List of extinct languages of Asia
Encyclopedia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
, languages which have undergone language death
Language death
In linguistics, language death is a process that affects speech communities where the level of linguistic competence that speakers possess of a given language variety is decreased, eventually resulting in no native and/or fluent speakers of the variety...
, have no native speakers, and no spoken descendant
Historical language
Historical languages are languages that were spoken in a historical period. See:*Historical linguistics*List of languages by first written accounts*List of extinct languages*Classical language*Proto-language...
.
China
- Ba-Shu ChineseBa-Shu ChineseBa-Shu Chinese or Old Sichuanese , is an extinct Sinitic language spoken in what is now Sichuan province and Chongqing municipality of China. This language was first attested during the Western Han dynasty and represents one of the first splits from Old Chinese or Early Middle Chinese...
- KhitanKhitan languageThe Khitan language is a now-extinct language once spoken by the Khitan people . Khitan is generally deemed to be genetically linked to the Mongolic languages. It was written using two mutually exclusive writing systems known as the Khitan large script and the Khitan small script...
- SakaSaka languageSaka or Sakan is a Middle Iranian language attested from the medieval Buddhist kingdoms of Khotan and Tumxuk in what in now Xinjiang, China. Both dialects share features with modern Wakhi and Pashto. Many Prakrit terms were borrowed from Khotanese into the Tocharian languages.Khotanese is attested...
- TocharianTocharian languagesTocharian or Tokharian is an extinct branch of the Indo-European language family. The name is taken from the people known to the Greeks as the Tocharians . These are sometimes identified with the Yuezhi and the Kushans. The term Tokharistan usually refers to 1st millennium Bactria, which the...
- JurchenJurchen languageJurchen language is an extinct language. It was spoken by Jurchen people of eastern Manchuria, the creators of the Jin Empire in the northeastern China of the 12th–13th centuries. It is classified as a Southwestern Tungusic language.-Writing:...
- Zhang-ZhungZhang-Zhung languageZhang-Zhung is an extinct Tibeto-Burman language that was spoken in what is now western Tibet. The term 'Zhang-zhung language' has been used to refer to two different entities. The first 'Old Zhang-zhung' refers to the language which appears in a small number of documents preserved in Dunhuang. The...
- TangutTangut languageTangut is an ancient northeastern Tibeto-Burman language once spoken in the Western Xia Dynasty, also known as the Tangut Empire. It is classified by some linguists as one of the Qiangic languages, which also include Qiang and rGyalrong, among others...
- Han'er
Korea
- GoguryeoGoguryeo languageThe Goguryeo language was spoken in the ancient kingdom of Goguryeo , one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea. The language is also known as Old Koguryo, Koguryoic, and Koguryoan....
- SillaSilla languageThe Silla language, was spoken in the ancient kingdom of Silla , one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea.It is unclear if Silla was related to other languages of the Korean peninsula, such as Baekje and Goguryeo, which are sometimes grouped together as the Buyeo languages...
- BuyeoBuyeo languageThe language of the Buyeo kingdom is very sparsely attested; however, according to Chinese sources it was mutually intelligible with the Goguryeo language to its south. The few words which are known bear this out....
- BaekjeBaekje languageThe language of the ancient kingdom of Baekje , one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea, is sparsely attested; indeed, it is not clear that what material exists is from the same language...
Philippines
- Agta Dicamay
- Agta Villaviciosa
- Ayta Tayabas
- Katabaga
Central and Northern Asia
- Scythian languagesScythian languagesScythian languages refers to all the languages spoken by all the peoples of a vast region of Eurasia named Scythia extending from the Vistula river in East Europe to Mongolia during ancient times. Included also are some languages of eastern Iran and the Central Asian subcontinent...
, other than pre-OsseticOssetic languageOssetian , also sometimes called Ossete, is an East Iranian language spoken in Ossetia, a region on the slopes of the Caucasus Mountains.... - HunnicHunnic languageThe Huns were a heterogenous, multi-ethnic tribal confederation during the 4th and 5th centuries. A contemporary reports that the Hunnic Empire had a "Hunnic language", or "Hunnish", which was spoken alongside Gothic and the languages of other tribes subjugated by the Huns The literary records for...
- KhazarianKhazar languageKhazar was the language spoken by the Khazars, a semi-nomadic Turkic people from Central Asia. It is also referred to as Khazarian, Khazaric, or Khazari. The language is extinct and written records are almost non-existent....
- SogdianSogdian languageThe Sogdian language is a Middle Iranian language that was spoken in Sogdiana , located in modern day Uzbekistan and Tajikistan ....
Siberia
- ArinArin languageArin was a Yeniseian language spoken in Russia along the Yenisei River between Yeniseysk and Krasnoyarsk. It is classified as a Southern Yeniseian language, along with Kott and Assan....
- AssanAssan languageAssan was a Yeniseian language which became extinct in the 19th century. It was closely related to the Kott language.-External links:*...
- KamassianKamassian languageKamassian or Kamas is an extinct Samoyedic language, included by convention in the Southern group together with Mator, Koibal, and Selkup . The last native speaker, Klavdiya Plotnikova, died in 1989. Kamassian was spoken in Russia, east of the Ural mountains, by Kamasins.A historical name for Kamas...
- Koibal
- KottKott languageThe Kott language is an extinct Yeniseian language that was formerly spoken in central Siberia by the banks of Mana River, a tributary of the Yenisei river. It became extinct in the 1850s. Some linguists believe the Assan language was a dialect of Kott...
- MatorMator languageMator or Motor was a Uralic language belonging to the group of Samoyedic languages, extinct since the 1840s. It was spoken in the northern region of the Sayan Mountains in Siberia, close to the Mongolian north border. The speakers of Mator lived in a wide area from the eastern parts of the...
- PumpokolPumpokol languagePumpokol is one of the Yeniseian languages. It has been extinct since the 18th century....
- Sireniki
- YughYugh languageYugh is a Yeniseian language, closely related to Ket, formerly spoken by the Yugh people, one of the southern groups along the Yenisei River in central Siberia. In the past it was regarded as a dialect of the Ket language, which was considered to be a language isolate...
- YuratsYurats languageYurats is a Samoyedic language formerly spoken in the Siberian tundra west of the Yenisei River. It became extinct in the early 19th century. Yurats was a transitional variety connecting the Nenets and Enets languages of the Samoyedic family.-External links:...
India
- AhomAhom languageThe Ahom language is an extinct Tai language spoken by the Ahom people who ruled the Brahmaputra river valley in the Indian state of Assam between the 13th and the 18th centuries.- Other names :...
- Andamanese languagesAndamanese languagesThe Andamanese languages form a proposed language family spoken by the Andamanese peoples, a group of Negritos who live in the Andaman Islands, a union territory of India. Its validity is disputed...
- Aka-Bea
- Aka-Bo
- Aka-Cari
- Aka-Jeru
- Aka-Kede
- Aka-Kol
- Aka-Kora
- Akar-Bale
- Oko-Juwoi
- ArwiArwi languageArwi is a written register of the Tamil language that uses an Arabic alphabet. It typically has extensive lexical influences from the Arabic language. Arwi was used extensively by the Muslim minority of Tamil Nadu state of India and Sri Lanka...
- Labanki
Sri Lanka
- ArwiArwi languageArwi is a written register of the Tamil language that uses an Arabic alphabet. It typically has extensive lexical influences from the Arabic language. Arwi was used extensively by the Muslim minority of Tamil Nadu state of India and Sri Lanka...
- Ceylon Portuguese
- Ceylon DutchCeylon Dutch languageCeylon Dutch was a Dutch-based creole language that is almost extinct. It was spoken on the island of Ceylon, now known as Sri Lanka, which from 1658–1796 was a Dutch colony.-History:...
- KaffirSri Lanka Kaffir peopleThe Sri Lankan Kaffirs are an ethnic group in Sri Lanka who are partially descended from 16th century Portuguese traders and the African slaves who were brought by them to work as labourers and soldiers to fight against the Sri Lankan kings...
- PaliPali languagePāli is a Middle Indo-Aryan language of the Indian subcontinent. It is best known as the language of many of the earliest extant Buddhist scriptures, as collected in the Pāi Canon or Tipitaka, and as the liturgical language of Theravada Buddhism.-Etymology of the name:The word Pali itself...
Taiwan
- BasayBasay languageBasay was a Formosan language spoken around modern-day Taipei in northern Taiwan by the Basay, Qauqaut, and Trobiawan peoples. Trobiawan, Linaw, and Qauqaut were other dialects ....
- Luilang
- Kulun
- Honya
- Taokas
- Papora
- SirayaSiraya languageSiraya is a Formosan language spoken until the end of the 19th century by the indigenous Siraya people of Taiwan. Dialects of Siraya included Taivoa and Makatao....
- BabuzaBabuza languageBabuza is a Formosan language of the Babuza and Taokas, indigenous peoples of Taiwan. It is related to or perhaps descended from Favorlang, attested from the 16th century.Babuza was once spoken along much of the western coast of Taiwan...
- PazehPazeh languagePazeh is the language of the Pazeh, a Taiwanese aboriginal people). It is a Formosan language of the Austronesian languages language family. Kulun was a dialect. There was only one remaining native speaker of Pazeh proper, 96-year-old Pan Jin-yu. Since her death, however, the language is extinct...
Anatolia
- Anatolian languagesAnatolian languagesThe Anatolian languages comprise a group of extinct Indo-European languages that were spoken in Asia Minor, the best attested of them being the Hittite language.-Origins:...
- CarianCarian languageThe Carian language is an extinct language of the Luwian subgroup of the Anatolian branch of the Indo-European language family. The Carian language was spoken in Caria, a region of western Anatolia between the ancient regions of Lycia and Lydia, by the Carians, a name possibly first mentioned in...
- HittiteHittite languageHittite is the extinct language once spoken by the Hittites, a people who created an empire centred on Hattusa in north-central Anatolia...
- LuwianLuwian languageLuwian is an extinct language of the Anatolian branch of the Indo-European language family. Luwian is closely related to Hittite, and was among the languages spoken during the second and first millennia BC by population groups in central and western Anatolia and northern Syria...
- LycianLycian languageLycian language refers to the inscriptional language of ancient Lycia, populated by Lycians, as well as its presumed spoken counterpart.-The speakers:...
- LydianLydian languageLydian was an Indo-European language spoken in the region of Lydia in western Anatolia . It belongs to the Anatolian group of the Indo-European language family....
- MysianMysian languageMysian language was the languages spoken by Mysians inhabiting Mysia in north-west Anatolia.Little is known about the Mysian language. Strabo noted that their language was, in a way, a mixture of the Lydian and Phrygian languages. As such, the Mysian language could be a language of the Anatolian...
- PalaicPalaic languagePalaic is an extinct Indo-European language, attested in cuneiform tablets in Bronze Age Hattusa, the capital of the Hittites. Its name in Hittite is palaumnili, or "of the people of Pala"; Pala was probably to the northwest of the Hittite core area, so in the northwest of present mainland Turkey...
- Carian
- GalatianGalatian languageGalatian is an extinct Celtic language once spoken in Galatia in Asia Minor from the 3rd century BC up to at least the 4th century AD, although ancient sources suggest it was still spoken in the 6th century....
- HattianHattic languageHattic was a language spoken by the Hattians in Asia Minor between the 3rd and the 2nd millennia BC. Scholars call this language 'Hattic' to distinguish it from the Hittite language--the Indo-European language of the Hittite Empire....
- PhrygianPhrygian languageThe Phrygian language was the Indo-European language of the Phrygians, spoken in Asia Minor during Classical Antiquity .Phrygian is considered to have been closely related to Greek....
- TrojanTrojan languageThe language spoken by the Trojans in the Iliad is Homeric Greek.However, there has been some scholarly debate on what language the historical Trojans would have spoken at the time of the Trojan War....
- UrartianUrartian languageUrartian, Vannic, and Chaldean are conventional names for the language spoken by the inhabitants of the ancient kingdom of Urartu that was located in the region of Lake Van, with its capital near the site of the modern town of Van, in the Armenian Highland, modern-day Eastern Anatolia region of...
Arabia
- Hadramautic
- Himyarite
- MinaeanMinaean languageThe Minaean language was an Old South Arabian language spoken in Yemen between 1200 BC and AD 100. The main area of its use may be localized in al-Jawf part of North-East Yemen, first of all in the Wadi Madhab...
- Nabatean
- QatabanianQatabanian languageOne of the four better documented languages of the Old South Arabian sub-group, Qatabanian was used in Yemen between 800 BC and 200 AD, mainly in the Kingdom of Qataban.-References:...
- SabaeanSabaean languageSabaean , also known as Himyarite , was an Old South Arabian language spoken in Yemen from c. 1000 BC to the 6th century AD, by the Sabaeans; it was used as a written language by some other peoples of Ancient Yemen, including the Hashidites, Sirwahites, Humlanites, Ghaymanites, Himyarites,...
Levant
- AmmoniteAmmonite languageThe Ammonite language is the extinct Canaanite language of the Ammonite people mentioned in the Bible, who used to live in modern-day Jordan, and after whom its capital Amman is named. Only fragments of their language survive - chiefly the 9th century BC , the 7th-6th century BC Tell Siran bronze...
- EblaiteEblaite languageEblaite is an extinct Semitic language, which was spoken in the 3rd millennium BC in the ancient city of Ebla, at Tell Mardikh , between Aleppo and Hama, in western modern Syria....
- EdomiteEdomite languageThe Edomite language was a Canaanite language spoken by the Edomites in southwestern Jordan in the first millennium BC. It is known only from a very small corpus. In early times, it seems to have been written with a Canaanite alphabet; like the Moabite language, it retained feminine -t. However, in...
- MoabiteMoabite languageThe Moabite language is an extinct Canaanite language, spoken in Moab in the early first millennium BC. Most of our knowledge about Moabite comes from the Mesha Stele, as well as the El-Kerak Stela. The main features distinguishing Moabite from fellow Canaanite languages such as Hebrew are: a...
- Phoenician
- UgariticUgaritic languageThe following table shows Proto-Semitic phonemes and their correspondences among Ugaritic, Arabic and Tiberian Hebrew:-Grammar:Ugaritic is an inflected language, and as a Semitic language its grammatical features are highly similar to those found in Classical Arabic and Akkadian...
Mesopotamia
- AkkadianAkkadian languageAkkadian is an extinct Semitic language that was spoken in ancient Mesopotamia. The earliest attested Semitic language, it used the cuneiform writing system derived ultimately from ancient Sumerian, an unrelated language isolate...
- AmoriteAmorite languageAmorite is an early Northwest Semitic language, spoken by the Amorite tribes prominent in early Near Eastern history. It is known exclusively from non-Akkadian proper names recorded by Akkadian scribes during periods of Amorite rule in Babylonia , notably from Mari, and to a lesser extent Alalakh,...
- GutianGutian languageThe Gutian language was spoken by the Gutians or Guteans, an ancient people who lived in the territory between the Zagros and the Tigris, present-day Iranian and Iraqi Kurdistan, around 2100 BCE, and who briefly ruled over Sumer....
- HurrianHurrian languageHurrian is a conventional name for the language of the Hurrians , a people who entered northern Mesopotamia around 2300 BC and had mostly vanished by 1000 BC. Hurrian was the language of the Mitanni kingdom in northern Mesopotamia, and was likely spoken at least initially in Hurrian settlements in...
- Kassite
- SumerianSumerian languageSumerian is the language of ancient Sumer, which was spoken in southern Mesopotamia since at least the 4th millennium BC. During the 3rd millennium BC, there developed a very intimate cultural symbiosis between the Sumerians and the Akkadians, which included widespread bilingualism...