An atlas of dead languages

Last Words

Sixteen tongues that nobody speaks any more, set in stone where they were once spoken. Choose a gold emblem to hear what is left of one, and to see your name in its script.

Sumerian Akkadian Hittite Ancient Egyptian Coptic Mycenaean Greek Etruscan Phoenician Ugaritic Gothic Old Norse Primitive Irish Sabaean Tocharian Lycian Meroitic

The sixteen

Cuneiform Sumerian 𒅴𒂠 The first language anyone wrote down, and it has no known relatives at all. c. 2900–2000 BC
Cuneiform Akkadian 𒀝𒅗𒁺𒌑 The tongue of Babylon and Assyria, and for a thousand years the language that kings used to write to each other. c. 2500–500 BC
Cuneiform Hittite 𒉈𒅆𒇷 An empire's language that vanished so completely nobody knew it was Indo-European until 1915. c. 1700–1180 BC
Egyptian hieroglyphs Ancient Egyptian 𓆎𓅓𓏏𓊖 Four thousand years of one language, written in pictures that spell sounds. c. 3200 BC – AD 300 (before Coptic)
Coptic alphabet Coptic ⲧⲙⲛ̄ⲧⲣⲙ̄ⲛ̄ⲕⲏⲙⲉ The pharaohs' language in its final form, written in Greek letters, still prayed in Egyptian churches. c. AD 200 – 1600s
Linear B Mycenaean Greek 𐀷𐀙𐀏 The Greek of Agamemnon's age, known only from palace inventories that a fire happened to bake. c. 1450–1200 BC
Etruscan alphabet Etruscan 𐌓𐌀𐌔𐌍𐌀 We can read every letter of it aloud, and still understand only a few hundred words. c. 700 BC – AD 50
Phoenician alphabet Phoenician 𐤊𐤍𐤏𐤍 The sailors' language that gave the world the alphabet, then vanished from its own coast. c. 1050 BC – AD 400s (as Punic)
Ugaritic alphabet (cuneiform) Ugaritic 𐎜𐎂𐎗𐎚 An alphabet pressed into clay with wedges, and the myths of Baal that the Bible argued with. c. 1400–1185 BC
Gothic alphabet Gothic 𐌲𐌿𐍄𐌸𐌹𐌿𐌳𐌰 A Germanic language preserved almost entirely in one Bible translation, written in silver ink. c. AD 300–800; Crimean Gothic until the 1700s
Younger Futhark runes Old Norse ᚱᚢᚾᛅᛦ The Vikings' tongue, carved in sixteen runes and later written down as sagas in Iceland. c. AD 700–1350
Ogham Primitive Irish ᚋᚐᚊᚔ The oldest Irish, cut as notches along the edges of standing stones, mostly to say whose son lay there. c. AD 300–600
Ancient South Arabian script Sabaean 𐩪𐩨𐩱 The language of the kingdom that grew rich on incense, very likely the biblical Sheba. c. 1000 BC – AD 600
Brahmi Tocharian An Indo-European language found in Buddhist monasteries on the Silk Road, farther east than anyone expected. c. AD 400–1000
Lycian alphabet Lycian 𐊗𐊕𐊐𐊎𐊆𐊍𐊆 A late cousin of Hittite, carved on house-shaped stone tombs above the Mediterranean. c. 500–300 BC
Meroitic cursive Meroitic 𐦳𐦣𐦫𐦡 We can read every letter aloud, and still understand almost none of it. c. 300 BC – AD 400

How long they lived

Each bar runs from the first time we can catch the language in writing or speech to the last. Before and after, there is only silence or guesswork.