How many languages are there in the world? What languages are there in the world and how many people speak them Mass languages

Countries are increasingly communicating with each other, establishing economic, general political and cultural relations. Building a dialogue between people from different countries, understanding between them is more important than ever. This will be needed when traveling, starting a business, resolving issues at the state level. The material presents the TOP of the most popular languages in the world.

The common dialect of the world is spoken by 1/7 of the citizens of the entire Earth. It's not English, as many might think. In total, there are over seven thousand types of speech. Ten of them are in the TOP of the most popular languages in the world.

Foreign speech for other people is always interesting, attractive. I would like to study the mentality and linguistic features of other nationalities. It is precisely how many people use this or that speech that has become decisive in compiling the ranking of the “most popular languages”.

There are more than seven thousand types of speech in total.

French

More than 150 million citizens communicate on it. It is used by 53 states, the main of which is France. The use of a popular dialect is formally enshrined in interethnic associations - the European Union, the UN, etc.

French is called the syllable of love. It is among the Romanesque group, established as native in 29 states, mainly in Canada, Belgium, Monaco. It is also used and in demand in a number of African countries, former colonies.

He attracts people with his beauty, good style. Many begin to learn it, since French is popular in Europe, it will come in handy for work or travel. Speech is not too difficult to learn, experts agree that it stands between German and Spanish.

Indonesian

The ranking of the most popular languages in the world by the number of their speakers includes Indonesian. It is used when communicating in 16 countries of the world, among them - Indonesia, which has over 13,000 islands. Speech appeared in the ⅩⅩ century by changing Malay.

Portuguese

It is used by 240 million people living in 12 countries. It is the native dialect of Brazil. In the Ⅻ century, the Portuguese state gained independence and founded its settlements in Angola, Venezuela, Macau, Mozambique.

The popular means of communication is compared in complexity with French, Italian and Spanish, since it is included together with them in the same Romanesque group. Portuguese is considered one of the registered dialects in the European Union.

Portuguese is spoken by 240 million people

Bengal

Its carriers are considered to be 250,000,000 inhabitants of the world. It is spoken in Bangladesh and several Indian states. The words are spelled almost the way they are pronounced. The writing is based on Sanskrit, always taking into account the fusion of sounds and innovations that are introduced over time.

Bengali has been around for at least 1000 years. This is indicated by the finds of the most ancient literary monuments, the information of linguistic reconstruction.

Russian

About 260 million people know him. In 17 countries of the world it is registered as the main one - Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan. Estonia, Latvia, Ukraine also use it.

Russian is one of the 6 main dialects of the UN. It is in the TOP and leads the list of the most popular European languages. The speech became the first among the Slavic varieties.

Arab

It is used by over 267 million people in 58 countries of the world. The vast majority of citizens live in Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, and Egypt. Arabic is popular due to the Muslim book of the Quran. It has been the sixth UN language since 1974.

Arabic is spoken by more than 267 million people in 58 countries of the world

Spanish

Its carriers number 427 million. It is registered in 31 countries as the main means of communication. It was formed in Spain in the Middle Ages and became popular during the period of the Great Geographical Discoveries. Spanish is a registered dialect of the United Nations, the European Union, the Union of South American Nations.

Hindi

490 million citizens of Indian territory, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal communicate on it. Some believe that it will soon surpass Chinese, and it will be owned by the majority of the world's inhabitants by 2050.

In terms of everyday slang, Hindi is similar to the registered Indian dialect Urdu. But the latter is characterized by many Arabic and Persian borrowings and the use of the Arabic alphabet. The traditional script for Hindi is the Devanagari syllabary.

Hindi is spoken by 490 million citizens

English

Approximately 600 million citizens use it. This dialect is the most popular in terms of the number of states in the world using it. It is owned in 106 countries, including England, USA, Canada, Australia.

English is recognized as one of the easiest to learn around the world. But it contains some difficulties. The popular dialect is widely used in many areas - trade, science, culture, business, art.

Chinese

Chinese is one of the most popular languages around the world. 1.3 billion people became the owners of knowledge. It is the local language of China, Singapore and Taiwan. Chinese is recognized as the most difficult to learn due to the fact that over 3000 characters are used in it. They are harder to write than Japanese and Korean.

1.3 billion people speak Chinese

The use of tones becomes difficult when learning. After the Chinese transformations in the 20th century, writing hieroglyphs became easier.

The most popular language on the Internet

W3Teachs, a research and statistics agency, systematically monitors 10 million websites worldwide and provides a wealth of information.

Among the indicators, the language of the content on the page stands out. Not surprisingly, more than half of the world's websites - 52% - provide information in English. Then the statistics were astonishing. The next place is German - 6.3%, the third - Russian - 6.2. Then in the list of the most popular languages on the Internet are:

Spanish - 5.1%;
French - 4.1%;
Japanese - 4.0%;
Portuguese - 2.8%;
Italian - 2.5%.

About 1% of the websites of the world are created in the Czech dialect. Russian recently stood at the very top of ten million pages, but since February 2018 it has become less common.

More than half of the world's websites provide information in English

Conclusion

Each syllable is attractive in its own way. It is a reflection of the culture of the people, conveys its style, mentality. Linguists claim that there are about 7,000 languages on the planet.

Language is perhaps the most important function human body- it allows us to get food as a child, it allows us to get almost anything we want as adults, and it also gives us many hours of entertainment through literature, radio, music, and films. This list (in order from least common) summarizes the most important languages in use today.

10. French

Number of speakers: 129 million

Often referred to as the most romantic language in the world, French is spoken in many countries including Belgium, Canada, Rwanda, Cameroon and Haiti. Oh yes, and in France too. We're actually very lucky that French is so popular, because without it, we'd be at a dead end with Dutch Toast, Dutch French Fries and Dutch Kissing (fu!).

To say "hello" in French, say "Bonjour" (bon-JUR).

9. Malay-Indonesian language

Number of speakers: 159 million

Malayo-Indonesian is spoken - surprise - in Malaysia and Indonesia. In fact, we will deviate from the quantity because there are many Malay dialects, the most popular of which is Indonesian. But they are all largely based on the same root language, making it the ninth most spoken language in the world.

Indonesia is a charming place; The nation consists of more than 13,000 islands, it is the sixth most populous country in the world. Malaysia is bordered by two large areas of Indonesia (including the island of Borneo), and is mainly known for its capital Kuala Lumpur.

To say “hello” in Indonesian, say “Selamat pagi” (se-la-macht pa-gi).

8. Portuguese

Number of speakers: 191 million

Think of Portuguese as a small language. In the 12th century, Portugal gained independence from Spain and expanded throughout the world with the help of its famous explorers such as Vasco da Gama and Prince Henry the Navigator. (It's good that Henry became a navigator... could you imagine if a guy named "Prince Henry the Navigator" became a florist?) is the national language), Macau, Angola, Venezuela, and Mozambique.

To say "hello" in Portuguese, let's say "Bom dia" (Bom DI-a).

7. Bengali language

Number of speakers: 211 million

In Bangladesh, a country of over 120 million people, Bengali is spoken by just about everyone. And because Bangladesh is actually surrounded by India (where the population is growing so fast that it feels like breathing the air you can get pregnant), the number of Bengali speakers in the world is much higher than most people would expect.

To say "hello" in Bengali, say "Ei Je" (Ai-jay).

6. Arabic language

Number of speakers: 246 million

Arabic, one of the oldest languages in the world, is spoken in the Middle East, with speakers found in countries such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, and Egypt. Also, because Arabic is the language of the Quran, millions of Muslims in other countries also speak Arabic. So many people have a working knowledge of Arabic, in fact, which made it the sixth official language of the United Nations in 1974.

To say “hello” in Arabic, say “Al salaam a’alaykum” (Al sa-LAM a a-LEY-kum).

5. Russian language

Number of speakers: 277 million

Mikhail Gorbachev, Boris Yeltsin, and Yakov Smirnov are among the millions of Russian speakers. Of course, we used to think of them as our communist enemies. Now we think of them as our communist friends. One of the six languages at the UN, Russian is spoken not only in his homeland, but also in Belarus, Kazakhstan and the USA (we name a few places).

To say "hello" in Russian, say "Hello" (Hello).

4. Spanish

Number of speakers: 392 million

Except for all those children who study it in high school, Spanish is spoken in just about every South American and Central American country, not to mention Spain, Cuba and the United States. There is a particular interest in the Spanish language in the United States, since many English words borrowed from their language, including: tornado, bonanza, patio, quesadilla, enchilada, and taco grande supreme.

To say "hello" in Spanish, say "Hola" (OH-LA).

3. Hindustani

Number of speakers: 497 million

Hindustani is the main language of overpopulated India, and it includes a huge number of dialects (of which Hindi is the most widely spoken). While many predict that India's population will soon surpass China's, the acceptance of English in India prevents Hindustani from being recognized as the world's most spoken language. If you're interested in getting a little Hindi, there's a very easy way: Rent an Indian movie. The film industry in India is the most prosperous in the world, producing thousands of action/romance/musicals every year.

To say "hello" in Hindustani, say "Namaste" (Na-ma-ste).

2. English

Number of speakers: 508 million

While English does not have the most speakers, it is the official language of more countries than any other language. It is spoken all over the world, including New Zealand, USA, Australia, England, Zimbabwe, Caribbean Sea, Hong Kong, South Africa and Canada. We would tell you more about English, but you are probably already quite comfortable in this language. Let us just go on and on about the most popular languages in the world.

Today there are a huge number of language schools offering English courses in Moscow. The courses are taught according to the latest educational methods. You study in English, without using Russian. All new words and concepts are explained by already familiar words, gestures, pictures - this makes the learning process much more interesting and interactive, and if learning is interesting, then the results will be better! All new constructions and words after studying are immediately fixed in practice, when working in pairs and mini groups. Thus, learning English in courses is not limited to getting acquainted with grammar and memorizing new words: you learn exactly how to communicate.

1. Mandarin Chinese

Number of speakers: more than 1 billion

Surprise, surprise, the most widely spoken language on the planet is in the most populated country on the planet. Second-placed English has a 2-to-1 ratio of speakers, but that shouldn't make you think that Chinese is easy to learn. Conversational Mandarin can be very tough because each word can be pronounced in four directions (or “tones”), and beginners are bound to have trouble distinguishing one tone from another. But if over a billion people could do it, you could too. Try to say hi!

To say “hello” in Chinese, say “Ni hao” (Ni Hao). (“Hao” is pronounced as one syllable, but the tone requires your voice to drop halfway and then rise again at the end.)

MBOU "GYMNASIUM No. 11 in Yelets"

PROJECT WORK

« LINGUISTIC GEOGRAPHY. HOW MANY LANGUAGES IN THE WORLD»

PERFORMED BY A STUDENT OF 4 "B" CLASS

WOOL ILYA

SCIENTIFIC ADVISER

Persianova E.A.

2016

Linguistic geography. How many languages in the world.

Relevance of the topic:

More than 7 billion people live on our planet Earth. We all speak different languages. And how many of them? What features do they have? What interesting things can be learned by studying languages? Which languages should be learned first and why?

Target: explore the diversity of languages in the world

Tasks:

Study the literature on the topic.

Find out how many languages there are in the world.

Find out the most numerous language groups.

Object of study : language

Item: variety of languages

Research methods:

Analysis and generalization of literature;

comparative study;

Analysis and synthesis of materials from different sources on the research topic.

1. Definition of "language" / The content of the concept of "language"

Language - a complex sign system, naturally / artificially created by man, and correlating the conceptual content and typical sound (writing). (Wikipedia)

Language - speech, the ability to speak (Ozhegov S.I.)

Language is the ability to speak, verbally expressing one's thoughts. Language-system signs that convey information (Efremova T.F.)

learns languages linguistics (linguistics) . The main object of study of this science is the natural language of mankind. Sign systems - the subject of studysemiotics .

Languages can be divided into:

human languages (subject of study of linguistics):

ethnic languages, then serving (or serving) primarily as a means of communication between representatives of a particular ethnic group;

artificial languages

deaf sign languages

computer languages (for example, Algol, SQL);

animal languages.

2. Classification of languages

Language classification - structuring of various languages of the world according to several principles - genealogical, geographical, sociolinguistic or otherwise.

The most common and widely known is the genealogical classification, which is based on the concept/principle of linguistic kinship. This classification groups languages into families.

The most common next hierarchy: dialect – language –– subgroup - group family is a macrofamily.

language family - this is a set of groups (branches) of languages, the similarity of which is explained by the common origin. Indo-European family of languages. Finno-Ugric (Ugric-Finnish) family of languages. Turkic family of languages. Semitic family of languages.

Indo-European languages is the most widespread language family in the world. Present on all inhabited continents of the Earth, the number of carriers exceeds 2.5 billion.

The Indo-European family includes Albanian, Armenian, and Slavic, Baltic, Germanic, Celtic, Italic, Romance,

Illyrian, Greek, Anatolian (Hittoluwian), Iranian, Dardic,

Indo-Aryan, Nuristani and Tocharian language groups.

Typological principle

These include, first of all, classifications that involve the unification of languages into certain groups based on similarities and differences in their grammatical structure.

Geographic principle

Languages can also be classified according to geographical principle - by continents or continents. For example, Caucasian or African languages,

3. How many languages are there in the world?

There are several thousand languages in the world. The best-known reference books include only modern (i.e., living and recently extinct) languages. According toethnologist those 6910, and according to Registry of Linguosphere (English) - 4994. Most of them are combined into families, some languages \u200b\u200bare considered isolated (that is, they represent monolingual families) or remain unclassified.

"Ethnologist: Languages of the World" - the most famous reference book on the languages of the world

About 2/3 of the world's population speaks the 40 most common languages. Most people speak Chinese, Hindi, English, Spanish, Arabic, Russian and Portuguese. French is also widely spoken, but the number of those who consider it their native (first) is relatively small.

There are currently just over 400 languages that are considered endangered.

One of the reasons for the death of languages is their uneven distribution by the number of speakers. The main reasons for the process of disappearance of languages are considered to be globalization and migration. People leave villages for cities and lose the language of their people.

About half of the currently existing languages will be out of use by the middle of the 21st century. Many languages are disappearing due to the fact that their speakers come into contact with a stronger language environment, therefore, the languages of small nationalities and the languages of peoples that do not have statehood are in danger of disappearing in the first place. If less than 70% of children learn a language, it is considered endangered. According to the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger, approximately 50 languages are currently threatened with extinction in Europe.

Many less common ones gradually become dead, that is, no one speaks on them anymore. This happens for several reasons, including the replacement of other languages, or the extinction and mixing of the native people. This trend is seen across the board:

in North America, many indigenous languages are on the verge of extinction;

on the African continent there are tribal languages spoken by only a few hundred, and sometimes even tens of people;

in the territory of Russia, only in the last 100 years, several languages have disappeared, including Kerek in Kamchatka, as well as Sim in the Yenisei.

The most persistent languages of Europe - the countries of Europe are developed, and many people live in them.

If we consider the distribution of various languages at the state level, then the following picture is revealed:

English is the official language in 80 countries around the world.

Spanish is widely spoken at the state level in 58 countries.

French is considered the national language in more than 30 countries around the world, including it is the official language in two US states.

Arabic is the official language in 26 countries.

Russian is the state language in Russia, Belarus, South Ossetia, it is used in public institutions Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan, Abkhazia, in some regions of Ukraine, Romania and Moldova.

In general, 95 languages are considered official state languages on our planet. It's funny what Latin language, which has long been considered dead, is also on this list, as it is the official language of the Vatican.

There are about six thousand languages in the world, which, however, can be grouped into a relatively small number of language families.

4. Interesting facts.

In the history of European civilization, several languages in the world at different times occupied the position of an interethnic means of communication - the lingua franca.

During the time of the Roman Empire, Koine, a common Greek language, became such a "lingua franca" for the eastern Mediterranean and the ancient Near East. Subsequently, for more than 1000 years, first in the Mediterranean countries, and then throughout Catholic Europe, Latin was used as the lingua franca. In the 18th-19th centuries, French became the medium of international communication. Since the end of the twentieth century, the English language has become a means of interethnic communication throughout the world, undoubtedly due to the leading position in the world of the English-speaking superpower - the United States. Dead languages In linguistics there is such a thing as a "dead language". This is one that is no longer spoken, and is known only through written monuments. In some cases, dead languages live on because they are used for scientific or religious purposes. And how many languages are there in the world? These include Latin, from which the Romance languages subsequently developed; Old Russian, which became the basis for the East Slavic languages, and Ancient Greek.

There is one unique case of the resurrection of a dead language. After the Second World War, when the State of Israel was established, Hebrew, which had not been spoken for 18 centuries, was revived as the official language of this country.

An interesting phenomenon in the world of languages is artificial dialects. How many languages are there in this type of world? The most famous are 16, and the most popular of them is Esperanto, created in 1887 by Ludwig Zamenhof.

Interesting research results have been published by British scientists. After researching many languages of the world, they came to the conclusion that the most polite of them is the language of the Inuit Eskimos from Greenland. In it, not only is there not a single abusive word, but you will not even meet an offensive one.

10 most popular languages in the world

1. English,

2. Spanish

3. Chinese.

4. Russian

5. Arabic.

6. French

7. Portuguese

8. Japanese.

9. Turkish.

10. German.

Rating: 10 most difficult languages

1. Chinese. This language made the list for many reasons. For example, the hieroglyphs used in writing are very complex and ancient.

2. Arabic. The first difficulty is in writing. Many letters have four different spellings, depending on their position in the word.

3. Tuyuka is the language of the eastern Amazon. Its sound system is not overly complex: simple consonants and a few nasal vowels.

4. Hungarian. First, there are 35 cases or noun forms in Hungarian.

5. Japanese. It is difficult primarily because the letter is different from the pronunciation.

6. Navajo. This amazing language also claims a place in the list of the most difficult languages. During World War II, this language was used as a code for sending messages over the radio (radio operators were bilingual Navajo speakers).

7. Estonian. Estonian has a very rigid case system. Estonian has 12 cases.

8. Basque is also in the top ten the most difficult languages according to the British Foreign Office. It has 24 cases.

9. Polish. The language has 7 cases, and its grammar has more exceptions than rules. For example, there are 4 cases in German and they are all logical.

10. Icelandic very difficult to learn due to its archaic vocabulary and complex grammar.

The rarest foreign languages in the world: TOP 10

Universal Popular Science Online Encyclopedia

2. Ozhegov S.I. Explanatory dictionary of the Russian language. 28 edition, revised: Peace and education - 2012.

Modern linguist researchers are asked from time to time: “?”, fortunately, they have an answer ready: Three to six thousand. The substantial numerical discrepancy is due to the fact that scientists are based on different scientific and cultural traditions.

For some linguists, it is customary to include adverbs and dialects in the number of languages. Others consider a language to be a complete system of written characters and lexical devices that is used by only one group of people.

In addition, philologists are puzzled by languages that do not have a written language. Not all scientists are ready to see them as an accounting unit, but only in the countries of North and South America there are more than 700 of them!

With dialects, too, not everything is simple, for example, in Chinese there are dozens of dialects (dialects), and in each dialect there are several more dialects. The seven main dialects of Chinese are so dissimilar that most linguists consider them to be closely related languages, and residents of different cities in China do not always manage to communicate with each other.

Chinese is the most widely spoken language on earth 1 billion 113 million people know him!

How many official languages are there in the world?

According to Wikipedia, in so many countries the official language is:

English - 86;
French - 26;
Arabic - 24.

Latin, considered "dead" since the 6th century. n. e.,

still alive as the official language of the Vatican State!

Vatican ATM menu in Latin

It is interesting to look at the subject from this side. It is clear that the more countries use the same language, the stronger its claims to be the dominant or mandatory language.

However, there are also directly opposite situations - when in one country the number of language forms is more than one hundred.

The most multilingual is India, there are countless languages in it, like the hands of the god Shiva. According to information collected in 1931, 203 full-fledged languages were counted. According to the data of 1951, in which they also decided to take into account dialects, there were over 700 of them. Officially, there are 14 languages in India, each of which is spoken by about 10 million citizens.

The African continent has an innumerable number of ethnic groups with their own languages, dialects and dialects. In western Africa alone, there are 126 base languages from which hundreds of dialects grow. There are more than 1,000 language forms throughout the continent.

Modern Vietnam is inhabited by about 70 nationalities with their own dialects and dialects.

The Philippines is inhabited by approximately 40 ethnic speakers of 17 basic languages and their dialects, modified beyond recognition.

New York is considered the most multilingual city - as many as 75 languages can be heard in it!

Is the number of world languages growing or decreasing?

Decreases.

All researchers are constantly faced with the extinction of languages for the following reasons:

substitution by another language;
complete disappearance or mixing of a native speaker with another nationality.

These reasons are common in all countries without exception:

since the beginning of the 20th century in North America, the vast majority of indigenous languages have come close to extinction;
in Africa, due to difficult economic conditions and epidemics, speakers of dialects, and sometimes full-fledged languages, die;
in Russia over the past 20th century, only 2 languages \u200b\u200bhave disappeared - Kerek (Kamchatka Island) and Sym (on the Yenisei).

The facts of the "death" of the language that followed the death of their only carrier are known.

So, on January 26, 2010, the last person who spoke Aka-Bo, one of the oldest languages in the world, died.

On February 23, 1998, Fidela Bernat died, for whom the Ronkal dialect of the Basque language was native.

Every year 30-50 languages cease to exist on Earth!

There may be more grief over the loss of languages than over the extinction of dinosaurs. Let us draw an analogy between the evolution of animals and the development of linguistic forms. In a linguistic, as in an animal environment, the strongest wins! But the course of evolution was aimed at species diversity, and globalization modern society- to exterminate underused languages, in the 21st century the rate of their death has become a record - 1 every 14 days!

The death of dinosaurs was followed by the emergence of a huge number of new mammals. Coming to replace many languages of one is comparable to the survival of a single species - man. Maybe he is the crown of creation, and Chinese or English are not the worst languages, but ...

Revival of "dead" languages

In contrast to dying, there is a return to life of languages that have not been used as spoken or written for a long time.

The revival of the language can take place in two forms:

restoration of a language or dialect that did not have a single carrier left with their subsequent transformation into colloquial forms for a certain group of people;
stopping the process of dying of a disappearing language is achieved by a conscious increase in the number of speakers to a number that can ensure its further spread.

High results are achieved when such an initiative of a group of enthusiasts is supported by the state - the "resurrected" language is proclaimed official, it is taught in schools and universities.

The most famous and successful example of the development of the first type is the revival of Hebrew as state language Israel. For almost two thousand years, Hebrew was preserved only as a literary language.

I would like not only scientists to strive to preserve the quantitative diversity of languages, but also the direct owners of the lexical richness of each of them!

Dear reader, it is quite easy for you to guess what the answer to this question is.

extremely difficult, because first you need to define what a language is. And there would be no difficulties if the whole world were clearly divided into languages known to all: French , German , Japanese and so on. But the trouble is that there are countries where languages exist only in the form of oral speech, and do not have the status of an official language. Someone once remarked: "A language is a dialect that has an army." Indeed, in modern world only the sovereignty of the state can give oral speech official language status. So, language it is: "a form of speech that is very different from others (otherwise we are dealing with dialects), incomprehensible, or only partially understandable to other speakers without special study". With this wording, we avoid unnecessary political confusion.

“How many languages in the world?” you ask, reader. The answer may surprise you. According to various sources, the number of languages in the world is from 4000 to 6000 . Even with a rough estimate, the number of very large. However, one should not discard the fact that languages differ in the number of speakers. If we look at the use of languages like English And Spanish, then we will see what they say hundreds of millions of people Worldwide. But there are also small languages that are spoken by everyone several thousand or even hundreds of people. And even this is not the “limit”: there are languages spoken by only a couple of dozen people, and such languages tend to die out, disappearing forever with the last speaker. Keep this data in mind while reading this article. Let's look at other numbers. exists 1000 to 1900 languages. There are more than 400 of them in Nigeria alone. Both Americas, from the north of Canada to the edge of South America, contain about 900 languages. And among this number - mostly Indian languages. The largest number Native American speakers live in Central and South America. There are about 240 languages in Mexico, and more than 200 in Brazil. If we look at other countries, we will see that, for example, Papua New Guinea has at least 850 within state borders, in Indonesia - 670, in India - 380, in Australia 250. There are 13 more countries, each of which speaks 100 languages.

By the way, all 6000 languages are not the “World Babylonian pandemonium”, where chaos reigns. Most of these languages are related to each other. There are numerous classifications of the languages of the world according to several language families. For example, the Russian language refers to Indo-European family of languages. The establishment of family ties between languages is somewhat reminiscent of the biological classification of species into genera, families, more broadly - classes, types, and so on.

Can you imagine such number of languages in the world?! Attention must be paid to the fact that literally thousands of - mostly small - languages around the world "survive" due to the fact that they exist in remote areas where there is practically no contact with the outside world, except for the media and the education system. Many of these languages you have never heard of.

State borders and boundaries of languages often do not match at all. Let's take a last look at the startling numbers. In what countries, then, are the most widely spoken languages used as official languages? English language is an official language (but this does not mean the only one in the country) in at least 45 countries, French - in 30, Spanish - in 20, Arabic - in 20. Since there are officially 170 sovereign states in the world, it turns out that more than two-thirds of them speak these languages.

The amazing diversity of languages in the world reminiscent of the biological diversity of flora and fauna. But languages are disappearing at a much more alarming rate than species. Wherever minor languages are left without the support of the state and its media, the education system, they are “absorbed” by more common languages, most often for the simple reason that only the dominant language finds practical use in everyday life. This is what happened to Gaelic in Ireland, which is heavily influenced by English, and Breton in France, which was "absorbed" by French. In other words: these languages evolved because of their isolation.

Forecasts show that by the end of this century, 50% to 90% of living languages may disappear from the face of the earth. To do this, just look at the atlas of endangered languages of the world, prepared by UNESCO. We need to seriously think about the threat of shrinking linguistic diversity.

http://www.unesco.org/culture/languages-atlas/

How many languages ​​are there in the world? What languages ​​are there in the world and how many people speak them Mass languages