漢語(yǔ)常被認(rèn)為是一種非常古老的語(yǔ)言。從某種意義上說(shuō)，這種說(shuō)法不免失之偏頗。人類所有的語(yǔ)言都可追溯到朦朧的史前時(shí)期，但目前我們還無(wú)法確定這些語(yǔ)言是否都同宗同源。//五千年前華夏祖先說(shuō)漢語(yǔ)的方法同英語(yǔ)人士的祖先說(shuō)英語(yǔ)的方式大致相似。而從另一種意義上說(shuō)，漢語(yǔ)確實(shí)也是一種很古老的語(yǔ)言。今天所存留下來(lái)的最早的漢字已有近四千年的歷史 .// 這些文字均為甲骨雕文。大部分銘文為神諭圣旨，內(nèi)容大都與政治事件和宗教活動(dòng)有關(guān)，有些則是關(guān)于天氣和戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)的記錄。// 漢語(yǔ)有豐富的古代文字作品，源遠(yuǎn)流長(zhǎng)，遠(yuǎn)非其他一種語(yǔ)言的文字可與之媲美。一些最古老的文字屬象形文字。//

　　Chinese is often termed a very old language. In a sense such a statement is

　　misleading. All human languages go back to the dim uncertainty of prehistory，and at

　　present we have no way of knowing for sure whether or not they can all be traced

　　back to the same root.// Five thousand years ago the ancestors of Chinese people

　　spoke an early form of Chinese language in much the same way that the ancestors of

　　English-speaking people were using an early form of the English language. In a

　　sense， however， Chinese is indeed a very old language. The earliest written forms

　　of Chinese in existence today date back nearly 4，000 years.// These writings are

　　incisions on bones and tortoise shell. Most of the inscriptions are oracular， dealing

　　mostly with political and religious events， or with weather or warfare.// Chinese has

　　an abundance of ancient writings that reach back continuously in time further than the

　　writings of any other language in the world. Some of the earliest written Chinese

　　characters were quite pictographic.//