Languages Around the World

Languages around the World 6,912 516 Number Nearly of living languages extinct languages Mandarin Chinese is the language with the greatest number of native speakers. Sumerian First language ever written, about 3100 BC. Papua New Guinea is the country with the most languages spoken, with 820 living languages. Greek is one of the oldest written languages still in existence. English is the language spoken by the greatest number of non-native speakers, 250 million to 350 million non-native speakers. Words in a language Fewest Most English approx. 250,000 Taki Taki 340 words distinct words Alphabets Shortest Longest Rotokas Khmer 12 letters 74 letters Language sounds Fewest Most Phonemes Phonemes Rotokas (11) !Xóõ (112) Consonant Consonant Rotokas (6) Ubyx (81) Vowel Vowel Ubyx (2) !Xóõ (31) Source: http://www.vistawide.com/languages/language_statistics.htm http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/romancelanguage /a/050611-Romance-Languages.htm http://www.vistawide.com/languages/top_30_languages.htm JBI Studios