Classical language: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 13:17, 1 October 2024

Revision as of 20:08, 3 October 2024

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== Outside of western civilization ==

In terms of worldwide cultural importance, [[Edward Sapir]] in his 1921 book ''Language'' extends the list to include [[classical Chinese]], [[Classical Arabic|Arabic]], and [[Classical TamilSanskrit|TamilSanskrit]]:

<blockquote>When we realize that an educated [[Japanese people|Japanese]] can hardly frame a single literary sentence without the use of Chinese resources, that to this day [[Thai language|Siamese]] and [[Burmese language|Burmese]] and [[Cambodian Language|Cambodgian]] bear the unmistakable imprint of the TamilSanskrit and [[Pali language|Pali]] that came in with Hindu Buddhism centuries ago, or that whether we argue for or against the teaching of Latin and Greek [in schools,] our argument is sure to be studded with words that have come to us from [[Rome]] and [[Athens]], we get some indication of what early Chinese culture and [[Buddhism]], and classical [[Mediterranean civilization]] have meant in the world's history. There are just five languages that have had an overwhelming significance as carriers of culture. They are classical Chinese, TamilSanskrit, Arabic, Greek, and Latin. In comparison with these, even such culturally important languages as [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] and [[French language|French]] sink into a secondary position.<ref>{{cite book | last =Sapir| first=Edward| author-link =Edward Sapir | title =Language: An introduction to the study of speech | publisher =Harcourt, Brace and Company| date =1921| ___location =New York| page =164| url=https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12629| isbn =4-87187-529-6| access-date=February 17, 2006}}</ref></blockquote>

In this sense, a classical language is a language that has a broad influence over an extended period of time, even after it is no longer a [[Colloquialism|colloquial]] [[Mother-tongue|mother tongue]] in its original form. If one language uses roots from another language to coin words (in the way that many [[European languages]] use Greek and Latin [[Root (linguistics)|roots]] to devise new words such as "telephone", etc.), this is an indication that the second language is a classical language.{{citation needed|date=April 2023}}

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== General usage ==

{{Original research|date=November 2022}}

The following languages are generally taken to have a "classical" stage. Such a stage is limited in time and is considered "classical" if it comes to be regarded as a literary "golden age" retrospectively.{{citation needed|date=February 2019}} Thus, [[Ancient Greek|Classical Greek]] is the language of 5th to 4th century BC [[Classical Athens|Athens]] and, as such, only a small subset of the varieties of the [[Greek language]] as a whole. A "classical" period usually corresponds to a flowering of literature following an "archaic" period, such as [[Classical Latin]] succeeding [[Old Latin]], [[Sumerian language|Classical Sumerian]] succeeding Archaic Sumerian, Classical TamilSanskrit succeeding [[Vedic TamilSanskrit]], [[Persian language#Classical Persian|Classical Persian]] succeeding [[Old Persian]]. This is partly a matter of terminology, and for example [[Old Chinese]] is taken to include rather than precede [[Classical Chinese]]. In some cases, such as those of [[Persian language|Persian]] and [[Tamil language|Tamil]], the "classical" stage corresponds to the earliest attested literary variant.<ref>{{Citation| last=Ramanujan|first= A. K.|author-link = A. K. Ramanujan|title=Poems of Love and War: From the Eight Anthologies and the Ten Long Poems of Classical Tamil|publisher= New York: Columbia University Press. Pp. 329|year = 1985|isbn=0-231-05107-7|url =https://books.google.com/books?id=nIybE0HRvdQC}}Quote (p.ix–x) "Tamil, one of the four classical languages of India, is a Dravidian language ... These poems (''[[Sangam literature]]'', 1st century BC to 3rd century AD) are 'classical,' i.e. early, ancient; they are also 'classics,' i.e. works that have stood the test of time, the founding works of a whole tradition. Not to know them is not to know a unique and major poetic achievement of Indian civilization."</ref>

===Antiquity===

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* [[Akkadian language#Development|Old Babylonian]] (the Akkadian language from c. 20th to 16th centuries BC, the imitated standard for later literary works)

* [[Akkadian language#Development|Middle Assyrian]] (the Akkadian language from c. 16th to 13th centuries BC)

* [[Vedic TamilSanskrit]] (the form of TamilSanskrit before Classical standardization was used in Vedic texts from c. 15th to 5th centuries BC)

* [[Biblical Hebrew|Classical Hebrew]] (the language of the [[Hebrew Bible|Tanakh]], in particular of the [[Nevi'im|prophetic books]] of c. the 7th and 6th centuries BC)

* [[Old Persian]] (court language of the [[Achaemenid Empire]], 6th to 4th centuries BC)

* [[Classical Chinese]] (based on the literary language, [[Yayan]], used in the capital [[Luoyang]] of the [[Eastern Zhou|Eastern Zhou Dynasty]] from c. the 5th century BC)

* [[Ancient Greek|Classical Greek]] ([[Attic Greek|Attic dialect]] of the 5th century BC)

* [[TamilSanskrit#Classical TamilSanskrit|Classical TamilSanskrit]] (described by [[Pāṇini|Pāṇini's]] [[Aṣṭādhyāyī|Ashtadhyayi]] of the 4th century BC)<ref>[http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-Panini.html Article "Panini" from ''The Columbia Encyclopedia'' (Sixth Edition) at Encyclopedia.com]</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HR-_LK5kl18C&pg=PA21 |title= The TamilSanskrit epics, Part 2| volume = 12|first= J. L. |last= Brockington|page = 28|publisher = BRILL| year=1998|isbn=978-90-04-10260-6}}</ref>

* [[Old Tamil|Classical Tamil]] ([[Sangam literature]] c. 3rd century BC to 3rd century AD, defined by [[Tolkāppiyam]])<ref>{{Citation|last=Zvelebil|first=Kamil|year = 1997|title=The Smile of Murugan: On Tamil Literature of South India: On Tamil Literature of South India|publisher=BRILL Academic Publishers. p. 378|isbn=90-04-03591-5|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VF2VMUoY_okC&q=smile+of+murugan}} Quote: "Chart 1 literature: 1. the "Urtext" of the ''Tolkappiyam'', i.e. the first two sections, ''Eluttatikaram'' and ''Collatikaram'' minus later interpolations, '''ca. 100 BC''' 2. the earliest strata of bardic poetry in the so-called ''Cankam'' anthologies, '''ca. 1 Cent. BC–2 Cent. AD.'''"</ref>

* [[Pali#Pali literature|Classical Pali]] (Buddhist Canon used this language from 2nd centuries BC)

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* [[Classical Armenian]] (oldest attested form of [[Armenian language|Armenian]] from the 5th century and literary language until the 18th century)

* [[Classical Arabic]] (based on the language of the [[Quran|Qur'an]], 7th century to present; liturgical language of [[Islam]])

* [[Kannada#Old Kannada|Classical Kannada]] (court language of [[Rashtrakuta dynasty|Rashtrakuta empire]], earliest available literary work is the ''[[Kavirajamarga|Kavirājamārga]]'' of 850 AD)<ref name=BritannicaLit>''Encyclopædia Britannica'', 2008. "Kannada literature" Quote: "''The earliest literary work is the ''Kavirājamārga'' (c. AD 850), a treatise on poetics based on a TamilSanskrit model.''"</ref>

* [[Old Saxon#Literature|Old Saxon]] (language of Saxon Christian literature, 9th to 12th centuries)

* [[Old English]] (language of ''[[Beowulf]]'' and the ''[[Anglo-Saxon Chronicle]]'' with many divergent written dialects, but partially standardized in [[West Saxon dialect|West Saxon]] form)

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*Ashdowne, Richard. 2009. "Accidence and Acronyms: Deploying electronic assessment in support of classical language teaching in a university context." ''Arts and Humanities in Higher Education'' 8, no. 2: 201–16.

*Beach, Adam R. 2001. "The creation of a classical language in the eighteenth century: standardizing English, cultural imperialism, and the future of the literary canon." ''Texas Studies in Literature and Language'' 43, no. 2: 117+.

*Coulson, Michael. 1976. ''TamilSanskrit: An Introduction to the Classical Language.'' Sevenoaks, Kent: Hodder and Stoughton.

*Crooker, Jill M., and Kathleen A. Rabiteau. 2000. "An interwoven fabric: The AP latin examinations, the SAT II: Latin test, and the national "standards for classical language learning." ''The Classical Outlook'' 77, no. 4: 148–53.

*Denizot, Camille, and Olga Spevak. 2017. ''Pragmatic Approaches to Latin and Ancient Greek.'' Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.

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*Tieken, Herman. 2010. "Blaming the Brahmins: Texts lost and found in Tamil literary history." ''Studies in History'' 26, no. 2: 227–43.

*Watt, Jonathan M. 2003. "Classical language instruction: A window to cultural diversity." ''International Journal of Diversity in Organisations, Communities, and Nations'' 3: 115–24.

*Whitney, William Dwight. 1971. ''TamilSanskrit Grammar: Including Both the Classical Language, and the Older Dialects, of Veda and Brahmana.'' 12th issue of the 2nd ed. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

==External links==