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Synonym for [[jbocre: natural language|natural language]]: a human-usable language that is not a [[jbocre: conlang|conlang]]. May be living or dead. There are about [http://www.ethnologue.org 000] living natlangs, many of which are nearly dead (no new native speakers). | |||
It's interesting that the number I hear keeps growing. I first heard 3000-5000, then 4000-6000, now you say it's 7000. | |||
''The SIL (which runs [http://www.ethnologue.org)] are notorious for calling lects languages which others would call dialects. 7000 is a sensible upper limit; the question of what counts as a language is ultimately political rather than linguistic.'' | |||
Revision as of 17:06, 4 November 2013
Synonym for natural language: a human-usable language that is not a conlang. May be living or dead. There are about 000 living natlangs, many of which are nearly dead (no new native speakers).
It's interesting that the number I hear keeps growing. I first heard 3000-5000, then 4000-6000, now you say it's 7000.
The SIL (which runs [1] are notorious for calling lects languages which others would call dialects. 7000 is a sensible upper limit; the question of what counts as a language is ultimately political rather than linguistic.