I reckon I'll be different, here. I'd say PHP (particularly if the new coder has interest in web programming). It's syntactically easy-ish, freely available,

I reckon I'll be different, here. I'd say PHP (particularly if the new coder has interest in web programming). It's syntactically easy-ish, freely available, very well documented and supported, and sets the newbie up for easy freelance or professional work. - John