Classical Language - General Usage

General Usage

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. 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 succeeding 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 some cases, such as those of Arabic and Tamil, the "classical" stage corresponds to the earliest attested literary variant.

Antiquity

• Classical Sumerian (literary language of Sumer, ca. 26th to 23rd c. BC)
• Middle Egyptian (literary language of Ancient Egypt from ca. the 20th century BC to the 4th century AD)
• Old Babylonian (The Akkadian language from ca 20th to 16th c. BC, the imitated standard for later literary works)
• Classical Sanskrit (described by Pāṇini's grammar, but used since ca. 4th 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 Tamil (Sangam literature ca. 2nd c. BC to 3th c. AD, defined by Tolkāppiyam)
• Classical Pali (Buddhist Canon used this language from ca. 3rd or 2nd 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.)
• Middle Persian (court language of the Sassanid Empire, 3rd to 7th c.)
• Classical Armenian (oldest attested form of Armenian from the 5th c. and literary language until the 18th c.)

Middle Ages

• Classical Tibetan (religious and literary language of Tibet, 8th c. to present)
• Classical Arabic (based on the language of the Qur'an, 7th c.)
• New Persian (language of classical Persian literature, 9th to 17th c.)
• Classical Kannada (The earliest available literary work is the Kavirājamārga, 850 A.D.);
• Classical Japanese (language of Heian period literature, 10th to 12th c.)
• Classical Telugu (The earliest available literary work is the Telugu Mahabharata, 1067 A.D.)
• Classical Icelandic (the language of the Icelandic sagas, 13th c.)
• Classical Gaelic (language of the 13th to 18th c. Scottish and Irish Gaelic literature)

Pre-Colonial Americas

• Classical Maya (the language of the mature Maya civilization, 3rd to 9th c.)
• Classical Quechua (lingua franca of the 16th c. Inca Empire)
• Classical Nahuatl (lingua franca of 16th c. central Mexico)
• Classical K'iche' (language of 16th c. Guatemala)
• Classical Tupi (language of 16th -18th c. Brazil)

Early Modern period

• Early Modern English (language of KJV Bible and Shakespeare, 16th to 17th c.)
• Classical Ottoman Turkish (language of poetry and administration of the Ottoman empire, 16th to 19th c.)