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With all due respect, I hold that Sanskrit is the ancient language from which the Indo-European languages derived. I am a student of the Vedas (can't read Devanagari, but do have a very simple appreciation of a lot of Sanskrit terms as long as they are written in my alphabet!). The Vedas themselves describe their origin and the time frame is very, very ancient. The original British Indologists had a conscious motivation to obfuscate the great antiquity of India's history and the Vedas. For instance, they posited the idea that the Greeks influenced India, when it was in truth the other way around.

I've read quotes (wish I had them handy) of one British Indologist admitting their knowingly lying in this regard. Also, the so-called Aryan invasion theory is also proving to be false. It's a fascinating topic, which unfortunately I don't have time for. Wish I did.

I hold that ancient Hebrew is the ancient languiage from which all Indo-European languages are derived.

But you will find that many words are eerily similar in meaning and construction among most languages, so finding out exactly which one is the oldest is difficult. More likely the oldest language simply does not exist anymore though. I still think that Negev-hebrew is the closest to it, since it is incredibly simple in written depiction (pictographs) yet carry very complex symbolic meaning.

The oldest example of written language is also either hebrew or egyptian, depending on which dating you trust. So that makes it likely that the verbal component is also ancient.

SANSKRIT
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanskrit
The original form, Vedic Sanskrit, was probably in use as early as 1800 BC.

ARCHAIC EGYPTIAN
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian
Archaic Egyptian (before 2600 BC)
Old Egyptian (2600 BC – 2000 BC)

SUMERIAN
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumerian_language
The Sumerian language of ancient Sumer was spoken in Southern Mesopotamia from at least the 4th millennium BCE.

HEBREW
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biblical_Hebrew_language
Biblical Hebrew is further divided into the so called 'Golden Age' Hebrew (1200 BCE to 500 BCE) and 'Silver Age' Hebrew (500 BCE to 60 BCE).

I havent been able to find a wiki page on negev Hebrew, that is the language which is the predecessor of biblical Hebrew, but I remember it was dated at around 4th century BC at least, and some claim it is older. At least Egyptian and Sumerian language is older than Sanskrit.