title: Oldest language
text: # Oldest language
  
  "Oldest language" may refer 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
  * a Proto-Human language, the hypothetical, most recent common ancestor of all the world's languages
  * the date of attestation in writing (epigraphy).
     * see list of languages by first written accounts.
  * 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
     * glottochronology
     * historical linguistics
  