oldest of several ancient translations of the Jewish Scriptures into Greek, lingua franca of the eastern Mediterranean Basin from the time of Alexander the Great (356-323 BC).
long time ago, i studied comparative religions, the history of the church was part of my studies.
Prophet Mohammad {peace be upon him} never spoke Hebrew, he lived in Arabia where Arabic was spoken, the holy quran was revealed in Arabic.

Language is a human product, and as all human products, it is subject to variation.
Sometimes, it grows and gains in complexity, and sometimes, it shrinks and stabilizes.

Some languages will become extinct, and others will evolve to express new ideas fit for new worlds.

I am worried that some languages that look healthy and strong may not be so. When you use soft words like cool, nice or interesting to build your ideas, your ideas are soft, and don’t cut.

Politicians in my country can talk for hours, in correct Spanish, with crystal clear pronunciation, and say nothing at all. They are not the only ones. There are others who applaud.