Languages
Asia is a continent with great linguistic diversity, and is home to various language families and many language isolates. A majority of Asian countries have more than one language that is natively spoken. For instance, according to Ethnologue over 600 languages are spoken in Indonesia while over 100 are spoken in the Philippines. The official figure of 'mother tongues' spoken in India is 1683, of which an estimated 850 are in daily use. Korea, on the other hand, is home to only one language.
The main language families found in Asia, along with examples of each, are:
- Austro-Asiatic: Khasi, Khmer, Mundari, Vietnamese
- Austronesian: Atayal, Cebuano, Cham, Ilokano, Indonesian, Javanese, Malay, Paiwan, Sundanese, Tagalog, Tetum
- Dravidian: Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu
- Indo-European: Armenian, Bengali, English (which originated in Europe), Gujarati, Marathi, Hindi, Kurdish, Nepali, Pashto, Persian, Portuguese (of European origin), Punjabi, Russian (of European origin), Konkani, Sanskrit, Tajik, Urdu
- Japonic: Japanese, Okinawan
- Sino-Tibetan:
- Sinitic: Mandarin, Gan, Hakka, Min, Wu, Xiang, Yue
- Tibeto-Burman: Tibetan, Burmese, Assamese
- Tai–Kadai: Lao, Thai, Manipuri
- Turkic: Azeri, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Tatar, Turkish, Turkmen, Uzbek
- Afro-Asiatic: Arabic, Aramaic, Canaanite, Berber, Hebrew
Other languages that do not belong to the above groups include Ainu, Burushaski, Georgian, Hmong, Korean, Mongolian, various Romance-based creoles (Chavacano, Macanese, and Kristang) and many others.
Read more about this topic: Culture Of Asia
Famous quotes containing the word languages:
“People in places many of us never heard of, whose names we can’t pronounce or even spell, are speaking up for themselves. They speak in languages we once classified as “exotic” but whose mastery is now essential for our diplomats and businessmen. But what they say is very much the same the world over. They want a decent standard of living. They want human dignity and a voice in their own futures. They want their children to grow up strong and healthy and free.”
—Hubert H. Humphrey (1911–1978)
“The very natural tendency to use terms derived from traditional grammar like verb, noun, adjective, passive voice, in describing languages outside of Indo-European is fraught with grave possibilities of misunderstanding.”
—Benjamin Lee Whorf (1897–1934)
“The less sophisticated of my forbears avoided foreigners at all costs, for the very good reason that, in their circles, speaking in tongues was commonly a prelude to snake handling. The more tolerant among us regarded foreign languages as a kind of speech impediment that could be overcome by willpower.”
—Barbara Ehrenreich (b. 1941)