List of languages by first written account

A written record may encode a stage of a language corresponding to an earlier time, either as a result of oral tradition, or because the earliest source is a copy of an older manuscript that was lost.

[citation needed] A very limited number of languages are attested in the area from before the Bronze Age collapse and the rise of alphabetic writing: In East Asia towards the end of the second millennium BC, the Sino-Tibetan family was represented by Old Chinese.

Various texts from Ur during the Early Dynastic I–II period (c. 2800 BC) show syllabic elements with clear signs of the Sumerian language.

[9] The earliest known alphabetic inscriptions, at Serabit el-Khadim (c. 1500 BC), appear to record a Northwest Semitic language, though only one or two words have been deciphered.

[36] The earliest examples of the Central American Isthmian script date from c. 500 BC, but a proposed decipherment remains controversial.