What is considered to be the oldest 'living' language in the world?

Question

According to popular belief, Sanskrit, for instance, is deemed to be the most ancient 'living' language in India.

Answer 1

There's a bit of a problem with the question itself -- LIVING languages, such as those we use for day-to-day communication, are ALWAYS changing, but generally do so gradually, so that they maintain a connection with the past. Thus, for instance, we speak of "English" of the 8th century A.D. and of today, recognizing their organic connection, even though, placed side by side, they are DIFFERENT languages, for their speakers would not be able to understand each other. So, are they "the same language" or not?!

Looking at it this way, the question is almost impossible to answer the question, because we might take ANY language back generation by generation through the millenia.

Because of this, French, Spanish and Italian are all "Vulgar Latin", that is, they have as much to be being a continuation of the "living" language of Latin (naturally modified through the centuries) as MODERN Mandarin Chinese does to be a continuation of the Chinese language spoken two millenia or more ago. The fact that the NAME of these later versions of the language changed in one case but not in another does not change the organic connnetion, but is an historical accident.

There is one other way to approach this question -- by looking for a language which is still used today in essentially the SAME form as long ago. As noted above, this really does NOT happen with daily LIVING languages. But some are preserved (or revived) for SPECIAL use. Best example of this is liturgical languages. In this case, the oldest is probably "Classical Sanskrit" of the first millenium B.C., which is still used for liturgical purposes. But again, this would NOT really qualify as a "living language", since it is not used in daily life.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanskrit

(Others have written about the oldest language for which we have written records -- this is likely Sumerian, though Egyptian is close... and only continued archaeological work will determine which we can find the earliest evidence for. But NONE of these ancient languages --including Mayan-- is spoken today at all!!)

Answer 2

Sign Language

Answer 3

The Chinese language is the oldest living one until now.
The Sumerian is older, but it is not in use any longer.
The Jia Gu Wen or Oracle Bones, or Bones Inscription found in An Yang in China proven by Archaeology that it is at least 3500 years old. Some even claim that it is 4000 years old or older.
If you are interested you can go to this website:
http://helios.acomp.usf.edu/~cbozeman/script.htm

Answer 4

Although there is some debate, I would say that the majority agree that Tamil (or Old Tamil) is the oldest language that is still used in parts of contempoary society.

This link to a similar question might help
http://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20061126090308AAjwc2U&show=7

Answer 5

I believe it might be mayan, it's definatly the oldest "living" langauge in the western hemisphere. World wide I'm not sure. Either mayan or Sanskrit.

Answer 6

Hebrew

Answer 7

Sanskrit is indeed, although Mayan may be as old if not older- we just haven't the evidence to prove/disprove it yet.

Answer 8

Sign language is the oldest....

Answer 9

Maybe Chinese