Classical language

A classical language, is a language with a literature that is "classical"—ie, "it should be ancient, it should be an independent tradition that arose mostly on its own, not as an offshoot of another tradition, and it must have a large and extremely rich body of ancient literature." (George L. Hart of UC Berkeley)

In another sense of the word, an important criterion is that a language should have a broad influence over an extended period of time, even after it is no longer a colloquial 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 roots to devise new words such as "telephone" etc.), this is an indication that the second language is a classical language. Also, the writing system of such a classical languages will often have spread to be used by other languages.

Thus classical languages tend to be either dead languages, or show a high degree of diglossia, as the spoken varieties of the language diverge further and further away from the classical written language over centuries.

Note that the judgment as to whether a language is "classical" is made on the basis of external factors, and not the nature of the language itself.

Classical studies

In the most restricted meaning, in the inherently Eurocentric context of Classical studies, "the Classical Languages" are the Greek and Latin literary languages of Classical Antiquity, foundational to Western culture.

In terms of worldwide cultural importance, the list would extend to Sanskrit,Chinese, Arabic and Tamil:

"When we realize that an educated Japanese can hardly frame a single literary sentence without the use of Chinese resources, that to this day Siamese and Burmese and Cambodgian bear the unmistakable imprint of the Sanskrit and 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 arguments are sure to be studded with words that have come to us from Rome and Athens, we get some indication of what early Indian civilization (Hinduism & Buddhism), classical mediterranean civilization and Chinese culture have meant in the world's history. There are six languages that have had overwhelming significance as carriers of culture. These are Sanskrit, Chinese, Greek, Latin, Tamil and Arabic. In comparison with these, even such culturally important languages such as Hebrew and French sink into a secondary position."

General usage

The following languages are generally taken to have a "classical" stage. Such a stage is limitited in time, and is considered "classical" if it comes to be regarded as a literary "golden age" retrospectively. Thus, Classical Greek is the language of 5th to 4th century BC 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, Classical Sumerian succeeding Archaic Sumerian, Classical Sanskrit succeding Vedic Sanskrit, Classical Persian succeeding Old Persian. This is a partly a matter of terminology, and for example Old Chinese is taken to include rather than precede Classical Chinese. In cases, such as the those of Tamil and Arabic, the "classical" stage corresponds to the earliest attested literary variant.

• Classical Sumerian (literary language of Sumer, ca. 26th to 23rd c. BC)
• Classical Hebrew (the language of the Tanakh, in particular of the prophetic books of ca. the 7th and 6th c. BC)
• Classical Chinese (based on the literary language of the Zhou Dynasty from ca. the 5th c. BC)
• Classical Greek (Attic dialect of the 5th c. BC)
• Classical Sanskrit (defined by Panini's grammar, ca. 5th c. BC)
• Classical Tamil (the clasical dravidian language|Tamil_language defined by Agathian's grammar & Sangam Literature, ca. 5th c. BC)
• Classical Latin (literary language of the 1st c. BC)
• Classical Mandaic (literary Aramaic of Mandaeism, 1st c. AD)
• Classical Syriac (literary Aramaic of the Syriac church, 3rd to 5th. c.)
• Classical Persian (court language of the Sassanid empire, 3rd to 7th c.)
• Classical Maya (the language of the mature Maya civilization, 3rd to 9th c.)
• Classical Arabic (based the language of the Qur'an, 7th c.)
• Classical Japanese (language of Heian period literature, 10th to 12th c.)
• Classical Icelandic (the language of the Icelandic sagas, 13th c.)
• Classical Gaelic (language of the 13th to 17th c. Irish literature)
• Classical Nahuatl (lingua franca of 16th c. central Mexico)
• Classical Quiché (language of 16th c. Guatemala)
• Classical Ottoman Turkish (language of poetry and administration of the Ottoman empire, 16th to 19th c.)

Classical languages of India

In 2004, a new category was created by constitutional decree under which languages that met certain requirements could be accorded the status of a 'classical' in India. With the creation of this category, Tamil and a year later, Sanskrit have been accorded the status. More languages are being considered to be added to the list.

See also

• Classics
• Classicism
• Literary language
• Sacred language
• Official language
• Standard language
• List of languages by first written accounts