Linguistics 1

Introduction to Linguistics
Dr. Georgia Zellou

Language Diversity
Concepts to know
• Language Diversity
• Language Families
• Endangered Languages
Language Diversity
• How many languages exist in the world?

a) ~70
b) ~700
c) ~7,000
d) ~70,000
• How many languages exist in the world?

a) ~70
b) ~700
c) ~7,000
d) ~70,000
Resource on world’s languages
• Ethnologue.com
What languages are spoken by the most number
of native speakers?
Number of speakers Language
• 1 billion
• 442 million
• 378 million
• 315 million
• 260 million
• 243 million
• 223 million
• 154 million
• 128 million
What languages are spoken by the most number
of native speakers?
Number of speakers Language
• 1 billion Mandarin Chinese
• 442 million Spanish
• 378 million English
• 315 million Arabic
• 260 million Hindi
• 243 million Bengali
• 223 million Portuguese
• 154 million Russian
• 128 million Japanese
• What percentage of the world’s languages have more than 1
million speakers?
• 5.5% of languages
• What percentage of the world’s languages have less than 10,000
speakers?
• 55% of languages
• 94% of the world’s population speaks only 6% of its languages
Language Families
Language vs. Language Family
• Language family is a group of languages related through decent
from a common parent, or proto-, language

• What is the largest language family (in terms of number of living

languages)?
What language families are spoken have most
native speakers?
Number of languages Language Family
• 1,527 Niger-Congo
• 1,224
• 479
• 453
• 444
• 366
What language families are spoken have most
native speakers?
Number of languages Language Family
• 1,527 Niger-Congo
• 1,224
• 479
• 453
• 444
• 366
What language families are spoken have most
native speakers?
Number of languages Language Family
• 1,527 Niger-Congo
• 1,224 Austronesian
• 479
• 453
• 444
• 366
What language families are spoken have most
native speakers?
Number of languages Language Family
• 1,527 Niger-Congo
• 1,224 Austronesian
• 479
• 453
• 444
• 366
What language families are spoken have most
native speakers?
Number of languages Language Family
• 1,527 Niger-Congo
• 1,224 Austronesian
• 479 Trans-New Guinea
• 453
• 444
• 366
What language families are spoken have most
native speakers?
Number of languages Language Family
• 1,527 Niger-Congo
• 1,224 Austronesian
• 479 Trans-New Guinea
• 453
• 444
• 366
What language families are spoken have most
native speakers?
Number of languages Language Family
• 1,527 Niger-Congo
• 1,224 Austronesian
• 479 Trans-New Guinea
• 453 Sino-Tibetan
• 444
• 366
What language families are spoken have most
native speakers?
Number of languages Language Family
• 1,527 Niger-Congo
• 1,224 Austronesian
• 479 Trans-New Guinea
• 453 Sino-Tibetan
• 444
• 366
What language families are spoken have most
native speakers?
Number of languages Language Family
• 1,527 Niger-Congo
• 1,224 Austronesian
• 479 Trans-New Guinea
• 453 Sino-Tibetan
• 444 Indo-European
• 366
What language families are spoken have most
native speakers?
Number of languages Language Family
• 1,527 Niger-Congo
• 1,224 Austronesian
• 479 Trans-New Guinea
• 453 Sino-Tibetan
• 444 Indo-European
• 366
What language families are spoken have most
native speakers?
Number of languages Language Family
• 1,527 Niger-Congo
• 1,224 Austronesian
• 479 Trans-New Guinea
• 453 Sino-Tibetan
• 444 Indo-European
• 366 Afro-Asiatic
What language families are spoken have most
native speakers?
Number of languages Language Family
• 1,527 Niger-Congo
• 1,224 Austronesian
• 479 Trans-New Guinea
• 453 Sino-Tibetan
• 444 Indo-European
• 366 Afro-Asiatic
What language families are spoken have most
native speakers?
Number of languages Language Family
• 1,527 Niger-Congo
• 1,224 Austronesian
• 479 Trans-New Guinea
• 453 Sino-Tibetan
• 444 Indo-European
• 366 Afro-Asiatic

• Together, these account for 2/3 of all

languages and 5/6th of the population of
speakers in the world
• There are hundreds of other language
families, though
Language Diversity in the US
Top 10 non-English languages spoken in the US
• Spanish
• Italian
• German
• French
• Polish
• Chinese
• Tagalog
• Greek
• Portuguese
• Japanese
Language Diversity in the US
• 320 Million people live in the US
• About 300,000 speak a Native American language
Endangered languages
Language Diversity in the US
Endangered languages
• Language at risk of not being used because it is not being acquired
by new speakers or the speakers shift to speaking another language

• http://www.endangeredlanguages.com/
Endangered languages
About 3,400 languages in the world are classified as endangered

• A language starts to become endangered when intergenerational

transmission begins to decrease (i.e. the language ceases to be
passed on to children as a first language).
• As older generations of speakers pass away, fewer and fewer people
are left who speak the language.
Endangered languages
• Rise of Colonialism
Climate change & language loss
https://theconversation.com/the-impact-of-climate-change-on-
language-loss-105475
Language Revitalization
• Identify and stabilize languages under threat so they can be
transmitted to the next generation
• Schools and immersion programs