The limits of my language are the limits of my world.

Akkadian then Aramaic then Arabic. (all Semitic- probably came from northern
Africa);
In 4000 years counting to ten has stayed the same;
Sumerians developed first writing system- but were conquered by the Semitic
Akkadians; Many other invasions happened but Akkadian language remained
dominant;
The Hittities were in Turkey- the first Indo-Europeans; Indo European Persians
started out as invaders from Ukraine/Siberia (the Scythians).
Aramaic introduced an alphabetic language (which they learned from Phoenicians);
indeed they gave the idea to the Greeks and Europeans.
Persians under Darius founded a world empire around 522 BC but used Aramaic as
the main language everywhere; made it a lingua franca; from Afghanistan to
Anatolia;
Then Alexander took over the empire and spread Greek through the same channel-
completely became dominant in Anatolia; and the lingua franca in Afghanistan.
Sumerian was a language of great prestige and the Akkadians used it for a while,
and studied its classics; eventually it died out first as a living language and then
even as a literary language.
Akkadian actually persisted in Babylon until the first century AD; Gilgamish and Law
of Hammurabi written in it. It its time Akkadian was the major language of the
Middle East since it had a writing system;
Spread of Aramaic; they were nomads; language learned from the west was
alphabetic; they moved into Middle East; Assyrian Empire around 900s BC forcefully
deported them all over the place (Jews were another such group scattered); this
made their language spread and eventually overwhelmed Akkadian.
Phoenecian and Hebrew are both Canaanite Semitic languages (Phoenician spoken
in Lebanon up to first century BC and in North Africa till the 500s AD). A blow came
to it in the 300s when Alexander made Greek all-important.
Hebrew language basically became dead after the Babylonians moved them to
Babylon from Jerusalem after they supported Egyptian invasions. Hebrew was only a
literary language for them. In 500s Cyrus of Persia let them come back to Jerusalem.
(without religion impulse, Hebrew would have probably gone the same way as
Phoenecian).
Macedonian empire lasted for about 200 years from 340-140 BC. Anatolia became
monolingual (part of the reason was because of heavy Greek settlement).
Jesus spoke Aramaic; Syriac is also a kind of Aramaic. A Christian center was
founded in Edessa; Aramaic speaking; Nestorian heretics exiled in 400s by Roamn
empire; they went all the way to India and Iran (survived there in Kerala); Assyrian
and Chaldean Churches still use it;
Similarly Coptic has survived through a similar shield of faith strategy.
Pennsylvania Dutch as well for the Amish.
Arabic spread only in areas of Afro-Asiatic; dialects developed as different as
Romance languages of Europe.
Muqaddasi in 800s said purest Arabic spoken in Khurasan because Iranians made
such an effort to learn it correctly. (in other words, NOT becoming localized).