Oldest language
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Oldest language" is a term used informally for various concepts:
- referring to the emergence of language itself in human evolution
- origin of language
- proto-language, a stage before the emergence of language proper
- mythical origins of language
- referring to the date of attestation in writing (epigraphy).
- see list of languages by first written accounts. The languages attested earliest (from ca. 3000 BC) are Egyptian and Sumerian
- referring to the conservative nature of a given language (low rate of language change, viz. "old" in the sense of "has not changed much for a long time"), see