ingreis

1- One language or dialect dies out about every 14 days

Why have some languages become so endangered, what is it that threatens them and most importantly what can be done to save them?

As mentioned in our last blog, a world with only one language is becoming an ever-increasing prospect for the future. Publicity surrounding International Mother Language Day last week has brought to attention the serious threat facing languages as it is estimated that over half the 6,000 plus languages in the world could be extinct by the end of the century.

2- The bible is available in 2454 languages

The Bible is the most widely read book in the world. It has already been translated into 2,454 different languages (completely only into 438), but “much remains to be done.” In fact there are still 4,500 languages waiting to face the Holy Scriptures, and, considering that Bible Societies gave out only 26 million Bibles in 2006, only 1-2 per cent of the two billion Christians have been reached.

3- There are 50,000 characters in the Chinese language

China has always been “larger than life” when it comes to numbers and quantities. After all, it has the largest population out of any other country. It is no wonder then, that its language has become just as extensive! But exactly how big is it?
The Chart of Generally Utilized Characters of Modern Chinese defines the existence of 7000 characters! If you think this number is high, you'll be shocked to hear that according to the Great Compendium of Chinese Characters or “Hanyu Da Zidian” (汉语大字典; Hànyǔ dà zìdiǎn), the number of existing characters is actually 54,678! But if you’re the kind of person that loves a challenge then there's the Dictionary of Chinese Variant Form (中华字海; Zhōnghuá zì hǎi). This work, also called the “Yìtǐzì zìdiǎn” (异体字字典), contains definitions for 106,230 Chinese characters! wow.

4- The pope tweets in 9 languages

Arabic
English
French
German
Italian
Language
Latin
Polish
Portuguese
Spanish

5- 12% of all the languages on Earth are spoken in Papa New Guinea

The languages of Papua New Guinea today number over 850. These languages are spoken by the inhabited tribal groups of Papua New Guinea & Indonesia. In 2006, Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare stated that "Papua New Guinea has 832 living languages (languages, not dialects)" [1] making it the most linguistically diverse place on earth.[2][3] Its official languages are Tok Pisin, English, Hiri Motu and Papua New Guinean Sign Language. Tok Pisin, an English-based creole, is the most widely spoken, serving as the country's lingua franca.