2006-06-19 02:28:20 · 11 answers · asked by imagurran 1 in Society & Culture ➔ Languages
That is a great question. There is no way to determine any specific answers. Dialects especially are determined by so many factors. Look around you even in the United States. Even in one city or town, people have unique ways of expressing themselves. Then take us from very young to very old age. We sure talk differently among our friends, family, in more formal situations, in school or work settings, and so forth. So there are almost as many dialects as there are human beings.
As for languages, the best we can do is approximate. Better would be for us to appreciate what is universal. People are pretty much the same everything. A smile is universal, for example. So language is not automatically what is spoken or written.
2006-06-19 02:33:36 · answer #1 · answered by Dawk 7 · 36⤊ 1⤋
The numbers vary in scientific counts from 3000 to 8000. Most linguists use 6000 as a good number for how many languages there are in the world. There is a difference between language and dialect. If people speak different languages, they cannot understand one another. If people speak different dialects of the same language they can understand one another. Now, you asked about dialects. That is virtually impossible to know because we don't know how to count dialects. If there are 6000 different languages, then each language will obviously have one dialect, but some languages are spoken by only small communities and will have only one dialect while other languages are spoken by millions of people spread over large areas and will have hundreds of different dialects. So there are probably tens of thousands of different dialects.
To give you an idea of the language diversity in the world, if we took six people and each of them represented 1000 languages, one of them would live in the Americas, one of them would live in Eurasia, two of them would live in Africa, one of them would live in Australia and all the islands of the Pacific and Asia, and one of them would live on the island of New Guinea.
EDIT: The person who estimated that 3000 languages had gone extinct in the past 15 years is, to say the least, wildly inaccurate. Languages are going extinct at the rate of about 3-5 per year right now. The rate will accelerate to about 10 per year over the next 20 years, then level off for the next century at least.
2006-06-19 03:01:19 · answer #2 · answered by Taivo 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I think you'll probably never know but there are sure a lot of dialects. You know, we can see the ones we know. But wow! You want to be this smart. But there are languages and dialects comming from all over the world. Just to know, I'll be happy to help people right here on Yahoo! Answers. Just think about the ones you know. Then, if you don't know every one, you can research a place that tells you about languages and dialects and count up all the ones you researched. Be sure to write down all of them you found and you'll never forget it.
2006-06-19 04:08:35 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Scientists said there were about 6000 languages bout 15 years ago. Many languages dissapear every year. I guess that this number is about 3000 now.
2006-06-19 06:17:26 · answer #4 · answered by ? 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
There are round about 6,703 languages in the world that are spoken.
2006-06-19 03:41:26 · answer #5 · answered by kickass_1310 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Only one, english, it's just that alot of the world hasn't figured it out yet, they will, in time,
2006-06-19 02:41:36 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
A few or 2.5 million
2006-06-19 02:31:19 · answer #7 · answered by mikeranjero 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
too many to count
2006-06-19 02:31:34 · answer #8 · answered by the Politics of Pikachu 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
not sure just check see if i can find an answer for you
2006-06-21 11:19:38 · answer #9 · answered by misty 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
More than can be accurately counted!
2006-06-19 02:33:32 · answer #10 · answered by TAFF 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋