There are approximately 7000 languages around the world, from Mandarin (Chinese) spoken by billions of people, to over 300 manufactured languages spoken by the fans of J.R.R Tolkien. It is a complicated and fascinating aspect of our lives that experts believe have developed out of a series of hand movements. From these simple origins, languages have been born and have perished. With such large scale and variations in the way, we express ourselves. Here are some fun facts about languages:

Number of Languages

There are 3000 languages with over 8000 individual dialects spoken around the world. The most widely spoken languages in the world are Mandarin (Chinese), Spanish, English and Hindi. Mandarin (Chinese) has over 50,000 characters in their language to interact but, you need to learn 3000 characters only to read a newspaper.

Extinction

Every two weeks, a language or a dialect goes extinct. Approximately, there are more than 230 languages that got extinct with 2500 of the languages deemed to be in danger of disappearing.

Bible

The Bible is the only book in the world that is known as a translated book, available in 2500 different languages. Pinocchio comes to second place, whereas Agatha Christie is the most translated author. 

Alphabets

Cambodian language Khmer is known as the language with the most extensive alphabet in the world with 74 characters long. The shortest alphabet in their language is of 12 characters that belong to Rotokas. But, English is the language with maximum words that is more than 300,000 words.

Most Official Languages

More than 250 languages have conversed in the United States of America. But South Africa holds the record of most official language in a country. In the United States, 20% of people speak a different language than English at home and among that 20%, 60% speak Spanish. 

Oldest Language

The oldest recognised language consists of Sanskrit, Sumerian and Hebrew. Individuals have learnt these languages from the aid of written transcriptions. Experts believe that the languages were established in 100,000 BC. Most scholars agree that it originated around the time when humans evolved in Africa with contemporary forms and vocal muscles. With the conventional mechanisms in place-skull capacity, brain, and voice, the language emerged. Some anthropologists even consider that language could have evolved before the physiological growth of modern brains and vocal cords.

-Kshitij Gupta