The Book of Languages: Talk Your Way around the World
Language facts Th e most spoken language The most widely spoken language in the world is Mandarin Chinese which has over a billion speakers This is based on the number of people who use it as their fi rst language or mother tongue It is followed by Hindi-Urdu Spanish and English (cid:3234)(cid:3042)(cid:3900) Latin Although Latin is considered a dead language there are Latin phrases that are still used a lot today Lawyers speak of prima facie evidence which is Latin for at fi rst sight You’ll also hear people say gratis free persona non grata someone who’s not welcome and et cetera and other things written as etc Offi cial languages A country’s offi cial language is the language that is used within government which includes courts of law and public administration A country can have more than one language as its offi cial language For example English Maori and New Zealand Sign Language are all offi cial languages in New Zealand 8 Th e least spoken language Lots of languages are spoken by just a handful of people Deep in the Amazon rain forest on the Brazilian border with Bolivia Guarasu has just two speakers Brazil Bolivia New languages Languages are still being discovered In 2010 researchers learned about a unique language in India It is called Koro and is spoken by farming people in the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh near the borders with China Tibet and Burma China India Burma
Invented languages There have been many attempts to invent a world language that everyone can learn to speak The best known is Esperanto It was created in the 1870s by a Polish doctor Ludwig Zamenhof His language was based on a mixture of European languages The vocabulary comes mainly from Romance languages such as Italian and Spanish The Esperanto for I speak Esperanto is Mi parolas Esperanton Textese Textese is a new way of writing languages often used when texting on a cell phone In English it abbreviates words uses digits like 2 and 4 to replace words and creates acronyms where initial letters can stand for a complete phrase LOL laugh out loud Elvish The author J R R Tolkien created a number of Elvish languages for the elves in his book The Lord of the Rings The best-known is Quenya It was based on Finnish the language of Finland Pidgin Pidgin language is a simplifi ed language used by people who do not have a language in common Chinese pidgin English was invented by traders in the 17th 19th centuries It has given us some well-known phrases like no-go no-can-do and look-see Slang Klingon The Klingon language was invented by Marc Okrand for the 1984 fi lm Star Trek 3 Do you speak Klingon is tlhlngan Hol Dojatlh’a Slang is a kind of language that is not considered standard or proper It changes very quickly and is often used by young people Back slang uses words spoken backwards and has been used by prison inmates who want to communicate without being understood by their guards Yob boy spelled backwards is an example now commonly used in Britain 99
Language families Like people languages belong to different families Languages in the same family have connections with each other They share a common ancestor and may have similar features Th e map below shows you where the main language families are spoken Afro-Asiatic Altaic Austro-Asiatic Austronesian Dravidian Niger-Congo Sino-Tibetan Tai Kadai Uralic Indo-European Japonic A language family tree Th e larger language families have their own family trees which are split into smaller groups of languages called branches Here you can see how one of these language families Indo-European breaks off into diff erent languages How many of these have you heard of 1010
e g a u g n a l r e h t O s e i l i m a f y a m h c i h w c i n o p a J d n a e s e n a p a J e d u l c n i o r t s u A n a e r o K h c i h w c i t a i s A e s e m a n t e V s e d u l c n i i l a i c fi f o e h t r e m h K d n a m a n t e V i f o s e g a u g n a l i a T i a d o b m a C d n a s e d u l c n i h c i h w i a d a K s o a L d n a d n a l i a h T f o s e g a u g n a l n a m e h t i s e d u l c n i h c i h w c i l a r U e h t f o 3 2 y b n e k o p S l s i h T n o i t a u p o p s d l r o w h g u o r h t s d a e r p s y l i m a f h s i k r u T s e d u l c n i t I a i s A n r e h t r o n d n a l a r t n e c c i a t l A e m o S n a i l o g n o M d n a n a e r o K t u p o s l a s t s i u g n i l s i h t n i e s e n a p a J d n a e d u l c n i u o y f I y l i m a f e h t f o 4 4 y b n e k o p s l n o i t a u p o p s d l r o w s i y l i m a f s i h t m e h t n a i s e n o r t s u A 9 5 y b n e k o p S e s e h T n o i t a u p o p l s d l r o w e h t f o d n u o r a s e i r t n u o c n a e c O c fi i c a P e h t e r a s e g a u g n a l e h t n i d n u o f y l e d w i t s o m e h T l y a a M s i n e k o p s d n a h s i n n i F n a i r a g n u H e g a u g n a L n a n o t s E i s e g a u g n a l s e t a l o s i s u o i v b o o n e v a h h c i h w y n a h t i w n o i t c e n n o c h c u s e g a u g n a l r e h t o e u q s a B s a e h t f o 7 3 y b n e k o p S l e h T n o i t a u p o p s d l r o w n a i d i v a r D e r a y l i m a f s i h t n i s e g a u g n a l n r e h t u o s n i y l n a m d n u o f i e h T a k n a L i r S d n a a d n i I s i c i b a r A l t s a E e d d M e h t i n e k o p s y l e d w i t s o m e h t d n a a c i r f A f o h t r o n e h t l e s e h T n o i t a u p o p s d l r o w e h t f o 1 6 y b n e k o p S n i d n u o f e r a s e g a u g n a l c i t a i s A o r f A e h t f o 1 2 y b n e k o p S l s i h T n o i t a u p o p s d l r o w n a i s A t s a E f o y l i m a f s e d u l c n i s e g a u g n a l i e s e n h C n i r a d n a M i n a t e b T o n i S w o l e B s milie a f e g a u g n la e t a r a p e s 0 1 1 e r a e r e h T s e n o n i a m e h t f o n w o d k a e r b a e e s n a c u o y s e i l i m a f e g a u g n a L s d l r o w e h t f o 4 6 y b n e k o p S o g n o C r e g i N s e g a u g n a l 0 0 3 1 n a h t e r o m e h t n i n e k o p s e r a y e h T s a h y l i m a f s i h T n o i t a u p o p l i l i h a w S s i n e k o p s y l e d w i t s o m e h T a c i r f A f o f l a h n r e h t u o s s d l r o w e h t f o 6 4 y b n e k o p S t s e g r a l e h t s i s i h T n o i t a u p o p l n a e p o r u E o d n I s e d u l c n i d n a y l i m a f e g a u g n a l e p o r u E s s o r c a n e k o p s s e g a u g n a l a i s A f o s t r a p d n a s a c i r e m A e h t e l p o e p n o i l l i b 3 y b n e k o p s s t I s a h c u s s e g a u g n a l s e d u l c n i d n a i d n H i n a i s s u R h s l e W h s i l g n E h s i n a p S d n a u d r U l i m a T s i n w o n k t s e b 6 8 3 2 7 3 9 5 1 6 4 6 1 2 6 4 0 8 0 7 0 6 0 5 0 4 0 3 0 2 0 1 0
