Today The Word Love Can Be Said At Least In 7,000 Languages!
When people are asked how many languages they think there are in the world, the answers vary quite a bit.
We use language in many different ways and for many different purposes. We write, speak, and sign it. We work with language, play with language, and earn our living with language. We court and seduce, buy and sell, insult and praise, all by means of language.
This fascinating infographic elegantly breaks down the world’s most popular languages and the countries in which they are spoken.
It is by Alberto Lucas López and published in the South China Morning Post.
It shows the 23 largest languages grouped together in one bubble that represents 4.1 billion people who have those languages as their native language.
There are at least 7,102 known languages alive in the world today. Twenty-three of these languages are a mother tongue for more than 50 million people. The 23 languages make up the native tongue of 4.1 billion people. We represent each language within black borders and then provide the numbers of native speakers (in millions) by country. The colour of these countries shows how languages have taken root in many different regions.
The information is based on data from Ethnologue, a comprehensive reference work cataloging all of the world’s known living languages since 1951.
There are roughly 7,000 spoken languages in the world today. However, about 2,000 of those languages have fewer than 1,000 speakers.
The most popular language in the world is Mandarin Chinese. There are 1,213,000,000 people in the world that speak that language.
Looking closer though, I think something cannot be right here, as some coutries and languages are not mentioned! I don’t believe that Alberto Lucas López willfully compromised the data, it is that Ethnologue has strange way of grouping languages. However I really like the layout, concept, colour selection and idea!
Source: Twisted Sifter
Share this fascinating infographic with others to bring awareness of the different cultures of the World!
