oldest language

[kevin@onyref]

whats the oldest curent spoken language in europe?

[dundurn]

I can think of three that might vie for the honour.

Welsh - where the days of the week are still modelled on the original Indo-European pattern.
Sami (spoken by the people formerly known as Lapplanders) - this is Finno-Ugric, so similar to the languages spoken in Finland and Hungary and ultimately coming from the Asian steppes, but it is a distinct language and has been preserved relatively unchanged by isolation.
Top of my list, however, would be Basque - it has no 'sister'languages anywhere in the world, as far as I know, so in a sense it has no historical "start point".

[Quizmonster]

Linguists can't even agree how many languages there are, never mind their age. If you google "oldest European language", you'll be offered four claimants on the very first page...and there are literally hundreds of other web-sites listed!
My guess is that this is one of these questions with as many 'answers' as there are answerers. So, good luck!

[carolegif]

I think it is Basque, simply because it is like no other European language. Something to do with the Visigoths not getting into the Basque country because of the Pyrenees and the Picos de Europa preventing them.

carolegif

[jno]

some say Lithuanian is the language least changed from ancient Sanskrit

[radiogaga]

i was suprised to find out german is derived from luxembourgish..i went on a tour of the ancient caves in lux, theve been there for many years, and even the germans used them for storage in the world wars.