mą n..|.

I
--'||Ij':'_'| _,_ . -

I_|'-_-| ,-1|.. |-_I -| __ III!-III-Ill 1 13| 1 íi |-11| 1-III--nu I-el-nn-| I-słu-|.| -I-'ul |_ 5,. _ H,-

47 - HOW MANY LANGUAGES?

ú l _- Å: Ĺ

1*'

There is no agreed total for the number of languages Brazil; today, there are only 200. A quarter of the _ r

_spolten in the world today. Most reference boolcs give a
figure of 5,000 to 6,000, but estimates have varied
from 3,000 to 10,000. To see why there is such uncer-
iainty, we need to consider the many problems facíng
Łhose who wish to obtain accurate information, and
.also the reasons (linguistic, historical, and cultural)
which preclude a simple answer to the question 'What
counts as a language? ' for example, even though regional vocabulary and local
'Å Å' Jill _ '_
world's languages have fewer than 1,000 speakers; half
have fewer than 10,000. It is liltely that most of these
languages will die out in the next 50 years.
LANGUAGE - OR DIALECT?
For most languages, the distinctionbetween language
and dialectis fairly clear-cut (p. 25). In the case ofEnglish,
diffetences of pronunciation can malte communication
"°' '__T III "_'I'

DISCOVERIES difficult at times, no-one disputes the estistence of an

underlying linguistic unity that all spcakers identify as
An ohvio us reason for the uncertainty over numbers is English, and which is cfinfirmed by the use ofa standard
łhat even today new peoples, and therefore languages, written language and a common literaty heritage. But in
Continue to be discovered in the unestplored regions of hundreds ofcases, considerations ofthis lcind are in con-
A nevv road cuts e svvathe
Łhe world - especially in the Amazon basin (as the fiict with each other, or do not clearly apply, through the Erazilien rain
Transamazo nica road system is extended), Central The best-known conflicts occur when the criteria of forest.
Plfrica, and New Guinea. However, only a few lan- national identity and mutual intelligibility do not
guages are likely to bc encountered in this way; and it is coincide. The most common situation is one where
'much more usual to find parts of the world where the nvo spolten varieties are mutually intelligible, but for
PEDPÍĆ HC l'U'1ü""'I'1› but the languages spoiten in their political and historicalreasons, they are referred to as
area are not. There are in fact many countries where different languages, For example, using just the intelli-
Ĺinguistic surveys are incomplete or have not even gibiliry criterion, there are really only two Scandina- NUMBER OF SPEAKERI
begun. lt is often assumecl that the people speak one of vian languages: Continentgl (Swedish, Danish, and Number of spealters of the
the lcnown languages in their area; or that they speak a two standard varieties of Norwegian) and lnsular (Ice- vvorld's languages, based c
dialect ofone of these languages; but upon investiga- landic, Faeroese). Swedes, Danes, and Norwegians can the data provided in the
In terna tional En cyclopedia
iion their speech is found to be so different that it has understand each other's speech, to a greater or lesser Linguistics (Bright, 1952). T
ł,o be recognized as a separate language. extent. But assoon as non-linguistic crireria are taken total number of languages
into account, we have to recognize at least five lan- (including estinct onesl is
ALIVE OR DEAD? _ 6,604. lviost of the estimatt
guages. To be Norwegian is to spealt Norwegian; to be were made during the 1951
Agai nst this steady increase in the world language total, Danish is to spealt Danish; and so on. In such cases, with some from the late
Łhere is a major factor which decreases it. For a language political and linguistic identity merge. And there are tāíüs. The world populatic
ŁO füüflf 15 'lÍi'ÍI'1g'i there obviously have to be native many other similar cases where political, ethnic, reli- total passed 5,ü'Dü million ii
.luIy1'3EE, and had reached
.ipeal-:ers alive who use it. But in many parts of the gious, literary, or other identities force a division where 5,111 million by mid-1935,
world, it is by no means an easy matter to determine linguistically there is relatively little difference - Hindi which gives an indlcation o
whether native speakers are still living - or, ifthey are, vs Urdu, Bengali'vs"Assamese, Serbian vs Croatian, Twi the order of magnitude
whether they still use their mother tongue regularly. vs Fante, Xhosa vs Zulu. unaccounted for in the fine
column.
The speed with which a language can die in the q_-- _ .l"._| '1_ r_.__ -1. - _ _| 1. -r

_smallet communities of the world is truly remarltable. 1 I _ msi "

' 1300 ;-
lłåiil
The Arnazonian estplorations led to the discovery of Ľ tsoo ,_ Ti-'í'|~

"many new languages, but they also led to their rapid 'too L :sat -
(21%)
death, as the Indians became swallowed up by the zoo _'_ l" l I toto
dominant western culture. Within a generation, all i Ęlfiqfil
_ ' - 1:'-Å-'-_ 905
'lC1'=Cfi5 Of H language can disappear. Political decisions liåftl
sis * E
{orce tribes to move or be split up. Economic prospects ffflhl , _ _ř
tftttract younger members away from the villages. New 135 ,
'i
|} .
455
nasi sw
fl_lseases_ talte their toll. In 1962, Trumai, spolten in a Š
'Š
ÊŠ l'W01 lfiillal
Single village on the lower Culuene River in Venezuela, ;
bldnihcr
ŰŰĹH)
of Ígl-Fl
"_ "
was reduced by an influenza epidemic to a population . ¬ -_, ._ _L _ I _ _ I ____ _____l _ . __ _
_ More than Hate than More than hltire than hinre tlun Lut thln l'\Í"'ß"'\'fl W H”
affewer than 10 spealters. In the 19th century, there , 1059-UW _ IUIŁDOO 10.000 1.000 100 100
were thought to be over 1,000 Indian languages in _ _ _ H _ be estinei
Number of spealters (N 1- 5,022-,64H,0'0'0 estcluding final column] _ estirnztr
___ _ _

_ _ '_

-_ll I_' ___ _I-ulu ll -_l H

- P"¬| '- '_ I- |_ l Ilu I _ -
 _ _ _ _ _ . _ _ __ ' -- ' ._ " --- -- ' -
sr - 1~to¬a1':»|a"rs.'v t_ar-.'GUat;Esa
. _ '_ _-M _ _ _ _ _ .

`.l'i.`
'L-Lr

The opposite situation is also quite common. Here is the tt'ofi'd for `this`: for example, the nine languages
we find cases where spoken varieties are rnutually n.'n`n-
within the Yuulngu family are known as Dfrrrrtrnfn, J Pacilic {l}-ll l .rl|..|'l'||t.'ri|.::|.s i'[¦|.j'¦}¿
rrlfrgrhlr, but for political, historical, or cultural rea- 1 :|'s I f 15',
D011 il'-ÍrIÍ. _` Dhlürn/l'r{y, D/rnngrl, DĹrn_y_'}'r', Djirrrgrl, Dji-
sons they are nonetheless called varieties of the same rrrnrg,- Djining, and Nfrrrngrr. Aslting native Speakers
language. The three main 'dialecrs' of Lapp fall into
what_lan_guage they speak is oflirrle practical help, in I
this category, for example. Chinese is a case where lin- such circumstances, if they only answer ithisil Ź
guisric criteria alone are in conflict with each other. l
At the 'other extreme, ir is quite common to find a !
From the viewpoint ofthe spoken language, the many
community whose language has too many names. A i
hundreds of dialetrs in China can be grouped into l

South American Indian tribe. for instance, may have Ś .f

eight main types (p. 314), which are mutually unintel-
several names. A tribe, first ofall, will have a name for 'M' '-:Ü-1*'
_ J'

' anie; t tous.

ligible to various degrees. But speal-:ers of all these
itselflseeiabove). But adjacent rribes maygive the peo- J' l 'iu -"
Europa [goes 3” “
„,
clialects share the same written language tradition, and
ple a.diffe.rent name (eg. Ptrelr/sr means 'people from 3"'fi
_í- _;_

those who have learned the system of Chinese charac-

the east' in Araucanian). The Spanish or Portuguese WHEREARE MODERN
ters are able to communicate with each other. Despite
explorers _may have given them a third name - perhaps LANGUAGE5 SPÜKEN?
the linguisric differences, therefore, Chinese is consid-
a characterisric of their appearance (eg. Ćarendo
ered by its spealters to be a single language. The geographital distiribu-
means 'crowned` in Portuguese). More recently. tion of living languages,
In the above casm, the languages in question have been
anthropologists and other invesrigarors may have used according to Ethnoiogue
well studied, and many speakers are involved. '\.`sĹ'l1en lan- llārimes, 1992), based on a
another name, often based on the geographical loca-
guages have been little s tudied, or have very few spealters, total of 5,523 languages.
tion of the tribe (e.g. “up-river` vs *down-river`). And
ir is much more diliicult forlinguists to interpret all the
lastly, the same language may be spelled differently in
factors correctly. For example, when two languages are in HOW MANY
Spanish, Portuguese, English, or in its own writing sys-
close pro:-'imity, they olien borrow words from each LANGUAGES i-i."5'.`v'E
tem (ifone has been devised). For example, Machacali,
other- sometimes even sounds and grammar. On fitst THERE BEEN?
spolten in-"hflinas Gerais, Brazil, is sometimes spelled
acquainrance, therefore, the languages may seem more Based on what is known
Ma.'taltal'i',l sometimes Magtaltari. When the initial let-
alilte than they _really are, and analysts may believe them about the rate of language
ters vary¿(a.s when the Peruvian language Candoshi is Change at which new lan-
to be dialects ofthe same language. This has proved to be
spelled Kandoshi), indexing is especially a'.'l.'l-nvard. guages develop from a com-
a real problem in such parts of the world as South Amer- mon origin Ip. 331), it is
There are further complications. Sometimes, the same
ica, zkfrica, and South-east Asia, where whole groups of possible to speculate about
name is applied to two different languages, as when nieur- the number oflanguages
la nguages may be affected in this way. Si milarly, decisions
irnnn is used in Mexico to refer to Spanish (otl'1et¬.vise which may have existecl since
about how to analyse all cases ofdialecr continua (p. 25) the emergence of a human
known-as'-erpnriol or rnsreflnno) and to the main Indian
will affect our final total oflanguages. language fatulty. Cautious
language (nzrfmnrí). Sometimes, spealters from different
estimatessuggest 30,000;
LANGUAGE NAMES ' bacicgrounds may disagree about whether their ways of radital ones, over 500,000. A
Fi big problem, in working on lesser-known language spealci ng should be related atall.'Spealcers ofl_uri, spoken plausible 'middle of the road
in south-west Iran, say that their speech is a dia.lectofPer- figureis 150,000.
areas, is deciding what credence to give to a language
name. This issue does not arise when discussing the sian; spealters of Persian disagree. Asking the native
main languages ofthe world, which are usually known spealters is evidently no solution, for their perceptions
by a single name that translates neatly into other lan- will be governed by non-linguistic considerations, espe-
guages - as in the case of DenrrrÍ:'. Grrmnn, Íšdrrro, ciallyofa religious, narionalistic, orsocioeconomic kind.
Nrrnerråig and Allerirnnrtl for instance. But in many
cases the situation is not so straightforward.
To CONCLUDE
\Vhen`all these factors are taken into account, ir is plain
At one extreme, many communities have no specific that _there will be no single answer to the question
name for their language. The name they use is the same
'How many languagesi' In some parts of the world,
as a common word or phrast' in the language, such as
there has _been a rendency to over-estimare, by tal-ting
the word for 'our language' or `our people. 'I his ts
names too literally and not grouping dialecrs together
often so in zhfrica (where the name Birnrrr, which is
sufficiently - the lvlalayo-Polynesian languages are
given to a whole family of languages, means simply
often cited in this connection. In other places, the
`people'), and also in Meso- and South America- In the torals are likely rohave been underestimated - Indone-
larter areas, we find such examples as Cnríb = 'people',
sian languages, for example. There are over 37,000 lan-
Íirprryn = `enemy`, and flferti = 'forest rribes”. Some
guage names listed in the 12th edition of Eržurofogrre
rribes were called riiirlhimernrl (= 'lineage of dogsi).
(Grimes, 1992), and these have been grouped into
r›l:onrn2`t'r` (= 'foreignersil or popofarn 'Ĺ= 'barbarians'),
6,528 living languages. The number listed in the Index
and these labels led to the modern language names
to the ArÍr_ts ofrlar llihrldir Ĺnngtrnger (Moseley dc Asher,
Chichimeca, Chontal, and Popoloca. Frequently, the
1994) is 6,?96. The Inrerrrnrionrr!Ent}'rl'opra'r'rr_sfflin-
name is the same as a river on which a tribe has been grii.rrt`cs_ (Bright, 1992) lists 6,604, but this includes
observed to live, as with the many groups of Land
some _Š00 exrinct languages. These surveys generally
Üayaít, in the West lndonesian family. In several Aus- use data from the 19705 and 19305. A total of 6,000
tralian aboriginal languages, the name for the language
would seem to be a safe estimare for the 19905.
-I-IÅII1'