HEBREW is the oldest LIVING language, and was developed in the 12th century BC; it is written right to left; has 22 letters that are all consonants, which makes it harder to pronounce the written word. A system of dots and dashes above and below the consonants was developed to act as vowels in the 8th century.

ARAMAIC–a Semitic language thought to be spoken by Jesus is today being spoken by less than 15,000 people in a few areas of Syria.

CHINESE is the world’s oldest spoken language, and NUSHU is the world’s oldest women’s-only language. Nushu is found in the south-central Chinese province of Hunan, and used by the women of the Yao ethnic group. It was originally written on fine silks, paper fans, or embroidered items. Of the 1200 to 2000 character’s identified so far,only 700 are used today.

“In my opinion, we don’t know the answer to this question, although some people will give one anyway…”

for details, please click this link:

http://linguistlist.org/ask-ling/oldest.html

Sumer was located in Mesopotamia, in what is today’s Southeastern Iraq.

One of the earliest examples of writing is of a Sumerian boy telling of his day in school:

http://www.sinc.sunysb.edu/stu/wslagle/SUMER.htm

SCHOOL BOY’S ESSAY

I awoke early in the morning. I faced my mother and said to her, “Give me my lunch, I want to go to school.” My mother gave me two rolls and I set out.

At school the monitor in charge said to me, “Why are you late?” Afraid and with a pounding heart, I entered before my teacher and made a respectful bow.

The teacher said to me, “Your writing is not satisfactory,” and caned me. It was a bad day for me. I was caned for talking, standing up and walking out of the gate.

That night I told my father what had happened. I asked whether we could ask the teacher to our house. My father agreed.

We gave the teacher an excellent meal. There was plenty of wine. My father presented the teacher with a new robe, a ring for his hand and other gifts.

The teacher was pleased. He said to me, “Young man, because you listen to me you may become a top scribe. Of your brothers may you be their leader. Of your friends may you be their chief. you have carried out well the school’s activities. You have become a man of learning.”

— end

In China over the last 60 years there have been discoveries of Jiahu and Banpo culture, dating from five to six thousand years BC, including artifacts that appear to have writing on them. Whether it qualifies as writing to the international community is still under debate.

But if accepted as writing, then it will predate ancient Sumer by a couple thousand years.

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See also this link to a wiki page on the oldest examples of written accounts in the world. Ancient Hebrew is represented as a Caananite language — still later than Sumerian and Egyptian.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_first_written_accounts