New York Times: Albanian oldest European language.

[Proto-Shaman]

I heard many Greeks who don't want to be Indo-European. They embrace their Pelasgian heritage.

[Prisoner Of Ice]

They try to make it out like age of language means something or can even be calculated. Everybody probably started to speak at the same time and all languages probably have some ancient common ancestor, so really who cares.

[blogen]

Jesus, the Albanian is a young language in Europe! These are a short list:

Greek: ~4000 years (proto Greek: 3000-2000BC)
Hungarian: ~3000 years (proto Hungarian: 1800-1000BC)
German: ~2750 years (proto German: 1500-750BC)
Finnish: ~2000 years (proto Finnish: 1000BC-0AD)
...
English: ~1400 years (proto English: 0-600)
...
Albanian: ~1000 years (proto Albanian: 0-1000)
...
Serbocroatian: ~750 years (proto Serbocroatian: 900-1250), if we not recognized the independent Serbocroatian languages.
Italian: ~700 years (proto Italian: 300-1300)
...
Slovakian: ~500 years (proto Slovakian: 1000-1500)
Lithuanian: ~500 years (proto Lithuanian: 800-1500)
...
Serbian: ~150 years (proto Serbian: 1500-1850, if we recognized the independent Serbian language from the Serbocroatian.
etc.

[Raven_]

Blogen, where did you get these numbers?

[blogen]

Blogen, where did you get these numbers?

I compiled these now. The most spoken languages are young, since these are the products of the disintegration of bigger language families (Latin, German, Slavonic). The old languages mostly geographically separated from their relatives long time ago, than the Greek or Hungarian for example.

[Rugevit]

Blogen, where did you get these numbers?

The most sophisticated mathematical modelling to estimate the divergence of IE languages based on cognates that I came across was in the article "Language-tree divergence times support the Anatolian theory of Indo-European origin" (2003) article. The authors don't provide a perfect estimation. It's only a model.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/zt95xsm1nr...gence.pdf?dl=0

[blogen]

The most sophisticated mathematical modelling to estimate the divergence of IE languages based on cognates that I came across was in the article "Language-tree divergence times support the Anatolian theory of Indo-European origin" (2003) article. The authors don't provide a perfect estimation. It's only a model.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/zt95xsm1nr...gence.pdf?dl=0

This model does not calculate with the language history! For example where is the Illyrian language? Since there was not proto-Albanian language before the Roman rule, only the Illyrian languages and the Albanian was the descendant of an Illyrian language!

[armenianbodyhair]

I can't see their sources and linguistics is not my specialty but in any case I would not rely on a news paper, however good their reputation, for the leading objective information or analysis on such things.

[Rugevit]

This model does not calculate with the language history! For example where is the Illyrian language? Since there was not proto-Albanian language before the Roman rule, only the Illyrian languages and the Albanian was the descendant of an Illyrian language!

The model estimates the divergence of IE languages based on a mathematical model. It's perfect as I mentioned. But there's no better analysis on the subject to the best of my knowledge. Probably, Illyrian was not included for a simple reason there're few Illyrian words known. No more than 50-60 words? Maybe for other reasons. Albanian language did not appear in a thin air. There had to be a language on which Albanian was based. Whether it was Illyrian or proto-Albanian is for the linguists to determine.

[blogen]

The module estimates the divergence of IE languages. Probably, Illyrian was not included for a simple reason there're few Illyrian words known. No more than 50-60 words? I cannot remember. Maybe there were other reasons. Albanian language did not appear in a thin air. There had to be a language on which Albanian was based. Whether it was Illyrian or proto-Albanian is for the linguists to determine.

This is the essence: this language tree in the publication is an anachronistic tree and not a real tree. But presumably that tree caused the misunderstanding in the american newspaper.