The Voyager Golden Record contains spoken greetings in 55 languages. These greetings were chosen to present a small linguistic snapshot of humanity to anyone who might eventually discover the record.
The record was assembled in 1977 by a committee led by astronomer Carl Sagan. Its audio collection also includes natural sounds, music from different cultures and eras, human sounds such as laughter and footsteps, and messages encoded in Morse code. The greetings appear as a dedicated audio section rather than as translations of one single message.
The 55-language selection includes both ancient and modern languages. Examples include Sumerian, Akkadian, Ancient Greek, Latin, Arabic, Hindi, Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, English and Welsh. Some languages are represented by very short phrases, while others offer fuller greetings to imagined listeners beyond Earth.
A common mix-up is confusing the 55 languages with the record’s 116 images. The images, sounds, music and greetings are separate parts of the record’s larger attempt to introduce Earth and human culture.