Here's why:
* Determining "oldest" is tricky: It's difficult to definitively say which language is the oldest due to the lack of written records for many ancient languages. We can only compare the languages that have been documented.
* The Indo-European family: Welsh, like many European languages, belongs to the Indo-European language family. This family is thought to have originated around 4,500 to 5,500 years ago in the Pontic-Caspian steppe.
* Other older languages: There are many languages that predate the Indo-European family, including:
* Basque: Spoken in the Pyrenees region, it is considered a language isolate, meaning it doesn't belong to any known language family. It's thought to be very old, possibly dating back to pre-Indo-European times.
* Etruscan: This ancient language of the Etruscans in Italy is not related to any other known language family. It has been extinct for centuries but is known through inscriptions.
* Ancient Egyptian: This language has a long written history, with hieroglyphs dating back to around 3,200 BC.
So, while Welsh is one of the oldest living languages in Europe, it is not the oldest language in the world.