Languages of the World
One of my friend asked me and I thought a lot of other people might be curious about this so I am putting this in my blog :-) ..
It is difficult to give an exact figure of the number of languages that exist in the world, because it is not always easy to define what a language is. The difference between a language and a dialect is not always clear-cut. It has nothing to do with similarity of vocabulary, grammar, or pronunciation. Sometimes, the distinctions are based purely on geographical, political, or religious reasons. It is usually estimated that the number of languages in the world varies between 3,000 and 8,000.
There is a list of the world's languages, called "Ethnologue" (Grimes 1996). There are 6,500 living languages listed. Of these, 6,000 have registered population figures. 52% of the 6,000 languages are spoken by less than 10,000 people, and 28% are spoken by less than 1,000 people. 83% of them are limited to single countries.
The ten largest languages in the world are the first languages for nearly half of the world's population.
Here is a list of the top 10 languages in February 1999 according to Ethnologue:
1. Mandarin 885 million speakers
2. Spanish 332 million speakers
3. English 322 million speakers
4. Bengali 189 million speakers
5. Hindi 182 million speakers
6. Portuguese 170 million speakers
6. Russian 170 million speakers
8. Japanese 125 million speakers
9. German 98 million speakers
10. Wu 77 million speakers
The figures refer to the number of people who have the language as their first language. If those speakers who have learnt the language as a foreign language were to be included, English might be at the top of the list.
Arabic would be among the 10 most widely spoken languages, if it were to be counted as one language. Ethnologue lists ten variants of spoken Arabic among its top 100. The biggest of these is Egyptian Arabic with 42.5 million speakers. If they were to be counted as one and the same language, Arabic would come out sixth with 175 million speakers, and Wu would drop out of the top ten.
These figures are from 1999, so some languages may have shifted postions on the list for demographical reasons, and then particularly in positions 4 through 7, where also Arabic might turn up, see above.
The branch of linguistics which is called comparative philology, has classified the world's languages into different families. All of the relationships within the families are not yet clear, and therefore the classification must be seen as preliminary.
The languages within a family usually share a common language, from which they developed. However, sometimes languages are considered to be related just because they happen to be geographically close to one another.
You can look at "Mark Rosenfelder's maps of the world's language families (in a new window, close it to get back here).
The Indo-European language family is the most researched of all the families. Languages, which belong to this family, are spoken in India, Pakistan, Iran, and nearly all of Europe. The Indo-European language family has been split into smaller language groups:
# The Indo-Iranian has about 600 million speakers and includes languages such as Urdu, Hindi, Bengali, and Punjabi. These languages are spoken in northern India and in Pakistan. The ancient Indian language, Sanskrit, has had enormous impact on the historical language research. The systematic similarities between Sanskrit, Latin, and Greek were observed as early as the 18th century,
Persian and Kurdish are also a part of the Indo-Iranian language group.
# The Romance language group developed from Latin and has about 600 million speakers in Europe and Latin America. Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, and Romanian belong to this group.
# The Germanic language group has about 500 million speakers in Europe and North America. The Scandinavian languages (Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic, and Faroese) belong to this group along with English, German, Dutch, Flemish (which is spoken in a part of Belgium), and Afrikaans (which is related to Dutch and is spoken in South Africa).
# The Slavic language group is mainly confined to Eastern Europe. It has 300 million speakers. The largest language in this group is Russian. Other Slavic languages are Belarusian, Ukrainian, Polish, Czech, Slovakian, Bulgarian, Serbian, Croatian, and Bosnian.
The remaining language groups within the Indo-European language family are considerably smaller.
# The Baltic language group is represented by Latvian and Lithuanian.
# The Greek language group is made up of Modern Greek together with various older forms of Greek.
# The Celtic language group was once spoken all over Europe, but now it is only made up of small languages such as Breton, Irish Gaelic, Welsh, and Scottish Gaelic.
Beside the Indo-European languages there are also a few other language families represented in Europe. The two largest are the Turkic language group, spoken by about 40 million speakers in Turkey, and the Finno-Ugric language group. Finnish, Estonian, Saami, and Hungarian belong to the Finno-Ugric language group. Another interesting language in Europe is Basque, which is spoken in the Basque region in northern Spain and in a small part of southwestern France. Basque, as far as we know, has no known relatives. The languages in Africa are usually divided into four language families:
# The Niger-Congo language family is usually divided into ten sub-groups. Each sub-group includes several hundred languages. Nearly half of the Niger-Congo languages are made up of different Bantu languages. Bantu languages are spoken by about 200 million people in sub-Saharan Africa. Swahili is the most known and wide spread of the Bantu languages.
# The Khoisan language family is spoken by a couple of hundred thousand people in southern Africa, especially in the Kalahari Desert in Namibia and Botswana. The Khoisan language family is usually referred to as "click" languages, because of the exotic click sounds the speakers use. The Khoisan family is divided into three groups, North, Central, and South.
It is difficult to give an exact figure of the number of languages that exist in the world, because it is not always easy to define what a language is. The difference between a language and a dialect is not always clear-cut. It has nothing to do with similarity of vocabulary, grammar, or pronunciation. Sometimes, the distinctions are based purely on geographical, political, or religious reasons. It is usually estimated that the number of languages in the world varies between 3,000 and 8,000.
There is a list of the world's languages, called "Ethnologue" (Grimes 1996). There are 6,500 living languages listed. Of these, 6,000 have registered population figures. 52% of the 6,000 languages are spoken by less than 10,000 people, and 28% are spoken by less than 1,000 people. 83% of them are limited to single countries.
The ten largest languages in the world are the first languages for nearly half of the world's population.
Here is a list of the top 10 languages in February 1999 according to Ethnologue:
1. Mandarin 885 million speakers
2. Spanish 332 million speakers
3. English 322 million speakers
4. Bengali 189 million speakers
5. Hindi 182 million speakers
6. Portuguese 170 million speakers
6. Russian 170 million speakers
8. Japanese 125 million speakers
9. German 98 million speakers
10. Wu 77 million speakers
The figures refer to the number of people who have the language as their first language. If those speakers who have learnt the language as a foreign language were to be included, English might be at the top of the list.
Arabic would be among the 10 most widely spoken languages, if it were to be counted as one language. Ethnologue lists ten variants of spoken Arabic among its top 100. The biggest of these is Egyptian Arabic with 42.5 million speakers. If they were to be counted as one and the same language, Arabic would come out sixth with 175 million speakers, and Wu would drop out of the top ten.
These figures are from 1999, so some languages may have shifted postions on the list for demographical reasons, and then particularly in positions 4 through 7, where also Arabic might turn up, see above.
The branch of linguistics which is called comparative philology, has classified the world's languages into different families. All of the relationships within the families are not yet clear, and therefore the classification must be seen as preliminary.
The languages within a family usually share a common language, from which they developed. However, sometimes languages are considered to be related just because they happen to be geographically close to one another.
You can look at "Mark Rosenfelder's maps of the world's language families (in a new window, close it to get back here).
The Indo-European language family is the most researched of all the families. Languages, which belong to this family, are spoken in India, Pakistan, Iran, and nearly all of Europe. The Indo-European language family has been split into smaller language groups:
# The Indo-Iranian has about 600 million speakers and includes languages such as Urdu, Hindi, Bengali, and Punjabi. These languages are spoken in northern India and in Pakistan. The ancient Indian language, Sanskrit, has had enormous impact on the historical language research. The systematic similarities between Sanskrit, Latin, and Greek were observed as early as the 18th century,
Persian and Kurdish are also a part of the Indo-Iranian language group.
# The Romance language group developed from Latin and has about 600 million speakers in Europe and Latin America. Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, and Romanian belong to this group.
# The Germanic language group has about 500 million speakers in Europe and North America. The Scandinavian languages (Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic, and Faroese) belong to this group along with English, German, Dutch, Flemish (which is spoken in a part of Belgium), and Afrikaans (which is related to Dutch and is spoken in South Africa).
# The Slavic language group is mainly confined to Eastern Europe. It has 300 million speakers. The largest language in this group is Russian. Other Slavic languages are Belarusian, Ukrainian, Polish, Czech, Slovakian, Bulgarian, Serbian, Croatian, and Bosnian.
The remaining language groups within the Indo-European language family are considerably smaller.
# The Baltic language group is represented by Latvian and Lithuanian.
# The Greek language group is made up of Modern Greek together with various older forms of Greek.
# The Celtic language group was once spoken all over Europe, but now it is only made up of small languages such as Breton, Irish Gaelic, Welsh, and Scottish Gaelic.
Beside the Indo-European languages there are also a few other language families represented in Europe. The two largest are the Turkic language group, spoken by about 40 million speakers in Turkey, and the Finno-Ugric language group. Finnish, Estonian, Saami, and Hungarian belong to the Finno-Ugric language group. Another interesting language in Europe is Basque, which is spoken in the Basque region in northern Spain and in a small part of southwestern France. Basque, as far as we know, has no known relatives. The languages in Africa are usually divided into four language families:
# The Niger-Congo language family is usually divided into ten sub-groups. Each sub-group includes several hundred languages. Nearly half of the Niger-Congo languages are made up of different Bantu languages. Bantu languages are spoken by about 200 million people in sub-Saharan Africa. Swahili is the most known and wide spread of the Bantu languages.
# The Khoisan language family is spoken by a couple of hundred thousand people in southern Africa, especially in the Kalahari Desert in Namibia and Botswana. The Khoisan language family is usually referred to as "click" languages, because of the exotic click sounds the speakers use. The Khoisan family is divided into three groups, North, Central, and South.
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