Saturday, June 23, 2007

The oldest language still in use

The oldest language still in use in the world is the language employed by the Indian mahout - the professional elephant driver and keeper. In addressing the elephant the mahout uses neither Hindi nor Arabic nor Persian. Instead, he employs the tongue of the caveman - with which the latter first tamed an elephant 50,000 years ago. This survival - one of the most astounding in history - of a language of the caveman era furnishes some basis for the traditional and famous elephant memory, since the animal still refuses to understand any other tongue.