How Many Languages Are There?
1,622,692
Published 2020-12-07
Written with Molly Ruhl and Gretchen McCulloch. Gretchen's podcast has an episode all about this: lingthusiasm.com/post/154520059101/lingthusiasm-ep…
Gretchen's book BECAUSE INTERNET, all about the evolution of internet language, is available:
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(Those are affiliate links that give a commission to me or Gretchen, depending on country!)
Graphics by William Marler: wmad.co.uk/
Audio mix by Graham Haerther: haerther.net/
REFERENCES:
Eberhard, D.M., Simons, G.F., and Fennig, C.D. (eds.). 2020. Ethnologue: Languages of the World. Twenty-third edition. Dallas, Texas: SIL International. www.ethnologue.com/.
François, A. (2014). Trees, waves and linkages: Models of language diversification. In Evans, B. & Bowern, C. The Routledge Handbook of Historical Linguistics. (pp. 161-189). London: Routledge Ltd - M.U.A.
Heeringa, W., & Nerbonne, J. (2001). Dialect areas and dialect continua. Language Variation and Change, 13(3), 375-400. doi:10.1017/S0954394501133041
Burridge, J. (2017). Spatial evolution of human dialects. Physical Review. X, 7(3), 031008.
Libermann, M. (2003). This is not middle earth. LanguageLog. itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/00021…
Labov, W. (1973). Sociolinguistic patterns (Conduct and communication, 4). Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Laakso, J. (2018). Language borders and cultural encounters: A linguistic view on interdisciplinarity in the research of intercultural contacts. In Palander, M., Riionheimo, H., & Koivisto, V. On the border of language and dialect. (pp. 38-55) Studia Fennica Linguistica
Lupyan, Gary, & Dale, Rick. (2016). Why Are There Different Languages? The Role of Adaptation in Linguistic Diversity. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 20(9), 649-660.
Bybee, J. L. (2006). From Usage to Grammar: The Mind's Response to Repetition. Language (Baltimore), 82(4), 711-733.
Bucholtz, M. & Hall, K. (2005) Identity and interaction: A sociocultural linguistic approach. Discourse Studies. vol. 7 (4-2): 585-614.
Bucholtz, M. (1999). “Why be normal?”: Language and identity practices in a community of nerd girls. Language in Society, 28(2), 203-223.
Steels, L. (2011). Modeling the cultural evolution of language. Physics of Life Reviews, 8(4), 339-356.
Honkola, T., Ruokolainen, K., Syrjänen, K., Leino, U. P., Tammi, I., Wahlberg, N., & Vesakoski, O. (2018). Evolution within a language: environmental differences contribute to divergence of dialect groups. BMC evolutionary biology, 18(1), 132. doi.org/10.1186/s12862-018-1238-6
Austin, P.K. & Sallabank, J. (2011). Cambridge Handbook of Endangered Languages. Cambridge University Press.
New York Times / Associated Press (2017). Icelanders Seek to Keep Their Language Alive and Out of ‘the Latin Bin’
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All Comments (21)
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This is the last of the language videos that I filmed earlier this year! There may be more in 2021, but until then, thanks very much to the whole team that work on these: their details, and all the references, are in the description.
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Tom Scott did the reverse clickbait and told the answer right away. Hats off sir. Thank you.
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Tom: How many languages are there? Tom: 7,117. Duolingo: Ten, take it or leave it.
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I speak an endangered romance language called Lombard, I'm the only one of my friends to speak it and nowadays even older people are forgetting. Fortunately we created some groups to mantain our language, we love it, It's terrible when a language dies, but we will fight for ours!
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There is a saying that goes “If you want to know how someone thinks then you have to learn their language.” And to be honest, this is 100% true. If you know multiple languages you know your thinking pattern changes when you switch between them. This is one of the many reasons why languages should be preserved
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Tom Scott: "You can't go to start, start is not a place" Monopoly players:
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"Someone has to draw some line somewhere" Said every person ever involved in a border conflict........
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We have a word for “the wind that comes through the window”, it’s draught, pronounced ‘draft’
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"A language is just a dialect with an army and a navy." Bloody love this!
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Me :"I wonder how many languages are there in the world" Tom :"7117" Me :"Understandable, have a nice day"
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"Saying "I'm going to start" makes no sense when taken literally." Monopoly: Am I a joke to you?
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As a fluent Welsh speaker I can confirm the importance - culturally and historically - of keeping native languages alive. Great vid
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One reason, if it matters, why (local) language is important, is that my English "persona" is widely different from my Dutch "persona". It's not intentional, but language also brings with it a certain way of communicating that sincerely changes the way one acts.
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There are also "dialect continums" For example Dialect A can understand Dialect B Dialect B understands Dialect C Dialect C understands Dialect D But Dialect A does not understand Dialect D
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But what we all want to know is... how many red T-shirts are there?
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3:36 This is why I'm so passionate about endangered languages. I was raised with the national language of my country and it really saddens me to see the new generations, people my age or younger, starting to forget our local language. I'm quite lucky because thanks to my love and interest for languages, I actually know more about my local language than most people my age, but still not enough to hold a speech or something, maybe just a simple dialogue. Also because I'm from Europe, people don't really get interested in minority language. Partially because even if our languages are endangered, we're not seen as "colonised" like other cultures in the world, but also because many countries in Europe promoted their official languages as the prestige language, while local languages have been always associated with a uncultured kind of speech typical of ignorant farmers and this belief holds true even for native speakers.
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As a person who loves languages. This video broke my heart.
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I love this, it's like anti-clickbait. The answer to the videos title is in the thumbnail, and then right there in the beginning of the video. After which is a well put together explanation. Thanks tom, keep up the good work.
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Red T Shirt - ✔️ One Shot Video - ✔️ Intelligent British Accent - ✔️ 2 Month Old Pinned Comment - ✔️ Yup, this is a Tom Scott video.
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"And even fairly major ones can be in trouble" "Lemme guess, Gaeilge?" "Icelandic is spoken..." "NOT ICELANDIC TOO!"
