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Joined: 08 Feb 2010
Posts: 6
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 Posted: Mon Feb 08, 2010 5:37 pm
Post subject: Need help on categorizing languages |
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How many different type of spoken languages are there? I mean, what Im asking is the tone of say...Chinese. They use a different part of their mouth/throat to speak their languages and English uses a different part to speak their language too. Im sure they categorize those in different category but what are those categories called?
Also, is there a list where we can look at what nationality or language is categorized as what?
Im doing this as a personal project and Im trying to find out what my language falls under.
Thank you. |
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CoryboboryChomsky 
Joined: 21 Sep 2007
Posts: 698
Location: London, UK (formerly Vancouver, Canada) |
Posted: Tue Feb 09, 2010 1:44 am
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Most estimates are around 6000 spoken languages today. But we run into trouble when deciding what is a separate language and what is a dialect of that language. The cut off is often described as mutual intelligibility, but there is the saying that a language is 'a dialect with an army and a navy'.
If you want to look at a list of languages and where they are spoken, the best place is ethnologue.com. If you are trying to find what language family your dialect belongs to, and you speak a Chinese language, it probably falls under Sino-Tibetan.
Hope this helps!
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BA Linguistics, Simon Fraser University
MSc Palaeoanthropology and Palaeolithic Archaeology, University College London
"No conceit could be worse than a belief in one's own intrinsic objectivity, no prescription more suited to the exposure of fools." |
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Joined: 17 Oct 2007
Posts: 681
Location: New Brunswick, NJ |
Posted: Tue Feb 09, 2010 9:16 am
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| I get the sense that slim is looking for a list of language types, rather than languages; s/he just posted an updated version of this question in another section. |
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Joined: 08 Feb 2010
Posts: 6
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Posted: Tue Feb 09, 2010 3:30 pm
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| Thank you both for your response. I posted this on the wrong forum, so I made another post in the other forum. |
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