Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2019 December 26

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December 26

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Which one is the oldest known language?

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I know very little about languages, but I am very curious which language is the oldest known. Also, can one still learn it?--2A02:120B:C3E7:E650:A931:29B9:FE86:2516 (talk) 19:53, 26 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]

This question has been asked before, see e.g. "Oldest living language" (25 September 2017) or search for other threads mentioning {oldest language}. See also the disambiguation page Oldest language and the articles linked therefrom (especially Proto-Human language and List of languages by first written accounts).
Generally, it's hard to say when exactly a non-constructed language came into existence, since it's hard to determine how much of a change turns an old language into a new language. --Theurgist (talk) 20:17, 26 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]
Sanscrit? The oldest that can still be learned. Anton 81.131.40.58 (talk) 10:14, 27 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]