This question keeps cropping up, and whenever it does, people claim it was
their language. The question needs to be precisely framed.
Oldest spoken language in the world? All equally old.
Oldest still spoken language in a particular area? It's easier to answer this for islands or archipelagos, e.g. Great Britain: Welsh. New Zealand: Maori. Japan: Ainu (but maybe not for much longer).
Oldest written language? Sumerian (extinct) or Egyptian (not extinct, despite what the article states).
Oldest written language still in use? Coptic, a direct descendant of Egyptian used as a liturgical language in the Coptic Church, but not spoken as a vernacular for centuries.
Oldest written language still spoken? Hebrew (originally Canaanite), in continuous use but not as a vernacular for about 2000 years.
Oldest written language continuously spoken: Greek, but it wasn't continuously written. (There was a gap between Linear B and alphabetic script.)
Oldest continuously spoken and written language: Chinese.
Oldest spoken language in the world? All equally old.
Oldest still spoken language in a particular area? It's easier to answer this for islands or archipelagos, e.g. Great Britain: Welsh. New Zealand: Maori. Japan: Ainu (but maybe not for much longer).
Oldest written language? Sumerian (extinct) or Egyptian (not extinct, despite what the article states).
Oldest written language still in use? Coptic, a direct descendant of Egyptian used as a liturgical language in the Coptic Church, but not spoken as a vernacular for centuries.
Oldest written language still spoken? Hebrew (originally Canaanite), in continuous use but not as a vernacular for about 2000 years.
Oldest written language continuously spoken: Greek, but it wasn't continuously written. (There was a gap between Linear B and alphabetic script.)
Oldest continuously spoken and written language: Chinese.