There were originally 7,000-8,000 languages spoken worldwide, but many are becoming extinct, especially in Australia and the Americas. Today there are around 165 languages spoken in the US and 1,000 languages each in Africa and New Guinea. Languages are grouped into families that share a common ancestral language, with the major families including Indo-European from 4,000 years ago and its branches like Germanic. English belongs to the Germanic branch of the Indo-European family and the West Germanic group within that branch. The document also provides information on the evolution of languages over time and definitions of related concepts like dialects, pidgins, lingua francas, and creoles.

1. Ms. Patten
2011

2. 7000-8000 languages
today
165 languages spoken in
the US
Africa and New Guinea
each have about 1000
different languages
spoken
Majority of world’s
languages are unwritten
and many are becoming
extinct (esp Australia
and Americas)

3. Family
 a collection of languages related through a common
ancestor that existed long before recorded history
 16 major/200 minor
 English is part of Indo European family
 4000 years old

4. Branch
 collection of languages related through a common
ancestor that existed several thousand years ago
 IE…8
 English belongs to the Germanic branch

6. Groups
 a collection of
languages within a
branch that share a
common and relatively
recent origin
 English is part of the
West Germanic group
and the Low Germanic
Sub Group

7. Proto Indo European
 5000-9000 ya
Nostratic
 14,000 ya
Mother Tongue
 200,000 ya

8. Most widely spoken language in the world
Official language in 52 countries
2,000,000 words…615,000 non technical
 Germany has 185,000 non technical words
 typical college graduate knows 20,000-30,000 words

9. Dialect
 A regional variety of a language distinguished by
vocabulary, spelling, syntax, cadence, and
pronunciation
British, American, Canadian

10. Divergence (language tree)
Convergence
Replacement
 Pidgin
 Simplified language
 A form of speech that adopts a simplified grammar and limited
vocabulary of a lingua franca, used for communications among speakers
of two different languages
 Lingua Franca
 Language of trade
 A language mutually understood and commonly used in trade by people
who have different native languages
 Creole
 a language that results from the mixing of a colonizer's language with
the indigenous language of those being dominated