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Sandra lee mckay literature as content9/23/2023 ![]() Even when a language is numerically dominant in its autochthonous region, it may have a subordinate status. There are abundant varieties of all of these languages. Among the most spoken languages, Chinese Mandarin has more than a billion speakers, English has 760 million, Hindi has 490 million, Spanish has 400 million, and Arabic has 200 million speakers. At the same time, 96 percent of the world’s people speak at least one of the world’s “major” languages-about 275 in all-which constitute 4 percent of all languages spoken. ![]() Papua New Guinea, for example, has a population of about 6.4 million but is home to more than 830 spoken languages-17 percent of the world’s total-making it one of the most linguistically diverse countries on earth. As noted in Austin 2008 (cited under General Overviews), 96 percent of the world’s languages are spoken by just 4 percent of the world’s people. Linguistic diversity is unevenly distributed across populations and regions. Linguistic diversity is an inherently enabling condition to its speakers and humankind-a resource to be protected and promoted-as each language is the repository of immense knowledge built over centuries of development and use. No matter how “big” or “small,” each language is capable of expressing infinitely generative concepts and ideas. Approximately seven thousand spoken languages and innumerable spoken dialects and sign languages are in use around the world, some with millions of speakers and others with only a few. ![]()
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