Sanskrit is the original parent language from which all other human languages descended.
Sanskrit is one branch of the Indo-European language family, alongside Romance, Germanic, Slavic, Celtic, and Anatolian branches, among others. While Sanskrit is one of the oldest documented Indo-European languages (attested texts date to around 1200 BCE), it is not the parent of all Indo-European languages, they shared a common ancestor (Proto-Indo-European) from which Sanskrit and other branches evolved in parallel. Moreover, many major language families (Sino-Tibetan, Afro-Asiatic, Austronesian, Dravidian, Uralic) are unrelated to Indo-European entirely, making Sanskrit's reach limited to roughly 40% of world population's languages. This myth likely reflects Hindu cultural traditions and Sanskrit's status as a prestigious liturgical language, combined with Romantic-era European scholars' fascination with Sanskrit. The scientific truth is more nuanced and less hierarchical: Sanskrit is ancient and prestigious but not uniquely foundational.