Why are there so many different languages and dialects in the World?

Question

You would think that people either side of a border would share a common tongue would you not? Yet they almost never do........Odd eh?

Answer 1

Origin of different languages are mainly due to geographical locations and racial background.Languages emerged from the need for self protection and communication with fellow human beings. Due to geographical isolation and cultural differences, many languages emerged

Answer 2

Language is traditionally the best sign of ethnicity, as it is handed over by generations from mother to child. Therefore people speaking languages which belong to the same language group are ethnically related.
However, isolation over the years because of geographical reasons (water, mountain ranges, etc.), lack of infrastructure to enhance communication, wars, borders, etc. results in the formation of local variations - dialects. Therefore, the bigger the country and the more varied the relief, the richer in dialectal variations the language would be. When isolation for various reasons, including history and borders, continues for a long time, dialects become so different, they become separate languages. This explains the language groups in the mostly Indo-European languages in Europe: Germanic, Slavic, Romanic. Their common Indo-European grouping though suggests a common language existed for all of them ages back.
Languages evolve in time and based on influence from the languages of "neighboring tribes". The change is evident even when checking texts written only 100-150 years ago.
On the other hand close contact between neighboring ethnic groups, such as strong economic relations, common territory, mixed marriages, etc. results in influence over the neighboring languages working in the direction of making them closer. Thus words are adopted and grammar rules are changed. The Norman conquest is in fact responsible for most of the English words of Latin origin. Also, in bilingual situations, the grammar usually becomes simpler. This explains why English is an analytical language and has no case endings, like German for instance.

Answer 3

Isolation causes languages to evolve. But you may be wrong about borders and common tongues. Maybe today with strictly defined and patrolled borders there may be a sharp difference. But all throughout history you would find more difference in a language from one end of a country to the other than across the border. That has always been the case.

Answer 4

in the ancient past different races of people lived in isolated areas, and you know languages evolved with human experience,
that's why we have so many different languages and accents,
but let me give you an example of a language that evolved in the near past; The Urdu language, it is a mixture of Arabic, Persian, and Turkish. there was no such language as Urdu before
the reason is that people from those nations where working together in an Army (Urdu means Army) so a new language evolved and it was called the language of the army or Urdu language.
also you would notice very many common words in European languages due to the relation between those nations in the past

Answer 5

Years and years ago when people lived in small pockets in the middle of nowhere or in mountain passes they developed a tribal language, which was quite different from other tribal languages.
There were hundreds of those pocket tribes and that is why so many languages do exist.

Answer 6

God separated us and made us speak different languages because people tried to build a tower to reach Heaven (The tower of Babel), disobeying God. He caused there to be different languages so as to confuse everyone and so that they could not communicate to one another. He also destroyed the tower. As time went on, people learned how to understand one another. I'm certain that God had a hand in this as well, as He saw that love and respect was increasing and the selfish desire to self-glorify was decreasing. Those people were looking to be glorified by being able to go up to Heaven whenever they wanted to.

Answer 7

Evolution made it, not god. Its a nature thing that we communicate privatly between groups. Just a pity we havnt learned to communicate with common sense, to end all the grief in the world.

Answer 8

Because all languages change, in a different way in different places

Answer 9

Ever hear of the Tower of Babel?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tower_of_Babel


I'm not religious but it's an interesting story.

Answer 10

Because we're human we are flexible about the way and style we exist.