Section: Language
Variable: Polity Language (All coded records)
The language(s) used polity-wide for administration, religion, and military affairs.  
Polity Language
#  Polity  Coded Value Tags Year(s) Edit Desc
1 Spanish Empire II Spanish Confident Expert 1716 CE 1814 CE
-
2 Chola Empire Tamil Confident -
"Emerging from their heartland in the vicinity of Uraiyur along the banks of the river Kaveri in the mid-9th century, they soon controlled the entire Tamil-speaking area." [1]

[1]: (Mahalakshmi 2016: 1), Mahalakshmi, Rakesh. 2016. ‘Chola (Cola) Empire’. In The Encyclopedia of Empire, edited by John M. MacKenzie, 1st ed., 1–7. Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118455074.wbeoe366. Zotero ID: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/ET6Z69AC.


3 Carolingian Empire I Latin Confident Expert -
“in the Carolingian Empire (largely patterned after Byzantium), a dying Latin was revived for the administration of Church and State” [1]

[1]: (Kahane 1986, 495-496) Kahane, H. 1986. A Typology of the Prestige Language. Language 62(3): 495-508. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/39X3SZZP/library


4 Yemen Ziyad Dynasty Arabic Confident Expert -
-
5 Five Dynasties Period Chinese Confident Expert -
-
6 British Empire I English Confident Expert -
-
7 Uruk unknown Suspected Expert -
However, some researchers believed that Sumerian language was in use in this period. [1]

[1]: Roux 1998, 70


8 Jenne-jeno I unknown Suspected Expert -
-
9 Cuzco - Early Intermediate I unknown Suspected Expert -
-
10 Cuzco - Early Intermediate II unknown Suspected Expert -
-
11 Cuzco - Late Formative unknown Suspected Expert -
-
12 Wari Empire unknown Suspected Expert -
-
13 Naqada II unknown Suspected Expert -
probably very similar to Archaic Egyptian
14 New Palace Crete unknown Suspected Expert -
Information of the spoken and written language of Bronze Age Cretans during the Neopalatial period is scant due to the limited number of written documents. The few preserved documents were written in Linear A script which is still undeciphered. [1] [2] What language was recorded in Linear A documents is an issue of vivid debate. Some consider it part of the eastern family of Indo-European languages and have attempted to connected it to Luwian or Hittite while others connected to Semitic, Phoenecian, Indo-Iranian, or Tyrrenian. [3] [4] [5] It is possible however that Linear A express a pre-Hellenic Aegean linguistic substrate "which was enriched over time throughout possible migrations to the island, as well as various extra-Cretan contacts with other linguists elements, including Greek world. Thus, we could speaking of an age-old indigenous ’Minoan’ language that survived in some parts of Crete until the first millennium B.C. and appears as "Eteocretan" on inscriptions such as those from Praisos and Dreros." [6]

[1]: Tomas, H. 2010. " Cretan hieroglyphic and Linear A," in Cline, E.H. (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of the Bronze Age Aegean (ca. 3000-1000 BC), Oxford, 340-55

[2]: Boulotis, C. 2008. "The art of Cretan writing," in Andreadaki-Vlazaki, M., Rethemiotakis, G., and Dimopoulou-Rethemiotaki, N. (eds), From the Land of the Labyrinth. Minoan Crete, 3000-1100 B.C., New York, 67-78.

[3]: Nagy, G. 1963. "Greek-like elements in Linear A," Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 4, 181-211

[4]: Owens, G. 1999. "The structure of the Minoan language," Journal of Indo-European Studies 27, 15-56

[5]: Owens, G. 2007. Η Δομή της Μινωικής Γλώσσας, Heraklion

[6]: Boulotis, C. 2008. "The art of Cretan writing," in Andreadaki-Vlazaki, M., Rethemiotakis, G., and Dimopoulou-Rethemiotaki, N. (eds), From the Land of the Labyrinth. Minoan Crete, 3000-1100 B.C., New York, 70.


15 Japan - Initial Jomon uncoded Undecided Expert -
It seems most likely that the Jomon people spoke a language similar to Ainu [1] .

[1]: (Hudson 1999, 83-102)


16 Japan - Middle Jomon uncoded Undecided Expert -
It seems most likely that the Jomon people spoke a language similar to Ainu [1] .

[1]: (Hudson 1999, 83-102)


17 Kachi Plain - Post-Urban Period uncoded Undecided Expert -
Nothing is known about the spoken language(s) in use. [1]

[1]: Possehl, Gregory L., ‘The Transformation of the Indus Civilization’, Journal of World Prehistory, 11 (1997): 462


18 Cahokia - Sand Prairie uncoded Undecided Expert -
"Cahokia was made up of different ethnic groups, perhaps even different linguistic groups." [1] However Cahokia did not exist in this period: "The people that were a part of Cahokia made a conscious decision not to continue after ca. A.D. 1250." [2] "We know that by the mid-300s Cahokia was basically abandoned." [3]

[1]: (Peregrine/Emerson 2014, 13)

[2]: (Peregrine/Kelly 2014, 24)

[3]: (Iseminger 2010, 148)


19 Cahokia - Emergent Mississippian II uncoded Undecided Expert -
"Cahokia was made up of different ethnic groups, perhaps even different linguistic groups." [1]

[1]: (Peregrine/Emerson 2014, 13)


20 Austria - Habsburg Dynasty I German Confident -
-
21 Carolingian Empire II Latin Confident Expert -
“in the Carolingian Empire (largely patterned after Byzantium), a dying Latin was revived for the administration of Church and State” [1]

[1]: (Kahane 1986, 495-496) Kahane, H. 1986. A Typology of the Prestige Language. Language 62(3): 495-508. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/39X3SZZP/library


22 Gahadavala Dynasty Sanskrit Confident Expert -
-
23 Italian Kingdom Late Antiquity Latin Confident Expert -
“‘Gothic’ was probably the military pidgin cant of the Mediterranean armies, a mix of Greek, Latin, and Germanic elements, the product of the intermingling of soldiers of diverse backgrounds in the 5th and 6th centuries. It should not be thought of as widely known or as the primary language of the people our sources call Goths. Latin held that distinction, a language known by all inhabitants of Italy regardless of origin.113 This can be inferred because the sources never indicate that communication was a problem. Liberius is not known to have spoken Gothic, but had no trouble leading troops. Many of Cassiodorus’ letters are addressed to people with Germanic names and they were written in Latin.” [1]

[1]: (Swain 2016: 223) Swain, B. 2016. Goths and Gothic Identity in the Ostrogothic Kingdom. In Arnold, Bjornlie and Sessa (eds) A Companion to Ostrogothic Italy pp. 203-233. Brill. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/87H7UDXS/item-list


24 Japan - Late Jomon uncoded Undecided Expert -
It seems most likely that the Jomon people spoke a language similar to Ainu [1] .

[1]: (Hudson 1999, 83-102)


25 Japan - Final Jomon uncoded Undecided Expert -
It seems most likely that the Jomon people spoke a language similar to Ainu [1] .

[1]: (Hudson 1999, 83-102)


26 Oaxaca - Rosario uncoded Undecided Expert -
There are no written records from this phase, but later evidence shows that people in the valley spoke Zapotec, possibly from the succeeding San José Mogote phase, and the Otomanguean language families may have split before the start of this period. [1]

[1]: Flannery, K. V. and J. Marcus (1983). "The Cloud People." New York, p4-7


27 Oaxaca - San Jose uncoded Undecided Expert -
There are no written records from this phase, but later evidence shows that people in the valley spoke Zapotec, possibly from the succeeding San José Mogote phase, and the Otomanguean language families may have split before the start of this period. [1]

[1]: Flannery, K. V. and J. Marcus (1983). "The Cloud People." New York, p4-7


28 Cahokia - Lohman-Stirling uncoded Undecided Expert -
"Cahokia was made up of different ethnic groups, perhaps even different linguistic groups." [1] We do not know this, but the generally held belief is that they were Siouan speakers, probably Dhegihan. [2]

[1]: (Peregrine/Emerson 2014, 13)

[2]: (Peregrine 2015, personal communication)


29 Cahokia - Moorehead uncoded Undecided Expert -
"Cahokia was made up of different ethnic groups, perhaps even different linguistic groups." [1] We do not know this, but the generally held belief is that they were Siouan speakers, probably Dhegihan. [2]

[1]: (Peregrine/Emerson 2014, 13)

[2]: (Peregrine 2015, personal communication)


30 Himyar I Sabaic Confident Expert -
“Today, there is a consensus that ASA [Ancient South Arabian] constitutes a group of related Central Semitic languages, namely Sabaic, Qatabanic, Minaic, and Hadramitic, so called by modern scholars after the names of the ancient kingdoms in which they were spoken. Although a case has been made for the existence of a fifth language, spoken in the kingdom of Himyar and corresponding to the ‘Himyar’ language referred to by medieval Arabic authors like al-Hamdani, who in fact claims that Himyari was still spoken in parts of Yemen in his own day, it is more likely that the Himyarites spoke a southern dialect of Sabaic in pre-Islamic times, and that what was known during the early Islamic period as Himyari represents the final stages of Sabaic.” [1]

[1]: (Hatke 2019: 2) Hatke, G. 2019. The Other South Arabians: The Ancient South Arabian Kingdoms and Their MSA (Modern South Arabian) Neighbors, ca. 300 BCE-550 CE. In Hatke, G. and Ruzicka, R. (eds.) Ancient South Arabia through History: Kingdoms, Tribes, and Traders pp. 1-62. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XKMAIRCX/library


31 Rasulid Dynasty Arabic Confident Expert -
-
32 Kannauj - Varman Dynasty Sanskrit Confident Expert -
-
33 * Norman England Latin Confident -
- Latin was the dominant language for administration and official documents in Norman England. [Clanchy 1993], [webpage_Home | Domesday Book] EDIT
34 Himyar II Sabaic Confident Expert -
“Today, there is a consensus that ASA [Ancient South Arabian] constitutes a group of related Central Semitic languages, namely Sabaic, Qatabanic, Minaic, and Hadramitic, so called by modern scholars after the names of the ancient kingdoms in which they were spoken. Although a case has been made for the existence of a fifth language, spoken in the kingdom of Himyar and corresponding to the ‘Himyar’ language referred to by medieval Arabic authors like al-Hamdani, who in fact claims that Himyari was still spoken in parts of Yemen in his own day, it is more likely that the Himyarites spoke a southern dialect of Sabaic in pre-Islamic times, and that what was known during the early Islamic period as Himyari represents the final stages of Sabaic.” [1]

[1]: (Hatke 2019: 2) Hatke, G. 2019. The Other South Arabians: The Ancient South Arabian Kingdoms and Their MSA (Modern South Arabian) Neighbors, ca. 300 BCE-550 CE. In Hatke, G. and Ruzicka, R. (eds.) Ancient South Arabia through History: Kingdoms, Tribes, and Traders pp. 1-62. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XKMAIRCX/library


35 Xianbei Confederation Xianbei Confident Expert -
-
36 Gurjar-Pratihara Dynasty Sanskrit Confident Expert -
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37 Kingdom of Ayodhya Sanskrit Confident Expert -
-
38 * Norman England Anglo-Norman Confident -
- After the Norman Conquest, Anglo-Norman French became the language of the ruling class, including the nobility, royal court, and military leadership. [Clanchy 1993] EDIT
39 Hellenistic Crete Greek Confident Expert -
-
40 Yemen - Era of Warlords Arabic Confident Expert -
-
41 Kachi Plain - Urban Period II unknown Confident Expert -
The Indus script has not yet been deciphered by linguists: "The nature and content of the Indus script has been extensively debated in the literature. More than a hundred attempts have been made to assign meanings to various signs and sign combinations, relating it to proto-Dravidian language (see Parpola 2009, 1994, Mahadevan 1998) on the one hand and to Sanskrit (Rao 1982) on the other. It has even been suggested that the script is entirely numeric (Subbarayappa 1997). However, no consistent and generally agreed interpretation exists and most interpretations are at variance with each other and, at times, internally inconsistent (Possehl 1996)." [1] There were almost certainly a wide range of languages spoken, perhaps including one (or several) from an ancient language family known as ’Proto-Dravidian’. [2] [3] "Para-Munda, spoken in the Punjab at the time when the Rigvedic Aryans arrived and seemingly also by the Late Harappan settlers who were moving eastward into the Ganges region, must have been in the subcontinent for a considerable period. If the area where it was spoken in the Pre-Harappan period included the Indo-Iranian borderlands, then it is likely that Para-Munda was the main Harappan language, at least in the Punjab and probably throughout the civilization, and that Dravidian was a language spoken by the indigenous inhabitants of the west, possibly as far northwest as Saurashtra. In this case the language of the PostHarappans in Gujarat may have developed into the North Dravidian branch.//Alternatively Para-Munda may have been the language spoken by the hunter-gatherer-fisher communities that inhabited the Indus region before the people of the borderlands settled in the plains. If the newcomers to the region in the fifth millennium were Dravidian speakers, then it is possible that a Dravidian language was spoken by at least some of the farmers and pastoralists of the borderlands who settled in the plains and therefore by some Harappans but that Para-Munda remained the main language of many Harappan inhabitants of the Punjab.Studies of the Harappan script indicate that it was used to write a single language. It seems plausible that the overarching cultural unity of the Harappans would be matched by the existence of an official language, used in writing and spoken as a lingua franca throughout the Harappan realms. Nevertheless, it is quite possible that one or several other languages were also spoken in the Harappan state, specific to different regions or occupational groups, reflecting the different communities that had come together in its formation. Prolonged bilingualism is known to have occurred in other areas, for example in Mesopotamia where Sumerian and Akkadian coexisted for many centuries: though they belonged originally to the south and north parts of southern Mesopotamia (Sumer and Akkad), educated people from both regions spoke both languages." [4]

[1]: (Yadav and Vahia 2011, 3) Nisha Yadav and M.N. Vahia. 2011. Indus Script: A Study of its Sign Design. SCRIPTA 3: 1-36.

[2]: Possehl, Gregory L., ‘The Transformation of the Indus Civilization’, Journal of World Prehistory, 11 (1997): 462

[3]: Gregory L. Possehl. The Indus Civilization. A Contemporary Perspective. Walnut Creek, Altamira, 2002, p.248

[4]: (McIntosh 2008 page 2355-356) Jane McIntosh. 2008. The Ancient Indus Valley. Santa Barbara; Denver; Oxford: ABC-CLIO.


42 Khmer Kingdom Mon Confident Expert -
Khmer or Cambodian [1] ’The Khmer language, which is distantly related to Vietnamese and many minority languages spoken in mainland Southeast Asia, belongs to the Mon-Khmer subset of the Austroasiatic family of languages. Over fifty distinct Austroasiatic languages are spoken across a wide swath of the Asian main- land, stretching from eastern India westward to Vietnam. Of these languages, only Khmer and Mon possess alphabets of their own.The Mons and the Khmers are also the only speakers of Austroasiatic languages to practice settled agri- culture. The earliest evidence of written Khmer comes from an inscription incised in southern Cambodia of the seventh century C.E., using an alphabet derived from southern India, which, in modified form, remains in use in contemporary Cambodia. The Thais adapted the alphabet for their own use in the thirteenth century C.E.’ [2] ’Linguistically and genetically an Austro-Asiatic group, the Mon belong to the Mon-Khmer ethnological unit. Archaeological remains have shown that they inhabited the area of the Mekong Delta and Tonle Sap regions of present- day Cambodia, northeast Thailand, and around the Gulf of Thailand from at least the beginning of the Common Era (C.E.). Perhaps they date even earlier, as evidence of an Austro-Asiatic group has been found in western Thailand in Kanchanaburi Province near the village of Ban Kao, dating from Neolithic times (10,000 B.C.E.). Archaeological remains indicate that a Mon civilization based on Theravada Buddhism was present in northeast Thailand up to around the early ninth century, when it was overtaken by the Khmers of Angkor expanding from cen- tral Cambodia at the beginning of the reign of Jayavarman II (770/790/802?-834 C.E.).’ [3] ’In northeast Thailand, for example, most Hinayana Buddhist stupas yielded to the standardized prasat structures of Angkorian Hinduism or Mahayana Buddhism.58 In 1200 people who spoke Khmer as their primary tongue probably formed a majority in the Cambodian plain, the Mekong basin as far north as That Phanom, much of the Chi and Mun river valleys, and the area im- mediately north and east of present-day Bangkok.59 But the lowlands also contained very substantial non-Khmer populations. Those parts of the Chaophraya basin subject to Angkor, for example, were dominated by Mon- and later by Tai-speakers, both of whom tended to be more attached to Hinayana Buddhism than to Hinduism. The basin also in- cluded people who in later times might be labeled Malay, Cham, or Karen.60 Angkor itself by 1297, according to Zhou Daguan, had Siamese (Tai) settlers as well as a large population of enslaved hill peoples, who were treated as a race apart. Each city and village in Cambodia, he added, had its own Khmer dialect.61’ [4] ’Here are the most salient traits of the Post-Classic: [...] Theravada Buddhism as the state religion, with Pali rather than Sanskrit as its language.’ [5] ’Here are the most salient traits of the Post-Classic: [...] Middle Khmer replaces Old Khmer as the language of the people and of the court.’ [5] ’Secondly, during the period in question and even long afterwards, the Cambodian and Thai courts were inextricably linked. Khmer intellectuals were steeped in Thai language and literature, and had come to think that the Ayutthaya chronicles were something to imitate; thus, they forced the Cambodian chronicles into a Thai model.’ [6]

[1]: (http://www.ethnologue.com/language/khm)

[2]: (Chandler 2004, p. 729)

[3]: (James 2004, p. 904)

[4]: (Lieberman 2003, p. 231)

[5]: (Coe 2003, p. 195)

[6]: (Coe 2003, p. 199)


43 Egypt - Dynasty I unknown Suspected Expert -
Ancient Egyptian? "nothing is really known about the spoken language." [1]

[1]: (Bard 2000, 64)


44 Naqada I unknown Suspected Expert -
probably very similar to Archaic Egyptian
45 Egypt - Dynasty II uncoded Undecided Expert -
Ancient Egyptian? "nothing is really known about the spoken language." [1]

[1]: (Bard 2000, 64)


46 * Norman England Old English Confident -
- Old English remained the language of the majority population, especially for the peasantry and local communities. [Carpenter 2003] EDIT
47 Shiwei Khitan Confident Expert -
Describing the Shiwei: "Their language is variously described as similar to Kitan and Qai (Chinese, Xi), that is, Mongolic, or as similar to Mohe (Malgal or Mukri), that is, Manchu-Tungusic." [1]

"According to the Wei Shu, Sui Shu and Jiu Tangshu, it seems that the Shiwei were of Khitan origin, since the Shiwei and Khitan shared the similar ethnic stock and the same language as recorded in the above three dynastic histories." [2]

[1]: (Atwood 2004, 502)

[2]: (Xu 2005, 176)


48 Wei Kingdom Chinese Confident Expert -
-
49 Egypt - Dynasty 0 unknown Suspected Expert -
probably very similar to Archaic Egyptian
50 Hmong - Late Qing Hmong-Mien Confident Expert -
51 Egypt - Saite Period Demotic Confident Expert -
Demotic was introduced in the early Saite period, and spread throughout Egypt. A very important phenomenon.
52 Hmong - Late Qing Hmongic Confident Expert -
53 Hmong - Late Qing Chuanqiandian Confident Expert -
54 Northern Wei Chinese Confident Expert -
Use of Xianbei at court by Xiaowendi was banned after 495 CE. [1] "The Toba were a Mongol-speaking tribe of non-Chinese Buddhists..." [2]

[1]: (Xiong 2009, ci)

[2]: (Avery 2003, 40)


55 Early Qing Manchu language Confident Expert -
[1]

[1]: (Crossley & Rawski, 1993)


56 Late Qing Manchu language Confident Expert -
[1]

[1]: (Crossley & Rawski, 1993)


57 Western Zhou Chinese Confident Expert -
Sinitic language family.
58 Badarian unknown Suspected Expert -
There is no data about language used by Badarian culture, especially because a writing system was yet to be invented.
59 Buhaya Haya Confident -
-
60 Karagwe Kinyambo Confident -
-
61 Kingdom of Bohemia - Luxembourgian and Jagiellonian Dynasty Czech Confident Expert -
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62 Jin Dynasty Khitan Confident Expert -
-
63 Ancient Khwarazm Sogdian Confident Expert -
"The Achaemenid sources of the 6th century BCE are the first to mention Sogdiana and its inhabitants, the Sogdians. The individu- alization of this people in the texts demonstrates the existence of an ethnic identity before a linguistic reality, for if in this work we define the Sogdians as those who spoke Sogdian as their native language, we must note that the separation of Sogdian from the other Iranian languages probably took place only very progressively in the course of the Achaemenid period." [1]

[1]: (De la Vaissière 2005, 16)


64 Eastern Han Empire Chinese Confident Expert -
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65 Western Jin Chinese Confident Expert -
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66 Jin Chinese Confident Expert -
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67 Jin Dynasty Middle Chinese Confident Expert -
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68 Jin Dynasty Jurchen Confident Expert -
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69 Great Ming Chinese Confident Expert -
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70 Northern Song Chinese Confident Expert -
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71 Late Shang Chinese Confident Expert -
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72 Sui Dynasty Chinese Confident Expert -
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73 Tang Dynasty I Chinese Confident Expert -
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74 Tang Dynasty II Chinese Confident Expert -
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75 Early Wei Dynasty Chinese Confident Expert -
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76 Western Han Empire Chinese Confident Expert -
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77 Great Yuan Mongolian language Confident Expert -
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78 Great Yuan Chinese Confident Expert -
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79 Egypt - Inter-Occupation Period Demotic Confident Expert -
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80 Egypt - Mamluk Sultanate I Arabic Confident Expert -
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81 Egypt - Mamluk Sultanate II Arabic Confident Expert -
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82 Egypt - Middle Kingdom Ancient Egyptian Confident Expert -
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83 Egypt - Classic Old Kingdom Ancient Egyptian Confident Expert -
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84 Egypt - Late Old Kingdom Ancient Egyptian Confident Expert -
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85 Egypt - Period of the Regions Ancient Egyptian Confident Expert -
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86 Egypt - Tulunid-Ikhshidid Period Arabic Confident Expert -
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87 Proto-Carolingian Latin Confident Expert -
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88 Proto-Carolingian Germanic Confident Expert -
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89 Middle Merovingian Latin Confident Expert -
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90 Middle Merovingian Germanic Confident Expert -
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91 British Empire II English Confident Expert -
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92 Archaic Crete Doric Greek Confident Expert -
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93 Erligang archaic Chinese Confident Expert -
"The people whose material culture is studied here did not yet, as far as we know, use the Eastern Zhou term Zhongguo, or “middle kingdoms,” nor is there any evidence that they considered themselves to have a common collective identity. Indeed, it is likely that many, if not most, of those within the area of what is now the People’s Republic of China did not speak any language ancestral to modern Chinese. In addition to archaic Chinese, there would have been speakers of other Sino-Tibetan languages, as well as Altaic, Austroasiatic, Hmong-Mien, Tai-Kadai, Austronesian, and perhaps even Indo-European languages." [1]

[1]: (Campbell 2014, 13)


94 Egypt - Thebes-Hyksos Period Ancient Egyptian Confident Expert -
The Hyksos "adopted the language and customs of their subjects" [1]

[1]: (Sayce 1903, 349)


95 Egypt - Thebes-Libyan Period Ancient Egyptian Confident Expert -
Script evolved into two distinct types: Demotic hieratic in the north; abnormal hieratic at Thebes. [1]

[1]: (Taylor 2000, 339)


96 Chuuk - Late Truk Chuukese Confident Expert -
eHRAF names the native language as Chuukese: ’The Chuukese language is one of many members of the Micronesian Family of Oceanic Austronesian languages.’ [1]

[1]: Goodenough, Ward H. and Skoggard, Ian: eHRAF Cultural Summary for the Chuuk


97 La Tene A-B1 Gallic Confident Expert -
[1]

[1]: (Collis 2003, 45)


98 La Tene B2-C1 Gallic Confident Expert -
[1]

[1]: (Collis 2003, 45)


99 La Tene C2-D Gaulish Confident Expert -
[1]

[1]: (Collis 2003, 45)


100 Classical Crete Doric Greek Confident Expert -
-
101 Qatabanian Commonwealth Qatabanic Confident Expert -
"five major languages attested—Sabaʾic, Maʿīnic, Qatabānic, Ḥaḍramawtic, and Old Arabic" [1]

[1]: (Robin 2015: 94) Robin, Christian Julien. 2015. “Before Himyar: Epigraphic Evidence for the Kingdoms of South Arabia.” In Arabs and Empires before Islam, edited by Greg Fisher, 91-126. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Seshat URL: https://www-oxfordscholarship-com.ezp.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199654529.001.0001/acprof-9780199654529-chapter-3.


102 Final Postpalatial Crete Minoan Confident Expert -
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103 Final Postpalatial Crete Early Greek Confident Expert -
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104 Geometric Crete Doric Greek Confident Expert -
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105 Geometric Crete Eteocretan Confident Expert -
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106 Hawaii II Hawaiian Confident Expert -
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107 Hawaii III Hawaiian Confident Expert -
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108 Mataram Sultanate Javanese Confident Expert -
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109 Yisrael Hebrew Confident Expert -
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110 Hoysala Kingdom Kannada Confident Expert -
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111 Hoysala Kingdom Sanskrit Confident Expert -
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112 Abbasid Caliphate II Arabic Confident Expert -
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113 Bazi Dynasty Akkadian Confident Expert -
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114 Dynasty of E Mesopotamian Religions Confident Expert -
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115 Second Dynasty of Isin Akkadian Confident Expert -
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116 Postpalatial Crete Minoan Confident Expert -
Most population spoke Minoan while early Greek was mostly used in administration.
117 Postpalatial Crete Early Greek Confident Expert -
Most population spoke Minoan while early Greek was mostly used in administration.
118 Majapahit Kingdom Middle Javanese Confident Expert -
[1] Sanskrit chiefly used as a religious language by this point, though there are still some Sanskrit inscriptions to be found during this period. [2]

[1]: (Kinney 2003, 34)

[2]: (De Casparis 1991, 32)


119 Canaan Canaanite Confident Expert -
Strictly speaking, "Canaanite" could refer to a number of closely related Northwest Semitic dialects spoken during the period that are distinct from Aramaic dialects (by the use of the h- prefix for the definite article). They include early Phoenician, early Hebrew, and several other local dialects.
120 Chalukyas of Badami Sanskrit Confident Expert -
[1] .

[1]: Suryanatha Kamath, A Concise History of Karnataka (1980), p. 73


121 Chalukyas of Badami Kannada Confident Expert -
[1] .

[1]: Suryanatha Kamath, A Concise History of Karnataka (1980), p. 73


122 Gupta Empire Sanskrit Confident Expert -
"Fa-hein’s record, inscriptions and literature all are testimony to the fact that the language of the cultured classes was Sanskrit while the lower classes spoke Prakrit." [1]

[1]: (Khosla 1982, 103) Sarla Khosla. 1982. Gupta Civilization. New Delhi: Intellectual Press.


123 Kadamba Empire Sanskrit Confident Expert -
Prakrit and Sanskrit were official, court languages, while Kannada was probably the "colloquial" language [1] EXTERNAL_INLINE_LINK: http://seshat.info/File:Kadambamaps.nelson.png

[1]: Suryanatha Kamath, A Concise History of Karnataka (1980), p. 40


124 Kampili Kingdom Kannada Confident Expert -
Coded as Hoysalas.
125 Kampili Kingdom Sanskrit Confident Expert -
Coded as Hoysalas.
126 Rashtrakuta Empire Sanskrit Confident Expert -
[1]

[1]: Jayashri Mishra, Social and Economic Conditions Under the Imperial Rashtrakutas (1992), p. 19


127 Rashtrakuta Empire Kannada Confident Expert -
[1]

[1]: Jayashri Mishra, Social and Economic Conditions Under the Imperial Rashtrakutas (1992), p. 19


128 Magadha - Sunga Empire Sanskrit Confident Expert -
[1]

[1]: (Witzel 2006, 472) Michael Witzel. 2006. ’Brahmanical Reactions to Foreign Influences and to Social and Religious Change’ in Between the Empires: Society in India 300 BCE to 400 CE, edited by Patrick Olivelle. Oxford: Oxford University Press.


129 Amorite Babylonia Amorite Confident Expert -
[1] [2]

[1]: Millard, A. 2000. Amorites. In Bienkowski, P. and Millard, A. (eds.) Dictionary of the Ancient Near East. London: British Museum Press. p.16

[2]: Oates, J. Babylon. Revised Edition. London: Thames and Hudson. p.60


130 Amorite Babylonia Old Babylonian Confident Expert -
[1] [2]

[1]: Millard, A. 2000. Amorites. In Bienkowski, P. and Millard, A. (eds.) Dictionary of the Ancient Near East. London: British Museum Press. p.16

[2]: Oates, J. Babylon. Revised Edition. London: Thames and Hudson. p.60


131 Early Dynastic Sumerian Confident Expert -
[1]

[1]: Cunningham 2013, 95-97


132 Hallstatt A-B1 uncoded Undecided Expert -
Unknown?
133 Ubaid unknown Suspected Expert -
-
134 Prepalatial Crete unknown Suspected Expert -
Information of the spoken and written language of Bronze Age Cretans during the Prepalatial period do not exist.
135 Ak Koyunlu Persian Confident Expert -
"The Qaraquyunlu and Aqquyunlu tribal entities which succeeded the Timurids on the region’s political scene pursued a similarly inclusive ’project’: Islam was their religion, their tribal military levies were Turks, their administrators were Tajiks and their cultural discourse was Persian." [1]

[1]: (Newman 2009) Newman, Andrew J. 2009. Safavid Iran: Rebirth of a Persian Empire. I.B. Tauris. New York.


136 Ilkhanate Mongolian Confident Expert -
The original Ilkhans were Mongols and therefore spoke Mongolian. Manuscripts were written in Persian and Arabic. [1]

[1]: Stefano Carboni, ’IL-KHANIDS iii. Book Illustration’ http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/il-khanids-iii-book-illustration


137 Elam III Elamite Confident Expert -
"The Elamite written language was used as the official language in the bureaucracy for a long time, rivaling the Sumerian and Akkadian languages even over a thousand years later, during the Old Persian Empire of the Achaemenids." [1]

[1]: (Farazmand 2009, 22) Farazmand, Ali. 2009. Bureaucracy and Administration. CRC Press. Boca Raton.


138 Sabaean Commonwealth Qatabanic Confident Expert -
"five major languages attested—Sabaʾic, Maʿīnic, Qatabānic, Ḥaḍramawtic, and Old Arabic" [1]

[1]: (Robin 2015: 94) Robin, Christian Julien. 2015. “Before Himyar: Epigraphic Evidence for the Kingdoms of South Arabia.” In Arabs and Empires before Islam, edited by Greg Fisher, 91-126. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/ZMFH42PE.


139 Qajar Persian Confident Expert -
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140 Papal States - Early Modern Period I Latin Confident Expert -
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141 Papal States - Early Modern Period II Latin Confident Expert -
-
142 Exarchate of Ravenna Latin Confident Expert -
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143 Exarchate of Ravenna Greek Confident Expert -
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144 Roman Kingdom Latin Confident Expert -
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145 Republic of St Peter I Latin Confident Expert -
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146 Republic of Venice III Italian Confident Expert -
-
147 Republic of Venice IV Italian Confident Expert -
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148 Kansai - Kofun Period Japanese Confident Expert -
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149 Phoenician Empire Phoenician Confident Expert -
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150 Susa II Sumerian Confident Expert -
Sumerian in neighbouring Mesopotamia: "Until Sargon, records from Akkad had been written in Sumerian." [1]

[1]: (Middleton 2015) Middleton, John. 2015. World Monarchies and Dynasties. Routledge.


151 Susa III Sumerian Confident Expert -
Sumerian in neighbouring Mesopotamia: "Until Sargon, records from Akkad had been written in Sumerian." [1] Proto-Elamite descendent fro Uruk IV writing and developed different signs to the Sumerian of Jemdet Nasr. Susiana was a centre of Proto-Elamite culture along with Tall-i Malyan at Fars. [2] Susa III texts c3000 BCE not related to Old Elamite inscriptions c2300 BCE. "simply indefensible to claim that Malyan was the site at which the Susa III writing system originated." It was a system derived from proto-cuneiform Susa II / Uruk IV. [3]

[1]: (Middleton 2015) Middleton, John. 2015. World Monarchies and Dynasties. Routledge.

[2]: (Leverani 2014, 91) Liverani, Mario. Tabatabai, Soraia trans. 2014. The Ancient Near East. History, society and economy. Routledge. London.

[3]: (Potts 2016, 71) Potts, D T. 2016. The Archaeology of Elam Formation and Transformation of an Ancient Iranian State. 2nd Edition. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge.


152 Latium - Bronze Age Latin Confident Expert -
[1]

[1]: T.J. Cornell, The Beginnings of Rome (1995), p. 42


153 Latium - Iron Age Latin Confident Expert -
[1]

[1]: T.J. Cornell, The Beginnings of Rome (1995), p. 42


154 Papal States - High Medieval Period Latin Confident Expert -
JFR: Latin was the language of administration, but by this period various dialects of Italian (Romanesco in the city of Rome; Romagnola in Emilia-Romagna; and so forth) were emerging as written languages, besides being the languages of everyday speech.
155 Western Roman Empire - Late Antiquity Latin Confident Expert -
"In Africa, Punic was widely spoken as well as Latin, and in a famous passage of The City of God Augustine reminds the reader that the imperious Roman capital had not only placed the yoke of dominion on defeated peoples; it had also imposed Latin as the official language (Augustine, The City of God, 19, 7)." [1]

[1]: (Triana 2011, 86) Giusto Triana. 2011. 428 AD: An Ordinary Year at the End of the Roman Empire. Princeton University Press.


156 Ashikaga Shogunate Middle Japanese Confident Expert -
[1]

[1]: Deal, William E. 2005. Handbook to Life in Medieval and Early Modern Japan. Oxford University Press.p.242.


157 Kamakura Shogunate Middle Japanese Confident Expert -
(12th-16th century) [1]

[1]: Deal, William E. 2005. Handbook to Life in Medieval and Early Modern Japan. Oxford University Press.p.242.


158 Warring States Japan Middle Japanese Confident Expert -
Middle Japanese 12th-16th century.
159 Classical Angkor Old Khmer Confident Expert -
Khmer or Cambodian [1] ’The Khmer language, which is distantly related to Vietnamese and many minority languages spoken in mainland Southeast Asia, belongs to the Mon-Khmer subset of the Austroasiatic family of languages. Over fifty distinct Austroasiatic languages are spoken across a wide swath of the Asian main- land, stretching from eastern India westward to Vietnam. Of these languages, only Khmer and Mon possess alphabets of their own.The Mons and the Khmers are also the only speakers of Austroasiatic languages to practice settled agri- culture. The earliest evidence of written Khmer comes from an inscription incised in southern Cambodia of the seventh century C.E., using an alphabet derived from southern India, which, in modified form, remains in use in contemporary Cambodia. The Thais adapted the alphabet for their own use in the thirteenth century C.E.’ [2] ’Linguistically and genetically an Austro-Asiatic group, the Mon belong to the Mon-Khmer ethnological unit. Archaeological remains have shown that they inhabited the area of the Mekong Delta and Tonle Sap regions of present- day Cambodia, northeast Thailand, and around the Gulf of Thailand from at least the beginning of the Common Era (C.E.). Perhaps they date even earlier, as evidence of an Austro-Asiatic group has been found in western Thailand in Kanchanaburi Province near the village of Ban Kao, dating from Neolithic times (10,000 B.C.E.). Archaeological remains indicate that a Mon civilization based on Theravada Buddhism was present in northeast Thailand up to around the early ninth century, when it was overtaken by the Khmers of Angkor expanding from cen- tral Cambodia at the beginning of the reign of Jayavarman II (770/790/802?-834 C.E.).’ [3] ’In northeast Thailand, for example, most Hinayana Buddhist stupas yielded to the standardized prasat structures of Angkorian Hinduism or Mahayana Buddhism.58 In 1200 people who spoke Khmer as their primary tongue probably formed a majority in the Cambodian plain, the Mekong basin as far north as That Phanom, much of the Chi and Mun river valleys, and the area im- mediately north and east of present-day Bangkok.59 But the lowlands also contained very substantial non-Khmer populations. Those parts of the Chaophraya basin subject to Angkor, for example, were dominated by Mon- and later by Tai-speakers, both of whom tended to be more attached to Hinayana Buddhism than to Hinduism. The basin also included people who in later times might be labeled Malay, Cham, or Karen.60 Angkor itself by 1297, according to Zhou Daguan, had Siamese (Tai) settlers as well as a large population of enslaved hill peoples, who were treated as a race apart. Each city and village in Cambodia, he added, had its own Khmer dialect.61’ [4]

[1]: (http://www.ethnologue.com/language/khm)

[2]: (Chandler 2004, p. 729)

[3]: (James 2004, p. 904)

[4]: (Lieberman 2003, p. 231)


160 Classical Angkor Mon Confident Expert -
Khmer or Cambodian [1] ’The Khmer language, which is distantly related to Vietnamese and many minority languages spoken in mainland Southeast Asia, belongs to the Mon-Khmer subset of the Austroasiatic family of languages. Over fifty distinct Austroasiatic languages are spoken across a wide swath of the Asian main- land, stretching from eastern India westward to Vietnam. Of these languages, only Khmer and Mon possess alphabets of their own.The Mons and the Khmers are also the only speakers of Austroasiatic languages to practice settled agri- culture. The earliest evidence of written Khmer comes from an inscription incised in southern Cambodia of the seventh century C.E., using an alphabet derived from southern India, which, in modified form, remains in use in contemporary Cambodia. The Thais adapted the alphabet for their own use in the thirteenth century C.E.’ [2] ’Linguistically and genetically an Austro-Asiatic group, the Mon belong to the Mon-Khmer ethnological unit. Archaeological remains have shown that they inhabited the area of the Mekong Delta and Tonle Sap regions of present- day Cambodia, northeast Thailand, and around the Gulf of Thailand from at least the beginning of the Common Era (C.E.). Perhaps they date even earlier, as evidence of an Austro-Asiatic group has been found in western Thailand in Kanchanaburi Province near the village of Ban Kao, dating from Neolithic times (10,000 B.C.E.). Archaeological remains indicate that a Mon civilization based on Theravada Buddhism was present in northeast Thailand up to around the early ninth century, when it was overtaken by the Khmers of Angkor expanding from cen- tral Cambodia at the beginning of the reign of Jayavarman II (770/790/802?-834 C.E.).’ [3] ’In northeast Thailand, for example, most Hinayana Buddhist stupas yielded to the standardized prasat structures of Angkorian Hinduism or Mahayana Buddhism.58 In 1200 people who spoke Khmer as their primary tongue probably formed a majority in the Cambodian plain, the Mekong basin as far north as That Phanom, much of the Chi and Mun river valleys, and the area im- mediately north and east of present-day Bangkok.59 But the lowlands also contained very substantial non-Khmer populations. Those parts of the Chaophraya basin subject to Angkor, for example, were dominated by Mon- and later by Tai-speakers, both of whom tended to be more attached to Hinayana Buddhism than to Hinduism. The basin also included people who in later times might be labeled Malay, Cham, or Karen.60 Angkor itself by 1297, according to Zhou Daguan, had Siamese (Tai) settlers as well as a large population of enslaved hill peoples, who were treated as a race apart. Each city and village in Cambodia, he added, had its own Khmer dialect.61’ [4]

[1]: (http://www.ethnologue.com/language/khm)

[2]: (Chandler 2004, p. 729)

[3]: (James 2004, p. 904)

[4]: (Lieberman 2003, p. 231)


161 Classical Angkor Tai Confident Expert -
Khmer or Cambodian [1] ’The Khmer language, which is distantly related to Vietnamese and many minority languages spoken in mainland Southeast Asia, belongs to the Mon-Khmer subset of the Austroasiatic family of languages. Over fifty distinct Austroasiatic languages are spoken across a wide swath of the Asian main- land, stretching from eastern India westward to Vietnam. Of these languages, only Khmer and Mon possess alphabets of their own.The Mons and the Khmers are also the only speakers of Austroasiatic languages to practice settled agri- culture. The earliest evidence of written Khmer comes from an inscription incised in southern Cambodia of the seventh century C.E., using an alphabet derived from southern India, which, in modified form, remains in use in contemporary Cambodia. The Thais adapted the alphabet for their own use in the thirteenth century C.E.’ [2] ’Linguistically and genetically an Austro-Asiatic group, the Mon belong to the Mon-Khmer ethnological unit. Archaeological remains have shown that they inhabited the area of the Mekong Delta and Tonle Sap regions of present- day Cambodia, northeast Thailand, and around the Gulf of Thailand from at least the beginning of the Common Era (C.E.). Perhaps they date even earlier, as evidence of an Austro-Asiatic group has been found in western Thailand in Kanchanaburi Province near the village of Ban Kao, dating from Neolithic times (10,000 B.C.E.). Archaeological remains indicate that a Mon civilization based on Theravada Buddhism was present in northeast Thailand up to around the early ninth century, when it was overtaken by the Khmers of Angkor expanding from cen- tral Cambodia at the beginning of the reign of Jayavarman II (770/790/802?-834 C.E.).’ [3] ’In northeast Thailand, for example, most Hinayana Buddhist stupas yielded to the standardized prasat structures of Angkorian Hinduism or Mahayana Buddhism.58 In 1200 people who spoke Khmer as their primary tongue probably formed a majority in the Cambodian plain, the Mekong basin as far north as That Phanom, much of the Chi and Mun river valleys, and the area im- mediately north and east of present-day Bangkok.59 But the lowlands also contained very substantial non-Khmer populations. Those parts of the Chaophraya basin subject to Angkor, for example, were dominated by Mon- and later by Tai-speakers, both of whom tended to be more attached to Hinayana Buddhism than to Hinduism. The basin also included people who in later times might be labeled Malay, Cham, or Karen.60 Angkor itself by 1297, according to Zhou Daguan, had Siamese (Tai) settlers as well as a large population of enslaved hill peoples, who were treated as a race apart. Each city and village in Cambodia, he added, had its own Khmer dialect.61’ [4]

[1]: (http://www.ethnologue.com/language/khm)

[2]: (Chandler 2004, p. 729)

[3]: (James 2004, p. 904)

[4]: (Lieberman 2003, p. 231)


162 Late Angkor Khmer Confident Expert -
"“A more likely explanation, advanced by L.P. Briggs, is that the increasing interaction between Khmer- and Mon-speaking residents of the Thai central plain, with the Mons being devotees of Theravada Buddhism, led gradually, over a half century orso, to the conversion of Khmer speakers farther east." [1]

[1]: (Chandler 2008, 81)


163 Khmer Kingdom Khmer Confident Expert -
Khmer or Cambodian [1] ’The Khmer language, which is distantly related to Vietnamese and many minority languages spoken in mainland Southeast Asia, belongs to the Mon-Khmer subset of the Austroasiatic family of languages. Over fifty distinct Austroasiatic languages are spoken across a wide swath of the Asian main- land, stretching from eastern India westward to Vietnam. Of these languages, only Khmer and Mon possess alphabets of their own.The Mons and the Khmers are also the only speakers of Austroasiatic languages to practice settled agri- culture. The earliest evidence of written Khmer comes from an inscription incised in southern Cambodia of the seventh century C.E., using an alphabet derived from southern India, which, in modified form, remains in use in contemporary Cambodia. The Thais adapted the alphabet for their own use in the thirteenth century C.E.’ [2] ’Linguistically and genetically an Austro-Asiatic group, the Mon belong to the Mon-Khmer ethnological unit. Archaeological remains have shown that they inhabited the area of the Mekong Delta and Tonle Sap regions of present- day Cambodia, northeast Thailand, and around the Gulf of Thailand from at least the beginning of the Common Era (C.E.). Perhaps they date even earlier, as evidence of an Austro-Asiatic group has been found in western Thailand in Kanchanaburi Province near the village of Ban Kao, dating from Neolithic times (10,000 B.C.E.). Archaeological remains indicate that a Mon civilization based on Theravada Buddhism was present in northeast Thailand up to around the early ninth century, when it was overtaken by the Khmers of Angkor expanding from cen- tral Cambodia at the beginning of the reign of Jayavarman II (770/790/802?-834 C.E.).’ [3] ’In northeast Thailand, for example, most Hinayana Buddhist stupas yielded to the standardized prasat structures of Angkorian Hinduism or Mahayana Buddhism.58 In 1200 people who spoke Khmer as their primary tongue probably formed a majority in the Cambodian plain, the Mekong basin as far north as That Phanom, much of the Chi and Mun river valleys, and the area im- mediately north and east of present-day Bangkok.59 But the lowlands also contained very substantial non-Khmer populations. Those parts of the Chaophraya basin subject to Angkor, for example, were dominated by Mon- and later by Tai-speakers, both of whom tended to be more attached to Hinayana Buddhism than to Hinduism. The basin also in- cluded people who in later times might be labeled Malay, Cham, or Karen.60 Angkor itself by 1297, according to Zhou Daguan, had Siamese (Tai) settlers as well as a large population of enslaved hill peoples, who were treated as a race apart. Each city and village in Cambodia, he added, had its own Khmer dialect.61’ [4] ’Here are the most salient traits of the Post-Classic: [...] Theravada Buddhism as the state religion, with Pali rather than Sanskrit as its language.’ [5] ’Here are the most salient traits of the Post-Classic: [...] Middle Khmer replaces Old Khmer as the language of the people and of the court.’ [5] ’Secondly, during the period in question and even long afterwards, the Cambodian and Thai courts were inextricably linked. Khmer intellectuals were steeped in Thai language and literature, and had come to think that the Ayutthaya chronicles were something to imitate; thus, they forced the Cambodian chronicles into a Thai model.’ [6]

[1]: (http://www.ethnologue.com/language/khm)

[2]: (Chandler 2004, p. 729)

[3]: (James 2004, p. 904)

[4]: (Lieberman 2003, p. 231)

[5]: (Coe 2003, p. 195)

[6]: (Coe 2003, p. 199)


164 Japan - Incipient Jomon uncoded Undecided Expert -
It seems most likely that the Jomon people spoke a language similar to Ainu [1] .

[1]: (Hudson 1999, 83-102)


165 Chenla Old Khmer Confident Expert -
’What is at least clear is that the people who lived in the lower Mekong Valley and delta in this period were the ancestors of the modern Khmers, speaking an archaic form of the Cambodian language.’ [1] ’Language: Old Khmer’ [2]

[1]: (Tully 2005, 14)

[2]: (West 2009, 160)


166 Saadi Sultanate Arabic Confident Expert -
[1]

[1]: M. García-Arenal, Ahmad Al-Mansur: The beginnings of modern Morocco (2009), p. 41


167 Saadi Sultanate Berber Confident Expert -
[1]

[1]: M. García-Arenal, Ahmad Al-Mansur: The beginnings of modern Morocco (2009), p. 41


168 Mali Empire Mande Confident Expert -
mid-14th century onwards? "Arabic became important both for the diffusion of religion and for communications and trade." [1] mid-14th century onwards? Arabic "was used for official correspondence in the Ghana Empire before the end of the twelfth century and in Mali in the mid-fourteenth century." [1]

[1]: (Lapidus 2012, 592)


169 Khitan I Khitan Confident Expert -
Describing the Shiwei: "Their language is variously described as similar to Kitan and Qai (Chinese, Xi), that is, Mongolic, or as similar to Mohe (Malgal or Mukri), that is, Manchu-Tungusic." [1]

[1]: (Atwood 2004, 502)


170 Early Xiongnu Xiongnu Confident Expert -
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171 Kachi Plain - Aceramic Neolithic unknown Confident Expert -
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172 Kachi Plain - Ceramic Neolithic unknown Confident Expert -
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173 Kachi Plain - Chalcolithic unknown Confident Expert -
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174 Kachi Plain - Proto-Historic Period unknown Confident Expert -
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175 Late Mongols Khalkha Confident Expert -
"Khalkha dialect is the standard language of Mongolia." [1]

[1]: (Atwood 2004, 299)


176 Zungharian Empire Oirat Confident Expert -
"Oirat speech is a distinctive dialect or language of the Mongolian family. " [1]

[1]: (Atwood 2004, 419)


177 Later Wagadu Empire Mande Confident Expert -
mid-14th century onwards? Arabic "was used for official correspondence in the Ghana Empire before the end of the twelfth century and in Mali in the mid-fourteenth century." [1]

[1]: (Lapidus 2012, 592)


178 Middle Wagadu Empire Mande Confident Expert -
"The dominant peoples of both the Ghana and Mali Empires ... were part of a huge, complex cultural group whose people, taken together, are known as Mande. " [1]

[1]: (Conrad 2010, 19)


179 Monte Alban III Zapotec Confident Expert -
[1]

[1]: Marcus, J. and K. V. Flannery (1996). Zapotec civilization: How urban society evolved in Mexico’s Oaxaca Valley, Thames and Hudson London, p4. 27


180 Indo-Greek Kingdom Greek Confident Expert -
Coins were minted with Greek, Prakrit and Brāhmī script on them. [1]

[1]: http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/indo-greek-dynasty


181 Indo-Greek Kingdom Sanskrit Confident Expert -
Coins were minted with Greek, Prakrit and Brāhmī script on them. [1]

[1]: http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/indo-greek-dynasty


182 Egypt - Kushite Period Merotic Confident Expert -
Egyptianized professional class [1] [2] Kushite language. Expressed first in Egyptian hieroglyphs, then Kushite hieroglyphs, then Kushite cursive writing. [3]

[1]: (Török 1997, 153)

[2]: (Welsby 1998, 20)

[3]: (Encyclopaedia Britannica 2011, [3])


183 Rattanakosin Thai Confident Expert -
[1]

[1]: (Baker and Phongpaichit 2009, pp. 63-64)


184 Konya Plain - Late Bronze Age II Nesite Confident Expert -
And many others. [1] "The official language of the kingdom was an Indo-European language called Nesite, which we commonly refer to today as the ’Hittite’ language." [2]

[1]: Popko M. (1999) Ludy i języki starożytnej Anatolii, Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Akademickie Dialog, pp. 51-70

[2]: (Bryce 2002, 8)


185 Late Cappadocia Greek Confident Expert -
"Cappadocia is another example of a kingdom which adopted Greek as the language of administration, and whose kings energetically sponsored cultural Hellenism (high literary culture, gymnasion culture; euergetism abroad), to gain acceptance in the international scene." [1]

[1]: (Ma, 2003, p188)


186 Konya Plain - Early Chalcolithic Indo-European language Confident Expert -
Indo-European language ? There is a hypothesis proposed by Colin Renfrew in 1987 - that Indo-European languages ​​began to spread with the beginning of agriculture [1]

[1]: C. Renfrew, 1987. Archaeology and Language: The Puzzle of Indo-European Origins, Cambridge University Press


187 Konya Plain - Late Chalcolithic Indo-European language Confident Expert -
Indo-European language (hypothesis) [1]

[1]: Archaeology and Language: The Puzzle of Indo-European Origins, C. Renfrew, Cambridge University Press 1987


188 Chuuk - Early Truk Chuukese Confident Expert -
’The Chuukese language is one of many members of the Micronesian Family of Oceanic Austronesian languages.’ [1]

[1]: Goodenough, Ward H. and Skoggard, Ian: eHRAF Cultural Summary for the Chuuk


189 Late Formative Basin of Mexico unknown Suspected Expert -
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190 Terminal Formative Basin of Mexico unknown Suspected Expert -
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191 Oaxaca - Tierras Largas uncoded Undecided Expert -
There are no written records from this phase, but later evidence shows that people in the valley spoke Zapotec, possibly from the succeeding San José Mogote phase, and the Otomanguean language families may have split before the start of this period. [1]

[1]: Flannery, K. V. and J. Marcus (1983). "The Cloud People." New York, p4-7


192 Kachi Plain - Urban Period I uncoded Undecided Expert -
The Indus script has not yet been deciphered by linguists: "The nature and content of the Indus script has been extensively debated in the literature. More than a hundred attempts have been made to assign meanings to various signs and sign combinations, relating it to proto-Dravidian language (see Parpola 2009, 1994, Mahadevan 1998) on the one hand and to Sanskrit (Rao 1982) on the other. It has even been suggested that the script is entirely numeric (Subbarayappa 1997). However, no consistent and generally agreed interpretation exists and most interpretations are at variance with each other and, at times, internally inconsistent (Possehl 1996)." [1] There were almost certainly a wide range of languages spoken, perhaps including one (or several) from an ancient language family known as ’Proto-Dravidian’. [2] [3] "Para-Munda, spoken in the Punjab at the time when the Rigvedic Aryans arrived and seemingly also by the Late Harappan settlers who were moving eastward into the Ganges region, must have been in the subcontinent for a considerable period. If the area where it was spoken in the Pre-Harappan period included the Indo-Iranian borderlands, then it is likely that Para-Munda was the main Harappan language, at least in the Punjab and probably throughout the civilization, and that Dravidian was a language spoken by the indigenous inhabitants of the west, possibly as far northwest as Saurashtra. In this case the language of the PostHarappans in Gujarat may have developed into the North Dravidian branch.//Alternatively Para-Munda may have been the language spoken by the hunter-gatherer-fisher communities that inhabited the Indus region before the people of the borderlands settled in the plains. If the newcomers to the region in the fifth millennium were Dravidian speakers, then it is possible that a Dravidian language was spoken by at least some of the farmers and pastoralists of the borderlands who settled in the plains and therefore by some Harappans but that Para-Munda remained the main language of many Harappan inhabitants of the Punjab.Studies of the Harappan script indicate that it was used to write a single language. It seems plausible that the overarching cultural unity of the Harappans would be matched by the existence of an official language, used in writing and spoken as a lingua franca throughout the Harappan realms. Nevertheless, it is quite possible that one or several other languages were also spoken in the Harappan state, specific to different regions or occupational groups, reflecting the different communities that had come together in its formation. Prolonged bilingualism is known to have occurred in other areas, for example in Mesopotamia where Sumerian and Akkadian coexisted for many centuries: though they belonged originally to the south and north parts of southern Mesopotamia (Sumer and Akkad), educated people from both regions spoke both languages." [4]

[1]: (Yadav and Vahia 2011, 3) Nisha Yadav and M.N. Vahia. 2011. Indus Script: A Study of its Sign Design. SCRIPTA 3: 1-36.

[2]: Possehl, Gregory L., ‘The Transformation of the Indus Civilization’, Journal of World Prehistory, 11 (1997): 462

[3]: Gregory L. Possehl. The Indus Civilization. A Contemporary Perspective. Walnut Creek, Altamira, 2002, p.248

[4]: (McIntosh 2008 page 2355-356) Jane McIntosh. 2008. The Ancient Indus Valley. Santa Barbara; Denver; Oxford: ABC-CLIO.


193 Hatti - Old Kingdom Nesite Confident Expert -
And many others. [1] "The official language of the kingdom was an Indo-European language called Nesite, which we commonly refer to today as the ’Hittite’ language." [2]

[1]: Popko M. (1999) Ludy i języki starożytnej Anatolii, Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Akademickie Dialog, pp. 51-70

[2]: (Bryce 2002, 8)


194 Lysimachus Kingdom Greek Confident Expert -
Lysimachus was Macedonian.
195 Phrygian Kingdom Phrygian Confident Expert -
Indo-European language family, uses Greek alphabetic script [1] . Phrygian language. Indo-European. [2]

[1]: Roller, L., "Phrygian and the Phrygians" Oxford Handbook of Ancien Anatolia (2011)pg:565

[2]: (Bryce 2002, 42)


196 Rum Sultanate Turkish Confident Expert -
Turkish poetry and Turkish spoken, or more prominent from 13th century. The court culture was Perso-Islamic as scholars came from Persia to settle in Anatolia. [1]

[1]: Findley, Carter V., The Turks in World History (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005), pp.72, 75.


197 Tabal Kingdoms Luwian Confident Expert -
"According to a proposal recently made by I. Yakibovich, the core area of Luwian population was located in central Anatolia, in the region of the Konya Plain..." [1]

[1]: (Bryce 2012, 17)


198 Timurid Empire Chagatai Turkish Confident Expert -
"Chagatai Turkish evolved as the language of the court and literature." [1] "Persian was the language of the bureaucratic administration and chancery correspondence" [2] The military administration, however, was "staffed by Turkic secretaries". [2]

[1]: (Khan 2003, 35) Khan, A. 2003. A Historical Atlas of Uzbekistan. The Rosen Publishing Group.

[2]: (Subtelny 2007, 69) Subtelny, Maria. 2007. Timurids in Transition: Turko-Persian Politics and Acculturation in Medieval Iran. BRILL.


199 Sabaean Commonwealth Sabaic Confident Expert -
"five major languages attested—Sabaʾic, Maʿīnic, Qatabānic, Ḥaḍramawtic, and Old Arabic" [1]

[1]: (Robin 2015: 94) Robin, Christian Julien. 2015. “Before Himyar: Epigraphic Evidence for the Kingdoms of South Arabia.” In Arabs and Empires before Islam, edited by Greg Fisher, 91-126. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/ZMFH42PE.


200 Kingdom of Bohemia - Přemyslid Dynasty Czech Confident -
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201 Kingdom of Hawaii - Kamehameha Period Hawaiian Confident Expert -
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202 Chagatai Khanate Middle Mongolian Confident Expert -
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203 Khanate of Bukhara Persian Confident Expert -
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204 Koktepe II Ancient Iranian Confident Expert -
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205 Yemen - Tahirid Dynasty Arabic Confident Expert -
-
206 Durrani Empire Pashto Confident Expert -
inferred from geographic region
207 Durrani Empire Persian Confident Expert -
inferred from geographic region
208 Ghur Principality Persian Confident Expert -
Persian literature. [1] Claims of Ghurid poetry in Pashto unsubstantiated. [1]

[1]: (Bosworth 2012) Bosworth, Edmund C. 2012. GHURIDS. Encyclopaedia Iranica. http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/ghurids


209 Greco-Bactrian Kingdom Greek Confident Expert -
{Greek; Bactrian} The Seleucids brought the use of Greek into the region when they turned Bactria into a satrap; Bactrian was in use in this period (indeed until the 8th century BCE). [1]

[1]: West, Barbara. Encyclopedia of the Peoples of Asia and Oceania.( Infobase Publishing, 2009) pp. 75; 245-247.


210 Greco-Bactrian Kingdom Bactrian Confident Expert -
{Greek; Bactrian} The Seleucids brought the use of Greek into the region when they turned Bactria into a satrap; Bactrian was in use in this period (indeed until the 8th century BCE). [1]

[1]: West, Barbara. Encyclopedia of the Peoples of Asia and Oceania.( Infobase Publishing, 2009) pp. 75; 245-247.


211 Hephthalites Bactrian Confident Expert -
Bactrian; Iranian; Turkic According to the Chinese records from the period, the language of the Hephthalites was distinct from that of those Iranian-speaking people of Central Asia who were called Hu by the Chinese. However, there is no consensus among scholars. [1] Recent work has reappraised Chinese manuscript sources to postulate that the Hephtalites had ceased to retain their original Altaic language and adopted Bactrian by the end of the fourth century. [2] "Probably dominated by an Eastern Iranian language, but their mixed ancestry also lead to multilingualism." [3]

[1]: Litvinsky B.A.,Guang-da Zhang , and Shabani Samghabadi R. (eds)History of Civilizations of Central Asia, p. 139

[2]: De la Vaissière, É. "Is there a Nationality of the Hephthalites." Bulletin of the Asia Institute 17 (2008): p. 122

[3]: (West 2009, 275) West, B A. 2009. Encyclopedia of the Peoples of Asia and Oceania. Infobase Publishing.


212 Tairona Atanque Confident Expert -
"Despite the evident ethnic and linguistic diversity, according to Bischof (1983, 1971) and 16th century sources (Indiferente General 1528 in Langebaek 2007: 44) a language called atanque was spoken by a majority of the indigenous population. Whether it was a lingua franca in use between the distinct ethnic groups in the surrounding area and these polities, or the most widespread language is still debated." [1]
"Even the sacred language of the Kogi mamas - called "Tairona" or teijua - includes Spanish or Latin words and is interpreted by Jackson (1995:68) as a relatively recent derivation of a little-known, more ancient tongue. Even language cannot necessarily be assumed to represent the ancient languages spoken by the inhabitants of the chiefdoms that the Spanish found." [2]

[1]: (Giraldo 2010, 59)

[2]: (Langebaek 2005, 1-3)


213 Konya Plain - Ceramic Neolithic uncoded Undecided Expert -
inapplicable
214 Konya Plain - Late Neolithic uncoded Undecided Expert -
inapplicable
215 Kidarite Kingdom Sogdian Confident Expert -
"We do not know what language the Kidarites spoke". [1] Coinage had "inscriptions in Sogdian, Bactrian, Middle Persian and Brahmi." [2] "The Bactrian script and language were used for a long time after the Kushan age but only small fragments of Bactrian literary works have been discovered so far." [3] Administration was carried out at a regional level and probably in the local language by administrators recruited from the majority settled population.

[1]: (Zeimal 1996, 136) Zeimal, E. V. The Kidarite Kingdom In Central Asia. in Litvinsky, B. A. ed. and Iskender-Mochiri, I. ed. 1996. History of Civilizations of Central Asia. Volume III. The crossroads of civilizations: A.D. 250 to 750. pp.123-137. unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0010/001046/104612e.pdf

[2]: (Zeimal 1996, 136-137) Zeimal, E. V. The Kidarite Kingdom In Central Asia. in Litvinsky, B. A. ed. and Iskender-Mochiri, I. ed. 1996. History of Civilizations of Central Asia. Volume III. The crossroads of civilizations: A.D. 250 to 750. pp.123-137. unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0010/001046/104612e.pdf

[3]: (Harmatta 1994, 424) Harmatta, J. Languages and literature in the Kushan Empire. in Harmatta, Janos. Puri, B. N. Etemadi, G. F. eds. 1994. History of Civilizations of Central Asia. Volume II. The development of sedentary and nomadic civilizations 700 B.C. to A.D. 250. UNESCO Publishing.


216 Proto-French Kingdom Occitan Confident Expert -
French; Langues d’Oïl; Occitan: 1000-1200 CE [1] During 11th and 12th centuries the population that lived south of the Loire spoke Occitan. [2]

[1]: (Turchin and Nefedov 2009, 112)

[2]: (Nicolle and McBridge 1991, 3)


217 Sind - Abbasid-Fatimid Period Sindhi Confident Expert -
Arabic; Sindhi: 950 CE [1] Another language known as Varchada Upbharish was also present.

[1]: Panhwar, M. H. "Chronological Dictionary of Sind, (Karachi, 1983) pp. 198


218 Kidarite Kingdom Bactrian Confident Expert -
"We do not know what language the Kidarites spoke". [1] Coinage had "inscriptions in Sogdian, Bactrian, Middle Persian and Brahmi." [2] "The Bactrian script and language were used for a long time after the Kushan age but only small fragments of Bactrian literary works have been discovered so far." [3] Administration was carried out at a regional level and probably in the local language by administrators recruited from the majority settled population.

[1]: (Zeimal 1996, 136) Zeimal, E. V. The Kidarite Kingdom In Central Asia. in Litvinsky, B. A. ed. and Iskender-Mochiri, I. ed. 1996. History of Civilizations of Central Asia. Volume III. The crossroads of civilizations: A.D. 250 to 750. pp.123-137. unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0010/001046/104612e.pdf

[2]: (Zeimal 1996, 136-137) Zeimal, E. V. The Kidarite Kingdom In Central Asia. in Litvinsky, B. A. ed. and Iskender-Mochiri, I. ed. 1996. History of Civilizations of Central Asia. Volume III. The crossroads of civilizations: A.D. 250 to 750. pp.123-137. unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0010/001046/104612e.pdf

[3]: (Harmatta 1994, 424) Harmatta, J. Languages and literature in the Kushan Empire. in Harmatta, Janos. Puri, B. N. Etemadi, G. F. eds. 1994. History of Civilizations of Central Asia. Volume II. The development of sedentary and nomadic civilizations 700 B.C. to A.D. 250. UNESCO Publishing.


219 Kidarite Kingdom Pahlavi Confident Expert -
"We do not know what language the Kidarites spoke". [1] Coinage had "inscriptions in Sogdian, Bactrian, Middle Persian and Brahmi." [2] "The Bactrian script and language were used for a long time after the Kushan age but only small fragments of Bactrian literary works have been discovered so far." [3] Administration was carried out at a regional level and probably in the local language by administrators recruited from the majority settled population.

[1]: (Zeimal 1996, 136) Zeimal, E. V. The Kidarite Kingdom In Central Asia. in Litvinsky, B. A. ed. and Iskender-Mochiri, I. ed. 1996. History of Civilizations of Central Asia. Volume III. The crossroads of civilizations: A.D. 250 to 750. pp.123-137. unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0010/001046/104612e.pdf

[2]: (Zeimal 1996, 136-137) Zeimal, E. V. The Kidarite Kingdom In Central Asia. in Litvinsky, B. A. ed. and Iskender-Mochiri, I. ed. 1996. History of Civilizations of Central Asia. Volume III. The crossroads of civilizations: A.D. 250 to 750. pp.123-137. unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0010/001046/104612e.pdf

[3]: (Harmatta 1994, 424) Harmatta, J. Languages and literature in the Kushan Empire. in Harmatta, Janos. Puri, B. N. Etemadi, G. F. eds. 1994. History of Civilizations of Central Asia. Volume II. The development of sedentary and nomadic civilizations 700 B.C. to A.D. 250. UNESCO Publishing.


220 Kidarite Kingdom Brahmi Confident Expert -
"We do not know what language the Kidarites spoke". [1] Coinage had "inscriptions in Sogdian, Bactrian, Middle Persian and Brahmi." [2] "The Bactrian script and language were used for a long time after the Kushan age but only small fragments of Bactrian literary works have been discovered so far." [3] Administration was carried out at a regional level and probably in the local language by administrators recruited from the majority settled population.

[1]: (Zeimal 1996, 136) Zeimal, E. V. The Kidarite Kingdom In Central Asia. in Litvinsky, B. A. ed. and Iskender-Mochiri, I. ed. 1996. History of Civilizations of Central Asia. Volume III. The crossroads of civilizations: A.D. 250 to 750. pp.123-137. unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0010/001046/104612e.pdf

[2]: (Zeimal 1996, 136-137) Zeimal, E. V. The Kidarite Kingdom In Central Asia. in Litvinsky, B. A. ed. and Iskender-Mochiri, I. ed. 1996. History of Civilizations of Central Asia. Volume III. The crossroads of civilizations: A.D. 250 to 750. pp.123-137. unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0010/001046/104612e.pdf

[3]: (Harmatta 1994, 424) Harmatta, J. Languages and literature in the Kushan Empire. in Harmatta, Janos. Puri, B. N. Etemadi, G. F. eds. 1994. History of Civilizations of Central Asia. Volume II. The development of sedentary and nomadic civilizations 700 B.C. to A.D. 250. UNESCO Publishing.


221 Kushan Empire Greek Confident Expert -
Greek language on coins until reign of Kanishka I (128-150 CE). Thereafter only Bactrian script on coins. Kharoshthi discontinued on coins from the same time but "was almost exclusively employed on various types of inscriptions in Gandhara and it was also exclusively and extensively employed for compiling Buddhist texts in Gandhara all through the Kushan period. .. Kharoshthi was also employed on a fairly large scale for writing non-religious texts, such as legal documents, land transfer deeds, official letters, etc. in various parts of Xingjiang Province of China, particularly in the Kashgar-Khotan-Niya Region." [1] Kanishka I (155-190 CE) era inscriptions (Rabatak and Surkh Kotal) found in Bactrian script employing monumental Greek script rather than the cursive style. [1] the state chancery used both "Bactrian written in Greek script and Gandhari written in Kharoshthi". [2] There also was a "formulae transmitted from the Achaemenians." [3] Sanskrit and Prakrit (of various types) were literary languages. [4] Official: Bactrian; {Regional: Gandhari; Sogdian; Greek; Chorasmian; Tocharian; Saka dialects}; Liturgical: Sanskrit.

[1]: (Samad 2011, 89) Samad, R. U. 2011. The Grandeur of Gandhara: The Ancient Buddhist Civilization of the Swat, Peshawar, Kabul and Indus Valleys. Angora Publishing.

[2]: (Grenet 2012, 1-2) Grenet, Franz. 2012. The Nomadic Element in the Kushan Empire. (1st-3rd Century AD). Journal of Central Eurasian Studies. Volume 3. Center for Central Eurasian Studies. Seoul National University.

[3]: (Grenet 2012, 2) Grenet, Franz. 2012. The Nomadic Element in the Kushan Empire. (1st-3rd Century AD). Journal of Central Eurasian Studies. Volume 3. Center for Central Eurasian Studies. Seoul National University.

[4]: (Harmatta 1994, 425) Harmatta, J. Languages and literature in the Kushan Empire. in Harmatta, Janos. Puri, B. N. Etemadi, G. F. eds. 1994. History of Civilizations of Central Asia. Volume II. The development of sedentary and nomadic civilizations 700 B.C. to A.D. 250. UNESCO Publishing.


222 Kushan Empire Bactrian Confident Expert -
Greek language on coins until reign of Kanishka I (128-150 CE). Thereafter only Bactrian script on coins. Kharoshthi discontinued on coins from the same time but "was almost exclusively employed on various types of inscriptions in Gandhara and it was also exclusively and extensively employed for compiling Buddhist texts in Gandhara all through the Kushan period. .. Kharoshthi was also employed on a fairly large scale for writing non-religious texts, such as legal documents, land transfer deeds, official letters, etc. in various parts of Xingjiang Province of China, particularly in the Kashgar-Khotan-Niya Region." [1] Kanishka I (155-190 CE) era inscriptions (Rabatak and Surkh Kotal) found in Bactrian script employing monumental Greek script rather than the cursive style. [1] the state chancery used both "Bactrian written in Greek script and Gandhari written in Kharoshthi". [2] There also was a "formulae transmitted from the Achaemenians." [3] Sanskrit and Prakrit (of various types) were literary languages. [4] Official: Bactrian; {Regional: Gandhari; Sogdian; Greek; Chorasmian; Tocharian; Saka dialects}; Liturgical: Sanskrit.

[1]: (Samad 2011, 89) Samad, R. U. 2011. The Grandeur of Gandhara: The Ancient Buddhist Civilization of the Swat, Peshawar, Kabul and Indus Valleys. Angora Publishing.

[2]: (Grenet 2012, 1-2) Grenet, Franz. 2012. The Nomadic Element in the Kushan Empire. (1st-3rd Century AD). Journal of Central Eurasian Studies. Volume 3. Center for Central Eurasian Studies. Seoul National University.

[3]: (Grenet 2012, 2) Grenet, Franz. 2012. The Nomadic Element in the Kushan Empire. (1st-3rd Century AD). Journal of Central Eurasian Studies. Volume 3. Center for Central Eurasian Studies. Seoul National University.

[4]: (Harmatta 1994, 425) Harmatta, J. Languages and literature in the Kushan Empire. in Harmatta, Janos. Puri, B. N. Etemadi, G. F. eds. 1994. History of Civilizations of Central Asia. Volume II. The development of sedentary and nomadic civilizations 700 B.C. to A.D. 250. UNESCO Publishing.


223 French Kingdom - Late Capetian French Confident Expert -
Entry field has been edited to make it machine readable French; Langues d’Oïl; Occitan: 1000-1200 CE [1] During 11th and 12th centuries the population that lived south of the Loire spoke Occitan. [2] Celtic language still strong in Brittany, even among the aristocrats. [3]

[1]: (Turchin and Nefedov 2009, 112)

[2]: (Nicolle and McBridge 1991, 3)

[3]: (Nicolle and McBridge 2000, 6)


224 Kansai - Yayoi Period Japanese Confident Expert -
It seems that the agricultural immigrants of the Yayoi period brought the Japanese language from the Korean peninsula [1] .

[1]: Hudson, M. J., 2007. "Japanese beginnings."In: W. Tsutsui (ed.), A Companion to Japanese History. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 16.


225 Kushan Empire Kharoshthi Confident Expert -
Greek language on coins until reign of Kanishka I (128-150 CE). Thereafter only Bactrian script on coins. Kharoshthi discontinued on coins from the same time but "was almost exclusively employed on various types of inscriptions in Gandhara and it was also exclusively and extensively employed for compiling Buddhist texts in Gandhara all through the Kushan period. .. Kharoshthi was also employed on a fairly large scale for writing non-religious texts, such as legal documents, land transfer deeds, official letters, etc. in various parts of Xingjiang Province of China, particularly in the Kashgar-Khotan-Niya Region." [1] Kanishka I (155-190 CE) era inscriptions (Rabatak and Surkh Kotal) found in Bactrian script employing monumental Greek script rather than the cursive style. [1] the state chancery used both "Bactrian written in Greek script and Gandhari written in Kharoshthi". [2] There also was a "formulae transmitted from the Achaemenians." [3] Sanskrit and Prakrit (of various types) were literary languages. [4] Official: Bactrian; {Regional: Gandhari; Sogdian; Greek; Chorasmian; Tocharian; Saka dialects}; Liturgical: Sanskrit.

[1]: (Samad 2011, 89) Samad, R. U. 2011. The Grandeur of Gandhara: The Ancient Buddhist Civilization of the Swat, Peshawar, Kabul and Indus Valleys. Angora Publishing.

[2]: (Grenet 2012, 1-2) Grenet, Franz. 2012. The Nomadic Element in the Kushan Empire. (1st-3rd Century AD). Journal of Central Eurasian Studies. Volume 3. Center for Central Eurasian Studies. Seoul National University.

[3]: (Grenet 2012, 2) Grenet, Franz. 2012. The Nomadic Element in the Kushan Empire. (1st-3rd Century AD). Journal of Central Eurasian Studies. Volume 3. Center for Central Eurasian Studies. Seoul National University.

[4]: (Harmatta 1994, 425) Harmatta, J. Languages and literature in the Kushan Empire. in Harmatta, Janos. Puri, B. N. Etemadi, G. F. eds. 1994. History of Civilizations of Central Asia. Volume II. The development of sedentary and nomadic civilizations 700 B.C. to A.D. 250. UNESCO Publishing.


226 Tocharians Tocharian Confident Expert -
There is still no consensus on the language of the Yuezhi: ’Some authors believe they originally spoke a "Tocharian" language, and others that they spoke an eastern Iranic or proto-Turkic language’. [1] Benjamin describes Tocharian as ’the Indo-European language spoken by the core Yuezhi’. [2] However, ’By the time Kajula Kadphrises ... established the Kingdom of the Kushans in Bactria, the Kushans had adopted Bactrian as their spoken language". [3]

[1]: (Hill 2009, 312) John E. Hill. 2009. Through the Jade Gate to Rome: A Study of the Silk Routes during the Later Han Dynasty, 1st to 2nd Centuries CE. An Annotated Translation of the Chronicle on the ’Western Regions’ from the Hou Hanshu. Charleston, SC: BookSurge Publishing.

[2]: (Benjamin 2003) C. Benjamin. 2003. ’The Yuezhi Migration and Sogdia’, in Ēran ud Anērān: Studies Presented to Boris Ilich Marshak on the Occasion of His 70th Birthday, edited by Matteo Compareti, Paola Raffeta and Gianroberto Scarcia. Transoxiana Webfestschrift Series I, published online at http://www.transoxiana.org/Eran/.

[3]: (Samad 2011, 88) Samad, R. U. 2011. The Grandeur of Gandhara: The Ancient Buddhist Civilization of the Swat, Peshawar, Kabul and Indus Valleys. Angora Publishing.


227 Tocharians Bactrian Confident Expert -
There is still no consensus on the language of the Yuezhi: ’Some authors believe they originally spoke a "Tocharian" language, and others that they spoke an eastern Iranic or proto-Turkic language’. [1] Benjamin describes Tocharian as ’the Indo-European language spoken by the core Yuezhi’. [2] However, ’By the time Kajula Kadphrises ... established the Kingdom of the Kushans in Bactria, the Kushans had adopted Bactrian as their spoken language". [3]

[1]: (Hill 2009, 312) John E. Hill. 2009. Through the Jade Gate to Rome: A Study of the Silk Routes during the Later Han Dynasty, 1st to 2nd Centuries CE. An Annotated Translation of the Chronicle on the ’Western Regions’ from the Hou Hanshu. Charleston, SC: BookSurge Publishing.

[2]: (Benjamin 2003) C. Benjamin. 2003. ’The Yuezhi Migration and Sogdia’, in Ēran ud Anērān: Studies Presented to Boris Ilich Marshak on the Occasion of His 70th Birthday, edited by Matteo Compareti, Paola Raffeta and Gianroberto Scarcia. Transoxiana Webfestschrift Series I, published online at http://www.transoxiana.org/Eran/.

[3]: (Samad 2011, 88) Samad, R. U. 2011. The Grandeur of Gandhara: The Ancient Buddhist Civilization of the Swat, Peshawar, Kabul and Indus Valleys. Angora Publishing.


228 Erlitou archaic Chinese Confident Expert -
"The people whose material culture is studied here did not yet, as far as we know, use the Eastern Zhou term Zhongguo, or “middle kingdoms,” nor is there any evidence that they considered themselves to have a common collective identity. Indeed, it is likely that many, if not most, of those within the area of what is now the People’s Republic of China did not speak any language ancestral to modern Chinese. In addition to archaic Chinese, there would have been speakers of other Sino-Tibetan languages, as well as Altaic, Austroasiatic, Hmong-Mien, Tai-Kadai, Austronesian, and perhaps even Indo-European languages." [1]

[1]: (Campbell 2014, 13)


229 Ptolemaic Kingdom II Greek Confident Expert -
The demotic Egyptian language, spoken and written, was very important during the early part of the first Ptolemaic period (305-217 CE), a continuation of scribal practice from the Persian period. Very little Greek administrative texts survive until the reign of Ptolemy II. The general assumption is that this does not reflect accidence of survival but a time lag to establish Greek within the bureaucratic system. It took, thus, roughly 75 to 50 years (counting from either Alexander’s conquest or from 320bc) before the Greek language becomes dominant.
230 Hmong - Early Chinese Xiangxi Confident Expert -
The Hmong sub-groups spoke different languages: ’Miao, mountain-dwelling peoples of China, Vietnam, Laos, Burma, and Thailand, who speak languages of the Hmong-Mien (Miao-Yao) family.’ [1] ’The customs and histories of the four Miao groups are quite different, and they speak mutually unintelligible languages. Closest linguistically to the Hmong are the A-Hmao, but the two groups still cannot understand each others’ languages. Of all the Miao peoples, only the Hmong have migrated out of China.’ [1] Xiangxi, Qiandong, and Chuanqiandian are among the major languages spoken by non-Chinese ’hill peoples’: ’According to Chinese language classification, the Miao languages belong to the Miao-Yao Branch of Sino-Tibetan. Officially, these languages are termed fangyin (dialects) although they are not mutually intelligible. There are at least three main languages, further divisible into distinct and separate sublanguages or dialects of varying degrees of closeness. The Miao languages are tonal. Xiangxi, spoken in western Hunan by close to one million speakers, is associated with the Red Miao. It is comprised of two sublanguages. The larger of the two has been taken as standard and given a romanization for school texts and other local publications. The Qiandong language of central and eastern Guizhou is associated with the Black Miao. It has three major subdivisions. The most widespread of the three has well over a million speakers, and is taken as the official standard. The others, with a half million speakers each, are regarded as dialects and, as of this writing, have no official recognition. The Chuanqiandian languages are spoken by White, Flowery, and Blue Miao. There are at least seven major subdivisions, each further divided into a number of local dialects. As of 1994, only Chuanqiandianci (White Miao) and Diandongbei (Hua Miao) are officially recognized. Both of these formerly used a phonetic script, introduced by missionaries at the turn of the century. The script has been supplanted by a government-introduced romanization. In addition there are some eight additional fangyin , with several thousand speakers each, which do not fit into any of the major categories. Most of the Miao in Hainan are Yao speakers, and some Miao elsewhere speak only Dong or Chinese.’ [2] The pace of the Sinification process still needs to be determined in further detail. The sources imply that Chuanqiandian was spoken by the Flowery Hmong, but make no mention of A-Hmao or Big Flowery Hmong. We have therefore chosen to keep all there of these major Chinese languages in the code, awaiting expert feedback on the A-Hmao.

[1]: http://www.britannica.com/topic/Miao

[2]: Diamond, Norma: eHRAF Cultural Summary for the Miao


231 French Kingdom - Late Capetian Langues dOil Confident Expert -
Entry field has been edited to make it machine readable French; Langues d’Oïl; Occitan: 1000-1200 CE [1] During 11th and 12th centuries the population that lived south of the Loire spoke Occitan. [2] Celtic language still strong in Brittany, even among the aristocrats. [3]

[1]: (Turchin and Nefedov 2009, 112)

[2]: (Nicolle and McBridge 1991, 3)

[3]: (Nicolle and McBridge 2000, 6)


232 French Kingdom - Late Capetian Occitan Confident Expert -
Entry field has been edited to make it machine readable French; Langues d’Oïl; Occitan: 1000-1200 CE [1] During 11th and 12th centuries the population that lived south of the Loire spoke Occitan. [2] Celtic language still strong in Brittany, even among the aristocrats. [3]

[1]: (Turchin and Nefedov 2009, 112)

[2]: (Nicolle and McBridge 1991, 3)

[3]: (Nicolle and McBridge 2000, 6)


233 Electorate of Brandenburg German Confident -
-
234 Hmong - Early Chinese Qiandong Confident Expert -
The Hmong sub-groups spoke different languages: ’Miao, mountain-dwelling peoples of China, Vietnam, Laos, Burma, and Thailand, who speak languages of the Hmong-Mien (Miao-Yao) family.’ [1] ’The customs and histories of the four Miao groups are quite different, and they speak mutually unintelligible languages. Closest linguistically to the Hmong are the A-Hmao, but the two groups still cannot understand each others’ languages. Of all the Miao peoples, only the Hmong have migrated out of China.’ [1] Xiangxi, Qiandong, and Chuanqiandian are among the major languages spoken by non-Chinese ’hill peoples’: ’According to Chinese language classification, the Miao languages belong to the Miao-Yao Branch of Sino-Tibetan. Officially, these languages are termed fangyin (dialects) although they are not mutually intelligible. There are at least three main languages, further divisible into distinct and separate sublanguages or dialects of varying degrees of closeness. The Miao languages are tonal. Xiangxi, spoken in western Hunan by close to one million speakers, is associated with the Red Miao. It is comprised of two sublanguages. The larger of the two has been taken as standard and given a romanization for school texts and other local publications. The Qiandong language of central and eastern Guizhou is associated with the Black Miao. It has three major subdivisions. The most widespread of the three has well over a million speakers, and is taken as the official standard. The others, with a half million speakers each, are regarded as dialects and, as of this writing, have no official recognition. The Chuanqiandian languages are spoken by White, Flowery, and Blue Miao. There are at least seven major subdivisions, each further divided into a number of local dialects. As of 1994, only Chuanqiandianci (White Miao) and Diandongbei (Hua Miao) are officially recognized. Both of these formerly used a phonetic script, introduced by missionaries at the turn of the century. The script has been supplanted by a government-introduced romanization. In addition there are some eight additional fangyin , with several thousand speakers each, which do not fit into any of the major categories. Most of the Miao in Hainan are Yao speakers, and some Miao elsewhere speak only Dong or Chinese.’ [2] The pace of the Sinification process still needs to be determined in further detail. The sources imply that Chuanqiandian was spoken by the Flowery Hmong, but make no mention of A-Hmao or Big Flowery Hmong. We have therefore chosen to keep all there of these major Chinese languages in the code, awaiting expert feedback on the A-Hmao.

[1]: http://www.britannica.com/topic/Miao

[2]: Diamond, Norma: eHRAF Cultural Summary for the Miao


235 Hmong - Early Chinese Chuanqiandian Confident Expert -
The Hmong sub-groups spoke different languages: ’Miao, mountain-dwelling peoples of China, Vietnam, Laos, Burma, and Thailand, who speak languages of the Hmong-Mien (Miao-Yao) family.’ [1] ’The customs and histories of the four Miao groups are quite different, and they speak mutually unintelligible languages. Closest linguistically to the Hmong are the A-Hmao, but the two groups still cannot understand each others’ languages. Of all the Miao peoples, only the Hmong have migrated out of China.’ [1] Xiangxi, Qiandong, and Chuanqiandian are among the major languages spoken by non-Chinese ’hill peoples’: ’According to Chinese language classification, the Miao languages belong to the Miao-Yao Branch of Sino-Tibetan. Officially, these languages are termed fangyin (dialects) although they are not mutually intelligible. There are at least three main languages, further divisible into distinct and separate sublanguages or dialects of varying degrees of closeness. The Miao languages are tonal. Xiangxi, spoken in western Hunan by close to one million speakers, is associated with the Red Miao. It is comprised of two sublanguages. The larger of the two has been taken as standard and given a romanization for school texts and other local publications. The Qiandong language of central and eastern Guizhou is associated with the Black Miao. It has three major subdivisions. The most widespread of the three has well over a million speakers, and is taken as the official standard. The others, with a half million speakers each, are regarded as dialects and, as of this writing, have no official recognition. The Chuanqiandian languages are spoken by White, Flowery, and Blue Miao. There are at least seven major subdivisions, each further divided into a number of local dialects. As of 1994, only Chuanqiandianci (White Miao) and Diandongbei (Hua Miao) are officially recognized. Both of these formerly used a phonetic script, introduced by missionaries at the turn of the century. The script has been supplanted by a government-introduced romanization. In addition there are some eight additional fangyin , with several thousand speakers each, which do not fit into any of the major categories. Most of the Miao in Hainan are Yao speakers, and some Miao elsewhere speak only Dong or Chinese.’ [2] The pace of the Sinification process still needs to be determined in further detail. The sources imply that Chuanqiandian was spoken by the Flowery Hmong, but make no mention of A-Hmao or Big Flowery Hmong. We have therefore chosen to keep all there of these major Chinese languages in the code, awaiting expert feedback on the A-Hmao.

[1]: http://www.britannica.com/topic/Miao

[2]: Diamond, Norma: eHRAF Cultural Summary for the Miao


236 Northern Wei Xianbei Confident Expert -
Use of Xianbei at court by Xiaowendi was banned after 495 CE. [1] "The Toba were a Mongol-speaking tribe of non-Chinese Buddhists..." [2]

[1]: (Xiong 2009, ci)

[2]: (Avery 2003, 40)


237 Early Qing Chinese Confident Expert -
[1]

[1]: (Crossley & Rawski, 1993)


238 Late Qing Chinese Confident Expert -
[1]

[1]: (Crossley & Rawski, 1993)


239 Spanish Empire I Castilian Spanish Confident Expert -