List of Language

Language

what is language?

A language is used by humans to communication based on gesture and speech,sign or writing .The scientific study of language is called linguistics .

The number of human language in the world between 5000 to 7000.Some laguages are spoken by very few people.Less then 500 peaple speaks a language called Liv. One African language ,bikya,could have only one surviving speaker.the world most spoken language is chinese,which is used every day by 1.2 billion people .English is the world's most widespread language,spoken by 470,million people in the world.Natural languages are spoken or signed ,but any language can be encoded into secondary media using auditory, visual, or tactile stimuli(connected with sense of touch) – for example, in writing, whistling, signing, or braille. All languages rely on the process of semiosis to relate signs to particular meanings. Oral, manual and tactile languages contain a phonological system that governs how symbols are used to form sequences known as words or morphemes, and a syntactic system that governs how words and morphemes are combined to form phrases and utterances.

Discribe language

sapir's defination of language

"A language is a purely humen and non-instinctive method of communicating ideas, emotion , and desires by means of voluntarily produced symbol".

-edward sapir 1912

thats means

1.We have two terms ,human and non-instinctive

2.only humans posses language ,anumals have a communication system but it is not a develop one.

3.Language doesn't pass from a parent to child.A child learns a language when he/she is placed in society.

Hall's defination of language

"The institusion where by humans communicate ad intaract with each other by means of hobitually used aral -auditory symbols"

-robert hall 1964

thats means

1.The defination gives more important to the fact that language is primerily speech produced by oral auditory symbols.

2.Speaker produces oral sounds.

3.Sounds travel to the liscener through ear in the form of sound wavs

4.Receiver , receives the sound waves and conveys these to brain.

5.Brain interprents these symbols to arrive at meaning.

Noam chomsky's definition of language

"A language is a set of (finite or infinite) of sentence , each finds in length and constructed out of a finite set of element."

-noam choom 1957

thats means

1.each sentencs has a structure

2.Human brain can construct different sentences from out of limited set of sounds / symbols belonging to a particular language.

Indo-European languages

The INDO –EUROPEAN FAMILY of languages is the world’s largest, embracing most of the languages of Europe ,America ,and ,Asia.It includes the two great classical languages of antiquity ,Latin and Greek ; the Germanic languages ,such as English ,German,Dutch and Swedish; the Romance languages ,such as Italian ,French, Spanish and Portuguese ; the Celtic languages ,such as Gaelic and Welsh :the Slavic languages such as Russian ,polish ,Czech, and Serbo-Croation ; the Baltic languages ,Lithuanian and Latvian ; the Iranian languages , such as Persian and Pashto ; the indic languages, such as Sanskrit and Hindi ; and other miscellaneous languages , such Albanian and Armenian. In Europe only Basque , Finnish , Estonian , Hungarian , Turkish ,and a few languages of Russia are not of this family ; the others have apparently all descended from an original parent tongue.

The possibility of so many languages having descended from a common ancestors was first suggested in 1786 , through the similarity of Sanskrit and Italian was noted as early as the 16th century .By 1818 1more than 50 separate languages were established as Indo-European ; Albanian was added to the list in 1854 and Armenian in 1875 . The total number of Indo-European speakers is about 2.34 billion people , nearly half the earth’s total population.

Uralic languages

Of the few non-indo european languages of europes , must belong to the uralic family . Of the approximately 20 million speakers of the uralic languages , virtually all, save for the tiny group of peaple called the samoyeds , speaks one of the Finno-Ugric languages.

The ansestors of the uralic peaple are believed to have occupied a broad belt of central European Russia about 6000 years ago. In the 3rd millennium BC they began to migrate in different direction, eventually settling in lands far removed from their original home . Some moved to the northwest as far as Estonia and Finland , others moved due north, while still others migrated north and Finland , others moved due north , while still others migrated north and east into the lands of western siberia . Their subsequent history is best discussed under their two btanches : Finno-Ugric and Samoyed.

Altaic languages

The ALTAIC LANGUAGES are spoken over a vast expanse of territory extending from Turkey and the Caucasus on the west , through part of European Russia , across central Asia , into Siberia , Mnogolia , china , and to the Pacific Ocean . The name Altaic is derived from the Altai mountains of western Mongolia , where the languages are believed to have originated. Speakers of the Altaic languages number about 150 million.

Caucasian languages

The CAUCASIAN LANGUAGES are spoken in the region known as the caucasus ,lying both north and south of the Caucasus Mountain , between the black and the caspian seas . This relatively small area , now mainly in Russia and Georgia , is one of extraordinary linguistic diversity , with languages often varying from town to town and even from villsge to village . All told , about 50 languages are spoken here , of which about 40 are of the Caucasian family .Speakers of the Caucasian languages number around 6 million.

Dravidian language

The Caucasian languages are dominated by georgian , spoken by more people than all the rest put together , and the only one with an ancient literary heritage . Georgian , together with a few minor dialects , constitutes the so called Southern branch of this family,but it is doubtful whether these languages are actually related to the others. Their inclusion in the Caucasian family stems more from geographic than from linguistics consideratioons.The other branches of the Caucasian family are the Northwestern , North-of the other Dravidian languages , only five need be mentioned here . Three of the five are spoken in central India, where the Indo-European languages are dominant. the most important are Gondi , spoken in madhya Pradesh and northeastern Maharashtra , and Kui of southern Orisha . Kurukh , or oraon , is spoken in bihar ,orissa and Madhya pradesh. One other Dravifian languages , Tulu is spoken in the southern state of Karnataka. Finally there is Brahui, spoken in the provinces of Baluchistan , southwestern Pakistan and adjacent areas of Iran and Afghanisthan.

The Dravidian language family is, in terms of speakers, the fourth or fifth largest in the world. The family comprises at least twenty-three languages spoken primarily in South Asia by as many as 220 million people. The majority of the Dravidian languages are concentrated in southern and central India, spreading south from the Vindhya Mountains across the Deccan Plateau all the way to Cape Cormorin. Elsewhere, they are spoken in Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Outside South Asia, the Dravidian languages, particularly Tamil, are also spoken in Fiji, Indonesia, Malaysia, Martinique, Mauritius, Myanmar, Singapore, South Africa and Trinidad

The Dravidian language family has four subgroups: South Dravidian with Badaga, Irula, Kannada, Kodagu, Kota, Malayalam, Tamil, Toda and Tulu; South-Central Dravidian with Gondi, Konda, Küi, Küvi, Manda, Pengo and Telugu; Central Dravidian with Gadaba, Kolami, Naiki and Parji; and North Dravidian with Brahui, Kurux and Malto. Since the 1950s reports of other languages have appeared, but the lack of adequate descriptions prevents us from saying whether these are new, independent languages or merely dialects of ones already known. For South Dravidian, Bellari, Burgundi, Kaikudi, Koraga, Korava, Kuruba, Sholega, Yerava and Yerukula have been reported; for South-Central Dravidian, Âwë, Indu and Savara. Conversely, certain dialects of Gondi, Kolami, and Kurux could prove, under closer inspection, to be independent languages.

The Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution (1951) mandates the creation of states within the Indian Union along linguistic lines. Four Dravidian languages, Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu, serve as the basis for establishing the four states of Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, respectively. These four languages are recognised as official languages of the Indian Union. Tamil also has the status of a national language in Malaysia, Singapore and Sri Lanka.

Sino-tibetan

The Sino-Tibetan speaking people are associated in the literature with the Neolithic Yang-shao culture which originated in Yellow River valley in the central plains of northern China. Eventually this group of Sino-Tibetan speakers split into Sinitic (essentially Chinese) and Tibeto-Burman. No records of the original language exists, of course, and what was once a single language has been split into a family of languages. What was originally a single language has developed into a vast, diverse family of languages under the pressures of natural change, intermingled with frequent and often intimate contact with speakers of other languages. Much of this historical overview is concerned with describing, analysing, and cataloguing the results of natural change and language contact

The Sino-Tibetan family consists of two major subgroups, Chinese and Tibeto-Burman. By and large the distinction between the two is unambiguous and widely accepted, despite a dwindling number of older scholars who still see the connection as not yet proven. Questions remain, however, about the status of Bai and, to a lesser degree, Tangut, although this overview provides a tentative classification of both: Tangut is tentatively classified in this work as Tibeto-Burman, more specifically, as Qiangic, while Bai remains an unclassified Sino-Tibetan language.

Afro-Asiatic languages

The term "AFRO-ASIATIC" is a fairly recent coinage,having replaced the older term Hamito-Semitic.The family embraces six groups of languages spoken by peaple of vastly different racial, religious, and cultural origins,but it is nonetheless clear that their language are interrelated.Speakers of the afro-Asiatic languages number about 350 million ,three-fourths of whom are in africa, the rest in the Middle East.

The six branches of Afro-Asiatic are Semitic, Berber, Cushitic, Egyptian,Chadic and Omotic.The Semitic languages include Arabic, Hebrew, and Amhari of Ethiopia.The Berber languages are a homogeneous group spoken in Morocco,Algeria and a number of other countries. The Cushitic languages are spoken prinicipally in Ethiopia and Somalia. The Egyptian branch consisted originally of ancient Egyptian, but is now represented by its sole modern descendant, Coptic. The Chadic branch is dominated by hausa. The Omotic languages, Of which the most important is wolaytta are spoken in southern Ethiopia.

Mon-Khmer languages

The mon-khmer languages are spoken in southeast Asia . Their name is derived from two members of the family:khmer , the national languages of Cambodia , and Mon , a minor language today , but at one time one of the influential in the region.Vietnamese is now also through to be a Mon-Khmer language,through it is very different from the others , and its inclusion is still questioned by some.

Others members include palaung , spoken in burma ; Wa , or Kawa , spoken on both sides of the border between Burma and China ; Bahnar and Sedang,spoken in vietnam ; and Khasi , spoken in assam , India . Another, Nicobarese, is spoken on the remote Nicobar Islands in the bay of Bengal.

Munda languages

The Munda languages are a group of Austroasiatic languages spoken across portions of central and eastern India by perhaps as many as ten million people total. The Munda peoples are generally believed to represent the autochthonous populations over much of their current areas of inhabitation. Originally, Munda-speaking peoples probably extended over a somewhat larger area before being marginalized into the relatively remote hill country and (formerly) forested areas primarily in the states of Orissa and the newly constituted Jharkhand; significant Munda-speaking groups are also to be found in Madhya Pradesh, and throughout remote areas of Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, and Maharashtra . Of course much of this territory was settled or colonized by the Indo-Aryan speakers and, at an earlier period, by the Dravidian-speakers as well, which concluded about 2,500 years ago

Chari-Nile languages

The chari-Nile language are spoken mainly in sudun, Uganda, Kenya, and chad, and to a lesser extent in Tanzania and Congo-Kinshasa.A rough estimate as to the number of speakers would be 25 million.

Of the two division of chari-Nile , Eastern Sudanic and central Sudanic, the former is by the larger family of Nilotic languages. A western branch of Nilotic includes Luo ,of Kenya ;Dinka, Nuer, and Shilluk, of sudan ; and Lango, Acholi and Alur, of Uganda. An eastern branch including Teso and karamojong, of Uganda ; Masai, of Kenya and Tanzania;Turkana, of Kenya ; and Bari and Lotuko, of Sudan.A southern branch includes Kalenjin and Suk,of Kenya.The other devision of Chari-Nile, Central Sudanic, includes Sara, of Chand; Manghetu, of Congo-Kinshasa; and Lugbara and Madi, of Uganda.

List of Top Languages In The World

Rank	language	speakers(million)	family	branch
1	Mandarin Chinese	920	sino-tibetan	sinitic
2	Spanish	489	Indo-European	Romance
3	English	379	Indo-European	Germanic
4	Hindi	341	Indo-European	Indo-Aryan
5	Bengali	300	Indo-European	Indo-Aryan
6	Portuguese	221	Indo-European	Romance
7	Russian	154	Indo-European	Balto-Slavic
8	Japanese	128	Japonic	Japanese
9	Western Punjabi	113	Indo-European	Indo-Aryan
10	Marathi	83.1	Indo-European	Indo-Aryan
11	Telugu	82.0	Dravidian	South-Central
12	Wu Chinese	81.4	Sino-Tibetan	Sinitic
13	Turkish	79.4	Turkic	Oghuz
14	Korean	77.3	Koreanic	language isolate
15	French	77.2	Indo-European	Romance
16	German	76.1	Indo-European	Germanic
17	Vietnamese	76.0	Austroasiatic	Vietic
18	Tamil	75.0	Dravidian	South
19	Yue Chinese	73.1	Sino-Tibetan	Sinitic
20	Urdu	68.6	Indo-European	Indo-Aryan
21	Javanese	68.3	Austronesian	Malayo-Polynesian
22	Italian	64.8	Indo-European	Romance
23	Egyptian Arabic	64.6	Afroasiatic	Semitic
24	Gujarati	56.4	Indo-European	Indo-Aryan
25	Iranian Persian	52.8	Indo-European	Iranian
26	Bhojpuri	52.2	Indo-European	Indo-Aryan
26	Bhojpuri	52.2	Indo-European	Indo-Aryan
27	Min Nan Chinese	50.1	Sino-Tibetan	Sinitic
28	Hakka Chinese	48.2	Sino-Tibetan	Sinitic
29	Jin Chinese	46.9	Sino-Tibetan	Sinitic
30	Hausa	43.9	Afroasiatic	Chadic
31	Kannada	43.6	Dravidian	South
32	Indonesian	43.4	Austronesian	Malayo-Polynesian
33	Polish	39.7	Indo-European	Balto-Slavic
34	yoruba	37.8	Niger–Congo	Volta–Niger
35	Xiang Chinese	37.3	Sino-Tibetan	Sinitic
36	Malayalam	37.1	Dravidian	South
37	Odia	34.5	Indo-European	Indo-Aryan
38	Maithili	33.9	Indo-European	Indo-Aryan
39	Burmese	32.9	Sino-Tibetan	Lolo-Burmese
40	Eastern Punjabi	32.6	Indo-European	Indo-Aryan
41	Sunda	32.4	Austronesian	Malayo-Polynesian
42	Sudanese Arabic	31.9	Afroasiatic	Semitic
43	Algerian Arabic	29.4	Afroasiatic	Semitic
44	Moroccan Arabic	27.5	Afroasiatic	Semitic
45	Ukrainian	27.3	Indo-European	Balto-Slavic
46	Igbo	27.0	Niger–Congo	Volta–Niger
47	Northern Uzbek	25.1	Turkic	Karluk
48	Sindhi	24.6	Indo-European	Indo-Aryan
49	North Levantine Arabic	24.6	Afroasiatic	Semitic
50	24.3	Romanian	Indo-European	Romance
51	Tagalog	23.6	Austronesian	Malayo-Polynesian
52	Dutch	23.1	Indo-European	Germanic
53	Saʽidi Arabic	22.4	Afroasiatic	Semitic
54	Gan Chinese	22.1	Sino-Tibetan	Sinitic
55	Amharic	21.9	Afroasiatic	Semitic
56	Northern Pashto	20.9	Indo-European	Iranian
57	Magahi	20.7	Indo-European	Indo-Aryan
58	Thai	20.7	Kra–Dai	Tai
59	Saraiki	20.0	Indo-European	Indo-Aryan
60	Khmer	16.6	Austroasiatic	Khmer
61	Chhattisgarhi	16.3	Indo-European	Indo-Aryan
62	Somali	16.2	Afroasiatic	Cushitic
63	Malaysian	16.1	Austronesian	Malayo-Polynesian
64	Cebuano	15.9	Austronesian	Malayo-Polynesian
65	Nepali	15.8	Indo-European	Indo-Aryan
66	Mesopotamian Arabic	15.7	Afroasiatic	Semitic
67	Assamese	15.3	Indo-European	Indo-Aryan
68	Sinhalese	15.3	Indo-European	Indo-Aryan
69	Northern Kurdish	14.6	Indo-European	Iranian
70	Hejazi Arabic	14.5	Afroasiatic	Semitic
71	14.5	Nigerian Fulfulde	Niger–Congo	Senegambian
72	Bavarian	14.1	Indo-European	Germanic
73	South Azerbaijani	13.8	Turkic	Oghuz
74	Greek	13.1	Indo-European	Hellenic
75	Chittagonian	13.0	Indo-European	Indo-Aryan
76	Kazakh	12.9	Turkic	Kipchak
77	Deccan	12.8	Indo-European	Indo-Aryan
78	Hungarian	12.6	Uralic	Finno-Ugric
79	Kinyarwanda	12.1	Niger–Congo	Bantu
80	Zulu	12.1	Niger–Congo	Bantu
81	South Levantine Arabic	11.6	Afroasiatic	Semitic
82	Tunisian Arabic	11.6	Afroasiatic	Semitic
83	Sanaani Spoken Arabic	11.4	Afroasiatic	Semitic
84	Min Bei Chinese	11.0	Sino-Tibetan	Sinitic
85	Southern Pashto	10.9	Indo-European	Iranian
86	Rundi	10.8	Niger–Congo	Bantu
87	Czech	10.7	Indo-European	Balto-Slavic
88	Taʽizzi-Adeni Arabic	10.5	Afroasiatic	Semitic
89	Uyghur	10.4	Turkic	Karluk
90	Min Dong Chinese	10.3	Sino-Tibetan	Sinitic
91	Sylheti	10.3	Indo-European	Indo-Aryan