LanguagesLanguages

What is language?

A human system of communication that uses arbitrary signals such as voice sounds, gestures, or written symbols.

How many languages are there?

It is estimated that up to 7,000 languages are spoken around the world. 90 per cent of these languages are spoken by less than 100,000 people.

languages families Languages are grouped into families that share a common ancestry. For example English is related to Dutch and German. These three languages belong to the Germanic language family because they are similar.On the other hand, Spanish, French, Portuguese and a number of other languages belong to the Romance language family.

The Indo European language family

Brussels

Flanders Brussels Wallonia A Federal Country with three Regions

Belgium, the best kept secret of Europe A Federal Country with Three Cultural Communities

What are the world most spoken languages? The world most spoken languages are: Mandarin Chinese English Spanish Hindi Arabic Bengali Russian Portuguese Japanese German French

Some examples of the most spoken languages

Which are the hardest languages to learn? The ease or difficulty of learning another language can depend on your mother tongue. In general, the closer a language is to the native’s tongue, the easier acquisition will be. Dutch is believed to be the easiest language for English natives to pick up. On the other hand, the most difficult languages to learn are: Arabic, Cantonese, Mandarine Chinese, Japanese and Korean.

Globalisation means that many of the world’s languages are in danger of vanishing. 2,500 languages are at risk of extinction. One quarter of the world’s languages are spoken by fewer than 1,000 people and if these are not passed on to the next generation they will be gone forever., Endangered languages

Alphabets from A to Z The Latin or Roman writing system is the most used writing system in the world. It roots go back to a writing system used in Phoenicia around 1100 BC. This was adapted by the Greek, whose alphabet was in turn adapted by the Romans. Other common alphabets are: Amharic, Arabic, Armenian, Bengali, Burmese, Chinese, Cyrillic, Davanagari, Georgian, Greek, Hebrew, Japanese, Khmer, Korean, Lao, Sinhala, Thai and Tibetan

Why speak another language? Around 75 percent of the world’s population does not speak English. So, learning another language is very useful to get to know other people. Furthermore, people who use other languages on the job earn on average 8 percent more. A study of monolingual and bilingual speakers also suggests that knowing another language can help slow down the brain’s decline with age.

Languages spoken at the United Nations English French Spanish Arabic Russian Chinese

Languages spoken at the EU The European Union has 23 offical languages. They are: Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Irish, Italian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovene, Spanish and Swedish.

The oldest language Some of the oldest known written languages include: Sanskrit Sumerian Hebrew Basque.

Artificial languages Some 200 artificial languages have been created since the 17 th century. The first were invented by scholars for communication among philosophers. Later on they were used for trade and international communication. The most commonly known artifical language is “Esperanto” which was invented by Ludwig Zamenhof in Esperanto is a mixture of Latin, English, German and Romance elements. Nowadays some 2 million people speak Esperanto.

Quiz Time

How many languages are there approximately in the world?

To which language family belong German, English and Dutch? Altaic Sino-Tibetean Indo-European

What is the easiest language for English native speakers to pick up? German Urdu Dutch French Spanish

Which languages do the United States use to conduct business? German, Italian, English, Arabic, Russian English, German, Spanish, Arabic, Russian English, French, Spanish, Arabic, Russian French, Spanish, Arabic, Russian, German

What does a study of monolingual and bilingual speakers suggest? That speaking more than one language improves overall health That speaking more than one language can help slown down the brain’s decline. That speaking more than one language Improves self confidence.

What are four of the oldest languages? Latin, Sumerian, Hebrew and Basque Sanskrit,Sumerian, Hebrew and Basque Sanskrit, Sumerian, Hebrew and Greek

How many languages are there in immediate danger of extinction?

Thank you for your attention !