The study of the function, structure, and history of languages and the communication process in general. | linguistics |
The language that is spoken by the most people in the world today as a native, or first, language. | Mandarin Chinese |
The language that is the most world wide in its distribution. It is an official language in 52 countries as well as many small colonies and territories. In addition, 1/4 to 1/3 of the people in the world understand and speak it to some degree. However, it is only the third most common language in terms of the number of native speakers. | English |
Regions of the world that have unusually high densities of different native languages today. | New Guinea and the Caucasus Mountains north of Turkey and Iran (also Native California in the past) |
The fraction of all languages in the world that are no longer spoken by children. | about half |
The percent of languages in the world that are primitive in the sense of not having a system of sounds, words, and sentences that can adequately communicate the content of culture. | 0% |
The number of languages that have added words to modern English. | at least 240 |
The percent of all living languages that change over time. | 100% |
The kinds of cultures that have languages with extremely large vocabularies. | cultures with complex, diverse economies and advanced technologies |