Pentecost
Not a saints-related post, but a geeky language-related one. Today while listening to the second chapter of Acts, I wondered what had happened to all the languages that are mentioned in the passage. So here are the results of my research (almost all from Wikipedia, I'm afraid):
The Parthians were from NW Iran, and their language co-existed with, and was superseded by, a precursor of modern Persian. The word for "bread" seems to have been much the same as "naan" (as it also seems to be in modern Persian).
Median appears to have been an even older language from the same area - I'm not sure if this means it had been around for longer by the time it was noticed, or if the language of the Medes referred to is a language, other than Median, spoken in Media. Both of these languages, like Persian, are Indo-European.
Elamite, on the other hand, is not only not Indo-European but possibly has no other language relations; it may however have been related to the Dravidian languages spoken in southern India. Again it's possible Acts refers to another language spoken in the same area as it seems to have been extinct long before Acts; it was at one time a Persian Empire official language.
In Mesopotamia several languages, including Elamite, but also Akkadian and Sumerian (both extinct within a couple of hundred years of the date of Acts) were spoken. Also however Amaric was spoken which, essentially, is still spoken, though in several dialects, which differ widely depending in part on the religion of the speaker.
It seems a bit odd to say that Judeans were surprised to hear the disciples speaking their language, since they were Jewish, but being from Galilee, they likely also spoke Aramaic, not Hebrew like the Judeans. Interestingly modern Hebrew is a really fascinating case of a resurrected language; one of the pioneers, Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, spoke to his son entirely in a language that wasn't his first language and wasn't spoken by anyone in the community - and it worked.
In Cappadocia, they spoke a dialect of Greek; it was almost extinct, but has undergone a small revival in recent years; this may have come too late to save it. In Pontus, they probably spoke another dialect of Greek; there are still a fairly large number of speakers today in Greece.
I believe that Biblical Asia really refers to Asia Minor, now known as Anatolia. Languages spoken there were mainly Indo-European languages and included Hittite, extinct long before Acts, and Lydian, which died out around 100BC; by New Testament times, it is possible Armenian was spoken here, but there is a lot of debate about whether a language like Modern Armenian existed yet.
Phrygian seems to have been related to Greek; like James V of Scotland, an Egyptian Pharoah tried raising children without being spoken to, and they were supposed to have come out with Phrygian as their first word (James V thought his experimental children spoke Hebrew). Pamphylian was another dialect of Greek; Cyrene in Libya was a Greek colony so Greek would also have been spoken.
In Egypt in Biblical times people probably spoke Coptic, which survived as an everyday language into the 17thC AD and is still a liturgical language in the Coptic church.
In Rome, as we know, Latin was spoken, which died out as a spoken language in the Middle Ages. Italian is closest to Latin in vocabulary but apparently Sardinian sounds most like Latin would have: so in Sardinian the word for "hundred" is pronounced with a /k/ instead of any of the soft C sounds that are found in other Romance languages (as in cent in French, cento in Italian and cien in Spanish).
In Crete again a dialect of Greek was spoken.
Assuming that the "Arabs" in the New Testament were in fact from Arabia, but other languages than Arabic were spoken there at this time. They were all Semitic languages too, like Arabic and Hebrew, but Arabic is not descended from them.
What has been interesting researching this is how many language became extinct around New Testament times (and there are others from the region that were false alarms, in that they were spoken in the right place but are thought to have become extinct just before this time). I wonder if this is something to do with occupation - when children are forced to learn in a language other than their home language, or when people need to use an occupation language day-to-day, their home language can become extinct. The Romans have a lot to answer for.
The Parthians were from NW Iran, and their language co-existed with, and was superseded by, a precursor of modern Persian. The word for "bread" seems to have been much the same as "naan" (as it also seems to be in modern Persian).
Median appears to have been an even older language from the same area - I'm not sure if this means it had been around for longer by the time it was noticed, or if the language of the Medes referred to is a language, other than Median, spoken in Media. Both of these languages, like Persian, are Indo-European.
Elamite, on the other hand, is not only not Indo-European but possibly has no other language relations; it may however have been related to the Dravidian languages spoken in southern India. Again it's possible Acts refers to another language spoken in the same area as it seems to have been extinct long before Acts; it was at one time a Persian Empire official language.
In Mesopotamia several languages, including Elamite, but also Akkadian and Sumerian (both extinct within a couple of hundred years of the date of Acts) were spoken. Also however Amaric was spoken which, essentially, is still spoken, though in several dialects, which differ widely depending in part on the religion of the speaker.
It seems a bit odd to say that Judeans were surprised to hear the disciples speaking their language, since they were Jewish, but being from Galilee, they likely also spoke Aramaic, not Hebrew like the Judeans. Interestingly modern Hebrew is a really fascinating case of a resurrected language; one of the pioneers, Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, spoke to his son entirely in a language that wasn't his first language and wasn't spoken by anyone in the community - and it worked.
In Cappadocia, they spoke a dialect of Greek; it was almost extinct, but has undergone a small revival in recent years; this may have come too late to save it. In Pontus, they probably spoke another dialect of Greek; there are still a fairly large number of speakers today in Greece.
I believe that Biblical Asia really refers to Asia Minor, now known as Anatolia. Languages spoken there were mainly Indo-European languages and included Hittite, extinct long before Acts, and Lydian, which died out around 100BC; by New Testament times, it is possible Armenian was spoken here, but there is a lot of debate about whether a language like Modern Armenian existed yet.
Phrygian seems to have been related to Greek; like James V of Scotland, an Egyptian Pharoah tried raising children without being spoken to, and they were supposed to have come out with Phrygian as their first word (James V thought his experimental children spoke Hebrew). Pamphylian was another dialect of Greek; Cyrene in Libya was a Greek colony so Greek would also have been spoken.
In Egypt in Biblical times people probably spoke Coptic, which survived as an everyday language into the 17thC AD and is still a liturgical language in the Coptic church.
In Rome, as we know, Latin was spoken, which died out as a spoken language in the Middle Ages. Italian is closest to Latin in vocabulary but apparently Sardinian sounds most like Latin would have: so in Sardinian the word for "hundred" is pronounced with a /k/ instead of any of the soft C sounds that are found in other Romance languages (as in cent in French, cento in Italian and cien in Spanish).
In Crete again a dialect of Greek was spoken.
Assuming that the "Arabs" in the New Testament were in fact from Arabia, but other languages than Arabic were spoken there at this time. They were all Semitic languages too, like Arabic and Hebrew, but Arabic is not descended from them.
What has been interesting researching this is how many language became extinct around New Testament times (and there are others from the region that were false alarms, in that they were spoken in the right place but are thought to have become extinct just before this time). I wonder if this is something to do with occupation - when children are forced to learn in a language other than their home language, or when people need to use an occupation language day-to-day, their home language can become extinct. The Romans have a lot to answer for.
posted by Katie at 8:52 pm
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