Bald and proud ya turkeys! But really though, who got a wig for ya boi? - I'll let you guys
contribute to the captions of this video to
translate what that means. Today there are over 7,100
living languages in the world. That's a lot of people talking
a lot of different stuff. However, if you think that's a lot, there used to be even more. And despite some of those
languages being very popular, they one day completely disappeared. (speaking in foreign language) Here are 10 ancient
languages that disappeared. Number 10 is Biblical Hebrew. An ancient form of
Hebrew, Biblical Hebrew, was the language spoken by the Israelites during Biblical times. Records of Biblical Hebrew go back to at least the 10th century B.C. Along the way, the language
was modified and changed into another form of Hebrew
known as Mishnaic Hebrew. Hoo, that's a lot of Hebrew. The version of Hebrew which many speak now was only made popular in the 19th century. Believe it or not, a lot of effort was put into bringing back
what was once a dead language. Today, there's a new version of Hebrew that was created called Modern Hebrew with Biblical Hebrew consigned mostly to religious and academic uses. I don't know if you've
ever tried to speak it, but it's a very difficult language. The only thing I know is mazel tov! That's where they break the glass. It's kind of dangerous. Number nine is Middle English. Middle English gave birth to the language that I'm speakin' now. But it was very different. It was used in England between
the 12th and 15th centuries. The language was a mixture of influences, including Old English, Norman French, Old Norse, and Germanic vocabularies. Yeah, try getting an interpreter for that. There aren't many existing documents in Middle English
because after the Normans invaded England from France in 1066, those who could write tended to do so in French for the prestige. Luckily, there are a few exceptions, like Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, which have preserved the language. But later, Middle English was replaced by early Modern English. You might recognize this as the language that Shakespeare used. Hm, I still findeth all of this confusing. Number eight is Dacian. Dacian is an extinct language dating back to the Roman times. Those who used it, the Dacians, were a warrior people who lived near the Carpathian Mountains
in modern day Romania. Their language seems to be a precursor to the modern European languages. Though there's so little left of it, it's difficult to study or even know. Some researchers believe
that many of the place names found where they lived may have evolved out of their long-forgotten language. After being conquered by the Romans in the 1st century, the Dacians seemed to have abandoned their language, either through force or choice, and adopted Roman Latin
as their chosen tongue. This was actually common practice when the Romans came calling, essentially assimilating
other cultures into their own. It's kinda like the Borg,
except without the spaceships. Number seven is Egyptian. Egyptian as a language dates
back thousands of years. A version of it was still used as recently as the 17th century, however. It's no longer used, however,
there is still a form of it called Coptic,
which is the only remnant of this ancient language. Ancient Egyptian can be traced back as far as 2600 B.C.,
when an archaic version of the language was first used. While the language developed
across thousands of years, it began to be replaced by Arabic as early as the 7th century, following the Arab-Muslim
conquest of the country, although many remained
bilingual for centuries. Though Coptic is still used in Christian religious
ceremonies in Egypt, the national language
of Egypt is now Arabic. Basically, all that remains
of these ancient languages are the hieroglyphs. Bird, baby basket, Pharaoh. That means sad, translated it for you. Number six is Hattic. Living around 5,000 years ago in what is now modern-day Turkey, the Hattians spoke an almost
completely-forgotten language. In fact, it's so forgotten,
no one really knows what it was called at the time. But researchers have
settled on the name Hattic, so we'll just go with that. Though no direct evidence
from the Hattians has been discovered so far,
a few tantalizing clues about their language have been found. One example of this is on
a few religious tablets carved by the ancient Hittites, who lived at the same
time as the Hattians. They refer to the forgotten
language of their neighbors, even using a few Hattic words. One theory as to why we
know so little about Hattic is that it's an isolated language, disconnected from any existing language. So basically, it's going
to remain a mystery. That is unless like, Rosetta Stone has a class on it, but
that's not gonna happen. Number five is Harappan. Harappan isn't just extinct, it's so dead, it's unknown. Spoken by the Indus Valley civilization over 4,000 years ago,
archeologists and linguists have no point of reference
from which to decode it. Written forms of the
language have been found carved in pottery, copper tablets, ivy rods, and even tools. Harappan seems to contain
as many as 400 symbols. Given the fact that most languages have alphabets of less than 36 letters, it would appear that the language is either the most complex
language ever discovered, or, more likely, that is
uses pictures and symbols to depict full words and phrases. So it appears as though
the Indus Valley people only wrote in one language, but it's possible they spoke in several. Look at that, even more
dead languages to go around. Number four is Ancient Greek. Alongside Latin, Ancient
Greek is considered one of the most important
languages ever devised. Academics pour over it, mythological stories are born from it, and yet, it's dead as a doornail. Ancient Greek was spoken between
about the 9th century B.C. and the 6th century A.D. Greece itself is considered by many to have been the cradle of modern society, producing everything from democracy to the modern play. And born out of that sophistication, the ancient Greeks wrote a lot. In fact, so many plays,
historical accounts, and philosophical concepts
were written in this language, that it would be difficult to understand our development as a species without it. Ancient Greek was eventually
replaced by Medieval and then Modern Greek, but
you gotta love the classics. Side note, in university, Greek mythology was one of my favorite classes 'cause I'm a bit of a nerd, (chuckles). It was good times. Number three is Old Norse. When the Viking warriors
of Northern Europe weren't raiding, pillaging, and uh, heh, doing other stuff, they
were speaking and writing a complex language known as Old Norse. This language was spoken
as wide as Iceland to parts of Russia. In Scotland, remnants of the language can still be found on the
east coast of the country, where Vikings tended to
land during raiding parties. The written version of this language used a complex range of characters known as runes to depict
sounds and letters. Old Norse was still used
up to the 14th century, but was then replaced by modern
North Germanic languages. While the language is dead,
it can still be learned, which is great during parties if you wanna do a Viking impersonation. It really adds authenticity,
I'm just, just saying. Number two is Latin. Latin is definitely one of the most famous dead
languages in the world. It was derived from an
earlier Roman version of the language and was spoken commonly by nobles and aristocrats
throughout Europe. Taking its name from a place
called Latium in Italy, the language was spread across Europe by the military successes
of the Roman Empire. By about the time of Christ, Classical Latin was in full flow, though it was more a common
version of the language known as Vulgar Latin, which
was spoken by most people. When the Roman Empire
fell in the 5th century, Latin's influence was still felt and developed into several languages, such as Italian, Portuguese,
Spanish, and French. It even had an impact on the development of
the English language. And number one is Hunnic. During the 4th and 5th centuries, a large tribal network exerted dominance over much of Europe. They were called the Huns, with their most famous
leader being Attila. And yet despite all of their successes, we know very little about their language. Known as Hunnic, it was
never documented, ever. But the strangest thing
is that nobody knows quite for sure why the Huns
never wrote their language down. One historian, however,
was able to transcribe three words from interactions
with some Hun tribes. Medos, which was a drink similar to mead, kamos, another drink made of barley, and strava, which was a
feast served at a funeral. So that's it, at least we know that the Huns like to
drink at funerals a lot! So those were 10 ancient
languages that disappeared. And if you guys enjoyed this, remember to give it a big thumbs up. Also, be sure to subscribe to my channel, and click the bell beside
the subscribe button to enable notifications so
that you never miss a thing because I release new videos all the time. Thank you guys for watching,
I'll see you in the next one. (speaking in foreign language) bye!
