7000-8000 languages today165 languages spoken in the USAfrica
and New Guinea each have about 1000 different languages
spokenMajority of worlds languages are unwritten and many are
becoming extinct (esp Australia and Americas)
*
Familya collection of languages related through a common
ancestor that existed long before recorded history16 major/200
minorEnglish is part of Indo European family4000 years old
*
Branchcollection of languages related through a common ancestor
that existed several thousand years agoIE8English belongs to the
Germanic branch
Groupsa collection of languages within a branch that share a
common and relatively recent originEnglish is part of the West
Germanic group and the Low Germanic Sub Group
Proto Indo European5000-9000 yaNostratic14,000 yaMother
Tongue200,000 ya
Most widely spoken language in the worldOfficial language in 52
countries2,000,000 words615,000 non technicalGermany has 185,000
non technical words typical college graduate knows 20,000-30,000
words
*
DialectA regional variety of a language distinguished by
vocabulary, spelling, syntax, cadence, and pronunciationBritish,
American, Canadian
*
Divergence (language
tree)ConvergenceReplacementPidginSimplified languageA form of
speech that adopts a simplified grammar and limited vocabulary of a
lingua franca, used for communications among speakers of two
different languagesLingua FrancaLanguage of tradeA language
mutually understood and commonly used in trade by people who have
different native languagesCreolea language that results from the
mixing of a colonizer's language with the indigenous language of
those being dominated