ELI5: whats is unattested literary language
// explanation
What is unattested literary language?
An unattested literary language is a language that people wrote about or mentioned in old books, but we don't have any actual writings from that language itself [3][5]. It's like if someone told you about a secret language but never showed you any examples of it written down.
Why don't we have examples?
These languages either lost all their written records over time, or they might have only existed as descriptions in other languages' grammar books [5]. For example, Paishachi is a language from ancient India that was mentioned by Sanskrit and Prakrit scholars, but no actual Paishachi texts survive today [3].
How do we know they existed?
We know about these languages because ancient scholars and grammarians wrote about them in their own books [1][3]. They described the languages' rules and features, even though the original languages themselves disappeared.
Why is this important?
Unattested languages help us understand history and which languages people spoke in ancient times, even when the languages are now completely gone [3].
// sources
Jan 11, 2020 ... This language is still alive in Afghanistan and is called Pashaei here. What do you think about this? Is this the same language as Paishachi ...
Aug 15, 2022 ... 93 votes, 17 comments. Let's allow a looser definition of proto-language, so that the attestation can be a literary register of the true ...
Paishachi or Paisaci (IAST: Paiśācī) is a largely unattested literary language of the middle kingdoms of India mentioned in Prakrit and Sanskrit grammars of ...
Jan 11, 2020 ... Paishachi Language Paishachi (IAST: Paiśācī) is a mostly unattested literary language of the middle kingdoms of India mentioned in Prakrit ...
In contrast, unattested languages may be names of purported languages for which no direct evidence exists, languages for which all evidence has been lost, or ...
Video by A Castillo
Video by Abhishek Human Story
Video by Ali Hassan
