i need to find out what the oldest written language is in
africa.....and need to translate the words balance, rythum, and love
into that language for an inscription on a present.

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Request for Question Clarification by scriptor-ga on 01 Aug 2003 17:49 PDT

Dear vidalgirl,

Are you interested in the oldest written African language that is
still in use today? Or in the absolutely oldest written African
language (which is dead now)?

Regards,
Scriptor

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Clarification of Question by vidalgirl-ga on 02 Aug 2003 17:59 PDT

scriptor,

thanks for the speedy response.....i guess i am most intrested the
absolute oldest language of africa. BUT,  if these three words
(balance, rythum, and love) are not able to be translated into this
language, i could settle for the one that is still being used . :)
thanks for your help. you are a life saver
sarah

Dear Sarah,

It was not easy at all; but finally, I can present my answer to you.

The absolutely oldest written language in Africa was without any doubt
Ancient Egyptian, which was written with the famous hieroglyphs as
early as 3100 BC. Unfortunately, the old Egyptian language died about
400 AD, and the knowledge of how to read the remaining written sources
was lost until rediscovered in the 19th century. However, though
Egyptologists can read what the ancient Egyptians wrote, we do not
know how they pronounced their words.
It proved, alas, impossible to find translations for your three words
in Ancient Egyptian. That is really a task for a highly-specialized
Egyptologist.

But then there is a descendant of Ancient Egyptian - Coptic! It is
still in use today in Egypt, written with characters developed from
Greek (with additional special characters). The Coptic language
alphabet came into being during the 3rd century BC after the Greek
conquest of Egypt. Coptic, a Semitic language which evolved from
ancient Egyptian. Coptic was an official language in Egypt until
around the 13th Century AD, when it was replaced by Arabic. Nowadays
Coptic Christians all speak Arabic as their every day language, but
use Coptic in their religious ceremonies. That makes Coptic the oldest
written language in Africa.

I did lots of research, and I finally found acceptable translations
for your three words. Since Coptic is not written in the Latin
alphabet, and Coptic characters are not supported by the Google
technology, I decided to make a graphic file and put it online for
you. Please follow this link to see your three words in Coptic:
http://home.foni.net/~scrippor/coptic.jpg


Sources used:

Metalog: Walter Ewing Crum, A Coptic Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon
Press, 1939
http://www.metalog.org/crum.html

MyCopticChurch.com: English-Coptic Dictionary
http://mycopticchurch.com/coptic/lexicon.asp

Omniglot: Coptic Alphabet
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/coptic.htm

The Coptic Alphabet, by Hany N. Takla
http://www.stshenouda.com/coptlang/coptalfa.htm

Search terms used:
coptic dictionary
://www.google.de/search?q=coptic+dictionary&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=de&meta=
"coptic dictionary" online
://www.google.de/search?q=%22coptic+dictionary%22+online&hl=de&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&newwindow=1&start=0&sa=N
"coptic alphabet"
://www.google.de/search?q=%22coptic+alphabet%22&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=de&meta=
"coptic language"
://www.google.de/search?hl=de&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&newwindow=1&q=%22coptic+language%22&meta=

I hope I was able to help you!
Best regards,
Scriptor

thank you, that was exactly what i was looking for!!!!
-sarah

Arabic?

Most African languages were not written until colonisation, and then
only in some sort of phoneticised version.

You might find something useful here:
http://polyglot.lss.wisc.edu/lss/lang/african.html

But I suspect there's no answer to your question, because the writing
of African language is a relatively recent activity.

John

Westie -

Think ancient civilization ... and northern Africa (northeast in
particular).

Also, by definition there is an answer to the question -- since there
are written languages in Africa, there must be an oldest written
language in Africa.

Some people date the Sphinxs as old as 13,000 BCE and expect to find
an ancient library underneath the Sphinxs. If not: of dead African
languages, Egyptian hieroglyphics may be the oldest language. The
Samarian language may be about as old, and may have an alphabet more
like we do. Does anyone know if any early Samarians lived in Africa?