A classical language is a language with a literature that is "classical"—ie, "it should be ancient, it should be an independent tradition that arose mostly on its own not as an offshoot of another tradition, and it must have a large and extremely rich body of ancient literature." (George L. Hart)

Note that the judgement of a language as "classical" is a judgement of its literature, not of the language itself. Although languages may change at different rates, languages that change at slower rates are not necessarily the same as languages judged as "classical". Also, since there is no language immune to change, classical languages tend to be either dead languages, or show a high degree of diglossia, as the spoken varieties of the language diverge further and further away from the classical written language over centuries.

List of classical languages

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• Indo-European languages:
  • Classical Greek
  • Sanskrit
  • Latin
  • Classical Persian
• Afro-Asiatic languages:
  • Classical Arabic
  • Hebrew
• Dravidian languages:
  • Tamil
• Sino-Tibetan languages:
  • Classical Chinese

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LEAPs and Bounds: David Mulroy, an NAS board member who teaches Classical Languages at the University of Wiscon.. http://bit.ly/3ch4E6
NASorg (NAS Scholars) Wed, 04 Nov 2009 00:37:00 -0000
LEAPs and Bounds: David Mulroy, an NAS board member who teaches Classical Languages at the University of Wiscon.. http://bit.ly/3ch4E6
LEAPs and Bounds: David Mulroy, an NAS board member who teaches Classical Languages at the University.. http://bit.ly/3ch4E6 #highered
NASorg (NAS Scholars) Wed, 04 Nov 2009 00:27:50 -0000
LEAPs and Bounds: David Mulroy, an NAS board member who teaches Classical Languages at the University.. http://bit.ly/3ch4E6 #highered
@Chance4321 not 100% necessary if speaking classical Latin but, difficult to make correct pronunciation of Germanic languages without K!
adastrapoetry (Amy J Taylor) Mon, 02 Nov 2009 15:06:45 -0000
@Chance4321 not 100% necessary if speaking classical Latin but, difficult to make correct pronunciation of Germanic languages without K!
Recovered enough from the Transylvanian Nuclear Blitz to trim my beard and stop talking in Classical languages: arguably feeling better...
HarryMatlay (Prof. Harry Matlay) Sun, 01 Nov 2009 20:44:30 -0000
Recovered enough from the Transylvanian Nuclear Blitz to trim my beard and stop talking in Classical languages: arguably feeling better...
@doclorraine -> Are you not impressed by my wine lubricated incursion into classical languages...?
HarryMatlay (Prof. Harry Matlay) Sun, 01 Nov 2009 17:47:01 -0000
@doclorraine -> Are you not impressed by my wine lubricated incursion into classical languages...?
Hebrew & Hindi get Web address nod - Yahoo! News http://ow.ly/xOoR || When are "classical" languages like Tamil, Kannada coming?
carnivas (carnivas) Sat, 31 Oct 2009 03:02:21 -0000
Hebrew & Hindi get Web address nod - Yahoo! News http://ow.ly/xOoR || When are "classical" languages like Tamil, Kannada coming?

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