How many languages are spoken in world? Which is the easiest language and which is the toughest one?

Answer 1

There are about about 7390 main languages as per wikipedia
Easiest language is the mother's language.
Toughest is the one spoken in a rival country.

Answer 2

The answer is always changing based on your concept of "language". The term can cover a broad range of meanings. The majority of people would consider language to be an advanced form of verbal communication between people. It could also include codes - even those developed by children, animal communication (such as dolphins or chimps), and mathematics. It's been speculated that mathematics is a language in it's own right, perhaps the most international language in the world.

I'd say math is also the easiest language to learn - and the most convenient because it's used everywhere. Math follows the same properties and rules no matter where you are, and there can be no problems with pronunciation or accents.

The hardest would be different for each person. All humans are born with the capability to speak any language. All the sounds that can possibly be made by a human are programmed into your brain at birth. However, children begin developing their language skills at a very early age, mimicking the sounds they hear from adults. If you are raised in an all English-speaking environment, you would naturally lose the ability to make the sounds necessary to speak Swahili. If you wanted to speak it, you would have to learn over again.

Therefore the answer to the question "which language is the toughest to learn?" is whatever language is the most alien to your brain.

Answer 3

Number of languages spoken at present is pegged at 6912, which is questionable as stated earlier.

The hardest language, hmmm. Again a debatable question.
Each language is dependant on the complexity it presents to potential students, and the desire and mental discipline that those students command.

The constructed language Esperanto is the strongest contender as the easiest language because it is designed to be just that. A look at its history will show you that it is expanding exponentialy. In numerous studies conducted over the last century, it has been demonstrated that first mastering Esperanto can lessen significantly the amount of instruction required for a third or forth language, because it clearly demonstrated linguistic theory that is useful in understanding languages. The link below provides details on this phenomena.
Now one could say that the same effect would happen with almost any language, and I believe they are correct. So if you are in a position to learn any language, and hope to use it to vault into a third language, then by all means do so.
The only real benefit that Esperanto has over the other tongues in this case is its ease of absorption, and its clear demonstration of linguistic principles.
I frequently make this next statement, and I live by it.

"If you can't learn Esperanto, you can't learn any language."

At the very least, if you learn Esperanto first, which by the way can lead to the enjoyment of meeting new friends and traveling to new places, you'll at least have that under your belt regardless of how far you decide to take any other languages.
It's not uncommon for a student of Esperanto to become fluent inside of a month, maybe less, if you've the desire.

Please don't let anybody tell you it's useless. As with anything else, it's use is dependant on how you decide to use it. With over 2,000,000 speakers in the world, there aren't too many places where you won't find it, you just need to look. The internet is the best place to start. The sites below are the best intitial places to investigate the language and it's history. (Yes, it has a history (119 years) and a culture.)
Research and make your own conclusions.

Ĝis!

Answer 4

There are many languages spoken in the world and this can even be further broken down by dialects. We can only estimate at this point. The easiest language in the world is Swahili the toughest one is Chinese (Mandarin).

Answer 5

I recently read that there about 5000 languages in the world.I think the easiest is Spanish and the toughest many people say it's Greek.

Answer 6

May be 2nd time this question came up. On this earth each and every lively being has its own language. A child's language and a mother's language is different to each other, but one. It is like finding out the centre of the earth or centre of Universe. THE LANGUAGE WAS BORN FROM THE SOUNDS OF THE SURROUNDINGS OR NATURE AND EACH SOUND WAS GIVEN A MEANING - JUST SHOWING IT AND SAY 'hm' IT'S NAME BECOMES 'HM'.
Mother-tongue is the eassiest language and toughest language is the language of people of disliking. Whatever language one whom we do not like, speak, we would say - those who talk this language are damn. When you go to Rome, do as Romans do and speak the Roman language.

Answer 7

There are approximately 6,912 languages in the world. Dec 27, 2005

According to the Etnologue Organization (http://www.ethnologue.com/), there are approximately 6,912 languages in the world. For a very interesting article regarding the difficulties that arise in obtaining a true count of the number of languages in the world please visit the following web site:

http://lsadc.org/info/ling-faqs-howmany.cfm

Number of languages in the world to be cut by half in a century


Here is a story from the English translation of the People's Daily (of China.)
Half of the existing 6,700 languages in the world will die away in a century and another 2,000 languages will be endangered if no efforts are made to save them, a top expert on social science said here Wednesday.

Li Shenming, vice president of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), said at the on-going Globalization Forum on World Cultural Diversity that it is a pity that no genuine consensus has yet been reached on respecting and safeguarding linguistic diversity.

More than 180 senior officials and experts from home and abroad gathered here for the three-day event to discuss how to preserve and promote world cultural amd linguistic diversity against the background of globalization.

Answer 8

There are almost 7000 languages recorded so far, or over 6900.
I have studied 16 languages during my lifetime and can speak quite fluently in 8 of them.

I think the most difficult one is Cantonese as far as writing and pronunciation are concern. The reason is because it doesn't use a set of standard letters like the Latin Alphabets, but every word is written differently. Cantonese has 9 different intoniations compared to English. Mandarin has got only 4 intonations, besides the fact that there is the simplified version used in Mainland China, Singapore and Indonesia.
Take for example the word "ma" in Mandarin. Depending upon the intonation you can make a sentence with just that one word, or syllable. Ma mama ma ma ma? Can be interpreted to Mrs. Ma or Mother Ma is angry at the horse isn't she?. But in Cantonese with 9 different intonations, the word "ha" can mean 9 different things depending upon how you pronounce it.

Next after Chinese in difficulty comes Arabic, in my opinion.

The easiest to learn according to my experience is Ibanese language. They are very simple, very limited in their vocabulary and the grammar is also very simpler, even simpler than Indonesian and Malay.
It is quite similar to Malay and yet different enough not to be understood by Malay speaking people without studying it first.
For instance the sentence: Where are you going? In Malay is Awak mau pergi ke mana? or Awak ndak kemana kah? Indonesian is: Anda mau pergi ke mana?
In Ibanese is: Ka kini nuan?
Where is your house, in Indonesian is "Dimana rumah anda?
In Ibanese is "Dini rumah nuan?"

Answer 9

1. There are roughtly 8000 lanuguages. Out of that 70% is unofficial.
2. English is the easiest.
3. Malayalam is the toughest (Indian)

Answer 10

You cant dsirectly say which is easiest language and which is toughest. It depends in which language you have been speaking since your childhood. If you speak Latin then learning Spanish will be easiest for you and Chinese will be toughest. Similarly if yiou speak Korean, learning Chinese will be easier for you and learning Hindi will be a tough job.