Probably the oldest language in the world

[peredur_glyn]

This column (from the Grauniad) by the incomparable Charlie Brooker laments the general crassness of the Christmas adverts by big chain stores (Asda, M&S etc.). The Argos one is the worst, mainly because it implies that there is something really "Christmassy" about ordering shit from Argos and having a lorry put it through your letter-box. Also

Comments

[baron_scarpia]

You know, I rather like you in this mood.

[peredur_glyn]

I may take that as a compliment.

[peredur_glyn]

Some people are born to annoy.

My parents went to Anne Hathaway's cottage in Stratford once, and went on the guided tour. My mother had to physically restrain my father at some points, as the tour guide (clearly an Ivy League Shakespearean scholar with eight PhDs and a Nobel) kept making "hence the phrase" statements. You know those? Example from that tour: "and this is Anne Hathaway's table. In olden times, tables were rough on one side, so that you could prepare food on them, and smooth on the other side, so you could eat off it. Hence the phrase, 'taking the rough with the smooth'. Before meal times the tabletop would be turned over so that they could eat off the smooth side. Hence the phrase 'turning the tables'." &c. I wish I were making that up.

People? Retards.

[egg_shaped_fred]

I think Basque's older, by those criteria, isn't it? As, for that matter, is Latin (which I firmly advocate as a living language given that a form which maintains its original classical grammar system is still spoken in the Vatican and in some small villages in Switzerland), I'd have thought.

But then I don't know much about these things. I'm reasonably sure Esperanto's not going to get on the list, though.

[peredur_glyn]

Yes re Basque, though I might (briefly) argue with you that Latin is not a living language in the sense that any children pick it up as a first language (which would be my bottom-line criterion for a living language). Unless I'm wrong.

Esperanto has been attested in cuneiform dating from 8 billion years BCE, so clearly it's the world's oldest living language. I KNOW ALL BOW YE SERFS AND PEONS.

[egg_shaped_fred]

You would be wrong. What do the Pope's children speak?

[peredur_glyn]

Sindarin.