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This is an advance, uncorrected proof. Not for resale, duplication, or reposting. Please do not quote without comparison to the finished book.
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To Richard, Willem and Kaatje – R.L.
To Kevin: for being there every step of the way – J.Z.
The art in this book was created digitally.
Library of Congress Control Number 2024946066
ISBN 978-1-4197-6683-1
eISBN 978-1-6470-0941-0
Cover © 2025 Abrams
Text © 2025 Rachel Lancashire
Illustrations © 2025 Jenny Zemanek
Book design by Madeline Morales
First published in the United Kingdom in 2025 by Macmillan UK. First published in the United States in 2025 by Abrams Books for Young Readers, an imprint of ABRAMS. All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical, electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher.
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Disclaimer: This book is intended for general information purposes and not intended to be a definitive resource. It has not been possible to include all languages and territories and therefore any omissions are inadvertent.
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Language is amazing. It helps us to share ideas, form relationships, and build communities. The language you speak is part of who you are and where you come from.
In this book you may find your own language and many hundreds of others. You’ll discover fascinating facts about all of them, fun sayings in some of them, and how to say a few words in others.
The book is divided into six continents (because no one lives permanently in the seventh continent, Antarctica). Each one begins with a map that shows where many of that continent’s original languages are spoken. There are also language trees throughout the book . . .
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A dotted line on a map means the territory is disputed.
By tracing back our ancestors, through parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, and beyond, family trees can be created. Just like people, each language is part of a family tree that can trace back its history. If you follow all the twigs on a language family tree back down to smaller branches, and then to bigger branches, you will see that they all grow from the same trunk. The language family trees in this book show how different languages are related.
Languages that are part of the same tree can sound pretty different to one another. This is because languages change over time and can become completely new ones over hundreds of years. Italian, Spanish, and Romanian are separate languages today, but they all started out as Latin, spoken by the ancient Romans. Language is an important part of culture all over the world.
The biggest language trees are huge, with branches that stretch halfway around the globe, while others are small, with a few modest twigs. There are also hundreds of languages that don’t belong to any family: these are language isolates. Linguists—people who study language—have worked out that there are around 250 language trees (you will see just a few of them here). As far as we can tell, these trees are not related to one another. But we can’t be sure, because the further back in time you go, the less evidence there is, just like you can’t see what happens to the roots of a tree underground.
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“Native speakers” means people who have grown up speaking a language. The numbers used in the book for speakers of languages are not exact and include the number of native speakers of a language, as well as those who speak it as a second language. This book lists only the main countries where a language is spoken.
There are at least 7,100 different languages, but perhaps as many as 8,500 (the number of languages is difficult to pinpoint exactly because experts have different ideas about whether some language varieties should be counted separately). Every one of them is unique. Some of the bigger languages have millions of speakers, but most are very small and may only be spoken by a few thousand—or even a few dozen—people. Around 95 percent of all languages are spoken by only 3 percent of the world’s population. The numbers and statistics in this book are approximate, and languages change all the time.
This book only has room for some of the world’s many languages. The languages we don’t name are represented on the language trees by leaves and branches.
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Around 600 years ago, people from Europe began to explore other parts of the world. When they arrived on other continents, they often claimed land for themselves and made money from the other country’s resources, such as precious metals or useful plants. From the 1500s onward, European countries formed “colonies” in Africa, Asia, Australia, and North and South America— they occupied and ruled over areas in these places. Because the Europeans generally saw themselves and their cultures as more important, they thought everyone should speak their languages, and made (or tried to make) the Indigenous peoples speak English, Spanish, Dutch, French, German, or Portuguese. Sometimes, Indigenous languages were outlawed. In many cases, languages disappeared as a result.
If you find a word or phrase you don’t know, there is a glossary on page 92.
Languages can disappear because of colonization . They might also die out because people want to—or have to—switch to a language that’s more commonly spoken. It can happen quickly, or, more often, over several generations. Some linguists think that half the languages in the world today may no longer be spoken by the end of this century. But there are many success stories of languages that were disappearing but are now spoken by more and more people—and you will find some of them in this book.
More than half of all the people in the world speak two or more languages. If you want to learn a language, the sooner you do it the easier it will be, because children are much better at learning a new language than adults. Young children learn by listening, and once they start talking they don’t worry about whether they’re making any sense—they learn without thinking about it. Around the age of 12, our brains usually start to get better at focusing and planning, but less good at learning without thinking about it. It’s much more difficult to learn by trying to remember all the rules, and hoping you’re not making mistakes.
Perhaps this book will inspire you to learn a new language, and find out about different countries and cultures. So read on and discover . . .
* A language that was used as a code in the Second World War.
* Which language uses boiling kettles to measure time.
* Why you might visit the magical dwarves in Lithuania.
* A language that is whistled instead of spoken.
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There’s a whole world of languages to explore.
As well as these languages, many European languages are spoken in Africa because of the effects of colonization (see page 6).
E U R O P E
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I A T u a r e g mA a z i hg N i g e r i a n P dinig I bg o W o l o f S o am l i ergiT T i g riny a
O r o om A m h a cir A r a b i c F u l f u l d e
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K a m t o k T w i S w a h i l i L i n g ala H a u s a Y o r u b a
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Africa is home to some of the biggest language trees in the world. It is almost impossible to say how many languages are spoken in Africa in total—it could be anywhere from around 1,250 to over 3,000. Nigeria alone is home to over 500 different languages!
This tree is a group of around 400 languages, with a canopy that stretches all the way across the north of Africa and into Asia. In total, around 500 million people speak a language that belongs to one of its branches. One branch stretches all the way from Morocco to the Middle East.
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R A B I C
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T I G R INYA A M H A R I C CUS
See page 62 for the three branches that are growing off this page.
* Spoken in Morocco , Algeria, and Libya
* 26 million speakers
Amazigh languages form a group of related but different languages that make up a whole branch of the Afro-Asiatic language tree. They are spoken across North Africa , from Morocco in the west all the way to Egypt , and from the Mediterranean Sea south to Niger. The Amazigh languages spoken in Niger, Mali , and southern Algeria are usually called Tuareg .
In Central Moroccan Tamazight , one of the most widely spoken Amazigh languages, they have the proverb “A camel can’t see its own hump.” It means that people often can’t see their own faults, even though they’re obvious to others.
The Amazigh group of languages is sometimes called Berber. It comes from the ancient Greek word βάρβαρος (“barbaros ”). This now diminished term was used by ancient civilizations to describe people who didn’t speak Greek Later, the word made its way into the English language, via Arabic , as the word “barbarian.” Today, speakers of this group of languages use the name Amazigh.
* Spoken in Niger , Nigeria , Chad, and Cameroon
* 79 million speakers
Native speakers are mainly from southern Niger and northern Nigeria , but Hausa is also spoken as a second language throughout the rest of Niger and Nigeria , as well as surrounding countries in West Africa . It is often used as a lingua franca, a language used to communicate by people who don’t share the same native language.
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Coptic is a direct descendant from the Egyptian language spoken in the time of the pharaohs thousands of years ago, and is still used to this day. It had died out in everyday use by the Middle Ages, but a small group of people continues to use the language for religious services in the Coptic Church
* Spoken in Ethiopia
* 57 million speakers
Amharic is the most widely spoken language in Ethiopia , but for almost half of all Amharic speakers it is their second language. Many Ethiopian people use Amharic as a lingua franca when speaking to someone with a different native language. Unlike Arabic and Hebrew , two languages from the same branch of the family tree, Amharic is written left to right, in a script called fidäl. It is the holy language of the Rastafari religion.
Find out about more Afro-Asiatic languages on page 37 ( Maltese ) and page 63 ( Arabic and Hebrew Hebrew).
After Amharic , Oromo is the second most widely spoken language in Ethiopia (37 million speakers), but when you only count the number of people who speak it as their native language, Oromo is bigger than Amharic . The most widely spoken language in Eritrea is Tigrinya (9 million speakers). Sidama (4 million speakers) and Wolaitta (3 million speakers) are both spoken mainly in Ethiopia , and Tigre (1 million speakers) is spoken mainly in Eritrea and Sudan . Omotic languages form a separate branch of around 30 small languages (4 million speakers in total) that are spoken in southwestern Ethiopia
* Spoken in Somalia , Ethiopia, and Kenya
* 26 million speakers
The Somali language has many loanwords that come from Arabic and Persian , but also from colonial languages like English and Italian .
The Somali phrase Af deboolan waa dehab (pronounced af de-BAW-lan wa de-hab) translates as “A closed mouth is gold.” It means it’s often wise to say nothing (or “silence is golden”).
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With around 1,400 languages, the AtlanticCongo language tree is the biggest in the world by number of languages, and the most-spoken Indigenous African languages all belong to this family. Its huge tree canopy stretches from Senegal in West Africa, across the continent to Kenya in East Africa, and all the way south to eastern South Africa.
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ANORTH-CENTRAL TLANTIC
EASTERN
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SOUTHER N
* Spoken in western Nigeria , Benin, and Togo
* 46 million speakers
Yoruba is an important language in the Nigerian film industry (better known as Nollywood). It was brought to the Americas by enslaved people, and Yoruba words and phrases are still used in the Cuban Santería and Brazilian Candomblé religions.
* Spoken in Ghana
* 27 million speakers
The Akan languages are made up of several closely related dialects, including Twi , the most widely spoken. More than three-quarters of the people in Ghana speak an Akan dialect as their native or second language.
* Spoken in West Africa
* 40 million speakers
Fulfulde is spoken in more than a dozen West African countries, from Senegal to the Central African Republic and Sudan . There are many different dialects (with different names, including Fula , Fulani , and Pulaar), but speakers can usually understand each other.
* Spoken in Senegal , the Gambia, and Mauritania
* 12 million speakers
The English word “banana” is thought to be of Wolof origin (the Wolof word for banana is banaana). It entered the English language via either Spanish or Portuguese .
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If a Wolof speaker doesn’t want to buy something without seeing it first, they might say Duma jënd jaar ci pax (pronounced duma jund jaa-r chi pakh). It means “I won’t buy a chipmunk in a hole.”
There’s a Twi saying that translates as “Let your legs touch your butt.” It means run so fast that your feet hit your bottom—or, hurry up!
* Spoken in Tanzania , Kenya , Uganda , and Rwanda , and in parts of Mozambique , Burundi , and the Democratic Republic of the Congo
* 73 million speakers
Swahili is an East African language with a lot of Arabic mixed in, as well as English , Persian , and Portuguese .
More than two-thirds of people who speak Swahili , speak it as a second language. It is often used as a lingua franca.
You might already know the Swahili phrase hakuna matata from the film and stage musical The Lion King It mea ns “no worries.”
* Spoken in South Africa
* 28 million speakers
* Spoken in South Africa
* 19 million speakers
Xhosa has three different click sounds, with a click consonant in around one in every ten words. In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, characters from the made-up African country of Wakanda speak Xhosa .
The words “mamba” (a kind of venomous snake) and “ impala” (a type of antelope) both come from Zulu . The Zulu language uses fewer click sounds than Xhosa but speakers of the two languages can understand each other pretty well.
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Many Atlantic-Congo languages have click sounds in them. Some clicks are like the sound horse riders make when they want a horse to start walking, some are like the sound you make when you’re irritated and suck your teeth (usually written as “tsk tsk”), and some sound like the “clip clop” noise you might make to imitate the sound of horses’ hooves.
Some languages in this family are spoken by millions of people, including Lingala (40 million speakers), spoken in western Central Africa , Kinyarwanda (15 million speakers), spoken mainly in Rwanda , and Sesotho (13 million speakers), spoken in Lesotho and South Africa . Other big languages in this group are Igbo (44 million speakers), which is spoken in Nigeria , and Ewe (5 million speakers), which is spoken mainly in Ghana , Togo , and Beni n n.
There are also many other African languages and smaller families that don’t belong to either of the major trees.
* Spoken in Madagascar
* 25 million speakers
Malagasy is the only Austronesian language that is mainly spoken in Africa . It is more closely related to Indonesian languages from the other side of the Indian Ocean than to any African languages.
Find out about the other Austronesian languages on pages 44 47.
These are spoken from southern Sudan all the way to Tanzania . In total, there are around 14 million speakers, divided over more than 50 languages. They include Maasai (1.5 million speakers) and Dholuo (4 million speakers).
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This small group of languages isn't related to Atlantic-Congo languages or any of the large families in this chapter, or even to each other. There used to be nine, but most are no longer spoken (including IlKā , ǂ Ungku and IlUll , e ) . The Taa , or !Xóõ language (2,500 speakers), however, is still spoken in Botswana . Click sounds are used extensively, and it has more than 80 different click consonants.
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Over 70 Mande languages are spoken by 40 million people in West Africa , in countries including Senegal , Guinea , and Mali . The most widely spoken ones in this group are Bambara (14 million speakers), Dyula (12 million speakers), Maninka (4.5 million speakers), and Mandinka (2 million speakers).
When groups of people who don’t speak the same language need to communicate, their languages sometimes get mixed together and develop into a new language called a pidgin or Creole language. Such languages can have many millions of speakers, including Nigerian Pidgin (120 million speakers), Cameroonian Pidgin or “ Kamtok ” (12 million speakers), and Krio (8 million speakers).
Languages from the Indo-European family are spoken throughout Africa . Many European languages were brought to Africa by colonizers and settlers.
French is widely spoken in 21 African countries. Today, most of the people who speak French as their native or second language live in Africa , in countries as far apart as Senegal and Madagascar
* Spoken in South Africa and Namibia
* 17 million speakers
Afrikaans evolved from the Dutch language spoken by 17th- and 18th-century colonists and settlers, and the languages of the people enslaved by them. Even though Afrikaans split from Dutch over two centuries ago, speakers of Afrikaans and Dutch can still mostly understand one another.
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There are 22 African countries where English is widely used, although many people elsewhere in Africa speak English as a second language
Portuguese is the most spoken language in six African countries, including Angola and Mozambique . Equatorial Guinea is the only country in Africa where Spanish is widely spoken, but it’s also spoken in Western Sahara
Find out about other Indo-European languages on pages 20 41.
When an English speaker would say something is “just the tip of the iceberg,” an Afrikaans speaker might say it is net die oortjies van die seekoei , which means “just the ears of the hippo.”
Europe is home to the Indo-European group of languages, which has more speakers than any other language group in the world: around 3 billion. It includes five of the world’s top ten most widely spoken languages: English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, and Russian.
Many European languages are spoken as a native language in other parts of the world because of the effects of colonization (see page 6).
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Yiddish and Romani are both spoken in Europe, scattered throughout the continent.
The Canary Islands lie further south, off the coast of Morocco and Western Sahara in Africa.
Russia is the world’s largest country. Some of it is in Europe, and some, to the east of the Ural Mountains, is in Asia.
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Almost all languages spoken in Europe are part of one enormous language tree, which spreads across the whole continent.
For the Afrikaans branch see pages 15 and 19. ENGLISH
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For the Indo-Iranian branch of this tree, see page 58.
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Celtic languages are spoken in Ireland, parts of the UK, and part of France. Six Celtic languages are still spoken today.
* Spoken on the island of Ireland
* 1.9 million speakers
In Irish , you use different numbers depending on whether you’re counting humans or animals. And the language does not have words for yes and no; to answer a question such as “Would you like a cup of tea?”, you reply with “I would like,” or “I wouldn’t like.”
A “Gaeltacht” is an Irish community, mostly along the west coast, where many or most people speak Irish . School children from outside Gaeltacht areas often attend Irish-language courses in the Gaeltacht during summer vacation. The Irish phrase Is fearr Gaeilge briste, ná Béarla clíste (pronounced Is farr gay-elge brishta, na bay-airla clishta) means “Broken Irish is better than clever English.”
* Spoken on the Isle of Man , an island in the Irish Sea
* 2,200 speakers
The last native speaker of Manx died in 1974. To save Manx from being completely forgotten, some people on the island started teaching themselves Manx from books and old recordings. Today, there are a few thousand people who can speak Manx as a second language, and there are around 25 native speakers. This makes Manx a good example of a language that has been brought back to life—a revived language.
When children from a Manx elementary school found out that Manx was still officially listed as extinct in 2009, they got the listing successfully changed. They pointed out that they were learning Manx in school, so it couldn’t be dead!
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* Spoken mainly in Scotland (part of the United Kingdom)
* Around 58,000 speakers
Speakers of Scottish Gaelic simply call their language Gàidhlig, without the “Scottish.” Several English words come from Scottish Gaelic , including trousers, pet, galore, and slogan (which translates as “battle cry”).
* Spoken in Wales (part of the United Kingdom)
* 650,000 speakers
Of all the people who can speak Welsh , around half speak it every day. Almost everyone who speaks Welsh also speaks English .
In Welsh spelling, you often see a double L, which counts as one letter in Welsh . It’s tricky to pronounce, but try this: start to say the letter L, then move your tongue slightly back and up, and breathe out. In Welsh “dd” is also one letter, pronounced “th,” as in “this” and the letter W is a vowel that is usually pronounced “oo” as in “boot.” Now you’re ready to pronounce some interesting-looking Welsh words like mwrddrwg (pronounced moor-throog, meaning mischievous), allweddell (pronounced aLLoo-eth-eLL, meaning piano keyboard), or smwddio (pronounced smoothio, meaning ironing).
This
* Spoken in Cornwall , southwest England (part of the United Kingdom)
* 600 speakers
The last native speaker of Cornish died in 1777, making the language extinct. But people have learned Cornish from books, and there are now a few hundred people who speak Cornish as a second language. Cornish is also used on road signs in the county of Cornwall, and it is taught in over 40 elementary schools. It is another revived language.
* Spoken in the Brittany region of France
* 230,000 speakers
Breton is closely related to Cornish . It is the only living Celtic language that is spoken on the European mainland.
Speakers of Breton don’t just wish someone good luck, they add a bit of extra luck by saying Chañs vat d’ho lapined (pronounced shonz VA do la-PI-ned), which translates as “Good luck to your rabbits.”
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Germanic languages were originally spoken in northern Europe, but they are now spoken all over the world. There are dozens of living Germanic languages, including a few very well-known ones.
* Spoken in Iceland
* 330,000 speakers
Languages often use words from other languages if they don’t have their own, known as loanwords. Some languages don’t have a word for “T-shirt” or “computer,” for example, and use the English words. But when Icelandic speakers need a new word, they ask their National Language Institute to come up with one.
For “mansplaining,” the institute went for the Icelandic hrútskýring (pronounced HROOT-skirring). It is a combination of the word útskýring (“explanation”) and hrútur (“male sheep”). The letters “hr” are also the Icelandic abbreviation for herra (“mister”), so you could also translate hrútskýring as “Mr. Explanation.”
* Spoken in Norway
* 4.3 million speakers
Most languages have one written and one spoken version of their language that is the standard. However, in Norway there are two standard written versions but no standard spoken version. People just speak different Norwegian dialects.
The Norwegian word for tadpole is rumpetroll , which means “bum troll,” and the Norwegian parliament is called stortinget
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The Norwegian , Swedish , and Danish languages all came from Old Norse (which is often called the Viking language ). The three languages have plenty in common, and if you speak one of them, you are able to understand at least some of the other two. Icelandic is also a descendant from Old Norse ( Icelandic speakers can even read Old Norse texts), but is very different.
* Spoken in Denmark , the Faroe Islands , and Greenland
* 6 million speakers
When you mean “no problem” in Danish , you can say ingen ko på isen (pronounced ING-n koh poh EE-sen). It means “no cow on th e ice.” Saying the number 92 in Danish is the opposite of “no problem,” however. It translates as “two plus four-and-a-half times twenty.”
* Spoken in Sweden and parts of Finland
* 13 million speakers
Swedish is the most-spoken Scandinavian language. To say “yes” or show agreement, Scandinavian people often say ja (or simply a ) while breathing in sharply. In northern Sweden , however, they often skip the ja altogether and just make a sound that is a gasp crossed with a slurp.
* Spoken in Europe , the US , and Israel
* 600,000 speakers
I f someone is doing a job badly, a Swedish person might say, “It’s like the goat has been put in charge of the garden.”
* 175 million speakers
Yiddish is spoken in Jewish communities around the world. Although it is a Germanic language, it also has elements of Hebrew and Aramaic . When Yiddish -speaking Jews moved to Eastern Europe , words and grammar from languages including Polish and Ukrainian entered the language.
Yiddish is written in the Hebrew alphabet (although it is not in the same family as Hebrew , which is an Afro-Asiatic language).
* Spoken in Germany , Austria , Switzerland , and Liechtenstein
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Although many languages do this, German is especially famous for sticking lots of words together to make one long new one. How about this one, which has its own Wikipedia page: Donaudampfschiffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtengesellschaft. It means “Association for Subordinate Officials of the Main Maintenance Building of the Danube Steam Shipping Electrical Services.” If you couldn’t care less, you can say Das ist mir Wurst in German (pronounced DAS ist meer WOORST), which means “That’s sausage to me.”
German has many varieties and dialects that sound pretty different from standard German , for example Bavarian and Swabian German , and also the German that is spoken in Switzerland and Austria . A few German varieties are spoken in the Americas , including Pennsylvania Dutch (page 81) and Hunsrik (page 87).
* Spoken in the Netherlands , Belgium , Suriname , and the Dutch Caribbean
* 30 million speakers
In Dutch you can have lots of vowels in a row. The word zaaiuien (meaning “seedling onions”) has six. It’s the same with consonants. The word slechtstschrijvend (literally “worst writing,” which can be used to describe a pen that is horrible to write with) has nine in a row.
The Dutch spoken in the north of Belgium is often called Flemish . It has some different sounds and words (and sometimes different meanings for the same words), but speakers of Flemish and the Dutch that is spoken in the Netherlands can usually understand each other.
* Spoken in the north of the Netherlands and northern Germany
* 450,000 speakers
Frisian and Scots are said to be the closest languages to modern English . A popular Frisian sport is fierljeppen , which involves jumping over a ditch with a long pole. You can see a bit of English in the name of the sport: it translates as “far leaping.”
Turn to the Africa chapter to read about Afrikaans (page 19), which is closely related to Dutch .
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Scots is spoken in Scotland and in the north of the island of Ireland (where it is called Ulster Scots Ulster Scots) by around 1.5 million people. It’s not the same as Scottish English , which is a dialect of English , and it’s not the same as Scottish Gaelic , which is a Celtic language.
The Scots word tartle means hesitating to introduce someone because you’ve forgotten their name. And to hurkle-durkle is to lounge in bed after it’s time to get up.
* Spoken throughout the world
* 1.46 billion speakers
English is not only the most spoken Germanic language, but also the most spoken language in the world by total number of speakers, because of the colonial past (see page 6). It is also used in many industries, including air and space travel, music, and film. Of all the people in the world who speak English , only 380 million or so speak it as their native language . There are around three times as many people in the world who speak English as a second language than there are native speakers .
The United States has the highest number of native English speakers in the world (315 million). The English language comes from the United Kingdom , which is the country with only the seventh highest number of English speakers.
English is made up of many different languages. Germanic tribes brought their languages with them when they invaded England 1,600 years ago. The Romans brought Latin , the Vikings added Norse words, and the Normans added French ones.
This
These include Luxembourgish (420,000 speakers) and Faroese (70,000 speakers). Of the further hundred or so languages that belong to this branch, many are English -based Creole languages, as well as local languages and dialects
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You can still see that English is a mix of languages because it often has several different words for one thing. The word “happy,” for example, comes from Norse , “glad” is a Germanic word, and “joyous” is originally French , yet they all mean pretty much the same. The same goes for “thrust” ( Norse ), “shove” ( Germanic ), and “push” ( French ).
English can be a confusing language to learn. The word “run” can be used in 645 different ways, and “set” can be used in 630 ways. There are 380 words that mean the same as “good,” and around 1,000 new English words a year are added to the dictionary.
The Italic languages spoken today all developed from Latin, the language of the Ancient Romans. Some languages that belong to this group only have a few thousand speakers, but some are spoken throughout the world.
* Spoken in Spain and countries throughout the Americas
* 600 million speakers
Spanish is the most-spoken language on this branch of the Indo-European tree. It grew out of the Latin language but it also borrowed many words from Arabic . Hundreds of years ago, the Spanish language was taken by colonizers to many other parts of the world (see page 6). In total, 20 countries use Spanish as their main language.
Ninety percent of people who speak Spanish as their native language live in the Americas . There are many different varieties, so Spanish speakers in the US and Chile may use some different sounds and words, but they will mostly be able to understand each other. The country with the highest number of Spanish speakers is Mexico , and the US is the world’s fourth largest Spanish -speaking country.
Around the end of the 5th century CE, when the Roman Empire ended, the Latin language separated into local dialects . Over time these changed into modern languages, including Italian Italian, Spanish , and French .
The Latin phrase Quod erat demonstrandum (“What was to be demonstrated”) is useful when you want to sound extra smart, a bit like saying “See? Told you.” It is a Latin mic drop.
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A useful word to know in Spanish is mola . In Spain , it's often used to describe anything that is cool, nice, unexpected, exciting, or surprising. New coat? Mola! Going on a trip? Mola! Learned some Spanish? Mola!
There are also many languages that are based on Spanish . You can read more about some of them on pages 37 and 84.
* Spoken in east and northeast Spain , the Balearic Islands , Andorra , and parts of southern France
* 9 million speakers
Around half of the people who speak Catalan use it as a second language .
Has a friend done something wrong? In Catalan you might say Tu has begut oli (pronounced too hass be-GUT olly). It translates as “You have drunk oil,” which means “You’re in soooo much trouble.”
* Spoken in Romania and Moldova
* Spoken in Italy , San Marino , and parts of Switzerland
* 68 million speakers
Of all the Latin dialects that were spoken in different parts of what we now call Italy , the 14th-century dialect from the Tuscany region became the basis of the Italian language that we know today.
* 28 million speakers
Because Romania is surrounded by countries where Slavic languages are spoken, people are often surprised that Romanian is much more closely related to Italian than to Bulgarian or Serbian (although maybe you spotted “ Roman” in the name “ Romanian”).
Many Italian words have made their way into other languages, especially words to do with food (pizza, cappuccino, spaghetti), music (solo, diva, ballerina, opera), art and fashion (stiletto, scenario, graffiti).
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To wish someone good luck in Italian , you say In bocca al lupo (pronounced in bokka al loopo). It means “Into the mouth of the wolf.”
You’re supposed to answer this with Crepi il lupo (pronounced creppy il loopo), which means “May the wolf die.”
When Romanian speakers want to say someone is annoying them, they use a phrase that translates as “You’re taking me out of the watermelons.”
Other Latin dialects developed into different languages that are also still spoken in Italy , including around Naples and Venice, and on the islands of Sicily and Sardinia.
* Spoken in France , Monaco , Belgium , Luxembourg , and Switzerland , and in countries in Africa , Oceania , and the Americas (see p ages 19, 71, 81 and 87)
* Around 310 million speakers
French is spoken in around 50 countries and territories on all continents (including Antarctica , where it is spoken in French Southern and Antarctic Lands , a French territory). This is because French and Belgian colonizers (see page 6) took the French language with them around the globe.
More than two-thirds of people who speak French use it as a second language. Most second language speakers live in North and West Africa , where French is widely used as a lingua franca. There are more French speakers in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo , than there are in Paris, the capital of France
Québécois (around 7 million speakers) is a variety of French spoken in Canada . The difference between Québécois and standard French is similar to the difference between American and British English
French doesn’t have any words with the letter W in them. If you come across any, they are loanwords, like ‘le WiFi’ or ‘le weekend’ (the letter W is worth ten points in French Scrabble).
In most languages you can ask “What is that thing?” in a f ew words. In French you say Qu’est-ce que c’est que cette chose là (pronounced KESS kuh seh kuh set shoze LAH)— “What is it that this thing here is?” However, most French speakers shorten this.
There are also several languages that are based on French . You can read more about some of them on pages 81 and 87.
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* Spoken mainly in Portugal , Brazil , and several African countries, including Angola and Mozambique
* Around 264 million speakers
Portuguese is also descended from Latin . Today, it is the most spoken language in the southern hemisphere, with the highest numbers of Portuguese speakers in: Brazil in South America (three-quarters of all Portuguese speakers in the world live here) and Angola in southern Africa . This is because colonizers (see page 6) from Portugal took their language to parts of Africa , Asia , and the Americas
There are several other Italic languages with over a million speakers. Galician (2.4 million speakers) is spoken in northwestern Spain . Sicilian (5 million speakers), Neapolitan (4 million speakers), and Sardinian (1 million speakers) are all spoken in Italy .
In Portuguese , the letters K, Y, and W only exist in loanwords . The letters didn’t become part of the official Portuguese alphabet until 2009.
In Portuguese , if you want to tell someone to leave you alone and bother someone else, you say Vai pentear macacos! (pronounced vay penteYAR ma-KA-kos), which me ans “Go comb monkeys.”
There are also several languages that are based on Portuguese . You can read more about some of them on pages 71, 84, and 87.
In total, over 80 languages belong to the Italic branch, although around 25 of them (including Latin ) are no longer spoken. The living languages on the Italic branch are often called the Romance languages because they all come directly from the language that was spoken in Ancient Rome .
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Around 20 languages belong to this group. They are spoken by over 320 million people, mainly in central and eastern Europe.
* Spoken in Poland
* 41 million speakers
To say something isn’t their problem, Polish speakers might use a phrase that translates as “Not my circus, not my monkeys.”
* Spoken in Slovakia
* 7 million speakers
In Slovak , there are many words with lots of consonants. The word držgroš , for example, is pronounced DR(uh)ZJ-grosh (you can sneak in a tiny little “uh” between the r and the ž). It’s what you call someone who is stingy with money (like Ebenezer Scrooge).
* Spoken in Slovenia
* 2.5 million speakers
* Spoken in the Czech Republic
* 11 million speakers
If you need to say that someone is overstepping the line, for example if a neighbor starts playing the drums in the middle of the night, you can say, “Normally I like music, but . . .” and then the rhyming Czech phrase, odcamcaď pocamcaď! (pronounced VOD-tsam-tsatch POD-tsam-tsatch). It m eans “there are limits.”
* Spoken in Lithuania
* 4 million speakers
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In Lithuania , teachers don’t tell kids to stop daydreaming, but to stop counting crows. And when children go to the bathroom, they use a phrase that in folklore means “I’m going to visit the dwarves.”
If a Slovenian speaker wants to express surprise, but they want to avoid saying a bad word, they might say, “Well, I’ll be kicked by a hen.”
* Spoken in Latvia
* 1.5 million speakers
The Latvian phrase Bitt matos! (pronounced a bit like beat-it MAT-oas) is useful if something is going wrong— maybe you’ve missed your bus or forgotten to pack your phone charger. It translates as “Oh, bee in the hair!”
* Spoken in Russia and countries that were part of the former Soviet Union , such as Belarus , Kazakhstan , and Uzbekistan
* 260 million speakers
About half of the people who speak Russian use it as a second language.
The phrase Да нет, наверное (pronounced da nyet, na-VYER-naye) translates as “Yes, no, probably,” and means “Well, maybe not.” For Russian speakers it’s a polite way of expressing an indecisive answer, leaning more toward “no” than “yes.”
* Spoken in Bulgaria
* 10 million speakers
If you want to say “It’s too late for that now” in Bulgarian , use the phrase След дъжд – качулка (pronounced sled duzhd ka-CHOOL-ka), which means “You put your hood up after the rain.”
There are two words for blue in Russian because light blue and dark blue are considered two different colors, just like pink and red in English .
* Spoken in Croatia , Serbia , Bosnia and Herzegovina , and Montenegro
* 19 million speakers
Together these languages are usually called Serbo-Croat . People in Croatia call the language Croatian , Serbians call it Serbian , Bosnians call it Bosnian , and in Montenegro they often call it Naš jezik (pronounced nash yezzik), which means “Our language.” Speakers of the four varieties of Serbo-Croat can understand each other—just like speakers of different varieties of English can usually understand each other.
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* Spoken in Ukraine
* 33 million speakers
The phrase “when the lobster whistles on the mountain” in Ukrainian means “that’s never going to happen.” It’s a little like the English “when pigs fly.”
Other big languages in this family are Belarusian (6 million speakers), which is spoken in Belarus , and Macedonian (1.5 million speakers), which is closely related to Bulgarian and is spoken in North Macedonia .
Because it is not closely related to any of the other Indo-European languages, the Albanian language has a whole branch to itself.
* Spoken in Albania , Kosovo , North Macedonia , and Montenegro
* 7 million speakers
Albanian has different words for dying. If it’s an animal, they ngordh (pronounced ngorth with the “th” as in “that”), and when it’s a human they vdes (pronounced vdes). The only exceptions are war horses and bees. They also vdes .
This branch of the Indo-European language tree is very small, containing only one living language: modern Greek.
* Spoken in Greece and Cyprus
* 13.5 million speakers
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Modern Greek changed gradually from the language that was spoken thousands of years ago in Ancient Greece , and is now very different. There are examples of written Greek that are around 3,000 years old, which makes Greek the oldest living Indo-European language—or at least the language with the oldest “proof” in writing.
In Greece , when you say the same thing at the same time as someone else, you must both touch something red and say
! (pronounced pee-YAS-se KOK-i-noh), which means “touch red,” to make sure nothing bad happens.
The Indo-European tree used to have more branches, including the Anatolian branch, which has completely died out. The extinct Hittite language was part of this branch. The oldest Indo-European writings ever found are Hittite clay tablets that are 3,750 3,750 years old. The Hittite word for “water” is wãtar , which is pronounced exactly like the word water is in English , even though the two languages are separated by thousands of years.
* Spoken all over Europe
* 4.5 million speakers
Romani is the only language from the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family that is spoken mostly on the European continent (see page 58). It is the language of the Romani communities that traditionally moved from place to place, and is the largest minority language in the European Union.
The Romani word for “television” is dinnilos-dicking-muktar , which means “fool’s looking box.”
* Spoken in the Basque country, on the border between Spain and France
* 750,000 speakers
* Spoken in Malta
* 570,000 speakers
The different people who lived on the island of Malta through the centuries left bits of their languages behind. Although Maltese is an Arabic language, it doesn’t use the Arabic script and contains many Italian and English words. Malta is the only country in the European Union that has a language from the Afro-Asiatic language family as its main language.
Basque speakers call their language Euskara . It is not related to any other language, and no one knows for sure where it came from. Languages that don’t belong to a language family are called “language isolates.” Basque might have developed from the language of the people who lived in Europe before the Indo-Europeans arrived.
In Basque , you can express “the day after the day after tomorrow” in one word: etzidamu . The word xuxurlatu (pronounced shush-SHUR-latu) sounds like what it means: to whisper.
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Silbo Gomero Silbo Gomero is a language from the Canary Islands, which are part of Spain . It is based on Spanish , but instead of words it uses whistles to communicate across the deep valleys on the island of La Gomera. Whistled messages can be heard up to 3 miles (5 km) away. Around 20,000 people can whistle this language.
Uralic languages are mainly spoken by people scattered through northeastern Europe and northern Asia. There are around 38 Uralic languages in total. Most are very small.
S ÁMI LANGUA G ES
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FI N N I C
S A MOYEDIC
* Spoken in Estonia
* 1.2 million speakers
Estonian has some particularly unique words, like jäääär (edge of ice), kuuuurija (moon researcher), öö (night), lumememm (snowman), and mesimumm (bumblebee).
Although Finnish Finnish, Estonian , and Hungarian are closely related, speakers of the three languages cannot understand each other.
Livonian is spoken in the east of Latvia
The last native speaker died in 2013, and only a small number of people speak it as a second language. However, in 2020 two Livonian language enthusiasts had a baby, who is learning Livonian from birth. So now Livonian has one native speaker again.
* Spoken in Hungary and parts of neighboring countries
* 17 million speakers
* Spoken in Finland , parts of Sweden , and northern Norway
* 6 million speakers
In most languages there are different pronouns for different genders, including “he/him” and “she/her” in English . In Finnish , the word hän is used, which is gender neutral and can be used for anyone.
Finnish also has a word for the distance a reindeer can travel without having to use the bathroom. It’s poronkusema (pronounced POrron koo sey-ma). It’s 4.6 miles (7.5 km) at most.
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Hungarian is the most widely spoken Uralic language.
In English , if someone criticizes another person for a fault that they have themselves, you might use the phrase “the pot calling the kettle black.” In Hungarian you could say, “The owl tells the sparrow she’s got a big head.”
Sámi languages (30,000 speakers) are spoken mainly in the north of Finland , Norway , and Sweden , and part of northwestern Russia . Samoyedic languages (25,000 speakers), including Enets and Nenets , are spoken mainly around the northern part of the Russian Ural Mountains
The area between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea is called the Caucasus. Parts of it are on the European continent and parts are on the Asian continent, and it is difficult to be strict about which countries and regions belong to which continent. Some are geographically in Asia, some in Europe, and some are in both, but people who live there may identify as either European or Asian.
The languages spoken in this area come from several different family trees, including Indo-European (see pages 22–23) and Turkic (page 60), but also from less well-known language families, such as Kartvelian and Northeast Caucasian.
G* Spoken in Georgia
* 4 million speakers
Georgian is the most widely spoken language in the small Kartvelian language family. It has its own unique alphabet.
The phrase ბაყაყი
is a famous Georgian tongue twister (or perhaps we should say throat twister). It is pronounced baq’aq’i q’iq’inebs, where the q’ is pronounced like the raspy sound you make when something is stuck in the back of your throat and you’re trying to get it out. It means “the frog croaks.”
The Georgian word for “father” is pronounced mama.
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* Spoken in Azerbaijan and northern Iran
* 24 million speakers
Azerbaijani , also called Azeri , belongs to the Turkic language tree on page 60. In Azerbaijan , people use the Latin alphabet, and in Iran they use the Persian one. However, speakers in both countries have little trouble understanding each other.
* Spoken in Armenia and in parts of Georgia , Azerbaijan , Russia , and Ukraine
* 5.5 million speakers
Armenian is part of the Indo-European language family tree on pages 22 23, where it has a whole branch to itself since it has no close links to other languages on the tree.
If an Armenian wants you to stop wasting their time with nonsense, they’ll say Գլուխ
(pronounced glookh ar-du-KEL). It me ans “Stop ironing my head!”
* Spoken in Chechnya , a republic of Russia
* 1.8 million speakers
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Chechen is the most widely spoken language in the Northeast Caucasian language tree. In the past, many people living in Chechnya had to leave because of war, and today there are big Chechen -speaking communities in Turkey , France , and Jordan
Other than Chechen , of the 35 or so languages in the Northeast Caucasian tree, only Avar (1.2 million speakers), spoken in Dagestan in Russia , has over a million speakers. There is also a Northwest Caucasian Northwest Caucasian language tree, with around five languages. The best known of these is Abkhaz (190,000 speakers), spoken in the Republic of Abkhazia .
Asia is made up of a vast mainland and almost 50,000 islands. More people live here than anywhere else on the planet. India and China alone are home to about one-third of all the people in the world.
A F R I C A
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More than 2,000 different languages are spoken in Asia, some with just a few speakers, others among the most widely spoken in the world. These languages belong to a forest of different trees of all shapes and sizes.
b i M a n d
Cantonese B e n g a l i K o r ean N epali Kurukh Hokkie
Gondi Odi a
e s e
Bur m e s e
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This lush tree spreads its many branches and tendrils across half the globe, and includes about a fifth of the world’s total number of languages. Its thick boughs support some of the most widely spoken languages in the world, but it also sprouts smaller branches and tiny twigs.
J A V A N E S E
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With over 1,200 languages, this is the biggest language tree in Asia by number of languages. You will find a forest of smaller ones in the rest of this chapter.
For Malagasy, the only Austronesian language that is mainly spoken in Africa, see page 18.
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For the Oceanic branch of this tree, see the Oceania chapter on page 66.
Most Papuan languages are spoken in Oceania, but a few are spoken in Asia. For other Papuan languages, see page 70.
* Spoken in Malaysia , Indonesia , Singapore , and Brunei
* 250 million speakers
Malay and Indonesian are essentially the same language, although they have different words and accents. Because of the colonial past (see page 6) of this part of Asia , Malay has more words from English , whereas Indonesian has more words from Dutch . Malay/Indonesian is spoken as a second language by about 95 percent of the population of Malaysia and Indonesia
In Malay , there are two words for “we”: kita and kami . Kita is used when it includes the person you’re talking to, and kami doesn’t.
“We are going home” in Malay is Kita pulang if the person you are talking to is supposed to come too, but Kami pulang if you are leaving the person you’re talking to.
* Spoken on the island of Java but also throughout Indonesia and in Suriname
* 98 million speakers
There are two ways of greeting someone in Javanese . To a friend, you can say Arep neng endi (pronounced a-rep neng en-DEE), but if you’re asking someone you have to be extra polite to, you use a totally different sentence: Badhe dhateng pundi (pronounced ba-TEK da-TENG pun-DEE). They both mean the same, however: Where are you going?
* Spoken in the western part of the Indonesian island of Java
* 42 million speakers
The Sundanese word borokokok can be used if you are startled or if you almost lose your balance, but it can also be used to describe someone who likes to sleep a lot.
* Spoken in the Philippines
* 83 million speakers
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Over half of the people who speak Tagalog use it as a second language .
Have you ever had the urge to squeeze something, either out of anger or because it is really cute, like puppies, babies’ cheeks, or piglets? In Tagalog there is a word that describes this feeling: Gigil .
* Spoken in the Philippines
* 22 million speakers
Cebuano is the second most-spoken language in the Philippines after Tagalog
A Cebuano phrase to describe food or drink that you don’t like translates as “like water where the monkey washed his hands.”
The Buru language (45,000 speakers) is spoken mainly on the island of Buru , which is part of the Indonesian Maluku Islands Buru people have a special language that they must use when they enter the uninhabited Garan area in the northwest of the island, to help make sure that no natural disasters happen. All children are taught the language from a young age.
This
* Spoken in Malaysia , Indonesia , and Brunei
* 4 million speakers
Iban is spoken in three countries on the island of Borneo : the Indonesian province of West Kalimantan , the Malaysian state of Sarawak , and Brunei . The Sarawak soccer team uses Ngap Sayot! as their battle cry. It mean s “Eat vegetables!” to show that for them, beating other teams is as easy as eating vegetables.
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Kambera (250,000 speakers), which is spoken on the Indonesian island of Sumba , has a name for the creator of the world: Na ma nàmu ma-mànu-ma. It literally means “the one who always looks after us.”
Hiligaynon and Ilocano (9 million speakers each) are spoken in the Philippines : Hiligaynon , mainly on its central and southern islands, and Ilocano , mostly on the northern island of Luzon . In Indonesia , Madurese (8 million speakers) is spoken on the island of Madura , Minangkabau (5.5 million speakers) on the island of Sumatra , Sasak (2.5 million speakers) on the island of Lombok , and Balinese (4 million speakers) on the island of Bali .
This tree is made up of over a hundred mostly small languages (with one big exception). Its branches spread around Southeast Asia and eastern India.
* Spoken in Vietnam
* 85 million speakers
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Vietnamese has more speakers than all the other languages in this family put together. Because of its large Vietnamese community, in 2013 the Czech Republic officially recognized Vietnamese as a minority language in the country.
If you want to say something’s the greatest of all time in Vietnamese, say Đỉnh Của Đỉnh (pronounced ding kwa ding), which means “the best of the best.”
* Spoken in Cambodia
* 18 million speakers
The Khmer language has the largest alphabet in the world, with a total of 74 letters.
Santali (7.5 million speakers) is spoken mainly in India , while the Mon language (1 million speakers) is spoken in Myanmar. There are more than 120 other languages in this family, but they have (far) fewer speakers.
The 80 or so languages that belong to this tree, which is also known as the Tai-Kadai family, are spoken in Southeast Asia and southern China. One branch supports a language that is bigger than all the others combined.
* Spoken in Thailand
* 61 million speakers
Almost two-thirds of all the people who speak a Kra-Dai language speak Thai , and almost two-thirds of all the people who speak Thai use it as a second language .
In Thai , repeating a word twice is like underlining it to give it more emphasis. If your food is super spicy, for example, it is not just เผ็ด (pronounced ped) but เผ็ดๆ (ped ped). And if you’re feeling really good, you’re not just สบาย (pronounced sabai) but สบายๆ (sabai sabai).
LAN G UAGES
ZH U ANG L AO
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* Spoken in Laos and Thailand
* 30 million speakers
Zhuang languages (16 million speakers) are spoken in southern China , and Shan (5 million speakers) is spoken in Myanmar. There are dozens of other Kra-Dai languages, but they are a lot smaller.
There are more Lao speakers in Thailand than in Laos . Spoken Lao and Thai are pretty similar, so speakers of both languages can usually understand each other. The two languages are written in a slightly different script.
This tree covers an area all the way from the Himalayas, across the whole of China, and throughout Southeast Asia. The Sinitic branch is by far the thickest, because it needs to support a few very big languages and one enormous one. The other branches have fewer big languages to carry, but they support hundreds of little ones.
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Y U E
GA N
H A KKA
H O K KIEN
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M I N
W U
S I N I T IC
XI A N G
* Spoken in China , Taiwan , and Singapore
* 1.14 billion speakers
Mandarin is the biggest language in the world by number of people who speak it as their native language. Around 200 million people speak it as a second language.
In Mandarin , if someone is pretending to be more important than they really are, you can say that they are “like a pig who has stuck shallots up his nose to pretend he is an elephant.” And if someone is spoiling something by overdoing it, you might say they are “drawing legs on a snake.”
If someone asks you how you are and your answer is “so-so,” you can say 马马虎虎 (pronounced mămăh ŭ h ŭ ), which means “horse horse, tiger tiger.”
* Spoken in southern China
* 87 million speakers
Chinese languages don’t use an alphabet to spell words. Instead, each word has its own symbol, called a character. It takes years to learn, even for native speakers. There are over 50,000 different characters!
Yue languages are a separate group of Chinese languages, and Cantonese is by far the best known and most spoken. It is spoken in Hong Kong , which has a big port and a film industry, so Cantonese is well known outside China .
Together, the symbols 加油 (pronounced gah yow) form the phrase “add oil.” Originally it was used by spectators of car races to encourage the drivers to step on the gas and go faster. Nowadays it’s an all-purpose cheer of encouragement, like “Go for it!”
“ Chinese” is not a language. There are many Chinese languages that are all different, which means that two people can both speak “ Chinese” and still not understand each other when speaking. They can write characters for each other to explain what they mean, though!
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* Spoken in eastern China , mainly around Shanghai
* 80 million speakers
There are many different varieties of Wu , including Shanghainese (the most widely spoken Wu language), Wenzhounese , and Suzhounese .
* Spoken in Myanmar
* 43 million speakers
In the Sino-Tibetan family, Burmese is the biggest language that is not part of the Sinitic branch. It has its own script, written from left to right without spaces between words, although nowadays spaces are often added to make it easier to read.
* Spoken in the Tibet Autonomous Region in western China , northern India , northern Pakistan , Nepal , and Bhutan
* 6 million speakers
There are around 40 Tibetic languages and dialects. Standard Tibetan , which is based on the dialect of Lhasa, the capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region , is used as a lingua franca by most Tibetan speakers. Classical Tibetan is an important language in Tibetan Buddhism
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There are many more—and very large—languages that belong to this family. Min languages (70 million speakers) are spoken all over south and southeast China , Taiwan , and parts of Southeast Asia Hokkien is the most widely spoken Min language outside mainland China , and the second most-spoken language in Taiwan . Hakka (44 million speakers), Xiang (38 million speakers), and Gan (23 million speakers) are all spoken in south central China . Hakka is also spoken in Taiwan . Karenic languages (4.5 million speakers) form a separate branch in the Sino-Tibetan language tree. They are spoken in southeast Myanmar and western Thailand
This tree has one very big branch, one very small branch, and that’s it.
* Spoken in Japan
* 123 million speakers
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Japanese uses three different writing systems: hiragana, katakana, and kanji. All three can be used together, even in the same sentence. Japanese can be written from top to bottom (with columns going from right to left) or from left to right (with lines going from top to bottom, like standard English text).
Ever come back from the hairdresser’s and realized that it was a bad idea? In Japanese there is a word for this: age-otori (pronounced aah-gey-oh-toh-ree). It means “to look worse after a haircut.”
The only other living languages in the Japonic language family are eleven languages that are spoken on the Ryukyu Islands , which are all in great danger of dying out. These islands, the biggest of which is Okinawa , form a string of islands between Japan and Taiwan . Because they are so isolated, Ryukyuan languages are not only very different from Japanese , but also from each other.
Ainu is a language that doesn’t appear to be related to any other languages (a language isolate). It is still spoken by a handful of older people in northern Japan
For a long time, it was thought that Korean might be related to Japanese and other languages. Today, it is usually considered to be a small language tree by itself, with one big branch and one tiny twig.
The only other Korean family member is Jeju , spoken by 5,000 people on Jeju Island off the coast of Korea
Only one branch of this tree has more than a million speakers.
* Spoken in North and South Korea
* 82 million speakers
The Korean phrase “even monkeys fall from trees” mea ns “everyone makes mistakes.”
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CENTR A L
SO U T HERN
* Spoken in Mongolia
* 6 million speakers
Mongolian is by far the most widely spoken language of the Mongolic language family.
Instead of simply asking “How are you?”, Mongolian speakers ask each other “Are you getting through summer fat and in comfort?” The fat refers to their animals, because fat animals are important when you lead a nomadic lifestyle, and the comfort refers to both animals and people.
This tree includes about 80 languages on its leafy branches, which are spoken by over 215 million people in southern India.
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* Spoken in south central India
* 96 million speakers
Telugu is the most widely spoken Dravidian language, and the fastestgrowing language in the United States
* Spoken in southern India and Sri Lanka
* 87 million speakers
* Spoken mainly in southeast India
* Around 59 million speakers
The Kannada phrase ಕೈ
(pronounced kai kesaraadare baayi mosaru) means “If the hands get muddy, the mouth gets fed.” In other words: working hard (and getting your hands muddy) pays off.
The Tamil language is worshipped as a deity. According to Hindu legend, Tamil Thāi (Mother Tamil), was created by the Hindu god Shiva.
If you want somebody to go away, in Tamil you say, “Please move so that the air can come in.”
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* Spoken mainly in southern India
* Around 38 million speakers
Saying “Yeah, right . . .” in Malayalam is easy: just say “ Uva . . .” and look unimpressed.
The word Malayalam is a palindrome (you can read it back to front).
Most Dravidian languages are spoken in southern India , but exceptions include Brahui (2.8 million speakers), spoken in Pakistan and Afghanistan , and Kurukh (2.3 million speakers), spoken in eastern India and Bangladesh . Other Dravidian languages include the central Indian Gondi language (3 million speakers), and the southwest Indian Tulu language (1.8 million speakers).
The Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European language tree (see pages 22 23) includes over 300 languages spoken by 1.5 billion people, mainly in Asia.
IRAN I A N SOUTHERN NORTH WESTERN GUJA
See pages 23 and 37 for Romani, an Indo-Iranian language mainly spoken in Europe.
NORTH E R N
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Sanskrit is a sacred language in Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism. It is still used daily by a few thousand people in India, mostly for religious purposes.
* Spoken in India (Hindi) and Pakistan (Urdu)
* 609 million (Hindi) and 232 million (Urdu) speakers
Spoken Hindi and Urdu are so similar that they are considered two forms of the same language (usually called Hindi-Urdu , or Hindustani ). The writing systems, however, are completely different. At least half of the people who speak Hindi-Urdu use it as a second language .
* Spoken in Bangladesh and parts of northeast India
* 273 million speakers
If you want to say something is awesome in Bengali , you say it’s
(pronounced fata fati).
An English speaker might use the phrase “casting pearls before swine” if something is unlikely to be valued or appreciated. In Hindi you would say “like playing the flute for a buffalo.”
* Spoken in Iran , Afghanistan , Tajikistan , and Uzbekistan
* 108 million speakers
* Spoken in the Punjab region of Pakistan and India
* 119 million speakers
The word ਚੰਗਾ (pronounced changaa) is a useful word in Punjabi , used for anything great, nice, or generally okay.
This
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Lots more Indo-Iranian languages are spoken by many millions of people. The largest ones in India are Marathi (99 million speakers) and Gujarati (62 million speakers), both spoken in Maharashtra and Gujarat , and Odia (39 million speakers), spoken in Odisha .
Other big languages in this family include Kurdish (25 million speakers), spoken in Kurdistan , Nepali (25 million speakers), spoken in Nepal , Sinhala (18 million speakers) spoken in Sri Lanka, and Pashto (60 million speakers), which is spoken in Afghanistan and Pakistan .
Persian and Farsi are different names for the same language, which is also called Tajik in Tajikistan and Dari in Afghanistan If someone does something small for you, you might say (pronounced DAST e Shomaa Dard NA-ko-neh). It means “may your hand not hurt” (from all that you’ve done for me).
Because of the effects of colonialism, English is widely spoken in Asia . There are 128 million speakers of English in India alone. There are also small communities where Portuguese , French , or Spanish is spoken.
There are over 30 Turkic languages, spoken by around 200 million people. This language tree spreads out over an immense area, from Turkey all the way to northern Siberia.
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* Spoken in Turkey and Cyprus
* 90 million speakers
Turkish is the most widely spoken Turkic language. A few well-known words in English originally come from Turkish , such as yogurt, coffee, and kiosk.
* Spoken in Turkmenistan , Afghanistan , and Iran
* 6.5 million speakers
* Spoken in Uzbekistan and northern Afghanistan
* 31 million speakers
In 2002, the president of Turkmenistan decided to rename all the months of the year, naming January after himself. Two years after he died, the old names were restored. This goes to show that language changes don’t always work.
Kichkina demang bizni, ko’tarib uramiz sizni (pronounced KITSCH-kinah DEM-mang BIZ-ni, KOH-tahrib OOH-rahmiz SIZ-ni) is a useful rhyming phrase if you’re a young Uzbek speaker. It means you should never underestimate kids (literally, “Don’t call us small, we will win”).
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Äynu is a secret language that uses mainly Iranian words but with Turkic grammar rules. It is spoken by around 12,000 nomadic Äynu people who live in western China . They use it when they want to keep what they are saying secret from outsiders. Äynu is not related to the Japanese Ainu language.
Of the other Turkic languages, Azerbaijani has the most speakers—you can read about this language on page 41. Other languages in this family include Kazakh (17 million speakers), which is spoken in Kazakhstan , Uyghur (11 million speakers), spoken in the Xinjiang region in northwest China and parts of Tajikistan , and Kyrgyz (5 million speakers), which is spoken in Kyrgyzstan . Yakut (450,000 speakers) is spoken in the eastern Siberian republic of Yakutia
One of the branches of the Afro-Asiatic language tree stretches across North Africa but also all over the Middle East, where it has grown several well-known languages.
The rest of the Afro-Asiatic tree is on pages 10–11. Find out more about its languages on pages 12–13.
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It is said that Yukaghir (see bottom of page 63) has a word for a time unit called “the kettle boiled,” which in Siberia is about an hour. An hour and a half is called “the frozen kettle boiled.”
* Spoken in Israel
* 9 million speakers
Hebrew is the language of the Jewish people and was used to write the Hebrew Bible (called the Old Testament in the Christian tradition). Originally it was a spoken language as well as a written one, but people stopped speaking it in everyday life nearly 2,000 years ago, continuing to use it as a written language for religious purposes. At the end of the 19th century, people started speaking Hebrew again, so it is a revived language. After the Second World War, it became an official language of the newly created state of Israel , where it is now the most widely spoken language.
* Spoken throughout the Middle East
* Spoken across western Asia and North Africa
* 370 million speakers
Arabic was first spoken in western Asia , in the area of modern-day Israel , Palestine , Jordan , Lebanon , Syria , and parts of Turkey , and has been around for several thousand years. The holy scripture of Islam , the Qur’an, is written in classical Arabic , so this is a very important language for Muslims .
Written Arabic is the same throughout the Arabicspeaking world, but spoken Arabic has many different dialects and varieties, so people from different Arabic -speaking countries have difficulty understanding each other.
This phrase is pretty much the same everywhere though: (pronounced assalamu alaykum). It means “peace be upon you,” and is used as a greeting.
* 500,000 speakers -
The Arabic letter ta (pronounced tah) is sometimes used as an emoticon because it resembles a smiley face: ت
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Aramaic was originally spoken in what is now Syria , Iraq , and eastern Turkey . It has been written and spoken, in different varieties, for at least 3,000 years and it is still spoken today, although there are not many speakers left.
At least 2,000 more languages are spoken in Asia , from Soqotri (110,000 speakers) in Yemen , to Yukaghir (400 speakers) in Siberia
PHILIPPINES
Many European languages are spoken in Oceania because of the effects of colonization (see page 6). Kala w L a g a w Ya
FEDERATED STATES OF
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Thousands of different languages are spoken in Oceania. Some languages have distant relations in Asia, some are part of a huge group of little languages, and some are all by themselves. The island of New Guinea alone is home to as many as a thousand languages, and there are also hundreds of Indigenous Australian languages.
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Easter Island lies thousands of miles to the west in the Pacific Ocean, closer to the coast of Chile in South America than to New Zealand.
You’ll find the rest of this looming tree in the Asia chapter, on pages 44–45. The biggest and most well-known languages on this branch are spoken on islands in East and Southeast Asia, but hundreds of smaller ones are spoken in Oceania, on more than a thousand islands scattered across the Pacific Ocean.
Kilivila (20,000 speakers) is an Oceanic language that is spoken on the Trobriand Islands Islands. The word mokita in Kilivila means “a painful fact that everybody knows but does not mention to avoid causing more pain or embarrassment.”
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* Spoken in Samoa , American Samoa , and New Zealand
* 500,000 speakers
The Samoan Islands are spread out over around 1,100 square miles in the Pacific Ocean . Samoan is spoken by most of the 250,000 people who live there, but the total number of speakers in the world is about twice as many, because there are many Samoan speakers in other countries, such as New Zealand and the United States .
If you want to make friends in Samoa , say O le lakapi o le taaloga lea e taaalo ai i le lagi (which is pronounced how it’s written, except the “g,” which is pronounced “ng”). It means “Rugby is the game played in heaven.”
* Spoken on the Hawaiian island of Ni ‘ ihau and across the Hawaiian islands
* 2,000 speakers
* Spoken in New Zealand
* 125,000 speakers
Until the middle of the 20th century, Māori (or Te Reo , which means “the language”), was spoken by most Indigenous Māori people, but by the 1980s, only a fifth of them spoke it fluently. Today, more and more people are learning how to speak Māori , including New Zealanders without Māori roots.
In Māori , the phrase “don’t die like an octopus, die like a hammerhead shark” is used to encourage someone not to give up. It’s said that an octopus doesn’t resist much when it’s captured, but a hammerhead puts up a big fight.
* Spoken in Fiji
* 650,000 speakers
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Hawaiian is the language of the Indigenous people of Hawai‘i . It has 13 letters: A, E, H, I, K, L, M, N, O, P, U, W, and the ‘ okina . The ‘ okina is pronounced like the pause that you hear in the middle of “uh-oh.”
Bula (BOO-lah) is a very useful Fijian word to know. It literally means “life,” but you can use it for all kinds of things, from greeting someone to saying “cheers.” You can even use it to say “bless you” if someone sneezes.
Some of the more widely spoken Oceanic languages include Tongan (187,000 speakers), Tahitian (125,000 speakers), and Gilbertese (120,000 speakers). There are over 500 more Oceanic languages, most of which have fewer than 100,000 speakers (many of them far fewer), such as Rapa Nui , the Indigenous language of Easter Island (fewer than 1,000 speakers).
Australia’s First languages are spoken by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Most belong to the Pama-Nyungan language family, but there are also many language isolates. When the Europeans arrived, there were at least 300 Australian languages. Today, only around half of these are still spoken, and fewer than 50 have more than 100 speakers. However, communities are working hard to make sure that these languages continue to be heard and spoken by new generations.
* Spoken in the Northern Territory, Australia
* 3,000 speakers
The Warlpiri language is one of the more widely spoken Australian First languages. The Warlpiri word for red is yalu-yalu , which means “blood-blood” and the word for green is yukuri-yukuri , which means “grass-grass.”
* Spoken in Queensland, Australia
* 200 speakers
Some Australian languages, including Warlpiri , have two complete versions: spoken and signed. Sign language is used in rituals, or when it is important to be silent, for example while hunting. It is also used after someone has died. In some traditions, widows are not allowed to speak while they are in mourning for their husbands, and this period can last months or even years. During this time, they must only communicate using the signed version of their language.
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Instead of left and right, the Kuuk Thaayorre language uses north, south, east, and west to express direction. So instead of saying “my left hand,” speakers will say “my northeastern hand” or “my southern hand” depending on which way they are facing. There are several other Australian languages that do this (including the Guugu Yimithirr language, the source of the word “kangaroo”). Speakers can work out where they are much better than speakers of other languages.
* Spoken in the Northern Territory, Australia
* 2,000 speakers
Murrinh-Patha is an Australian First language that has been growing over the past generation or so. It is still a very small language, but it is taught in schools, and it is used as a lingua franca by people in their daily lives. The name Murrinh-Patha means “language good.”
All of Australia’s First languages are spoken by very few people, and even the more widely spoken ones have a few thousand speakers at the most. They include Dhuwal (4,200 speakers), Pitjantjatjara (3,500 speakers), and Tiwi (2,000 speakers). Kalaw Lagaw Ya (900 speakers) is the most widely-spoken Torres Strait Islander language.
In some Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander groups, certain family members are not allowed to speak or interact with each other. For example, in some communities, contact between mothers-in-law and sonsin-law is not allowed. This often means that certain family members avoid each other completely. However, if, for example, a man is speaking and knows that his mother-in-law may be able to hear him, he can switch to a language used especially for this purpose.
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SOUT H ERN DALY
Mbabaram is an Australian language from northern Queensland that has not been spoken for around 40 years. The Mbabaram word for “dog” is dúg , which was pronounced almost the same as the English word. There is no relationship between English and Mbabaram , so it’s pure coincidence that both languages evolved to have the same word for the same thing.
The island of New Guinea is home to a huge number of different languages. Besides Austronesian languages, there are more than 800 mostly small languages in 30 to 40 unrelated language families, and at least 30 language isolates. Together, the nonAustronesian languages that are spoken here are known as the Papuan languages. There are as many different languages in this Papuan group as in the whole of Europe and Asia put together!
* Spoken in Papua New Guinea
* 230,000 speakers
The largest single family of Papuan languages, the Trans New Guinea family, is a group of over 300 languages. This makes it one of the biggest language families by number of languages (see page 90). It is almost as big as the Afro-Asiatic tree (see pages 10 13), which stretches over three continents.
* Spoken in Papua New Guinea
* 130,000 speakers
Enga is the most widely spoken Indigenous language on the island of New Guinea
A lthough most of the hundreds of Papuan languages are very small, there are a few that are spoken by thousands of people. Kuman (190,000 speakers) and Huli (150,000 speakers) are both spoken in central Papua New Guinea . Western Dani (180,000 speakers) is spoken across the border in the central highlands of the Indonesian part of New Guinea
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The Melpa language has special words and phrases that are used during the harvest of karuka nuts. Normal words are thought to be unhealthy for the plants, or annoy the forest spirits, so to make sure that they don’t spoil the harvest, people switch to the “secret” language. There are several other Papuan languages that do this as well.
Several Creole languages have been formed from contact between Malay and European languages and Indigenous languages. Some of these are spoken by millions of people.
* Spoken in Papua New Guinea
* 4 million speakers
Norfuk (around 2,000 speakers), spoken on Norfolk Island in the Pacific Ocean Pacific Ocean, is a mix of 18th-century English and Tahitian . It is a socalled "cant"—a language or set of words that can be used as a secret language, so that people who don’t know the language can’t understand what you’re saying.
Tok Pisin is the most widely spoken language in Papua New Guinea . It is a Creole language based on several Papuan languages, including words from English , German , Portuguese , and Austronesian languages.
Tok Pisin is used as an everyday language between people who don’t speak each other’s native language (a lingua franca).
The Tok Pisin word bilong means that something belongs to something else. The question Wanem bilong yu? means “What is your name?” (literally, “What name belongs to you?”). Gras bilong fes means “beard”—“grass that belongs to the face!”
While most Papuan languages are spoken in Oceania , a few (the North Halmahera and the Timor-Alor-Pantar languages) are spoken on islands in Southeast Asia .
There are many more Creole languages in Oceania , most of which are English -based, including Hawaiian Pidgin (1 million speakers), Pijin (300,000 speakers), which is spoken in the Solomon Islands , and Bislama (200,000 speakers) in the island country of Vanuatu
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Indo-European languages have taken over from many of the local languages that were spoken in Oceania before Europeans arrived. Around three-quarters of the people who live in Oceania speak English as their native or second language, mainly in Australia and New Zealand but also in many other countries and territories in the Pacific Islands , including Hawai ‘ i i.
French is spoken in New Caledonia , Vanuatu , and several French territories in the Pacific Ocean , and Spanish is spoken on Easter Island
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Today, the most widely spoken languages of North America were introduced from Europe because of the effects of colonization—mainly English, Spanish, and French (see page 6).
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Almost all the languages of North America (including Central America and the Caribbean) are spoken by a fairly small number of people. There are many different ones, belonging to several different language trees. Some are scattered across the continent, while others are confined to a particular area.
This is one of the largest Indigenous American trees, with over 40 languages that are still spoken today. Its branches spread all the way from the western United States and Texas down to Mexico, and as far south as Nicaragua.
* Spoken in Mexico
* 1.8 million speakers
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The Nahuatl language, spoken at the time of the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire , didn’t disappear, but slowly changed to become the Nahuatl that is still in use today. Several well-known Nahuatl words have been adopted by other languages, including avocado, chocolate, tomato, and Mexico.
Many Uto-Azteca n languages can be found in Mexico , including Tarahumara , or Rarámuri (90,000 speakers); Huichol , or Wixárika (60,000 speakers); and Mayo (40,000 speakers). Hopi , or Hopílavayi (6,000 speakers) and Shoshoni , or Sosoni’ taikwappe (2,000 speakers) are both spoken in the US . O’odham (15,000 speakers) is spoken in both Mexico and the US
Mayan languages are spoken by around six million people, mainly in southern Mexico and northern Central America. Around 30 living languages belong to this tree, although many of them only have a few thousand speakers.
* Spoken in Guatemala and Belize
* 1.3 million speakers
Speakers of Q’eqchi’ don’t just simply ask each other “How are you?”, they ask Ma sa aach’ool? (pronounced mah sah ah choal), which means “Is there contentment in your heart?” The other person responds Sa inch’ool. Tojo’kre (pronounced sah een chol. Toho cray), which means “There is contentment in my heart.”
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Most other languages in the Mayan language family have (often far) fewer than half a million speakers. Exceptions include K’iche’ (1.1 million speakers in Guatemala and Mexico); Yucatec Maya , or Maayat'aan (800,000 speakers in Mexico and Belize ); and Tzotzil and Tzeltal (600,000 speakers each in southern Mexico).
Itzá’ was spoken when the famous Mayan city of Chichén Itzá Chichén Itzá was built more than a thousand years ago, long before European colonization. Many words used by modern Itzá’ people are still the same as those used by the Maya people that built the ancient city in what is now Mexico Mexico. Itzá’ is still spoken by around 400 people in Guatemala
Around 40 languages belong to this tree, although less than half are still spoken. Its branches stretch across Canada and the US, all the way from the Rocky Mountains to the East Coast.
* Spoken across Canada , from Alberta in the west to Newfoundland and Labrador in the east
This
* 117,000 speakers
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There are around ten Cree-Innu-Naskapi dialects. Taken together, they make this the most-spoken Indigenous North American language in Canada . Because of differences between dialects, speakers in one part of the country may not always understand speakers in another.
The Plains Cree term for “pizza” is pwakamo-micim , which means “vomit food.” The Innu word for “nun” is kakashteukupiss , which means “the one in a black dress,” and is also used to mean “penguin.”
Ojibwe , or Anishinaabemowin (50,000 speakers), is mainly spoken around and to the northwest of the Great Lakes in Canada and the US . Other Algonquian languages with over a thousand speakers include Blackfoot , or Siksiká’ (5,000 speakers), Mi’kmaq , or Mi’kmawi’simk (7,000 speakers), and Arapaho , or Hinóno’eitíít (1,000 speakers). Cheyenne , or Tsėhesenėstsestotse ; Shawnee ; Menominee , or omaeqnomenēweqnaesewen ; and most other living languages in this group only have a few hundred—or sometimes only a few dozen— speakers left. Others, such as Mohican , currently have no fluent speakers, but are being revived.
The Siouan tree stretches its low branches across central North America, from Louisiana and Alabama, westward across the Great Plains and northward to the plains of Alberta. Of the 20 or so languages that belong to this small tree, a handful are still spoken.
* Spoken in central North America
* 5,000 speakers
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This group is made up of several languages and dialects. Lakota and Dakota are both spoken mainly in North and South Dakota , and speakers of most Lakota and Dakota dialects can understand each other. Nakota , or Stoney , is spoken further north, mainly in Alberta , Canada .
As a group, the people who speak these languages were called “Sioux” by French colonizers. The people themselves use the name “the Seven Council Fires,” or Očhethi Šakowiŋ .
In Lakota , capa (pronounced cha-pah) means “beaver.” I t translates as “swims-stick-in-mouth.”
Crow , or Apsáalooke (4,000 speakers), is spoken in the US state of Montana. Apsáalooke means “children of the raven” ( which is simply translated as “Crow” in the English name). Most of the other languages in this family have very few—and sometimes no—fluent speakers.
Languages that belong to this tree are spoken by people all over western North America, mainly in northwestern Canada and southwestern US. Just under 50 languages belong to the tree, including a few very well-known ones, although many are no longer spoken.
* Spoken in the US , mainly in Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah
* 170,000 speakers
Navajo , or Diné Bizaad , is the most widely spoken Indigenous language in the US . When speaking Navajo , words are chosen depending on the shape of the thing being spoken about. For example, you would use a different word for “give” depending on whether you’re asking for ice cream or a ball, because ice cream is soft and a ball is solid and round.
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Navajo speakers sent secret messages for the US military in the Second World War. Navajo was selected as a code because it is very different from both German and Japanese (the languages of the opposite side in the War), and no Navajo dictionaries existed at the time. Code talkers had to be creative: for example, Navajo did not have a word for submarine, so they translated it as “iron fish.”
Speakers of Cherokee , or Tsalagi (an Iroquoian language), see page 80, and Comanche , or Numu Tekwapti (a Uto-Aztecan language), see page 74, also served as code talkers.
Western Apache , or Ndee biyáti’ (14,000 speakers), is spoken in northern Mexico and the US states of New Mexico and Arizona, and Chipewyan , or Dëne (12,000 speakers), is spoken in northwestern Canada . Other Athabaskan languages include North and South Dene (2,000 speakers) and Dogrib , or Tłı̨chǫ Yatıì (1,500 speakers).
This small tree includes around ten languages (sometimes also called Inuit-Yupik-Unangan languages) spoken in the northernmost parts of North America.
* Spoken in Alaska , Greenland , and northern Canada
* 120,00 0 speakers
With around 57,000 speakers, Kalaallisut is the most widely spoken Inuit language. It is spoken mostly in Greenland , which is a Danish territory, so many Kalaallisut speakers also speak Danish Inuktitut , another Inuit language, is spoken by 42,000 people, mainly in Arctic communities in Canada .
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* Spoken in Alaska , Greenland , and northern Canada
* 20,000 speakers
With around 11,000 speakers, Central Alaskan Yup’ik , or Yugtun , is the most widely spoken Yupik language. It has words that can be as long as a whole sentence in English . To ask someone politely to make you a paper airplane, for example, you need just one word: teng-ssuutnguacuaraliyugnganritarpenga-qaa (pronounced teng-sutt-nuh-ajora-lee-yug-nganritar-peng-k’aa).
Many Indigenous North American North American languages have been losing speakers since Europeans arrived more than 500 years ago. However, lots of vibrant Indigenous communities are making sure their languages are protected for new generations of speakers. Their languages are part of who they are, and connect them to ancestors who died long before people spoke English in what is now North America America.
There are around 30 more North American language families (and as many language isolates). That’s far too many to list, so let’s look at just a few.
* Spoken in Honduras , Guatemala , and Belize
* 120,000 speakers
When the first Europeans arrived in the Americas at the end of the 15th century, the first Indigenous language they came into contact with was Taíno , an Arawakan language (see page 86) that was spoken all over the Caribbean at the time. Because of this, many words from Taíno made their way into European languages, including hammock, canoe, potato, papaya, barbecue, tobacco, and guava. It is thought that the Taíno language died out within 100 years of the arrival of European colonizers.
Garifuna is an unusual language because it is a mixture of languages from different language trees: it’s half Arawakan , a quarter Cariban , and the rest is made up of European and perhaps West African languages.
Other North American North American languages with more than 10,000 speakers include the Mixtec (520,000 speakers) and Zapotec languages (490,000 speakers). Both are part of the Oto-Manguean language family and are spoken in Mexico Mexico. Keres (13,000 speakers) is a language isolate that is spoken in New Mexico , and Choctaw , or Chahta anumpa (10,000 speakers), a member of the Muskogean language family, is spoken in Oklahoma and Mississippi.
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MO H A W K
Iroquoian languages come from eastern North America North America. Today, Mohawk ( Kanien’kéha ) and other Northern Iroquoian languages are spoken over an area stretching from Ontario through New York State and Quebec. The only Southern Iroquoian language, Cherokee ( Tsalagi ), is spoken in western North Carolina and Oklahoma. These two languages each have several thousand speakers. Others in the family have fewer, but most are now being learned again by children.
Most North American Creole languages are spoken in the Caribbean and are the result of contact between colonizers and people who were enslaved by them. Many are English-based, but there are also several that are based on French and other European languages.
* Spoken in Haiti
* Around 13 million speakers
Haitian Creole , or Kreyòl , is a French -based Creole language with elements of West African languages such as Igbo (see page 16). It is the nati ve language of most of the people in Haiti and the most-spoken Creole language in the world.
* Spoken in Jamaica
* 3.2 million speakers
Jamaican Patois , or Patwa , is based on English , but with many other influences including West African languages, Spanish , Hindi , Chinese , and others.
If you want everyone to squeeze in on a crowded bus, you can say Small up yuhself in Jamaican Patois —make yourself smaller.
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The three most widely spoken languages in North America English English, Spanish , and French —were brought there by European colonizers and settlers (see page 6). English is spoken throughout Northern America and in many Caribbean countries, including Jamaica and the Virgin Islands Islands. Spanish is spoken in Mexico , most Central American Central American countries, and several Caribbean countries including Cuba and Puerto Rico Rico. French is spoken in Canada and in several Caribbean countries including Haiti .
There are at least ten more English -based Creole languages, including Trinidadian Creole (1 million speakers) and Bahamian Creole (400,000 speakers). French -based Creole languages include Antille an Creole (1 million speakers) and Louisiana Creole (10,000 speakers). Papiamento (300,000 speakers) is a Portuguese -based Creole language spoken in the Dutch Caribbean
Pennsylvania Dutch Pennsylvania Dutch (around 300,000 speakers) is a variety of German that is spoken mainly in the US state of Pennsylvania .
In California , you can take your driving test in 32 languages.
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A y m a r a
S o u thern Quech u
Nowadays, most people in South America speak one of the languages that arrived with the Europeans in colonial times—mainly Spanish and Portuguese, but also English, French, and Dutch. But there are also hundreds of languages that existed long before the huge Indo-European language tree was introduced.
Although many Indigenous languages are now spoken by very few people, some are still going strong, and new languages have emerged.
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The 70 or so Tupí languages form a small tree, which spreads its branches across Brazil, Paraguay, and Bolivia.
* Spoken in Paraguay , Bolivia , Argentina , and Brazil
* 6.5 million speakers
Most Indigenous American languages lost most—and sometimes all—speakers after the Europeans arrived. But many people in Paraguay still speak one of the Guaraní dialects, as well as Spanish , and often Jopara , which is a combination of the two.
Instead of just saying “goodbye,” Guaraní speakers say ahata ayu (pronounced a-HA-tu aa-YOO), which means “I am going to leave, and I will return.”
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When Portuguese colonizers first came to Brazil , many of the first people they met there were Tupi
The language Tupinambá (or “ Old Tupi Old Tupi”) has now died out, but some of its words were adopted into Portuguese and, via Portuguese , into other languages. Cashew, piranha (“biting fish”), tapir, capybara, jaguar, and toucan are all Tupian words. The Nheengatú language, which is descended from Tupinambá , is still spoken by 19,000 people who live along the Río Negro, on the border between Brazil Brazil, Colombia , and Venezuela
The other languages in this family only have a few hundred or even just a handful of speakers. Around half of the languages in this family are no longer spoken.
This tree is small, but it has dense foliage that is divided into lots of little branches. Around seven million people in total speak a Quechuan language, mainly in the central Andes mountains.
Quechua was the language of the Inca Empire, and around 35 great-greatgreat-great-grandchildren of that language are still spoken to this day.
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* Spoken in Peru and Bolivia
* 5 million speakers
Southern Quechua is the most widely spoken language in this family. In the Ayacucho Quechua dialect of Southern Quechua , there are different words for “brother” and “sister,” depending on the speaker’s gender. If the speaker is a woman, her brother is a turi (womanbrother) and her sister a ñaña (womansister); if the speaker is a man, his brother is a wawki (manbrother) and his sister is a pani (mansister).
Ancash Quechua (700,000 speakers) is spoken in Peru , and Kichwa (450,000 speakers) is spoken in Ecuador and Colombia
There are also hundreds of South American languages that don’t belong to any of the trees we have mentioned so far. There are far too many to list, so these are just some of them!
This small Garifuna branch appears on page 75 next to the Mayan language tree.
WAPISH A N A
ASHÁN I NKA
* Spoken in Bolivia , Peru , and Chile
* 1.7 million speakers
Aymara is the biggest language in the small Aymaran language family. With over a million speakers, it is one of the most widely spoken South American languages.
If you’re ever hiking through the Andes mountains and you pass someone, you greet them with ¿Kawkinkaraktasti? (pronounced kow keen kah rahk TAH stee), which is Aymara for “Where are you going?”
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These are spoken all over South America and parts of Central America . Wayuunaiki (420,000 speakers), which is spoken in Venezuela and Colombia , is the most widely spoken. Some of the larger ones are Asháninka (35,000 speakers), spoken in southern Peru ; Terêna (16,000 speakers), spoken in southern Brazil ; and Wapishana (13,000 speakers), spoken in Guyana and Brazil . Garifuna , the second biggest family member, is spoken in Central America (see page 80). However, around two-thirds of the almost 80 Arawakan languages are either spoken by a few people, or have no speakers left at all, and many of the remaining ones have fewer than 10,000 speakers.
Siona (500 speakers) belongs to the Tukanoan language family and is spoken in Colombia and Ecuador. When a Siona speaker goes to someone’s house, they greet them by asking, “Are you alive?”
To which the other person answers, “Yes, I’m alive.”
Pirahã , or Apáitisí (300 speakers), is a language isolate from Brazil . It has one of the smallest number of sounds of any language and has no words for colors, other than terms for light and dark, although speakers might say “like blood” to mean red, for example. Pirahã can be spoken, whistled, hummed, or sung, and speakers can get across what they mean just by varying stress and rhythm.
The Creole languages spoken in South America are the result of contact between European colonizers, settlers, and enslaved people from different parts of Africa.
* Spoken in Suriname
* 670,000 speakers
Sranan Tongo developed among enslaved people who came from different regions in Africa and therefore often didn’t speak the same language. The language is based on English and Dutch , but also has influences from Portuguese , Spanish , and African languages.
* Spoken in Suriname and French Guiana
* 67,000 speakers
There are many others, including Guyanese Creole (710,000 speakers), an English -based language spoken in Guyana , and French Guianese Creole (130,000 speakers), a French -based language spoken in French Guiana .
Ndyuka is based mainly on English vocabulary (and some Dutch and Portuguese ) but with grammar and sounds that show influence from African languages. It is written in the Afaka script, named after its inventor Afaka Atumisi , who developed it in 1910. Afaka is the only script in use that was designed specifically for a Creole language.
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The most widely spoken language in South America is Spanish , with Portuguese a close second. Portuguese is the main language in Brazil , and Spanish in most other countries. Dutch is spoken in Suriname , French in French Guiana , and Hunsrik (3 million speakers), a language based on a dialect spoken by German immigrants, in southern Brazil . There is even a small community of Welsh speakers in Argentina .
There are around five times as many Spanish speakers in South America as there are in Spain , and around 20 times as many Portuguese speakers as there are in Portugal
Outside Guyana and the Falkland Islands, English is mostly spoken as a second language in South America .
Sign languages are just as rich as spoken languages. There are at least 300 of them in the world.
Sign languages have words, ideas, grammar, and meaning, but instead of sounds they use movements, gestures, and facial expressions. They can develop in communities who need to be silent (see page 68), or as a lingua franca between groups that don’t speak the same language. Commonly used for communication with and between Deaf people, sign languages are also used by those unable to speak or who have difficulty with speech.
Many sign languages are related to each other, although they don’t form language family trees like the ones in this book. Often, an existing sign language was brought to a country by someone who set up a school for Deaf people, and it spread from there.
A country’s signed language is distinct from the spoken language: someone who only uses American Sign Language (ASL) can’t understand a British Sign Language (BSL) user, even though American English and British English speakers can easily understand each other. American Sign Language is much closer to French Sign Language
Old French Sign Language was the language used by the Deaf community in Paris in the 18th century and probably long before. It sprouted around 60 modern sign languages that are used throughout the world, including sign languages that are used in Deaf communities in the US US, Canada Canada, France , Greece Greece, Ireland Ireland, Romania Romania, Italy , Tunisia , Algeria Algeria, the Netherlands the Netherlands, and Mexico .
* Used in: US and Canada
* Users: 900,000
This is the most widely used sign language in the group related to Old French Sign Language . Varieties of ASL are also used by Deaf communities in much of West Africa , parts of Southeast Asia , Central and South America , and the Caribbean ASL is widely used as a lingua franca by people in the Deaf community, and is often learned as a second language. Many other sign languages pick up ASL signs due to its popularity and status—much like many spoken languages pick up English words.
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The sign for “Mother” in American Sign Language
* Used in: United Kingdom , Australia , New Zealand , and South Africa
* Users: 450,000
South African Sign Language is the most widely used in this group. Despite some differences in signs for words, users of the BANZSL from different countries can understand each other.
* Used in: Nicaragua
* Users: around 3,000
* Used in: China
* Users: 4.2 million
A country’s language has an effect on its sign language. In Chinese Sign Language , for example, there is no sign for “brother,” but there are different signs for “older brother” and “younger brother,” which is the same as in spoken Mandarin Chinese .
The sign for “Mother” in Chinese Sign Language.
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As with spoken languages, there are signed languages that are not related to any others. Nicaraguan Sign Language , however, is especially unique. In the early 1980s, the Nicaraguan government opened a school to teach Deaf children to speak and lip-read Spanish The plan didn’t really work, but something interesting happened: the children started to make their own sign language. In a few years, they had standard signs that they all understood, and had started creating grammatical rules.
Watching the development of Nicaraguan Sign Language has helped linguists understand better how languages start, and the role the community plays.
* Used in: India , Pakistan , and Bangladesh
* Users: 15 million
This is not only the most widely used sign language in the world, but is also in the top 150 biggest languages overall!
The top ten looks different depending on whether you only count native speakers, or whether you add together the native speakers and people who speak it as a second language.
By number of native speakers:
1. Mandarin (940 million)
2. Spanish (500 million)
3. Hindi-Urdu (420 million: 350 million Hindi, 70 million Urdu)
4. English (380 million)
5. Bengali (240 million)
6. Portuguese (230 million)
7. Russian (148 million)
8. Japanese (120 million)
9. Yue Chinese (86 million)
10. Vietnamese (85 million)
By total number of speakers:
1. English (1.46 billion)
2. Mandarin (1.14 billion)
“Big” can mean that there are lots of people who speak one or more of the languages on a certain tree, or that the tree has lots of languages on its branches.
By number of people who speak one or more of its languages:
1. Indo-European (3.24 billion)
2. Sino-Tibetan (1.39 billion)
3. Atlantic-Congo (500 million) 4. Afro-Asiatic (499 million)
5. Austronesian (326 million)
6. Dravidian (253 million)
7. Turkic (180 million)
8. Japonic (129 million)
9. Austroasiatic (116 million)
10. Kra-Dai (82 million)
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By number of different languages that make up the tree:
1. Atlantic–Congo (1410 languages)
2. Austronesian (1274 languages)
3. Hindi-Urdu (841 million: 609 million Hindi, 232 million Urdu)
4. Spanish (600 million)
5. Arabic (370 million)
6. French (310 million)
7. Bengali (273 million)
8. Portuguese (264 million)
9. Russian (260 million)
10. Malay-Indonesian (250 million)
3. Indo-European (586 languages)
4. Sino-Tibetan (514 languages)
5. Afro-Asiatic (381 languages)
6. Trans New Guinea (316 languages)
7. Pama-Nyungan (250 languages)
8. Oto-Manguan (181 languages)
9. Austroasiatic (158 languages)
10. Kra-Dai (95 languages)
There are over 300 sign languages . They don’t form a single tree but, as a group, they would be part of this top ten.
An official language is a language that has special status in a country. Usually, the government of the country uses the language for official business. Some countries have more than one, and some don’t have an official language at all. The United Kingdom has no official language, but English is the most widely used. Although about two-thirds of US states have an official language, the United States as a country doesn’t.
1. Bolivia : 37 official languages
They are: Aymara , Araona , Baure , Bésiro (Chiquitano), Canichana , Castilian (Spanish), Cavineño , Cayubaba , Chácobo , Chimán , Ese Ejja , Guaraní , Guarasu’we , Guarayu , Itonama , Leco , Machajuyai-Kallawaya , Machineri , Maropa , Mojeño-Ignaciano , Mojeño-Trinitario , Moré , Mosetén , Movima , Pacawara , Puquina , Quechua , Sirionó , Tacana , Tapieté , Toromona , Uru-Chipaya , Weenhayek , Yaminawa , Yuki , Yuracaré , and Zamuco . Only five of these are spoken by more than 30,000 people, and one of them, Puquina , has actually been extinct for 200 years.
2. India : 23 official languages
3. South Africa: 12 official languages
In some countries, most people speak the same language, but there are also countries where many languages are spoken.
1. Papua New Guinea (832)
2. Indonesia (707)
3. Nigeria (517)
4. India (447)
5. United States (328)
6. Australia (312)
7. Mainland China (309)
8. Mexico (292)
9. Cameroon (274)
10. Brazil (221)
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There is a word that can only be used by one person on Earth: the Japanese emperor. It means “I” and the emperor uses it to refer to himself, but only in very formal situations. It is pronounced as “chin,” but you are not allowed to say it. Unless you happen to be the Japanese emperor, of course.
Vanuatu comes 19th in this list, but it is the country with the highest concentration of different languages per person. There are 141 languages in common use, which means that every language in Vanuatu is spoken by an average of only 1,760 people!
There is a word that may be the same in every language: “Huh?”. Linguists tested over 30 completely different languages from all around the world and found that they all had a word that sounds like “huh?” and means the same thing: I don’t understand, please explain what you mean.
cant : secret language of a particular group of people, sometimes used to exclude or mislead others
colonization : process of taking control of a foreign territory and the people who live there
Creole : the result of two or more languages mixing and forming a new language with its own rules and native speakers
deaf : describes people with hearing loss. Deaf with a capital D usually refers to people who have been deaf all their lives and communicate primarily in sign language.
dialect : variety of a language that usually belongs to a certain region
fluent : able to speak a language easily and without pauses
grammar : set of rules for how a language is structured
language isolate isolate: language that is not related to other languages
lingua franca franca: language used as a common language between speakers whose native languages are different
linguistics : scientific study of language and its structure
living language living language: language that is currently spoken
loanword : word that has been adopted by one language from another
native language language: language spoken since early childhood, sometimes called a “first language”
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Indigenous : originating in a particular place. Indigenous people have lived in a particular place since the earliest times, before the arrival of colonists.
language : system of communication using sounds and/or signs and written symbols
pidgin : combination of two or more languages with very simple words and grammar, used by people without a common language. Unlike Creoles, pidgin languages don’t have native speakers but are learned as a second language.
revived language language: language that had almost or completely died out but now has native speakers
second language second language: language spoken in addition to someone’s native language
sign language language: language that uses gestures and facial expressions instead of sounds
Abkhaz 41
Afaka script 87
Afghanistan 57, 59, 61
Africa 8–19
Afrikaans 19
Afro-Asiatic languages 10–13, 37, 62–63, 90 6 2–63, Ainu 54
Akan languages 16
Alaska 79
Albanian 36
Algeria 12
Algonquian languages 76
Amazigh languages 12
American Sign Language 88
Amharic 13
Ancash Quechua 85
Andorra 31
Angola 19, 33
Anishinaabemo 76
Antarctica 32
Antillean Creole 81
Arabic 13, 37, 63, 90
Aramaic 63
Arapaho/Honóno eitíít 76
Arawakan languages 80, 86
Argentina 84, 87
Armemian 41
Asháninka 86
Asia 42–63
Athabaskan languages 78
Atlantic-Congo languages 14–17, 90
Australia 68–69, 71, 89, 91
Austria 27
Austroasiatic languages 48, 90
Austronesian languages 18, 44–47, 66–67, 90 66–6 7, Avar 41
Aymara 86
Äynu 61
Azerbaijani 41, 61
Bahamian Creole 81
Balearic Islands 31
Balinese 47
Balto-Slavic languages 34–35
Bambara 18
Bangladesh 57, 59, 89
Basque 37
Belarusian 35
Belgium 28, 32
Belize 75, 80
Bengali 59, 90
Benin 16
Berber 12
Bhutan 53
Bislama 71
Blackfoot/Siksiká 76
Bolivia 84, 85, 86, 91
Borneo 47
Bosnian 35
Botswana 18
Brahui 57
Brazil 33, 84, 86, 87, 91
Breton 25
British, Australian and New Zealand
Sign Language (BANZSL) 89
Brunei 46, 47
Bulgarian 35
Burmese 53
Buru 47
Burundi 17
Chile 86
China 49, 52, 53, 61, 89, 91
Chinese Sign Language 89
Chipewyan/Dēne 78
Choctaw/Chahta anumpa 80
click languages 17, 18
Colombia 85, 86
colonization 6, 19, 29, 30, 32, 33, 59, 72, 80, 81, 87 5 9,
Comanche/Numu Tekwapti 78
Coptic 12
Cornish 25
Cree-Innu-Naskapi 76
Creole languages 19, 29, 71, 81, 87
Croatian 35
Crow/Apsáalooke 77
Cuba 81
Cyprus 36, 61
Czech 34
Czech Republic 34, 48
Dagestan 41
Dakotan languages 77
Danish 26, 79
Democratic Republic of the Congo 17, 32 1 7,
Dene languages 78
Denmark 26
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Cambodia 48
Cameroon 12, 91
Cameroonian Pidgin 19
Canada 32, 76, 77, 79, 81, 88
Canary Islands 20, 37
cant 71
Cantonese 52
Catalan 31
Caucasian languages 40–41
Cebuano 47
Celtic languages 24–25
Central Alaskan Yup’ik/Yugtun 79
Chad 12
Chechen 41
Cherokee/Tsalagi 78, 80
Cheyenne/Tsėhesenėstsestotse 76
Ethiopia 13
Europe 20–41
Ewe 16
Falkland Islands 87
Faroese 26, 29
Fijian 67
Finnish 39
Flemish 28
France 25, 31, 32, 37
French 19, 32, 59, 71, 81, 87, 90
French Guianese Creole 87
French Guiana 87
Frisian 28
Fulfulde 16
Galician 33
The Gambia 16
Gan 53
Garifuna 80, 86
Georgia 40, 41
Georgian 40
German 27, 81
Germanic languages 26–29
Germany 27, 28
Ghana 16
Gilbertese 67
Gondi 57
Dholuo 18
Dhuwai 69
disappearing languages 7
Dogrib/Tlicho Yatii 78
Dravidian languages 56–57, 90
Dutch 19, 28, 87
Dutch Caribbean 28, 81
Dyula 18
Easter Island 65, 67, 71
Ecuador 85, 86
Egypt 12
Enets 39
Enga 70
English 19, 29, 59, 71, 81, 87, 90
Equatorial Guinea 19
Eritrea 13
Eskaleut languages 79
Estonian 39
Greek 36
Greenland 26, 79
Guaraní 84
Guatemala 75, 80
Guinea 18
Gujarati 59
Guyana 86, 87
Guyanese Creole 87
Haitian Creole/Kreyòl 81
Hakka 53
Hausa 12
Hawaiian 67
Hawaiian Pidgin 71
Hebrew 63
Hellenic 36
Hiligaynon 47
Hindi-Urdu 59, 90
Hittite 36
Hokkien 53
Honduras 80
Hong Kong 52
Hopi/Hopílavayi 74
Huichol 74
Huli 70
Hungarian 39
Hunsrik 27, 87
Iban 47
Icelandic 26
Igbo 16, 81
Ilocano 47
India 48, 53, 57, 59, 89, 91
Indo-European languages 19, 22–37, 41, 71, 87, 90
Indo-Iranian languages 37, 58–59
Indo-Pakistani Sign Language 89
Indonesia 46, 47, 91
Inuit languages 79
Inuktitut 79
Iran 41, 59, 61
Ireland 24, 28
Irish 24
Iroquoian languages 80
Isle of Man 24
Israel 27, 63
Italian 5, 31
Italic languages 30–33
Italy 31, 33
Itzá’ 75
Jamaican Patois 81
Japanese 54, 90, 91
Japonic languages 54, 90
Javanese 46
Jeju 55
Kalaallisut 79
Kambera 47
Kannada 57
Karenic languages 53
Kartvelian languages 40
Kazakh 61
Kazakhstan 35, 61
Kenya 13, 17
Keres 80
Khmer 48
K’iche' 75
Kichwa 85
Kilivila 66
Kinyarwanda 17
Koreanic languages 55
Kosovo 36
Kra-Dai languages 49, 90
Krio 19
Kuman 70
Kurdish 59
Kurukh 57
Kuuk Thaayorre 68
Kyrgyz 61
Lakota 77
language family trees 5, 90
language isolates 5, 80, 86
Lao 49
Latin 5, 30, 31, 33
Latvia 34, 39
Latvian 34
learning a language 7
Libya 12
Liechtenstein 27
Malayalam 57
Malaysia 46, 47
Mali 12, 18
Maltese 37
Mandarin 52, 90
Mande languages 18
Mandinka 18
Maninka 18
Manx 24
Māori 67
Marathi 59
Mauritania 16
Mayan languages 75
Mayo 74
Mbabaram 69
Melpa 70
Menominee 76
Mexico 30, 74, 75, 78, 80, 81, 91
Mi’kmaq/Mi’kmawi’simk 76
Min languages 53
Minangkabau 47
Mixtec 80
Mohawk 80
Mohican 76
Moldova 31
Mon 48
Monaco 32
Mongolian 55
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Lingala 17
lingua franca 12, 13, 32, 69, 71, 88
Lithuanian 34
Livonian 39
Lombok 47
Louisiana Creole 81
Luxembourg 29, 32
Luxembourgish 29
Maasai 18
Macau 52
Macedonian 35
Madagascar 18, 19
Madurese 47
Malagasy 18
Malay/Indonesian 46, 90
Mongolic languages 55
Montenegrin 35
Montenegro 35, 36
Morocco 12
Mozambique 17, 19, 33
Murrinh-Patha 69
Muskogean languages 80
Myanmar 48, 49, 53
Nahuatl 74
Nakota/Stoney 77
Namibia 19
native speakers 6
Navajo/Diné bizaad 78
Ndyuka 87
Neapolitan 33
Nenets 39
Nepal 53, 59
Nepali 59
Netherlands 28
New Caledonia 71
New Zealand 67, 71, 89
Nheengatú 84
Nicaraguan Sign Language 89
Niger 12
Nigeria 12, 16, 91
Nigerian Pidgin 19
Nilotic languages 18
Norfolk Island 71
Norfuk 71
North America 72–81
North Macedonia 35, 36
North and South Dene 78
North and South Korea 55
Norway 26, 39
Norwegian 26
number of languages 6
Oceania 64–71
Odia 59
official languages 91
Ojibwe 76
Old French Sign Language 88
Old Norse 26
Omotic languages 13
O’odham 74
Oromo 13
Oto-Manguean languages 80, 90
Pakistan 53, 57, 59, 89
Pama-Nyungan languages 90
Papiamento 81
Papua New Guinea 70–71, 91
Papuan languages 70
Paraguay 84
Pashto 59
Pennsylvania Dutch 27, 81
Persian/Farsi 59
Peru 85, 86
Philippines 46, 47
Pijin 71
Pirahā/Apáitisí 86
Pitjantjatjara 69
Polish 34
Portugal 33
Portuguese 19, 33, 59, 84, 87, 90
Puerto Rico 81
Punjabi 59
Q’eqchi 75
Québécois 32
Quechuan languages 85
Rapa Nui 67
Rarámuri 74
revived languages 24, 25, 76
Romance languages 33
Romani 20, 37
Romania 31
Romanian 5, 31
Russia 21, 35, 39, 41
Russian 35, 90
Rwanda 17
Ryukyuan languages 54
Sámi languages 39
Samoan 67
Samoyedic languages 39
San Marino 31
Sanskrit 58
Santali 48
Sardinian 33
Sasak 47
Scotland 24, 28
Scots 28
Scottish Gaelic 24
Senegal 16, 18, 19
Serbian 35
Serbo-Croat languages 35
Shan 49
Shanghainese 52
Shawnee 76
Shoshoni 74
Siberia 61, 63
Sicilian 33
Sidama 13
sign languages 68, 88–89
Silbo Gomero 37
Singapore 46, 52
Sino-Tibetan languages 50–53, 90
Siona 86
Siouan languages 77
Slovak 34
Slovene 34
Solomon Islands 71
Somali 13
Somalia 13
Soqotri 63
Sotho 17
South Africa 17, 19, 89, 91
South African Sign Language 89
South America 82–87
Southern Quechua 85
Spain 30, 31, 33, 37
Spanish 5, 19, 30, 37, 59, 71, 81, 84, 87, 90
Sranan Tongo 87
Sri Lanka 57
Sudan 13
Sumatra 47
Sumba 47
Sundanese 46
Suriname 28, 46, 87
Suzhounese 52
Swahili 17
Sweden 27, 39
Swedish 26, 27
Switzerland 27, 31, 32
Taa 18
Tagalog 46
Tahitian 67
Taíno 80
Taiwan 52, 53
Trans New Guinea languages 70
Trinidadian Creole 81
Trobriand Islands 66
Tuareg 12
Tulu 57
Tupian languages 84
Tupinambá 84
Turkey 61, 63
Turkic languages 60–61, 90
Turkish 61
Turkmen 61
Turkmenistan 61
Tuu languages 18
Twi 16
Tzeltal 75
Tzotzil 75
Uganda 17
Ukraine 35, 41
Ukrainian 35
United Kingdom 24–25, 28, 29, 89, 91
United States 29, 30, 74, 76, 78, 80, 81, 88, 91
Uralic languages 38–39
Uto-Aztecan languages 74
Uyghur 61
Uzbek 61
Uzbekistan 35, 59, 61
This is an advance, uncorrected proof. Not for resale, duplication, or reposting. Please do not quote without comparison to the finished book.
Tajikistan 59, 61
Tamazight 12
Tamil 57
Tanzania 17
Tarahumara 74
Telugu 57
Terêna 86
Thai 49
Thailand 49, 53
Tibetan languages 53
Tigre 19
Tigrinya 13
Tiwi 69
Togo 16
Tok Pisin 71
Tongan 67
Vanuatu 71, 91
Venezuela 86
Vietnamese 48, 90
Virgin Islands 81
Wales 25
Wapishana 86
Warlpiri 68
Wayuunaiki 86
Welsh 25, 87
Wenzhounese 52
Western Apache/Ndee biyáti’ 78
Western Dani 70
whistles 37
Wixárika 74
Wolaitta 13
Wolof 16
Wu languages 52
Xhosa 17
Xiang 53
Yakut 61
Yemen 63
Yiddish 20, 27
Yoruba 16
Yucatec Maya/Maayal’aan 75
Yue Chinese 90
Yukaghir 62, 63
Yupik languages 79
Zapotec 80
Zhuang languages 49
Zulu 17
I am very grateful to the following experts for their help and professional advice: Professor Niels Schiller (City University of Hong Kong), Professor Marian Klamer, Emeritus Professor Felix Ameka, Dr. Marijn van Putten, Dr. Azeb Amha, Djibrila Tetereou, Professor Alwin Kloekhorst, Emeritus Professor Maarten Mous, Dr. Kate Bellamy, Dr. Rik van Gijn, Dr. Anikó Lipták, Dr. Martine Bruil, Dr. Jin Hee Park, Saskia Dunn, Dr. Jonathan Stökl, Dr. Victoria Nyst (Universiteit Leiden), Professor Lily Kahn, Dr. Sonya Yampolskaya (University College London), Dr. Annemarie Verkerk (Universität des Saarlandes), Dr. Hans Nugteren (Georg-August Universität Göttingen), Dr. Matt Colen (Rijksuniversiteit Groningen), Fulup Travers (Ofis Publik ar Brezhoneg), Dr. Kristina Gallego, Divine Endriga (University of the Philippines Diliman), Professor Hilde de Weerdt (KU Leuven), Professor Tom Hoogervorst, Dr. Taufiq Hanafi (Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies), Emeritus Professor Marguerite MacKenzie (Memorial University of Newfoundland), Dr. Lev Michael (University of California, Berkeley), Dr. Andrés Sabogal (New Mexico Highlands University), Dr. Armik Mirzayan (University of Virginia), Dr. Sally Samson (University of Alaska Fairbanks), Emeritus Professor Keren Rice (University of Toronto), Dr. Maya Ravindranath Abtahian (University of Rochester), Dr. Daniel Kaufman (Queen’s College CUNY), Professor John Sullivan (University of Warsaw, University of Utah, Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas), Dr. Genner Llanes-Ortiz (Bishop’s University), and Professor Marianne Mithun (University of California, Santa Barbara).
Thank you also to the many native speakers who helped me, including Alice, Alma, Anja, Aynur, Ben, Chirag, Christianna, Danil, Des, Diana, Garik, Glyn, Greta, Inga, Ivan, Ivy, Janis, Joan, Jóhann Páll, John, José, Julia, Karan, Kirsty, Louise, Marina, Marta, Merili, Mounira, Nafisa, Nataliya, Örpen, Pedro, Raphael, Risto, Samira, Szilvia, Thomas, Tim, Vaso, Veti, Ying, Zula, and all the people who put me in touch with them. All mistakes and inconsistencies are mine.
This is an advance, uncorrected proof. Not for resale, duplication, or reposting. Please do not quote without comparison to the finished book.
Mange tak to Anette for her generosity and always excellent ideas for adventures, and a big thank you to Tracey and Sidonie at Raspberry Books for their enthusiasm, keen eyes, and great forbearance in the face of evershifting branches and borders. Also to Jenny, Nicky, Edward, Ava, MBVG, Belinda, Russell, Melanie, all the others, and everyone at Macmillan.
Finally, dankjewel , thank you, and vielen Dank to my Dutch, English and German family: Titus, Linda, Matt, Dinie, Geoff, Joyce, my mum, and, of course, Willem and Kaatje. Most of all my love and gratitude go to Richard for his patience, wisdom, and insightful criticism. Without its first and best reader, this book would still be half-written at most.
The publisher would like to thank the sensitivity readers from Salt & Sage for their guidance and insight.
