Language Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ==Linguistic diversity== {{See also|Lists of languages|List of languages by total number of speakers}} {| class="wikitable" style="width: 200px; float: right; margin:10px" |- ! Language !! Native speakers<br />(millions)<ref name="Ethnologue"/> |- |[[Mandarin Chinese|Mandarin]]||848 |- |[[Spanish language|Spanish]]||329 {{refn|group=note|''Ethnologue's'' figure is based on numbers from before 1995. A more recent figure is 420 million.<ref>{{cite web|title=Primer estudio conjunto del Instituto Cervantes y el British Council sobre el peso internacional del español y del inglés|publisher=Instituto Cervantes (www.cervantes.es)|url=http://www.cervantes.es/sobre_instituto_cervantes/prensa/2012/noticias/nota-londres-palabra-por-palabra.htm|access-date=17 September 2012|archive-date=16 September 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170916204118/http://www.cervantes.es/sobre_instituto_cervantes/prensa/2012/noticias/nota-londres-palabra-por-palabra.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>}} |- |[[English language|English]]||328 |- |[[Portuguese language|Portuguese]]||250 |- |[[Arabic language|Arabic]]||221 |- |[[Hindi]]|| 182 |- |[[Bengali language|Bengali]]||181 |- |[[Russian language|Russian]]||144 |- |[[Japanese language|Japanese]]||122 |- |[[Javanese language|Javanese]]||84.3 |} ''[[SIL Ethnologue]]'' defines a "living language" as "one that has at least one speaker for whom it is their first language". The exact number of known living languages varies from 6,000 to 7,000, depending on the precision of one's definition of "language", and in particular, on how one defines the distinction between a "language" and a "[[dialect]]". As of 2016, ''Ethnologue'' cataloged 7,097 living human languages.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ethnologue statistics |url=http://www.ethnologue.com/statistics |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160108221353/http://www.ethnologue.com/statistics |archive-date=8 January 2016 |access-date=11 September 2014 |website=Summary by world area {{!}} Ethnologue |publisher=SIL |language=en-US}}</ref> The ''Ethnologue'' establishes linguistic groups based on studies of [[mutual intelligibility]], and therefore often includes more categories than more conservative classifications. For example, the [[Danish language]] that most scholars consider a single language with several dialects is classified as two distinct languages (Danish and [[Jutlandic dialect|Jutish]]) by the ''Ethnologue''.<ref name="Ethnologue">{{Harvcoltxt|Lewis|2009}}</ref> According to the ''Ethnologue'', 389 languages (nearly 6%) have more than a million speakers. These languages together account for 94% of the world's population, whereas 94% of the world's languages account for the remaining 6% of the global population. ===Languages and dialects=== {{main|Dialect#Dialect or language}} There is no [[Language or dialect|clear distinction]] between a language and a [[dialect]], notwithstanding a famous [[aphorism]] attributed to linguist [[Max Weinreich]] that "[[a language is a dialect with an army and navy]]".<ref name="5 minute linguist">{{cite web|last=Rickerson |first=E.M. |title=What's the difference between dialect and language? |url=http://spinner.cofc.edu/linguist/archives/2005/08/whats_the_diffe.html?referrer=webcluster& |work=The Five Minute Linguist |publisher=College of Charleston |access-date=17 July 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101219070627/http://spinner.cofc.edu/linguist/archives/2005/08/whats_the_diffe.html?referrer=webcluster& |archive-date=19 December 2010 }}</ref> For example, national boundaries frequently override linguistic difference in determining whether two linguistic varieties are languages or dialects. [[Hakka Chinese|Hakka]], [[Cantonese]] and [[Mandarin Chinese|Mandarin]] are, for example, often classified as "dialects" of Chinese, even though they are more different from each other than [[Swedish language|Swedish]] is from [[Norwegian language|Norwegian]]. Before the [[Yugoslav civil war|Yugoslav Wars]], [[Serbo-Croatian language|Serbo-Croatian]] was generally considered a single language with two normative variants, but due to sociopolitical reasons, [[Croatian language|Croatian]] and [[Serbian language|Serbian]] are now often treated as separate languages and employ different writing systems. In other words, the distinction may hinge on political considerations as much as on cultural differences as on distinctive [[writing system]]s or the degree of [[mutual intelligibility]].<ref>{{harvcoltxt|Lyons|1981|p=26}}</ref> The latter is, in fact, a rather unreliable criterion to discriminate languages and dialects. [[Pluricentric language|Pluricentric languages]], which are languages with more than one standard variety, are a case in point. [[General American English|Standard American English]] and [[RP English|Standard RP (English) English]], for instance, may in some areas be more different than languages with names, e.g. Swedish and Norwegian. A complex social process of "language making"<ref>{{Cite journal |author=Krämer, Philipp |author2=Vogl, Ulrike |author3=Kolehmainen, Leena |display-authors=etal |date=2022 |title=What is language making? |doi=10.1515/ijsl-2021-0016 |doi-access=free |journal=International Journal of the Sociology of Language |issue=274 |pages=1–27}}</ref> underlies these assignments of status and in some cases even linguistic experts may not agree (e.g. the [[One Standard German Axiom]]). The language making process is dynamic and subject to change over time. ===Language families of the world=== {{main|Language family|Dialectology|Historical linguistics|List of language families}} [[File:Primary Human Language Families Map.png|upright=1.5|thumb|left|Principal language families of the world (and in some cases geographic groups of families). For greater detail, see ''[[:Template:Distribution of languages in the world|Distribution of languages in the world]]''.]] The world's languages can be grouped into [[Language family|language families]] consisting of languages that can be shown to have common ancestry. Linguists recognize many hundreds of language families, although some of them can possibly be grouped into larger units as more evidence becomes available and in-depth studies are carried out. At present, there are also dozens of [[language isolate]]s: languages that cannot be shown to be related to any other languages in the world. Among them are [[Basque language|Basque]], spoken in Europe, [[Zuni language|Zuni]] of [[New Mexico]], [[Purépecha language|Purépecha]] of Mexico, [[Ainu language|Ainu]] of Japan, [[Burushaski language|Burushaski]] of [[Pakistan]], and many others.<ref name="Katzner">{{harvcoltxt|Katzner|1999}}</ref> The language family of the world that has the most speakers is the [[Indo-European languages]], spoken by 46% of the world's population.<ref name="EthnologueFamily">{{Harvcoltxt|Lewis|2009}}, "[http://www.ethnologue.com/statistics/family Summary by language family] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160101054116/http://www.ethnologue.com/statistics/family |date=1 January 2016 }}"</ref> This family includes major world languages like [[English language|English]], [[Spanish language|Spanish]], [[French language|French]], [[German language|German]], [[Russian language|Russian]], and [[Hindustani language|Hindustani]] ([[Hindi]]/[[Urdu]]). The Indo-European family spread first through hypothesized [[Indo-European migrations]] that would have taken place some time in the period {{Circa|8000}}–1500 BCE,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Heggarty |first1=P. |last2=Anderson |first2= C.|last3= Scarborough|first3=M.|last4=King |first4=B.|last5=Bouckaert |first5=R.|last6=Jocz |first6=L.|last7= Kümmel|first7=M.J.|last8= Jügel|first8=T.|last9= Irslinger|first9=B.|last10= Pooth|first10=R.|last11= Liljegren|first11=H |date=28 July 2023|title=Language trees with sampled ancestors support a hybrid model for the origin of Indo-European languages |url= http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-220000|journal= Science|volume= 381|issue= 6656|pages=eabg0818 |doi=10.1126/science.abg0818 |pmid=37499002 |hdl=10234/204329|hdl-access=free}}</ref> and subsequently through much later [[History of colonialism|European colonial expansion]], which brought the Indo-European languages to a politically and often numerically dominant position in the [[Americas]] and much of [[Africa]]. The [[Sino-Tibetan languages]] are spoken by 20%<ref name="EthnologueFamily"/> of the world's population and include many of the languages of East Asia, including Hakka, [[Mandarin Chinese]], [[Cantonese]], and hundreds of smaller languages.<ref name="ComrieOgilvie">{{harvcoltxt|Comrie|2009}}; {{harvcoltxt|Brown|Ogilvie|2008}}</ref> [[Africa]] is home to a large number of language families, the largest of which is the [[Niger–Congo languages|Niger-Congo language family]], which includes such languages as [[Swahili language|Swahili]], [[Shona language|Shona]], and [[Yoruba language|Yoruba]]. Speakers of the Niger-Congo languages account for 6.9% of the world's population.<ref name="EthnologueFamily"/> A similar number of people speak the [[Afroasiatic languages]], which include the populous [[Semitic languages]] such as [[Arabic language|Arabic]], [[Hebrew language]], and the languages of the [[Sahara]] region, such as the [[Berber languages]] and [[Hausa language|Hausa]].<ref name="ComrieOgilvie"/> The [[Austronesian languages]] are spoken by 5.5% of the world's population and stretch from [[Madagascar]] to [[maritime Southeast Asia]] all the way to [[Oceania]].<ref name="EthnologueFamily"/> It includes such languages as [[Malagasy language|Malagasy]], [[Māori language|Māori]], [[Samoan language|Samoan]], and many of the indigenous languages of [[Indonesia]] and [[Formosan languages|Taiwan]]. The Austronesian languages are considered to have originated in Taiwan around 3000 BC and spread through the Oceanic region through island-hopping, based on an advanced nautical technology. Other populous language families are the [[Dravidian languages]] of [[South Asia]] (among them [[Kannada language|Kannada]], [[Tamil language|Tamil]], and [[Telugu language|Telugu]]), the [[Turkic languages]] of Central Asia (such as [[Turkish language|Turkish]]), the [[Austroasiatic languages|Austroasiatic]] (among them [[Khmer language|Khmer]]), and [[Tai–Kadai languages]] of [[Southeast Asia]] (including [[Thai language|Thai]]).<ref name="ComrieOgilvie"/> The areas of the world in which there is the greatest linguistic diversity, such as the Americas, [[Papua New Guinea]], [[West Africa]], and South-Asia, contain hundreds of small language families. These areas together account for the majority of the world's languages, though not the majority of speakers. In the Americas, some of the largest language families include the [[Quechuan languages|Quechua]], [[Arawak languages|Arawak]], and [[Tupi-Guarani languages|Tupi-Guarani]] families of South America, the [[Uto-Aztecan languages|Uto-Aztecan]], [[Oto-Manguean languages|Oto-Manguean]], and [[Mayan languages|Mayan]] of [[Mesoamerica]], and the [[Na-Dene languages|Na-Dene]], [[Iroquoian languages|Iroquoian]], and [[Algonquian languages|Algonquian]] language families of [[North America]]. In Australia, most indigenous languages belong to the [[Pama-Nyungan languages|Pama-Nyungan family]], whereas New Guinea is home to a large number of small families and isolates, as well as a number of Austronesian languages.<ref name="Katzner"/> Due to its remoteness and geographical fragmentation, Papua New Guinea emerges in fact as the leading location worldwide for both species (8% of world total) and linguistic richness – with 830 living tongues (12% of world total).<ref>{{cite news |last1=Briand |first1=Frederic |title=Silent Plains … the Fading Sounds of Native Languages |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/235742552 |work=National Geographic |date=February 2013}}</ref> ===Language endangerment=== {{main|Endangered language|Language loss|Language shift|Language death}} [[File:Linguistic diversity.png|upright=1.5|thumb|{{legend|#ff6666|Together, these eight countries contain more than 50% of the world's languages.}} {{legend|#76b6f7|These areas are the most linguistically diverse in the world, and the locations of most of the world's endangered languages.}}]] [[endangered language|Language endangerment]] occurs when a language is at risk of falling out of use as its speakers die out or [[language shift|shift]] to speaking another language. [[Language loss]] occurs when the language has no more native speakers, and becomes a ''[[dead language]]''. If eventually no one speaks the language at all, it becomes an ''[[extinct language]]''. While languages have always gone extinct throughout human history, they have been disappearing at an accelerated rate in the 20th and 21st centuries due to the processes of [[globalization]] and [[neo-colonialism]], where the economically powerful languages dominate other languages.<ref name="Handbook"/> The more commonly spoken languages dominate the less commonly spoken languages, so the less commonly spoken languages eventually disappear from populations. Of the between 6,000<ref name="Moseley">{{harvcoltxt|Moseley|2010}}: "[http://www.unesco.org/culture/languages-atlas/index.php Statistics] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140812000456/http://www.unesco.org/culture/languages-atlas/index.php |date=12 August 2014 }}"</ref> and 7,000 languages spoken as of 2010, between 50 and 90% of those are expected to have become extinct by the year 2100.<ref name="Handbook">{{harvcoltxt|Austin|Sallabank|2011}}</ref> The [[List of languages by number of native speakers|top 20 languages]], those spoken by more than 50 million speakers each, are spoken by 50% of the world's population, whereas many of the other languages are spoken by smaller communities, most of them with less than 10,000 speakers.<ref name="Handbook"/> [[File:Lang_Status_List.svg|thumb|right|[[UNESCO]]'s five levels of language endangerment]] The [[UNESCO|United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization]] (UNESCO) operates with five levels of language endangerment: "safe", "vulnerable" (not spoken by children outside the home), "definitely endangered" (not spoken by children), "severely endangered" (only spoken by the oldest generations), and "critically endangered" (spoken by a few members of the oldest generation, often [[Speaker types|semi-speakers]]). Despite claims that the world would be better off if most adopted a single common ''[[lingua franca]]'', such as English or [[Esperanto]], there is a consensus that the loss of languages harms the cultural diversity of the world. It is a common belief, going back to the biblical narrative of the [[tower of Babel]] in the [[Old Testament]], that linguistic diversity causes political conflict,<ref name="Haugen">{{harvcoltxt|Haugen|1973}}</ref> but many of the world's major episodes of violence have taken place in situations with low linguistic diversity, such as the [[Yugoslav Wars|Yugoslav]] and [[American Civil War]], or the [[Rwandan genocide|genocide of Rwanda]].<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Austin|Sallabank|2011|pp=10–11}}</ref> Many projects aim to prevent or slow this loss by [[language revitalization|revitalizing]] endangered languages and promoting education and literacy in minority languages. Across the world, many countries have enacted [[Language policy|specific legislation]] to protect and stabilize the language of indigenous [[speech community|speech communities]]. A minority of linguists have argued that language loss is a natural process that should not be counteracted and that documenting endangered languages for posterity is sufficient.<ref>{{harvcoltxt|Ladefoged|1992}}</ref> The [[University of Waikato]] is using the [[Welsh language]] as a model for their [[Māori language]] revitalisation programme, as they deem Welsh to be the world's leading example for the survival of languages.<ref>{{Cite press release |url=https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/ED2111/S00030/university-of-waikato-launches-a-strategic-partnership.htm |title=University of Waikato Launches a Strategic Partnership with Cardiff University in Wales |publisher=University of Waikato |via=Scoop News |date=10 November 2021 |access-date=21 December 2021 |archive-date=24 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211124055642/https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/ED2111/S00030/university-of-waikato-launches-a-strategic-partnership.htm |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url = https://nation.cymru/news/council-investing-6-4m-in-the-future-of-the-welsh-language/ |author = Rhiannon James |title = Council investing £6.4m in the future of the Welsh language |website = Nation Cymru |date = 10 November 2021 |access-date = 21 December 2021 |archive-date = 11 November 2021 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20211111205030/https://nation.cymru/news/council-investing-6-4m-in-the-future-of-the-welsh-language/ |url-status = live }}</ref> In 2019, Hawaiian TV company [[World Indigenous Television Broadcasters Network|Oiwi]] visited a [[Welsh language]] centre in [[Nant Gwrtheyrn]], [[North Wales]], to help find ways of preserving their [[Hawaiian language|Ōlelo Hawaiʻi]] language.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.cambrian-news.co.uk/article.cfm?id=130057&headline=Hawaiian%20TV%20company%20seeks%20help%20to%20promote%20language§ionIs=news&searchyear=2019 |title=Hawaiian TV company seeks help to promote language |work=Cambrian News |date=20 August 2019 |access-date=21 August 2021 |archive-date=5 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211205155429/https://www.cambrian-news.co.uk/article.cfm?id=130057&headline=Hawaiian%20TV%20company%20seeks%20help%20to%20promote%20language§ionIs=news&searchyear=2019 |url-status=live }}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. 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