How many languages are there in the world and what are they?

There are now 5,651 languages identified in the world. Of these languages, more than 1,400 are not yet recognized as separate languages, or are in the process of dying.

There are 10 most spoken languages in the world, and they are, in order: Chinese, English, Russian, Spanish, Hindi, Arabic.

Portuguese, Bengali, German and Japanese.

Chinese is the most populous language spoken in the world, Esperanto.

and English is the most widely spoken language in the world.

The number of speakers of various languages has always been controversial, and there is no definitive answer. Estimating how many speakers of a language is complex, general, and variable. In addition, there is no universally accepted definition of "user".

There is a difference between native and second language speakers, and different calculation methods also have a direct impact on the actual ranking of languages.

At the same time, linguists do not have a consensus on the division between languages and dialects, and the definition of lingua franca. At present, countries and institutions in various countries and countries are generally based on their political and cultural backgrounds.

or prefer to rank languages. However, due to the lack of objectivity and fairness in the ranking method, it cannot be applied to systematic language comparison, so many questions have been raised from all walks of life, and even more stringent thresholds have been requested.

According to statistics, there are currently more than 7,000 languages in the world.

The world's languages are divided into 9 major language families, namely Sino-Tibetan (southeastern Asia), Indo-European (European, Asian, American), Ural (northern Ural Mountains), Altaic (Balkans, north-central Asia, Mongolia, Russian border, China), Semitic-Han (North Africa, West Asia), Caucasian (Caucasus Mountains), Dravidian (southern and southeastern India), Malayo-Polynian (i.e., Austronesian languages, in Southeast Asia and Oceania), Austroasiatic language family (southern Asia).

1. Indo-European languages.

The Indo-European language family is the largest language family in the world.

2. Sino-Tibetan language family.

The Sino-Tibetan language family is the second largest language family after Indo-European languages in China and Southeast Asia, ranking first in the world in terms of the number of speakers, with a population of more than 1.5 billion.

3. Semitic language.

The Semito-Hamitic family is a major language family distributed in North Africa and West Asia.

4. Ural languages.

The Ural language family is a family of languages that spread from Scandinavia eastward through the Ural Mountains to northwestern Asia.

5. Altaic language family.

The Altaic language family is spoken by a population of about 100 million people, and the language family is mainly concentrated in the border zone of humid and semi-humid cold temperate coniferous forests and steppes in Central, Northern, West Asia, East Asia and Europe.

6. Eskimo-Aleutian language.

The Eskimo Aleutian language family is a language family located in Alaska, northern Canada, Nunavik, Nunavut, Greenland, and the Chukotka Peninsula in eastern Siberia. The language family is divided into two parts, the Eskimo and the Aleutian languages.

7. African languages.

1) Nigerian-Congolese language family.

2) Koysan language family.

3) Nilo-Saharan languages.

8. Malayo-Polynesian language family.

The main languages are: Malagasian, Indonesian, Malay, Tagalog (Filipino), Alpine, Hawaiian, Maori (New Zealand) and Micronesian, Melanesian, Polynesian and other languages on the Pacific Islands.

9. Other languages.

There are also language families such as the Micronesian and Dravida languages in Oceania, as well as some Indian languages. There are some languages in the world that, in terms of genealogy, do not belong to any language family, such as Japanese, Sumerian, Basque, Ainu, Ryukyuan, Brushasky, etc.

Experts estimate 4,000-8,000. The Handbook on Linguistics and Communicative Tools, published in Germany, provides a more specific figure: 5,561.

But this is only the existing language, and there are many languages that have disappeared from the world. For example, the famous Goths and Mayans, as well as Hittite, Luvia, Dalmatian, Sumer, and so on. Taking the Chinese language as an example, 17 of the 57 scripts of various ethnic groups have died out, and their ethnic groups are Turkic, Hui, Chagatai, Khotanese, Yanqi, Sogdian, Basipa, Khitan characters, Khitan characters, Tangut characters, Jurchens, Dongba pictorial characters, Sabah pictorial characters, Dongba hieroglyphs, Koba scripts, Shui scripts, and Tocharian scripts.

At least 12 of the 80 languages spoken by the various ethnic groups in China have died out: Khotanese, Sogdian, Tocharian, Koba, Tangut, Dongba, Khitan, Jurchen, Khotanese, Basipa, Chagatai, and Orkhon Yenisei.

What is dead is difficult to resurrect, but what is the existing? According to the "Zhong Zhaoqin on the Encyclopedia of the National University", there are more than 60 languages and 40 scripts of various ethnic groups in China, and most of them are on the eve of extinction. Quite simply, fewer and fewer people speak these languages, only 6,000 in Menba, 5,000 in Beijing, 5,000 in Baoan, 4,000 in Oroqen, and 1,000 in Hezhe.

These figures were published in the 80s, and how many people still speak these languages today? In the Forbidden City, the hanging gold plaques are written in Manchu, but except for a few experts, no one knows them. Shouwan, a once-prosperous royal family, has all spoken Chinese.

According to the Encyclopedia of China, only "there are still a few old Manchu people in rural areas in Aihui and Fufu counties who can speak Manchu", but the book was compiled in 1980, and 15 years later, are these old people still alive?

Of the 5,561 languages, many are in danger of extinction. For example, several small countries in Northern Europe, although they have their own mother tongue, but English has been as popular as Mandarin in China, and in the long run, with the frequent international exchanges, English will be used more and more, but the mother tongue is used less and less, and after a few generations, it is inevitable that the fate of Manchu will be the same.

Every language not only has its own beauty, but also a record of its own history and culture, once it disappears, it will be completely annihilated. The Mayan script was used for 1,500 years, and in the 16th century, it was "destroyed and forgotten due to the Spanish invasion", so the inscriptions on the Mayan stone pillars became unreadable heavenly books. China's Tangut script, which was still in use in the 13th century, has now become a "dead script", and various ancient inscriptions cannot be deciphered.

This is not only a misfortune for language and writing, but also a pity for human culture.

There are more than 6,000 languages in the world, with 2,769 scripts. There are more than 6,000 languages spoken around the world, but not many are vibrant. According to UNESCO, a language disappears every two weeks around the world.

The French Academy of Social Sciences estimates that there are 2,769 scripts in the world, while the International Association of Auxiliary Languages puts 2,500-3,500 scripts in the world. There are only a handful of languages with global influence, only a few in English, Chinese, Spanish, French, Arabic, and Russian. Chinese Native LanguageAs the world's most spoken mother tongue, Chinese has nearly 1.3 billion speakers, which is more than the number of native speakers of Spanish, English and Arabic combined.

On the one hand, this is due to the large Chinese population in the world, and in addition to China, many countries in Southeast Asia have many Chinese. On the other hand, it is also because the language of the Chinese people is more consistent. In India, which is also a country with a large population, the language is much more complex.