Did you know... more than 2700 languages are spoken in the world!!!

Speak and be Heard - There are over 2700 languages spoken around the world.
@ahgong (10064)
Singapore
August 19, 2008 1:16am CST
There are more than 2,700 languages spoken in the world. With more than 7,000 dialects. In Indonesia alone, 365 different languages are spoken while more than 1,000 different languages are spoken in Africa. The most difficult to learn is the Basque which is spoken in North-wester Spain and south-western France. It is not related to any other language in the world! Mandarin is the most spoken language in the world, followed by English. But as a home language, Spanish is the second most spoken in the world. The youngest language is the Afrikaans, spoken by South Africans. Dutch and German Protestants fled persecution from the Roman Catholic Church in the 17th and 18th century to settle in the Dutch colony of Cape of Good Hope on the southern point of Africa. By the early-20th century, Afrikaans had developed from Dutch, German and other influences into a fully fledged language with its own dictionaries. After a mere 100 years, it is the second most spoken language in South Africa (Zulu being the most spoken, the Zulu people being the largest ethnic group there). New languages develop as different cultures meet and mix. For instance, about 700 different languages are spoken in London. In some suburbs of London, English is now a second language. The same is happening - or has taken place - in cities such as New York, Los Angeles, Miami and Singapore. Already the internet and mobile texting are influencing the development of languages as people communicate freely across cultural and regional borders. The smallest country in the world is the Vatican. It is also the only country in the world where Latin is the official language. Somalia is the only country in the world where all the citizens speak one language, Somali. The Berbers of North Africa have no written form of their language. Amazing... isn't it?
5 people like this
7 responses
• United States
19 Aug 08
That does not seem to shock me. My friends and I speak Geek, Nerd and Klingon.
1 person likes this
• United States
19 Aug 08
I wish.
1 person likes this
@ahgong (10064)
• Singapore
19 Aug 08
Ha ha ha ha ha... vegegirl, I do not thing programming language is part of the 2,700 languages indicated here. Wow, rogue13xmen13, I am amazed! You are true star trek fan. You actually can speak klingon? Where did you go to learn that language? I heard of hardcore starwars fans speaking jabba as well. Do you know how to speak jabba too?
1 person likes this
@vegegirl (828)
• Australia
19 Aug 08
Can you speak Pascal and Javascript?
2 people like this
@kun2349 (23381)
• Singapore
22 Aug 08
Somali is familiar.. lol =D yeah, rioght now in the world, both chinese and english are widely used, and they are difintely many other languages which we have not heard off even though they may sound familiar.. All i can say, is that it's always good to learn a few more languages for one's usage and knowledge for we might need to use it one day ^_^
@ahgong (10064)
• Singapore
26 Aug 08
True true true. You brought up a valid point there. Depending on our lifestyle, sometimes it is better to learn a few different dialects would be more useful than a different language. Cos unless you are going to use it, most of the time, you will forget after long periods of non usage.
1 person likes this
@kun2349 (23381)
• Singapore
26 Aug 08
Yeah.. UNless one is gonna specialise in that particular language, if not, most of the time it will be wasted away.. haha
@34momma (13882)
• United States
19 Aug 08
ok now this is the most interesting post of all of them. i tell you if you go looking you can really find some great information you just didn't know. thanks for taking the time and sharing this with the mylot world.
@ahgong (10064)
• Singapore
20 Aug 08
No problem my friend momma. Sharing information is what the internet is for. And joining forums to share it is also one of those purpose. I am glad that you can benefit from my posting.
@vegegirl (828)
• Australia
19 Aug 08
Thanks for this information ahgong - so many languages and a third of them in the one country, do you think that is because there are a lot of tribes there? I've learnt a few mandarin words, but look how much else I will have to learn before I could possibly communicate with everybody in the world!
@ahgong (10064)
• Singapore
19 Aug 08
That is why a common language is important when we want to communicate with each other. I am not surprise if most of the 2,700 languages consisted of tribal languages. There are so many in Africa alone. Not to mention Indonesia. Even in China alone, just moving from province to province, the dialects alone would take a life time to learn and master all of them.
@LimoChang (193)
• China
19 Aug 08
Yes,quite amazing.But that's only what we know now,there must be more unrevealed.
1 person likes this
@ahgong (10064)
• Singapore
19 Aug 08
What do you mean? More unrevealed? As in more spoken languages that are now made known yet? Well, I am not the lease bit surprise if it is the case. The world is so wide and big. How could it be possible to record every single language spoken. Even with the living things that are living on this planet. New species are still being discovered today. What is to say there are no new languages being spoken that are still undiscovered?
@nizhama2 (295)
• Malaysia
19 Aug 08
I'm myself speak four languages. I speak Malay language very well, Arabic language quite well, English language not to well, and I speak one of the 'small language, Champa. I was born in Vietnam from a minority tribe Champa. Our language is different from Vietnam language. I think just about 5 millions people speaking in this language. Champa language related to Malay language, but there are too much different between both languages. Lots of Champa people now living at Cambodia and Vietnam, and others became immigrant like my family who live in Malaysia. Our problem is our next generation don't want to speak Champa anymore. I'm myself just speak Champa with my parent. I even cannot speak it with my siblings...
1 person likes this
• United States
19 Aug 08
There are so many amazing things about the world. It's hard to believe that there is so many languages out there.
1 person likes this
@ahgong (10064)
• Singapore
19 Aug 08
Yeah, I too was amazed when I read that little nugget of info. 2,700 languages in all. And 7,000 dialects too! Amazing is it not? I wonder if the languages are similar in structure in terms of grammar or not.