This round up of language links to love takes us from a small South Pacific island near the continent of Australia to the global city of London, England, and then on to the tiny town Waxhaw, North Carolina, with just over 15,000 residents. Enjoy the trip!
On a small island in the South Pacific named Makelua, residents speak around 40 different indigenous languages. This tiny isle joins almost 80 more as part of the densely linguistically-diverse Republic of Vanuatu, where over 200,000 people speak more than 100 different languages. Similarly, residents on the island of New Guinea in the tropics speak nearly 1,000 languages. These numbers reflect how far more indigenous languages can be found close to the equator than in more temperate areas around the globe. But linguists are not sure why this phenomenon occurs. Recent research in Australia explores the mystery of why our world has so much linguistic diversity, and why that diversity is not equally spread about geographically.
Counting roughly 900 languages, Papua New Guinea heads the list of most linguistically-diverse countries in the world. According to Ethnologue, Australia makes the top 10 with over 250 languages, and Vanuatu makes the top 20 with just over 100 languages.
You can see the rich linguistic diversity of our world in this video compilation of greetings from around the globe. Produced by Cut, this charming YouTube clip captures salutations in a variety of languages and cultures from Addis Ababa and Bogota to Dubai and Tokyo. Note how not just spoken language but also gestures and body language may vary greatly depending on the culture and background of the speaker.
Unique holdings at the Museum of London also demonstrate the diversity of the world’s languages. This global city is home to roughly 8.2 million people who speak over 300 languages. These languages include many regional and indigenous ones, like Basque and Welsh. Throughout history, London has been a cultural center, with immigrants from around the world contributing to the diverse metropolis. The Museum of London’s holdings showcase stories of French-speaking Huguenots, Chinese-speaking traders, Italian-speaking immigrants, and Yiddish-speaking members of the East End’s Jewish Community who have made this city home.
Almost one-thirdof the world’s 7,000 languageslack a written alphabet.That’s over 2,000 languages!
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This round up of language links to love takes us from a small South Pacific island near the continent of Australia to the global city
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