Linguistics & Languages of Theology and the World

Every faith on this site speaks. Scripture, prayer, creed, and doctrine reach us in languages — Hebrew and Greek, Arabic and Sanskrit, Pali and Latin — and the language shapes what is said and what can be said. This section treats language itself as a lens: the languages of the world's scriptures and liturgies, their families and scripts, the technical words of theology, and the great translations by which the texts have travelled.

Afroasiatic

Living Arabic The scriptural and liturgical language of Islam, and a language of scripture and worship for Arabic-speaking Christians. Afroasiatic · Semitic

Classical Biblical Aramaic The Aramaic of Daniel and Ezra, distinct from the later Syriac dialect, and the language of the Targums. Afroasiatic · Semitic

Classical Biblical Hebrew The original language of the Hebrew Bible, preserved in the square script with Tiberian vocalization, and still the language of Jewish prayer. Afroasiatic · Semitic

Liturgical only Coptic The last stage of ancient Egyptian, written in Greek-derived letters: translation and liturgical language of Egyptian Christianity in its Bohairic and Sahidic dialects. Afroasiatic · Egyptian

Liturgical only Ge'ez (Ethiopic) Ancient South Semitic language of the Ethiopian church: its liturgy, its enlarged biblical canon, and its manuscript tradition. Afroasiatic · Semitic

Liturgical only Mandaic The liturgical language of Mandaeanism, an Aramaic dialect with its own script and literature. Afroasiatic · Semitic

Revived Modern Hebrew The revived spoken Hebrew of modern Israel, continuous with the biblical and rabbinic language. Afroasiatic · Semitic

Classical Rabbinic Hebrew The Hebrew of the Mishnah, the Talmuds, and the medieval rabbis: the scholarly language of Judaism for two thousand years. Afroasiatic · Semitic

Liturgical only Syriac The Aramaic dialect of Edessa: language of the Peshitta and of Syriac Christianity, still prayed in its churches. Afroasiatic · Semitic

Indo-European

Classical Ardhamagadhi and the Prakrits The language of the Jain canon and of early Indian scripture and drama, the spoken sister of Sanskrit. Indo-European · Indo-Iranian

Liturgical only Avestan The liturgical language of Zoroastrianism, in its Old and Younger forms, carrying the Avesta. Indo-European · Indo-Iranian

Liturgical only Church Slavonic The liturgical language of Slavic Eastern Orthodoxy, from Old Church Slavonic to its later national recensions. Indo-European · Slavic

Liturgical only Classical Armenian (Grabar) The classical language of Armenia, whose alphabet was invented for Bible translation; still the liturgical language of the Armenian church. Indo-European · Armenian

Classical Koine Greek The common Greek of the Hellenistic world: original language of the New Testament and of the Septuagint, and foundational for Greek Christianity. Indo-European · Hellenic

Liturgical only Latin Jerome's Vulgate made Latin the translation, liturgical, and scholarly language of Western Christianity for over a millennium. Indo-European · Italic

Extinct Middle Persian (Pahlavi) The language of the Zoroastrian books of the Sasanian and early Islamic centuries. Indo-European · Indo-Iranian

Liturgical only Pali The canonical language of Theravada Buddhism, in which the Pali Canon is preserved and recited. Indo-European · Indo-Iranian

Living Persian The great scholarly and poetic extension of Islam across Persia, Central Asia, and India. Indo-European · Indo-Iranian

Living Punjabi The living vernacular of Sikhism, written in Gurmukhi, the script of the Guru Granth Sahib. Indo-European · Indo-Iranian

Classical Sanskrit The sacred language of Hinduism and a scriptural language of Buddhism and Jainism: Vedic first, then the classical language of Indian theology. Indo-European · Indo-Iranian

Classical Sant Bhasha The sacred composite language of the Guru Granth Sahib, the scripture and eternal Guru of Sikhism. Indo-European · Indo-Iranian

Classical Septuagint Greek The Greek into which the Hebrew Bible was first translated, in Alexandria; the Old Testament of the early church and of Orthodoxy today. Indo-European · Hellenic

Living Urdu A principal scholarly and vernacular language of South Asian Islam, written in the Arabic script. Indo-European · Indo-Iranian

Sino-Tibetan

Classical Classical Chinese The written language of imperial China: of the Confucian and Taoist classics and of the Chinese Buddhist canon. Sino-Tibetan · Sinitic

Classical Classical Meitei The holy language of Sanamahism, the traditional religion of the Meitei people of Manipur. Sino-Tibetan · Tibeto-Burman

Classical Classical Tibetan The sacred language of Tibetan Buddhism, into which the whole Indian Buddhist canon was translated. Sino-Tibetan · Tibetic

Dravidian

Classical Old Tamil The classical language of Tamil Shaiva and Vaishnava scripture, among the oldest living literary traditions in the world. Dravidian · Dravidian (Tamil)

Japonic

Classical Classical Japanese The classical written language of Japan, in which the norito prayers and the early chronicles are composed. Japonic · Japonic

Kartvelian

Classical Classical Georgian The classical language of one of the oldest Christian nations, and still its liturgical language. Kartvelian · South Caucasian

Language isolate

Extinct Sumerian The sacred and scholarly language of ancient Mesopotamia, preserved in cuneiform long after it ceased to be spoken. Language isolate

Writing Systems

One language may use several scripts, and one script may serve many languages. Each script below records its ISO 15924 code, its Unicode range, and the languages on this site that use it.

Hebr (125) Hebrew Square Script The square letterforms adopted from Imperial Aramaic, in which the Hebrew Bible, the Talmud, and nearly all later Jewish literature are written. Script · Right to left Phnx (115) Paleo-Hebrew Script The early alphabetic script of ancient Israel, derived from Phoenician; it survives in some Dead Sea Scrolls and in the divine name written within square-script manuscripts. Script · Right to left Samr (123) Samaritan Script The descendant of Paleo-Hebrew kept by the Samaritan community, used for the Samaritan Pentateuch to this day. Script · Right to left Grek (200) Greek Alphabet Written first in majuscule (uncial) hands for the great biblical codices, then in minuscule for medieval manuscripts; the script of the Septuagint, the New Testament, and the Greek fathers. Script · Left to right Latn (215) Latin Alphabet The script of the Vulgate and of Western theology, carried in insular and Carolingian minuscule hands through the medieval schools and now the most widely used script in the world. Script · Left to right Syrc (135) Syriac Scripts Three hands of one alphabet: Estrangelo, the stately book hand of the early Peshitta manuscripts; Serto, the Western cursive; and Madnhaya, the Eastern hand. Script · Right to left Copt (204) Coptic Alphabet Greek letters supplemented by characters from Egyptian demotic, devised to write the Egyptian language for the Coptic church. Script · Left to right Ethi (430) Ge'ez Script An abugida of Ethiopic civilization, created for Ge'ez and still writing Amharic and Tigrinya; the script of the Ethiopian biblical canon and its vast manuscript tradition. Script · Left to right Armn (230) Armenian Alphabet Created by Mesrop Mashtots around 405 so that Scripture could be translated into Armenian; its invention marks the beginning of Armenian literature. Script · Left to right Geor (240) Georgian Scripts Three scripts for one language: Asomtavruli capitals, the Nuskhuri minuscule of the manuscripts (together forming the ecclesiastical Khutsuri), and the modern Mkhedruli. Script · Left to right Cyrl (220) Cyrillic Named for Cyril, developed by his disciples in the First Bulgarian Empire, and the script of Church Slavonic books and of the Slavic Orthodox world. Script · Left to right Glag (225) Glagolitic The first Slavic alphabet, devised by Cyril and Methodius for their ninth-century mission; it survives in Croatian liturgical use. Script · Left to right Arab (160) Arabic Script The script of the Qur'an, adapted for Persian, Urdu, and many other languages; its calligraphy became a central sacred art of Islam. Script · Right to left Deva (315) Devanagari The principal Brahmic script of Sanskrit, Hindi, and Marathi, in which most modern editions of the Hindu scriptures are printed. Script · Left to right Tibt (330) Tibetan Script A Brahmic-derived script created in the seventh century for translating Buddhist texts from Sanskrit; it carries the Kangyur and Tengyur. Script · Left to right Hani (500) Chinese Characters The logographic script in which the Chinese Buddhist canon and the Confucian and Taoist classics are written, shared across mutually unintelligible spoken languages. Script · Left to right Guru (310) Gurmukhi The Brahmic script standardized under Guru Angad, in which the Guru Granth Sahib is printed and Sikh scripture is read. Script · Left to right Brah (300) and national Brahmic scripts Pali Canon Scripts Pali has no script of its own: the canon is written in Sinhala script in Sri Lanka, Burmese in Myanmar, Thai in Thailand, Khmer in Cambodia, and Devanagari or Latin letters elsewhere. Script · Left to right Avst Avestan Script The script devised in the Sasanian era to record the Avestan liturgy exactly, written right to left with a full vowel notation. Script · Right to left Xsux Cuneiform The wedge-shaped writing of ancient Mesopotamia, pressed into clay with a reed stylus and used for Sumerian, Akkadian, and their neighbours over three thousand years. Script · Left to right Mtei Meetei Mayek The indigenous script of Manipur, whose letter names are parts of the human body, revived in the twentieth century as the script of Meitei. Script · Left to right Mand Mandaic Script The cursive right-to-left script of the Mandaeans, in which the community's scriptures and ritual texts are written. Script · Right to left Taml Tamil Script The script of Tamil, descended from Brahmi, in use for one of the longest continuous literary traditions in the world. Script · Left to right Brah Brahmi The mother script of South and Southeast Asia, first carved in the edicts of Ashoka; nearly every Indic script descends from it. Script · Left to right Phlp Pahlavi Script The right-to-left script of Middle Persian, used for the Zoroastrian books of the Sasanian era, famous for its Aramaic heterograms read aloud as Persian words. Script · Right to left Hrkt Japanese Kana The hiragana and katakana syllabaries of Japanese, simplified from Chinese characters and written alongside them in classical and modern texts alike. Script · Left to right

Translation Traditions

How the scriptures passed from language to language: the Septuagint, the Targums, the Peshitta, the Vulgate, and the traditions that followed them.

Greek The Septuagint (LXX) The Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible made in Alexandria — the Old Testament of the early church and of Orthodoxy. Biblical Hebrew → Greek Aramaic The Targums The Aramaic paraphrases of the Hebrew Bible that accompanied synagogue reading and preserve ancient interpretation. Biblical Hebrew → Aramaic Syriac The Peshitta The Syriac standard Bible, the first complete Bible translation of the Christian era, still read across the Syriac churches. Hebrew and Greek → Syriac Latin The Vulgate Jerome's Latin Bible, the text of Western theology for a millennium and the Catholic Church's declared rule of faith at Trent. Hebrew and Greek → Latin Latin Vetus Latina (Old Latin) The Old Latin versions that preceded the Vulgate: the first Latin Bibles, and early witnesses to the Greek text. Greek → Latin Coptic, Ge'ez, Armenian, Georgian, Church Slavonic The Ancient Church Translations: Coptic, Ethiopic, Armenian, Georgian, Slavonic The early versions of the daughter churches, which preserved texts lost elsewhere and made the Bible a literature in five more tongues. Greek (with Hebrew behind it) → Coptic, Ge'ez, Armenian, Georgian, Church Slavonic Arabic Arabic Bible Translations A thousand years of Arabic versions, differing by community and confession, down to the Van Dyck Bible of 1865. Hebrew and Greek (often through Syriac and Coptic) → Arabic The languages of the world Modern Missionary and Vernacular Translation The worldwide vernacular translation movement and the translation theory it produced, with its contested history. The biblical languages → The languages of the world

The Glossary

The technical words of theology — ousia and gratia, hesed and tawhid, dharma and atman — each with its language, its literal sense, and its theological meaning. 41 terms in the glossary.