Tom Scott, a youtuber and basically a smart guy, asked himself that question, did some research and presented his results to the public. An answer might surprise you.
I am sure that everyone at least once in a lifetime thought to himself/herself “How many languages are
there?”. Every person knows at least one language. Let’s say that around a half of the population knows
more than one. Probably less than ten percent knows 3. People who can speak 4 or more languages are
very often seen as extraordinarily intelligent and very talented. If we take into consideration how many
languages actually exist, knowing a few of them is not that impressive.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYlmFfsyLMo&ab_channel=TomScott
Questions:
Do you know any other english words which had a different meaning in the past?
2. What would be your guess on how many languages there are?
3. Would you rather have one universal language or keep it is at is?
Comments
Do you know any other english words which had a different meaning in the past?
I didn't know that earlier, it's a funny curiosity. But unfortunately I can't boast the same.
2. What would be your guess on how many languages there are?
My answer wouldn't be even close to a real amount of foreign languages. I wanted to assume about hmm 200?
3. Would you rather have one universal language or keep it is at is?
I would rather have one universal language, it would be more practical and easier to communicate. But currently an amount of languages in my mind decrease. Many of the dialects or less used languages disappear. Earlier, an official and used by elite language was Latin but the fashion changed. Now, the most common language is English of course, and it could be official, but we shouldn't also forget about:
1) French which is used in Canada, Africa and West Europe
2) Spanish which is used in Spain South America and West Europe
2) Chinese or Russian because of enormous amount of people where this language is their first language.
Do you know any other English words which had a different meaning in the past?
No, I did not know that word 'computer' had a different meaning in the past. Maybe, it was the only fact I was not aware of from mentioned in the video.
What about other similar examples, I know some. First is the word 'ping' which is now something for checking the integrity and quality of connections in networks. In the past, it means just a sharp sound. Also, a cheater before was somebody who looked after the lord`s land when someone died without a legal heir.
2. What would be your guess on how many languages there are?
Honestly, I have never thought about it. And after reading this question I have already known the number. I just have been aware that there are about eight the most spreading languages in the world.
3. Would you rather have one universal language or keep it is at is?
I had a discussion on that topic with my friend once. If we had one language, it would be easier to communicate with each other. It is also important for this language to be easy to learn. There is such language calls Esperanto. It has simple grammar, lack of exceptions and is not associated with any state or nation.
Besides, I have heard that there is an Interslavic language. Slavs can understand it without prior learning.
If I didn't see that video my guess would be pretty much the same as yours. 200-300 languages seemed pretty accurate.
@Anastasiia Bida
Esperanto is the most famous example. Despite the efforts it never really went viral but without a doubt it was the closest one to become a proper universal language.
2)I can't assume here, but as far as I know my country has 22 classical languages, 19,500 languages are spoken as their mother tongue in general. So I can't think, in that case, how many language universes there are. Deaf also has its own vocabulary, which is only conveyed through those hand gestures by thoughts and acts.
3)That is a hypothetical query, since it is easy to understand, it would be nice to have one language for everyone in my view. Yet there are so many languages in the modern period that somehow vanish and no one really knows about it. Every language is supposed to communicate nothing is pointless and deaf people still have language how their lives will go with their signs, as I said in 2 reply. I wouldn't even dream about a scenario that shouldn't happen. We still hope for more, but it's a fallacy that not everyone is supposed to be achieved.
In my opinion deaf language should be counted seperately. It is something else than spoken language with it's own set of rules.
No, unfortunately I did not know about that meaning mentioned in the video. But I'm glad that now I know it. According to the second part of your question, yes I know some such words, like Myriad, Nice, Nervous.
It's hard to pick one number, but I would make a simple assumption that there is as many different languages as many different countries are in the world (~200). Of course there are some countries where the same language is used (Germany, Austria or Portugal, Brasil) or there are even examples of countires where multiple languages are used (completely different ones, or dialects)like Netherlands, but after summing all it up, I think the total number would be similar to the country count.
In my opinion it would be hard to prepare some sort of universal language for everyone. We can see how different are some languages between each other and it would be really hard to find some similarities for example between Portugal and Chinese.
2. Thousands? There are dialects, there are languages which are spoken only by a few hundred people, also dead languages, artificial like Esperanto or even those elven languages made by Tolkien.
3. Definitely one universal. No disadvantages except "diversity". Tons of advantages like information (and education) spreading, easiness of communication and travel, the
I knew that as my parents used to work as Infomatics teachers and I was taught basic information about computers.
2. My guess would be around 300. I believe sign languages should be remembered in discussion about languages. Moreover, sign language should get a national status as a phonetic language has.
3. I would keep it as it is while a language is a very complicated structure, which reflects not only speech and thoughts of people, but also its whole culture, mentality, humour and background. I wouldn’t like to flatten all this features to a an artificial language structure.
You are right. Finding a universal language and making people use it is no easy thing and it would take many decades to make it work for real.
@Roman Burlaka
Diversity doesn't sound serious by itself but what it really means is that a local cultures and world might lose a lot when globalization will make every country similar.
@Leya Chechyk
I think that the word "flatten" fits perfectly. Practicality is not the only thing which we should take into consideration.
Do you know any other english words which had a different meaning in the past?
To be honest, I haven't heard about that. Unfortunately I don't know any other english word that had a different meaning in the past, but I'll look for it after posting this comment.
2. What would be your guess on how many languages there are?
I was thinking that there are ca few hundreds not few thousands, it was a surprise for me.
3. Would you rather have one universal language or keep it is at is?
Both options have pros and cons. One universal language can be very useful and it could simplify communication all over the world, but as it was mentioned in the movie, languages are directly related with the culture and history of every country.
Make sure to let us now if you find something interesting while looking for other words:)
Do you know any other english words which had a different meaning in the past?
I knew the original meaning of the word "computer" and I see it as a quite interesting fact that nowadays, meaning of this word describes a machine instead of human. Frankly it's the only word with such a big shift in meaning throughout the history, that I know of.
2. What would be your guess on how many languages there are?
Before watching the video my guess was that there are probably around 1000 languages out
there, so I was amazed when I've learned that there are over 7000! Another fact that is very interesting to me is that huge part of these languages are hardly distinguishable. Evolution of languages is a very interesting topic.
3. Would you rather have one universal language or keep it is at is?
Even though one universal language would undoubtedely solve a huge part of problems with communication, I think that such world would be much less interesting. The diversity of languages is a beautiful thing.
Do you know any other english words which had a different meaning in the past?
I didn't know the original meaning of "computer". Also I don't know any other english word which had different meaning in the past because my knowledge of English is not that deep.
2. What would be your guess on how many languages there are?
I knew that some countries has many different languages and I thought it is over 10 thousand. I was sadly surprised that it is actually less.
3. Would you rather have one universal language or keep it is at is?
As for me it is better to keep it as it is because then we can safe the uniqueness of the culture.
I agree. Diversity has some advantages which cannot be counted or measured.
@Zhypargul Maraeva
Yes, uniqueness is important. Do you think that globalization is something that we should worry about?
No, I didn't and it's funny that I meant the person doing the calculation. A few days ago there a Netflix documentary series I watched and they said that the name Dickson deliver from Richard. which seems unrelated but it went from Richard to Rick to Dick and then Dickson.
2. What would be your guess on how many languages there are?
I know that any guess I would make before this video would have been false but I think I would have guessed around 3000 to 4000 languages.
3. Would you rather have one universal language or keep it is at is?
I think if there was one official language that every human on earth speaks would be ideal in this modern age where globalization is literally a thing this will help people who are traveling to communicate more easily because for someone people like me who are studying in a different country than ours. We face language barriers almost every day. but this is also not an easy thing to do because the world is vast and we have a different culture. Also, this might contribute to more extinction of other languages.