How many languages are there in the world? Have you ever asked yourself this question, read the article below to get the answer.
Language is a set of symbols that can be spoken or written used primarily for communication. Language is an important aspect of human intelligence, which is an aspect of human behavior.
How many languages are there in the world?
According to Ethnologue, there are about 7,097 languages spoken in the world today. A number that startled many people. However, only 23 of all these languages are spoken by half of the world's population. Nearly two-thirds of the world's languages are concentrated in Africa and Asia, with only a few belonging to Europe.
Based on the origin, one can divide the world's languages into five main groups:
The places with the most languages are Asia, Africa and the Pacific. However, the most commonly spoken languages in the world come from Europe or Asia. This is due to the large population of some regions, such as China, the United States, etc. In addition, the colonial expansion in the previous centuries is also the reason why some languages have become popular globally.
Accounting for 18.5% of the world's languages, Pacific languages are spoken very little, with only 1,000 speakers on average.
Languages in the world are not evenly distributed. There are some countries with hundreds of languages, for example, Papua New Guinea has 841 languages, Indonesia has 710 languages, Nigeria has 526 languages, India has 455 languages.
The most spoken languages in the world are Chinese, English, Hindi, Spanish, Russian, Arabic.