2006-12-13 07:05:02 · 25 answers · asked by marta d 1 in Society & Culture ➔ Languages
It is generally recognised that of the 6,912 languages and dialects English has the most words.
French for instance has less than 100,000 and German 200,000
Shakespeare invented 1,700 English words or at least first recorded their use
Of course languages like Chinese are incommensurable to a degree since the word structure is different.
But English has half a million 'headwords' catalogued and half a million more awaiting cataloguing, some authorities place the estimated total in the millions. This is, perhaps, largely due to English being an inclusive language, as well as having both Saxon and Romance stems it has continued to borrow words from other languages. Roughly a third of English words are of Latin origin, a third old French, a quarter Germanic and words from many other cultures are included.
It is estimated that the educated speaker of UK English has a vocabulary greater than the total vocabulary in some languages.
All this lends it an unsuppressed fluidity, subtlety, eloquence and accuracy of expression.
2006-12-13 07:17:50 · answer #1 · answered by phoneypersona 5 · 10⤊ 6⤋
This Site Might Help You.
RE:
which language has the most words?
2015-08-06 19:36:26 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
It's English
2006-12-13 07:08:51 · answer #3 · answered by mcfifi 6 · 3⤊ 2⤋
Binary. A 64-bit computer digitizes information into binary "words" 64 characters long, yielding something like 1.8 quintillion possibilities.
Nah, I'm just being a dick. English, maybe?
2014-08-15 06:40:50 · answer #4 · answered by john.renner@snet.net 1 · 1⤊ 0⤋
English and Shakespeare coined quite a lot of them.The English language owes a great debt to Shakespeare. He invented over 1700 of our common words by changing nouns into verbs, changing verbs into adjectives, connecting words never before used together, adding prefixes and suffixes, and devising words wholly original
2006-12-13 07:13:56 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 1⤋
Greek with 5 million words.
2013-11-28 10:12:42 · answer #6 · answered by Chris D 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Of the main ones spoken, English. This is because we were invaded so often, and then when we had an empire, we imported even more. Now there are the migrants that come here and add their words, like bling.
This is what makes English such a thug of a language, why words spelt the same can sound different and why our spelling rules are so difficult.
2006-12-13 07:18:54 · answer #7 · answered by tagette 5 · 1⤊ 4⤋
If you decided in learning to communicate Chinese then you must now that the ideal selection is a Program for Mandarin.
2016-06-03 09:14:19 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Arabic has 1200000 words
2014-11-15 10:19:16 · answer #9 · answered by Wasim 1 · 0⤊ 1⤋
1
2017-02-17 16:16:53 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋