So, just how many languages are there?
Well, according to Ethnologue, 7,151 (give or take a few thousand).
Languages are not set in stone. In fact, they are constantly changing, some growing closer together and some growing farther apart. Languages can even become endangered and eventually, extinct. This occurs when there are no longer any speakers left. Some linguists dedicate their careers to preserving these intrinsic parts of culture and identity. These are just some of the issues in trying to measure a subject that almost has a life of its own. Where should these — sometimes arbitrary — lines be drawn? Is it possible to even come up with a definitive answer?
Perhaps one of the most obvious issues with this topic is the debate between what constitutes a language and what constitutes a dialect. The most simple explanation: languages are a system of communication used by a group of people/country, and dialects are languages used by a defined group of people in a specific region. Even from this, it is evident that these terms are incredibly vague. Clearly, dialects fall under the overarching category of “a language”, but even then, where is this distinction made? It is population of speakers? The size of the country? How close they are in proximity to each other?
One could argue that in one way that dialects and languages differ is in mutual intelligibility. This term means that two groups (in this case speaking in “different tongues”) are able to understand each other. Think British English versus Australian English — mutually intelligible. These are considered different dialects of English. Now here’s a harder one: Spanish and Portuguese. People speaking these respective languages have the ability to understand each other, carry the conversation, and perhaps even read the other’s newspaper. In this case though, Spanish and Portuguese are different languages, taking up two spots out of the 7,151.
In addition, Chinese is counted as one language while Mandarin, Min, Gan, Xiang, and so forth, at least of 2014, were considered dialects of it. This is despite the fact that some of these dialects are not mutually intelligible. Take this example: if A can understand B, B can understand C, C can understand D, yet A can’t understand D, where is the line drawn? Are A and D considered separate languages at this point? Would they all be dialects? And here we are, right back where we started.
All of this debate is very important, but just trying to determine languages in this scientific sense ignores one core factor in differentiating languages: politics. Specifically, international politics. Like languages, countries are defined by sometimes arbitrary lines which these classifications tend to follow. Take Spain and Portuguese: separated by a border. Many other countries which break off from each other declare their own independent language even though there is a high level of mutual intelligibility between the two. Or course with time, these two languages will naturally grow apart and become more and more distinct from each other, but it is the mindset of being separate that is important. Take Danish, Swedish, and Scandinavian for example. All three are remarkably similar and have varying levels of mutual intelligibility but some, specifically Danes and Swedes, have a harder time understanding each other. Although I do not have the source on hand, in my SLIYS class, one of the professors mentioned something a Danish or Swedish person had said. “It’s not that we can’t understand them, it’s that we don’t want to.” It is the perfect example of how we can perceive ourselves as separate, perceive borders, and perceive categories around us that may not be all that important. Maybe in this quest to find a certain number of languages in the world, we are our own greatest enemy.
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