which language is very old in the world/-where is it found now?

Answer 1

All languages are in a constant state of change, so even though a language called "Greek" has been continuously spoken for about 3500 years, today's Greek is NOT the Greek spoken 3500 years ago and a speaker of that Greek would NOT be able to understand a speaker of today's Greek (and vice versa). Sanskrit was spoken only about 3000 years ago and its oldest writings are only about 2500 years old. But Sanskrit continued to evolve into many of the languages of northern India today. A speaker of Hindi could not understand spoken Sanskrit (without training, of course) and an ancient speaker of Sanskrit could not understand a speaker of Hindi. The same goes for every single language in the world that has a long written history. Actually the Coptic language used in church services in the Coptic Christian Church is the direct descendant of ancient Egyptian, which was first written about 5000 years ago (which far surpasses the age of any other language in use today). But, as with Greek, a speaker of ancient Egyptian would not understand a speaker of Coptic (and vice versa). To show how much languages can change in just a few hundred years, try listening to Chaucer's Canterbury Tales recited in Middle English. You won't understand very much at all. All languages change like that, so no language currently spoken on the face of the planet is more than a few generations old in its current form.

EDIT: The oldest Sumerian records are only about 5500 years old. It is the earliest known writing. I don't know where the answer below got "10,000" years. That's pretty far-fetched. Sumerian went extinct as a language about 3500 years ago or so.

Answer 2

There is no way to tell which particular language spoken in the world today is the oldest. However, we do know that some languages and language families are older than others.

Certainly, some of the oldest languages in the world are Basque, Lapp (Saami) and Finnish in Europe, Eskimo and Ainu in Asia and the Arctic , Hottentot (Khoi) in Africa and the indigenous Australian languages. The first humans came to Australia about 30,000 years ago. This was probably even before the first humans arrived in the Western Hemisphere which was about 20,000 years ago.

By comparison, the Indo-European languages, including Sanskrit, are all relatively new; less than 8,000 years.

Answer 3

If you mean the oldest language still in use, it is probably Cymraeg, spoken in north Wales, which has been more or less unchanged since Biblical times except for the occasional imported word like "ambiwlans" and "scriwdraifer." A close relative of Cymraeg is spoken in Brittany, northern France, and another close relative used to be spoken in Cornwall, England, but it became extinct about 200 years ago. There is a Welsh television channel called S4C which you might be able to watch by satellite.

Answer 4

Not much agreement among the respondents here but I have read that the oldest WRITTEN language is Sumerian cuneiform. Experts believe it to be about 10,000 years old. As for the spoken word, that's a matter for debate since no recording device was available until Edison's day.

Answer 5

The first known Greek writings date back to 1450 BC. It's been around for 3,500 years, making it one of the oldest, if not the oldest language that is still spoken nowadays.

Answer 6

Greek and Basque are considered some of the oldest languages. Basque is spoken in the north of Spain. You may check this site. Interesting..

http://linguistlist.org/ask-ling/oldest.html

Answer 7

The Hebrew language is very old and still in use in any Jewish community.

Answer 8

sanskrit, the oldest language in the world.......don't agree with the greeks language, that was after sanskrit

Answer 9

both hebrew n sanskrit date back hundreds of years

Answer 10

Sanskrit - - - India