Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.
Papua New Guinea: Land of 800 languages
Languages are very unevenly distributed among the countries of the world. The map tries to capture this fact by rendering each country in a size corresponding to the number of languages spoken in it... The ten shaded countries are those in which more than 200 languages are in use.
So why does Papua New Guinea have so many indigenous languages? Deep valleys and unforgiving terrain have kept the different tribes of Papua New Guinea relatively isolated, so that the groups' languages are not blended together but remain distinct. While the country is thought to have over 800 living languages, some, like Abaga, are spoken by as few as five(!) people.
Check out the Amazon reviews of Limits of Language here. An entertaining excerpt from one reader's glowing recommendation:
I've never smoked crack, but reading this book approximates what I imagine it would feel like -- an initial rush of pure pleasure, followed by the irresistible craving for just one more bump, yielding to that craving over and over until - six hours later - you find yourself surrounded by cats not fed, laundry not done, unwashed dishes, unpaid bills, and yet you still can't stop yourself. You want more.
Filed under: Arts and Culture, Asia, Australia
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Doug Dec 30th 2009 2:09PM
If 5 people speaking a language counts (as it does for Papa New Guinea), then the United States should be much larger, and Europe should probably be larger too. I would wager that there are at least 5 people in the United States (as well as England, France, and Germany) speaking each of the major languages on earth, and a whole boatload of the minor ones as well. How many native american languages are still spoken?
Zack Dec 30th 2009 3:26PM
Doug, the text right under the map says languages produced, not languages spoken. English only counts for England, French only for France. The size of the U.S. on that map is therefore almost entirely due to Native American languages ("almost" due to Hawaiian and Hawaiian Pidgin, if nothing else).
DW Dec 30th 2009 4:49PM
It's because PNG hasn't had all its native populations wiped out by white settlers.
Remake the map 200, 500, 1000 and 10,000 years ago and see how different it looks.