diff --git a/data/syntax/coffee.xml b/data/syntax/coffee.xml
--- a/data/syntax/coffee.xml
+++ b/data/syntax/coffee.xml
@@ -2,8 +2,8 @@
 <!DOCTYPE language SYSTEM "language.dtd">
 
 <language name="CoffeeScript"
-          version="8"
-          kateversion="3.4"
+          version="9"
+          kateversion="5.0"
           section="Scripts"
           extensions="Cakefile;*.coffee;*.coco;*.cson"
           mimetype="text/x-coffeescript;application/x-coffeescript;application/vnd.coffeescript"
diff --git a/data/syntax/djangotemplate.xml b/data/syntax/djangotemplate.xml
--- a/data/syntax/djangotemplate.xml
+++ b/data/syntax/djangotemplate.xml
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
 	<!ENTITY name    "[A-Za-z_:][\w.:_-]*">
 	<!ENTITY entref  "&amp;(#[0-9]+|#[xX][0-9A-Fa-f]+|&name;);">
 ]>
-<language name="Django HTML Template" version="3" kateversion="2.4" section="Markup" extensions="*.htm;*.html" mimetype="text/html"  author="Matthew Marshall (matthew@matthewmarshall.org)" license="LGPL" priority="9">
+<language name="Django HTML Template" version="4" kateversion="5.0" section="Markup" extensions="*.htm;*.html" mimetype="text/html"  author="Matthew Marshall (matthew@matthewmarshall.org)" license="LGPL" priority="9">
 
 <!--
     Based off of the katepart html syntax highlighting by Wilbert Berendsen.
diff --git a/data/syntax/elixir.xml b/data/syntax/elixir.xml
--- a/data/syntax/elixir.xml
+++ b/data/syntax/elixir.xml
@@ -24,13 +24,13 @@
 <language author="Rubén Caro (ruben.caro.estevez@gmail.com), Boris Egorov (egorov@linux.com)"
           extensions="*.ex;*.exs;*.eex;*.xml.eex;*.js.eex"
           indenter="elixir"
-          kateversion="5.0"
+          kateversion="5.53"
           license="LGPLv2+"
           mimetype="text/x-elixir"
           name="Elixir"
           section="Sources"
           style="elixir"
-          version="4">
+          version="5">
   <highlighting>
     <list name="control-flow">
       <item>catch</item>
diff --git a/data/syntax/haskell.xml b/data/syntax/haskell.xml
--- a/data/syntax/haskell.xml
+++ b/data/syntax/haskell.xml
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
 <!DOCTYPE language SYSTEM "language.dtd">
-<language name="Haskell" version="12" kateversion="3.4" section="Sources" extensions="*.hs;*.chs;*.hs-boot" mimetype="text/x-haskell" author="Nicolas Wu (zenzike@gmail.com)" license="LGPL" indenter="haskell" style="haskell">
+<language name="Haskell" version="13" kateversion="5.0" section="Sources" extensions="*.hs;*.chs;*.hs-boot" mimetype="text/x-haskell" author="Nicolas Wu (zenzike@gmail.com)" license="LGPL" indenter="haskell" style="haskell">
   <highlighting>
   <list name="keywords">
     <item>case</item>
diff --git a/data/syntax/html.xml b/data/syntax/html.xml
--- a/data/syntax/html.xml
+++ b/data/syntax/html.xml
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
 	<!ENTITY attributeName "[A-Za-z_:*#\(\[][\)\]\w.:_-]*">
 	<!ENTITY entref        "&amp;(#[0-9]+|#[xX][0-9A-Fa-f]+|&name;);">
 ]>
-<language name="HTML" version="7" kateversion="3.4" section="Markup" extensions="*.htm;*.html;*.shtml;*.shtm" mimetype="text/html"  author="Wilbert Berendsen (wilbert@kde.nl)" license="LGPL" priority="10">
+<language name="HTML" version="8" kateversion="5.53" section="Markup" extensions="*.htm;*.html;*.shtml;*.shtm" mimetype="text/html"  author="Wilbert Berendsen (wilbert@kde.nl)" license="LGPL" priority="10">
 
 <highlighting>
 <contexts>
diff --git a/data/syntax/jira.xml b/data/syntax/jira.xml
--- a/data/syntax/jira.xml
+++ b/data/syntax/jira.xml
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@
 
   <!ENTITY url "(http:|https:|ftp:|mailto:)[^]|) ]*(?=$|[]|\s|\)])">
 ]>
-<language name="Jira" section="Markup" version="6" kateversion="3.0" extensions="*.jira" mimetype="" license="FDL" >
+<language name="Jira" section="Markup" version="7" kateversion="5.53" extensions="*.jira" mimetype="" license="FDL" >
   <highlighting>
 
     <!--
diff --git a/data/syntax/mako.xml b/data/syntax/mako.xml
--- a/data/syntax/mako.xml
+++ b/data/syntax/mako.xml
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
 	<!ENTITY name    "[A-Za-z_:][\w.:_-]*">
 	<!ENTITY entref  "&amp;(#[0-9]+|#[xX][0-9A-Fa-f]+|&name;);">
 ]>
-<language name="Mako" version="4" kateversion="3.4" section="Markup" extensions="*.mako;*.mak" author="Massimiliano Torromeo (massimiliano.torromeo@gmail.com)" license="LGPL">
+<language name="Mako" version="5" kateversion="5.0" section="Markup" extensions="*.mako;*.mak" author="Massimiliano Torromeo (massimiliano.torromeo@gmail.com)" license="LGPL">
 
 <highlighting>
 <list name="flow">
diff --git a/data/syntax/markdown.xml b/data/syntax/markdown.xml
--- a/data/syntax/markdown.xml
+++ b/data/syntax/markdown.xml
@@ -88,7 +88,7 @@
 <!ENTITY checkbox "\[[ x]\](?=\s)">
 ]>
 
-<language name="Markdown" version="7" kateversion="5.0" section="Markup" extensions="*.md;*.mmd;*.markdown" priority="15" author="Darrin Yeager, Claes Holmerson" license="GPL,BSD">
+<language name="Markdown" version="8" kateversion="5.53" section="Markup" extensions="*.md;*.mmd;*.markdown" priority="15" author="Darrin Yeager, Claes Holmerson" license="GPL,BSD">
   <highlighting>
     <contexts>
       <!-- Start of the Markdown document: find metadata or code block -->
diff --git a/data/syntax/mediawiki.xml b/data/syntax/mediawiki.xml
--- a/data/syntax/mediawiki.xml
+++ b/data/syntax/mediawiki.xml
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@
   <!ENTITY wikiLinkWithDescription "\[\[[^]|]*\|[^]]*\]\]">
   <!ENTITY wikiLinkWithoutDescription "\[\[[^]|]*\]\]">
 ]>
-<language name="MediaWiki" section="Markup" version="5" kateversion="3.4" extensions="*.mediawiki" mimetype="" license="FDL" >
+<language name="MediaWiki" section="Markup" version="6" kateversion="5.0" extensions="*.mediawiki" mimetype="" license="FDL" >
   <highlighting>
     <contexts>
       <context attribute="Normal" lineEndContext="#stay" name="normal" >
diff --git a/data/syntax/php.xml b/data/syntax/php.xml
--- a/data/syntax/php.xml
+++ b/data/syntax/php.xml
@@ -73,7 +73,7 @@
   <!ENTITY types "int|integer|bool|boolean|float|double|real|string|array|object">
 ]>
 
-<language name="PHP/PHP" indenter="cstyle" version="9" kateversion="3.4" section="Scripts" extensions="" priority="5" mimetype="" hidden="true">
+<language name="PHP/PHP" indenter="cstyle" version="10" kateversion="5.0" section="Scripts" extensions="" priority="5" mimetype="" hidden="true">
   <highlighting>
     <!-- https://secure.php.net/manual/en/reserved.keywords.php -->
     <list name="control structures">
diff --git a/data/syntax/rmarkdown.xml b/data/syntax/rmarkdown.xml
--- a/data/syntax/rmarkdown.xml
+++ b/data/syntax/rmarkdown.xml
@@ -23,8 +23,8 @@
 section="Markup"
 extensions="*.rmd;*.Rmd;*.RMD"
 mimetype="text/x-r-markdown"
-version="6"
-kateversion="5.0"
+version="7"
+kateversion="5.53"
 casesensitive="true"
 author="Dirk Sarpe (dsarpe@posteo.de)"
 license="GPL">
diff --git a/src/indexer/katehighlightingindexer.cpp b/src/indexer/katehighlightingindexer.cpp
--- a/src/indexer/katehighlightingindexer.cpp
+++ b/src/indexer/katehighlightingindexer.cpp
@@ -323,11 +323,23 @@
 };
 
 /**
- * Helper class to search for non-existing contexts
+ * Helper class to search for non-existing contexts and invalid version
  */
 class ContextChecker
 {
 public:
+    void setKateVersion(QStringRef verStr, const QString &hlFilename, const QString &hlName)
+    {
+        const auto idx = verStr.indexOf(QLatin1Char('.'));
+        if (idx <= 0) {
+            qWarning() << hlFilename << "invalid kateversion" << verStr;
+            m_success = false;
+        } else {
+            auto &language = m_contextMap[hlName];
+            language.version = {verStr.left(idx).toInt(), verStr.mid(idx + 1).toInt()};
+        }
+    }
+
     void processElement(const QString &hlFilename, const QString &hlName, QXmlStreamReader &xml)
     {
         if (xml.name() == QLatin1String("context")) {
@@ -354,6 +366,9 @@
             processContext(hlName, xml.attributes().value(QLatin1String("lineEndContext")).toString());
             processContext(hlName, xml.attributes().value(QLatin1String("lineEmptyContext")).toString());
             processContext(hlName, xml.attributes().value(QLatin1String("fallthroughContext")).toString());
+        } else if (xml.name() == QLatin1String("include")) {
+            // <include> tag inside <list>
+            processVersion(hlFilename, hlName, xml, {5, 53}, QLatin1String("<include>"));
         } else {
             if (xml.attributes().hasAttribute(QLatin1String("context"))) {
                 const QString context = xml.attributes().value(QLatin1String("context")).toString();
@@ -370,6 +385,29 @@
     bool check() const
     {
         bool success = m_success;
+
+        // recursive search for the required miximal version
+        struct GetRequiredVersion
+        {
+            QHash<const Language*, Version> versionMap;
+
+            Version operator()(const QHash<QString, Language> &contextMap, const Language &language)
+            {
+                auto& version = versionMap[&language];
+                if (version < language.version) {
+                    version = language.version;
+                    for (auto &languageName : language.usedLanguageName) {
+                        auto it = contextMap.find(languageName);
+                        if (it != contextMap.end()) {
+                            version = std::max(operator()(contextMap, *it), version);
+                        }
+                    }
+                }
+                return version;
+            };
+        };
+        GetRequiredVersion getRequiredVersion;
+
         for (auto &language : m_contextMap) {
             const auto invalidContextNames = language.usedContextNames - language.existingContextNames;
             if (!invalidContextNames.isEmpty()) {
@@ -382,6 +420,12 @@
                 qWarning() << language.hlFilename << "Unused contexts:" << unusedNames;
                 success = false;
             }
+
+            auto requiredVersion = getRequiredVersion(m_contextMap, language);
+            if (language.version < requiredVersion) {
+                qWarning().nospace() << language.hlFilename << " depends on a language in version " << requiredVersion.major << "." << requiredVersion.minor << ". Please, increase kateversion.";
+                success = false;
+            }
         }
 
         return success;
@@ -413,6 +457,7 @@
             } else if (list.size() == 2) {
                 // specific context of other language, e.g. Comment##ISO C++
                 m_contextMap[list[1]].usedContextNames.insert(list[0]);
+                m_contextMap[language].usedLanguageName.insert(list[1]);
             }
             return;
         }
@@ -426,6 +471,34 @@
     }
 
 private:
+    struct Version
+    {
+        int major;
+        int minor;
+
+        Version(int major = 0, int minor = 0)
+            : major(major)
+            , minor(minor)
+        {}
+
+        bool operator<(const Version &version) const
+        {
+            return major < version.major || (major == version.major && minor < version.minor);
+        }
+    };
+
+    void processVersion(const QString &hlFilename, const QString &hlName, QXmlStreamReader &xml, Version const& requiredVersion, QLatin1String item)
+    {
+        auto &language = m_contextMap[hlName];
+
+        if (language.version < requiredVersion) {
+            qWarning().nospace() << hlFilename << " " << item << " in line " << xml.lineNumber() << " is only available since version " << requiredVersion.major << "." << requiredVersion.minor << ". Please, increase kateversion.";
+            // update the version to cancel future warnings
+            language.version = requiredVersion;
+            m_success = false;
+        }
+    }
+
     class Language
     {
     public:
@@ -443,6 +516,12 @@
 
         // holds all existing context names
         QSet<QString> existingContextNames;
+
+        // holds all existing language names
+        QSet<QString> usedLanguageName;
+
+        // kateversion language attribute
+        Version version;
     };
 
     /**
@@ -607,8 +686,11 @@
 
         AttributeChecker attributeChecker(hlFilename);
         KeywordChecker keywordChecker(hlFilename);
+
         const QString hlName = hl[QStringLiteral("name")].toString();
 
+        contextChecker.setKateVersion(xml.attributes().value(QStringLiteral("kateversion")), hlFilename, hlName);
+
         // scan for broken regex or keywords with spaces
         while (!xml.atEnd()) {
             xml.readNext();