I'm creating a list of languages that fall into the following criteria more or less:
1. are extinct, used only as secondary languages or a language of higher education, or used for religious purposes;
2. there is sufficient amount of literature written in them, the literature should be of religious, philosophical, scientific or historic character;
3. if they have descendants they must be from an earlier stage of the language, they should be only partially comprehensible to a modern lay speaker;
4. anything else can be added.

The list is incomplete and I require assistance filling it up. I need help with dates and literary dialects.


Old Slavonic
1. Proto Church Slavonic (862-885 AD)
2. Old Church Slavonic (9-11th c. AD)
3. Church Slavonic (11-18th c. AD)
a) Serbian
b) Bulgarian
c) Macedonian
d) Croatian
e) Czech
f) East Slavic [Russian, Ruthenian]
4. New/Reformed Church Slavonic (18th c. AD - present)

Latin
1. Old Latin (until 75 BC)
2. Classical Latin (75 BC - 2nd c. AD)
3. Late Latin (2-9th c. AD)
4. Medieval Latin (9-14th c. AD)
5. Renaissance Latin (14-16th c. AD)
6. New Latin (16th c. AD - present)
a) Ecclesiastical
b) Secular
c) Spoken (reconstructed)

Greek
1. Ancient Greek (8-3rd c. BC)
2. Koine Greek (3rd c. BC - 3rd c. AD)
3. Medieval Greek (3-15th c. AD)

Irish
1. Old Irish (6-11th c. AD)
2. Middle Irish (11-13th c. AD)

Old English (6-11th c. AD)

Old Norse (8-14th c. AD)

Gothic (4-6th c. AD)

Old French (10-14th c. AD)

Sanskrit
1. Vedic Sanskrit (until 4th c. BC)
2. Classical Sanskrit (4th c. BC - present)

Pāli

Jain Prakrit [Ardhamāgadhī]

Iranian
1. Old Avestan [Gathic]
2. Young Avestan
3. Old Persian (7-3rd c. BC)
4. Middle Persian (3rd c. BC - 9th c. AD)
5. Sogdian ( - 9th c. AD)
6. New Persian (9th c. AD - present)
a) Classical
b) Contemporary

Old/Classical Armenian (5-18th c. AD)

Hittite (16-12th c. BC)

Tocharian ( - 9th c. AD)
1. Tocharian A [Turfanian, Arsi, East Tocharian]
2. Tocharian B [Kuchean, West Tocharian]

Sumerian
1. Archaic Sumerian (31-26th c. BC)
2. Old/Classical Sumerian (26-23rd c. BC)
3. Neo-Sumerian (23-20th c. BC)
4. Late Sumerian (20-18th c. BC)
5. Post-Sumerian (18-1st c. BC)

Elamite (30-4th c. BC)

Akkadian
1. Old Akkadian (26-20th c. BC)
2. Old Babylonian/Old Assyrian (20-16th c. BC)
3. Middle Babylonian/Middle Assyrian (16-11th c. BC)
4. Neo-Babylonian/Neo-Assyrian (11-7th c. BC)
5. Late Babylonian (7th c. BC - 3rd c. AD)

Aramaic
1. Old Aramaic (12th c. BC - 2nd c. AD)
a) Imperial Aramaic (6-3rd c. BC)
2. Middle Aramaic (2-12th c. AD)
a) Mandaic (2nd c. AD - present)
b) Middle Syriac (4-8th c. AD)
c) Jewish Middle Babylonian (4-11th c. AD)
d) Samaritan Aramaic (4-11th c. AD)

Hebrew
1. Archaic Biblical Hebrew (10-6th c. BC)
2. Biblical/Classical Hebrew (6th c. BC)
3. Late Biblical Hebrew (6-4th c. BC)
4. Dead Sea Scrolls/Qumran Hebrew (4th c. BC - 1st c. AD)
5. Mishnaic Hebrew (1-4th c. AD)
6. Medieval Hebrew (4th c. AD - present)
a) Tiberian
b) Sephardi
c) Yemenite
d) Mizrahi
e) Ashkenazi
f) Samaritan Hebrew

Arabic
1. Classical Arabic (4-9th c. AD)
2. Standard Arabic (9th c. AD - present)

Egyptian
1. Archaic Egyptian (32-26th c. BC)
2. Old Ehyptian (26-20th c. BC)
3. Middle Egyptian (20-13th c. BC)
4. Late Egyptian (13-7th c. BC)
5. Demotic (7th c. BC - 5th c. AD)
6. Coptic (1-17th c. AD)

Ethiopian [Ge’ez]
1. Proto Ge’ez (8th c. BC - 5th c. AD)
2. Aksumite/Classical Ge’ez (5-7th c. AD)
3. Post Ge’ez (13th c. AD - present)

Chinese
1. Classical Chinese (10th c. BC - 3rd c. AD)
2. Literary Chinese (3-20th c. AD)

Japanase
1. Classical Japanese (10-12th c. AD)
2. Post-Classical Japanese (12-19th c. AD)

Classical Tibetan

Chagatai
1. Pre-Classical Chagatai (14th c. - 1465 AD)
2. Classical Chagatai (1465 - 17th c. AD)
3. Post-Classical Chagatai (17th c. - 1921 AD)

Ottoman Turkish
1. Old Ottoman Turkish (until 16th c. AD)
2. Middle/Classical Ottoman Turkish (16th c. - 1850’s AD)
3. New Ottoman Turkish (1850’s - 1920’s AD)

Tamil
1. Classical Tamil (6th c. BC - 3rd c. AD)
2. Middle Tamil (8-13th c. AD)
3. Literary Tamil (13th c. AD - present)

Kannada
1. Pre-Old Kannada (until 9th c. AD)
2. Old Kannada (9-14th c. AD)
3. Middle Kannada (14-18th c. AD)
4. Modern Kannada (18th c. AD - present)

Telugu
1. Classical Telugu (10-11th c. AD)
2. Post-Classical Telugu

Classical Nahuatl (until 16th c. AD)

Classical K’iche (until 16th c. AD)

Classical Maya (until 16th c. AD)

Old/Classical Tupi (16-19th c. AD)

Classical Otomi (16th c. AD)

Old Spanish (13-15 c. AD)

The earliest record that has been found is from around the end of the 2nd century.

Parthian (3rd c. BC - after 3rd c. AD)

Old East Slavic (10-15th c. AD)
Slavoserbian (18-19th c. AD)

Anyone know some more?

Next project of mine will be to make a list of the most important literary works in those languages. I think that will occupy me for couple of years.

That could definitely be a subject for a masters or doctoral dissertation.

How about Kawi/Old Javanese? The earliest inscription is from 804 & the language developed into Middle Javanese by the 13th century.
There's plenty of literature in Kawi & it's still used in wayang & also sometimes in traditional Javanese wedding ceremonies.

What's this? An old form of Serbo-Croat?

A mixture of Serbian, Russian and Church Slavonic. It was formed after Serbian exiles in Austro-Hungary called for teachers from Russia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavoserbian

Here is an example of this language (from an article written by a Serbian priest that deals with the relationship between Slavoserbian and Sanskrit; I can't find the date but it was from the early 19th century):

I'm really surprised to Czech on your list. Isn't Czech a completely modern language used in all transactions of the Czech Republic?

Pay attention to the list a little better. Czech is sub-categorized under Church Slavonic. It was a short lived attempt to write Czech with Croatian Glagolitic in the 14-15th century. Couple of Bibles and other texts exist in it. It is distinct from the Biblical Czech (bibličtina, biblická čeština) written in the Latin alphabet at about the same time and still used in most Czech churches as well as some Lutheran churches in Slovakia (my local church switched to Slovak some 30-20 years ago and we still have a whole ton of Biblical Czech books written in the Schwabacher script at home). This Biblical Czech is not that different from Modern Czech and is almost identical, except it's full of archaisms. I'm not sure if I should put it on the list, but if so then:

5. Biblical Czech (15th c. AD - present)