English is considered the language with the most words. Then there is the number of words you need to convey an agreed meaning. Chinese, for example, is a single language in terms of its written form. Various countries have various accents to the English language that creates many types. [English] certainly has the largest vocabulary... by a long, long, long long, way. English is also very ready to accommodate foreign words, and as it has become an international language, it has absorbed vocabulary from a large number of other sources. One of the methods that have been used to determine the language with the most words is by the use of the size of dictionaries, which works for the main European languages. Njerep (Nigeria) Nigeria is one of Africa's most ethnically diverse countries, which makes perfect … Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged, together with its 1993 Addenda Section, includes some 470,000 entries. But don’t get discouraged! Over the years, the English language has adopted words from other languages, and this has made it an international language. The Second Edition of the 20-volume Oxford English Dictionary contains full entries for 171,476 words in current use (and 47,156 obsolete words). Which language has the most words? • Burushaski: masculine, feminine, animals/countable nouns and inanimates/uncountable nouns/abstracts/fluids That’s a lot, right?! Other variations include Indian English, Canadian, and Australian English. There are around 130,000 words in French. Now English is in the box seat as the de facto global language. Some languages inflect much less. They handed baton to the French bossed the planet in diplomacy (ambassador, detente, charge d’affair) and cuisine. Students of the English language should not despair, however. The Germanic family languages share much of their grammar and essential vocabulary. In the Romance languages below, the word for 'mother' is a cognate in all the six contemporary languages considered, however the word for 'father' is a cognate only in four of the five: in Rumanian, the original word inherited from Latin pater has been replaced by a completely different word, tata. Which language has the most words? What language has the most words? French for instance has less than 100,000 and German 200,000. The most useful, however, are appropriated by other languages. * What is Globish? Others become obsolete — Groak, anyone ? Modern English was adopted in many regions of the world to the extent that it has now become one of the most spoken languages of the world. One crude yardstick is to count the number of headwords or entries in each language’s standard reference dictionary. A lot of the sounds in… The British Empire helped in spreading the English language around the world using its colonies by the late 18th century. In fact, from the 9th century until the 14th century, a form of French was even the “official” language in the courts of England! In the spoken form, however, it is a family of languages or dialects. This decision is not the same as determining whether the word exists. There is confusion on whether words like “run” that have different uses and forms should be counted as one word or multiple words. Accordingly, the 23 volumes of The Oxford English Dictionary takes up more shelf space than their French, Italian, Spanish and Russian rivals combined. Over the years, the English language has adopted words from other languages, and this has made it an international language. Which Countries Recognize Sign Language As An Official Language? Europe has historically been Silicon Valley of the word generation market. These varieties are named according to the country where it is prevalent. Japanese is another heavily backed contender — boasting a mighty 500,00 words. To learn Arabic, you have to learn a new alphabet, and get used to reading from right to left. Some languages inflect much more than English. Each language influenced the other two languages in some ways, but one of the biggest influences on English was French. Some languages have multiple inflections or variants of a word: have, had, having etc. Unfortunately morphology — with its endless ‘you can’t compare this language with that one’ objections — is no help in establishing an agreed and reasonably objective measuring stick. Select file Browse. Usually somewhere between 10,000 and 15,000 words. The Oxford English Dictionary contains more than 600,000 words. Also, lexical counting is very difficult to do. The Greeks and Romans made a solid start in science and medicine. In Africa, the changes are noticed in countries like Uganda, Nigeria, and Congo. The English language has one of the largest vocabularies of all the languages of the world. English is used as the official language in many countries that have other indigenous languages. Rype has a post on the 23 most common English idioms, which will help you continue to learn to … There is a Shorter Oxford English Dictionary. There are three articles in English, and they are some of the most frequently used words: 1. the 2. a 3. an English has the largest lexicon (number of words) of any European language. The core problem is philosophical as much as linguistic: how do you define a word? Yet half of these are in Kanji (Chinese characters) — with around 1200 Kanji words you could manage a newspaper. Some words tend to inflect into different forms; for instance, the term “run” can be used as a noun and as a verb. For example, is the Ge… source. Modern English evolved from the Germanic language family, which also relates to Dutch and German, among other languages. … Some of the variants are American and British English, which are the most common. So, whether we count inflected forms will have a huge influence on final counts. There is no certain answer to this because we often define ‘language’ and ‘word’ in different ways. Shakespeare invented 1,700 English words or at least first recorded their use. Chinese has about just 60,000 words. First, let’s look at how many words are in the Dictionary. In compiling a dictionary, a lexicographer decides whether the evidence of use is sufficient to justify an entry in the dictionary. That is only two volumes, though you need strong arms to lift them, Which countries do not have an official language? But, the number of words in the Oxford and Webster Dictionaries are not the same as the number of wor… The English language has many varieties depending on the accent used in the literature. Register Now. A “typical person” knows about 70,000 words. Which Country's National Anthem Has No Words? An article denotes whether a noun is specific or unspecific. Or is that thirteen, as some would count contractions like hadn’t as two word? Moreover, many languages habitually build long words from short ones. This is a list of dictionaries considered authoritative or complete by … . First Name * Last Name * Display name * Japanese words have … Even native speakers don’t know all the words in their dictionary. Consequently, English has a much larger vocabulary than either the Germanic languages or the members of the Romance language family to which French belongs. Most dictionaries also tend to exclude words after they fall out of common usage, consolidating only the most common words. The most idiosyncratic and wordiest of languages acquires and sheds words with stunning speed For the most part, the column is an innocuous discussion of words that have recently entered the language. When one takes to measuring dictionaries to determine the number of words in tongues, the Oxford English Dictionary would be the largest. In English you would need at least double this lexicon to manage a leaflet designed for children. Or they can be evolve into a new form ambuscade has been rebranded by the snappier ambush. It is generally recognised that of the 6,912 languages and dialects English has the most words. During those years, the common (non-royal) people spoke an older form of English, whil… Clearly a crude headword count is not sufficient in itself to establish the size of a lexicon. 2. ….it seems quite probable that English has more words than most comparable world languages.English has a much larger vocabulary than either the Germanic languages or the … Romance language family to which French belongs. Think about how you speak your native language. English was majorly influenced by Norman French and Latin, with English borrowing many words from these languages. We have good news for you if you’re learning French or any other foreign language: 1. English has the largest lexicon (number of words) of any European language. Rather as China is to the rest of the world in population, English is in the population of its words. Better yet, learn the first 100 as soon as you can. About the English Language Teaching Pack (£1.99 * English: Global Language (free). Username * E-Mail * Password * Confirm Password * Profile Picture. No language is an island and there is an extensive world trade in words a phrases. An example is the German language, rich in compound words that are usually counted as a single term. English is a delectable, slow-cooked language of languages. Agglutinative languages such as Finnish most certainly have more words and more readily create new words to adapt to changing time by fusing existing words creating an almost infinite number of combination. However, it seems quite probable that English has more words than most comparable world languages. Though the English language has many quirks, one of its most interesting is homographs: words that are spelled identically but have different meanings or definitions. All maps, graphics, flags, photos and original descriptions © 2020 worldatlas.com. Compound words are made of two or more words which sound like one, and therefore it can be counted as one or two words. In some ways, English, French and German are almost like three brothers and sisters that grew up together. The following table contains the top 100 languages by estimated number of native speakers in the 2007 edition of the Swedish encyclopedia Nationalencyklopedin.As census methods in different countries vary to a considerable extent, and given that some countries do not record language in their censuses, any list of languages by native speakers, or total speakers, is effectively based on estimates. That said, it is important to understand the difference between “passive knowledge” and “active … Yet English remains dominant perhaps not in the number of words, but in the reach and power of the language. Surely the lexical equivalent of taking performance enhancing drugs? We always answer: learn the most common English words. the reason is English and words of most of the language around the world are formed by putting letters together and a word can have many variation while Chinese words is not. Although it is possible to count the number of entries in a dictionary, it is not possible to count the number of words in a language. Chinese, for example, is logographic (combining images) while German is alphabetic (combining letters). It has been mentioned that English as a language does no longer truthfully exist. Some words tend to inflect into different forms; for instance, the term “run” can be used as a noun and as a verb. Over the years, the English language has adopted words from other languages, and this has made it an international langua… One of the problems with counting words is intonation. My favorite is ignoranus, for a person who is both ignorant and an asshole. The Germanic family languages share much of their grammar and essential vocabulary. Linguists tend to avoid answering this question because what constitutes a "word" is difficult to pin down, and any precise definition of a word would probably unfairly exclude other languages. I can think of many uses for that one. Famously the Alaskan language, Yupik, uses one word, Tuntussuqatarniksaitengqiggtuq, where English requires twelve: He hadn’t yet said again that he was going to hunt reindeer. Plus there entrant (RedBox) merges specialist and technical y dictionaries? The reason for this is historical. The Spanish verb has dozens of forms—estoy, estás, está, “I am,” “you are,” “he is” and so on. Sanskrit basically consists of 40% Greek words + 40% Tamil words + 10% loan words from other languages + 10% newly coined words. Native speakers actively use only a fraction of these wordswhen they speak. It's popular to say that English has the most words based upon simply counting the number of dictionary lemmas. Language, as described above, is species-specific to human beings. Who knows how Korean got to the top of the pile, but there is definitely some funny business involving the runner up: ‘agglutinative’ languages such as Finnish, in which words can be stuck together in long strings of indefinite length, and which therefore have an almost infinite number of ‘words’. it's constructed from the languages of the historic tribes of the discipline and the ones of invaders such because the exclusive norse and norman businesses as good as phrases taken from eu households that had been married with. It is thought that the English language has the most words than any other language in the world, although it is not easy to determine. You may not even recognize many of the uses of the words. They house an astonishing 615,000 words or thereabouts. Some languages like Chinese are considered non-alphabetic languages and are challenging to determine the number of words in such languages. That still amounts to a whole lot, though! Modern English evolved from the Germanic language family, which also relates to Dutch and German, among other languages. Defining a word has proved a challenge as many people have different views on what constitutes a word. Modern English evolved from Early Modern English and had more words than the latter. Winchester thinks this … It seems that English is the language with the most words, with a total number of words estimated between 500 thousand and 1.2 million. They claim that Scots has 421 words for snow. However, the word put later outpaced it, and run eventually overtook them both as the English language's most complex word. Of course languages like Chinese are incommensurable to a degree since the word structure is different. The Oxford English Dictionary defines 615,100 words. As lexicographer Kory Stamper explains, “English has been borrowing words from other languages since its infancy.” As many as 350 other languages are represented and their linguistic … Which language has the most words for snow? They are all in a race to have more and more meanings. In some languages, long words are built from short words, for instance, the German language. What I Learned From Writing 200 Blog Posts, Here Are a Few Foolproof Ways to Become a Better Storyteller, Nobody Is Going to Teach You How to Write, Words Matter, The Importance of Proofreading, My Gonzo Night at Hunter S. Thompson’s Cabin — Now on Airbnb, Learning to Write Horror From Edgar Allan Poe. Which countries do not have an official language? Latin and Polish, for example, are highly inflected while non-alphabetic languages — like Chinese and Arabic — have (arguably) no inflections in written form. Even as new ones are added, older ones fall out of favor. Modern English is considered to be in the works of William Shakespeare and also in the King James Version Bible. The term for these linguistic fun and (word) games is morphology — a topic popular with the scrabble-master and pointy-headed communities. But we can not be sure, because the statistics experts use take into account only a minority of languages. Meaningful word count comparisons are difficult if not impossible between languages using different writing systems. Diplomacy ( ambassador, detente, charge d ’ affair ) and cuisine letters.! Modern English evolved from the Germanic family languages share much of their grammar and essential vocabulary as whether. 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