The ability to communicate by speech between human or any means of communication

Around 9000 languages and dialects.

Chinese Mandarin - spoken by over 885 million people.

Any form of speech that differs from a real or imaginary standard of speech.

English - spoken by over 400 million people. Although it is far less than the Chinese Mandarin, because of the UK's colonies were spread across continents. English became a communication language between states. However, some of the colonized states are giving the prime status to their native language along with English.

Spanish with about 335 million speakers.

English with around 6000 million speakers, approximately.

Cambodian - 72.

English having more than 4,50,000 words and over 3 lakh technical terms. Average usage is around 60000 words.

1. Mandarin Chinese
2. English
3. Spanish
4. Hindi (+Urdu)
5. Arabic
6. Portuguese
7. Bengali
8. Russian
9. Japanese
10.German
11.Wu Chinese
12. Javanese
13.Korean
14. Punjabi
15. Telugu
16. French
17. Marathi
18. Tamil
19. Italian
20. Yu Chinese.

Different languages, similar in dialect or spoken over a region, originated an ancient language/s. For instance, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada of the Southern India are the origins from Dravidian language of the ancient period. Such combination of language having a single base are called so.

1. Indo European
2. Sino Tibetan
3. Austronesian
4. Afro Asiatic
5. Niger Congo 6. Dravidian
7. Japanese
8. Altaic
9. Austro Asiatic
10. Tai
11. Korean
12. Nilo-Saharan
13. Uralic
14. Amerindians
15. Caucasian
16. Miao-yao
17. Indo Pacific
18. Khoisan
19. Australian Aborigine
20.Palaeo Siberian.
There are a few more which are insignificant by number of languages and speakers.

1652 - recognized languages are there in India as per 2001 Census. Of which 29 are spoken by more than 10 lakh people and 122 by more than 10000 people.Of these, 22 languages are constitutionally recognized official languages.

Hindi – in Devnagari Script. It accounts for nearly 70% of Indian population.

Because it was on this day in 1949 Hindi was declared as the official language.

Fiji – with about 48% Hindi speaking population.

There are 22 of them. Viz:
1. Assamese
2. Bengali
3. Bodo
4. Dogri
5. Gujarati
6. Hindi
7. Kannada
8. Konkani
9. Kashmiri
10. Malayalam
11. Manipuri
12. Marathi
13. Maithili
14.Nepali
15. Oriya
16. Punjabi
17. Sanskrit
18. Sindhi
19. Santhali
20. Tamil
21. Telugu
22. Urdu.
They are mentioned under Schedule 8 of the Indian Constitution.

Sanskrit the ancient vedic language.

Based on the antiquity and heritage value, the following are the languages that have been accorded Classical Status:
1. Tamil (2004) 2. Sanskrit (2005) 3. Kannada & Telugu (2008).

Total 16 = English + 15 Indian languages.

The practice of deciphering and reading of historical manuscripts – the study of handwriting.

LINGUISTICS – the scientific study of natural language – meaning the  spoken, written and signed languages of human for general communication.

Abjad:  A type of writing system in which each symbol stands for a consonant –Viz: Arabic and Hebrew.
Abugida: A segmental writing system which is based on consonants, but, in which notation is obligatory. Most Brahmic scripts – Indian and other Eastern Asia scripts – are abugidas. (Brahmi script is again believed to be a descendant of Armaic script).

A single letter, combination & additions (to each alphabet) of which make a  word with a sense. Each language has different number of alphabets.  “Alphabet” is derived from Greek “alpha” and “beta” the first two letters of Greek alphabets.

Egyptian Civilisation writing around 2700 BC had a set of 22 letters/hieroglyphs.

Latin: Also called Roman alphabets - with 26 alphabets. It is the most widely
Used alphabetic system.
German: 26 alphabets.
Russian: 33 alphabets. Also called the "Cyrillic" alphabets.
Greek: 24 alphabets.
Spanish: 26 alphabets.
Arabic: 28 Basic letters.

It has 28 basic letters. Some letters may look similar but are differentiated by putting a single or two dots above the letter to get the correct sound. It is the second most used alphabets/scripts. The uniqueness in this system, unlike other languages, Arabic (also Urdu) is  Written from right to left and a book is read from right to left only.

Chinese: Written Chinese is not an alphabetic script. It is a logographic script which represents a word, called “characters” and in Chinese known as “Hanji”. There are about 47000 of them. Mastering or learning of 4000 such  characters would be enough to become a Chinese literate. These are the  world’s longest  continuously used writing system. Japanese: Similar to Chinese with 2928 characters as of 2004. Korean: There are about 51 characters (Jamos). The script is known as  “Hangul” script.

Latin and as of now it has 26 alphabets.

24 – Twenty four – U and J were added later in the 16th century to make it 26.

Old English (Anglo Saxon)    450 – 1100 AD
Middle English    1100 – 1500 AD
Early Modern English   1500 – 1650 AD
Modern English    1650 to date.

Geoffrey Chaucer.

Wren and Martin.

V.S.Srinivasa Sastry.

Dialogue, Education.

Sequoia – (genus) a genus with one living and several fossil species.

An English word, when read from the reverse forms another meaningful word.For instance, “Now” when read in reverse it is “won” another meaningful word.

A word formed from the first/or first few letters of a series of words or phrase, only to represent the entire phrase in short viz: HOD for Head of the Dept.,

A word, phrase, or sentence that reads the same from right to left to right.   Eg: Madam, Malayalam.

Any method of spelling.

To write or spell in corresponding characters of another alphabet.

A shortened form of a long word or group of words like VIP for very important  Person.  (similar to acronym).

When two words are combined to form a word like Motor + Hotel = Motel  (highway hotels), Breakfast + Lunch = Brunch etc.,

A  word with the same pronunciation as another but with a different  meaning, origin and usually spelling.

Any of two or more letters or groups of letters having same pronunciation.

A word with the same spelling as another but with a different meaning and  pronunciation.

A word derived from the name of a place.

A poem written to celebrate a wedding.

Dreamt.

feedback.

Conjugation.

Tremendous, Horrendous, Stupendous and Hazardous.

Stewardesses.

FLOCCINAUCINIHILIPILIFICATION – meaning, the act of estimating  something as worthless.

Almost.

MONKEY:
Have a Monkey on One's Back: An addicts dependence on a drug or any Such habit.
Make a Monkey Of: Some one made to look a fool.
Monkey With: To meddle fool or tinker/play tricks.
To Monkey: to initiate.
Monkey Business: Mischievous, dishonest act or behaviour.
Monkey Jacket: A short close fitting jacket.
Monkey Cap: A cap covering the entire head leaving the face side open.
Monkey Nut: Another name for peanut.
Monkey Suit: A type of male evening dress.
Monkey's Wedding: Combination of rain and sunshine.
Monkey Tricks: Mischievous Behaviour.
DOG:
Dog Days: Hot period of Summer.
Dog Ear: To fold down the corner of a page.
Dog End: An informal name for cigarette ends.
Dogging: To pursue or follow like a dog.
Dog's Life: A wretched existence.
Dog's Chance: No Chance at all.
Dogged: Obstinately determined.
Dog in the Manger: A person who prevents others using something which has no use.
Dog Leg: A sharp bend or angle.
Dog Star: Another name for Star SIRIUS.
Dog Tired: exhausted.
YELLOW:
Yellow Belly: A slang for coward.
Yellow Card: A way of showing caution for a player committing an offence.
Yellow Streak: A cowardly or weak trait.
Yellow Journalism: Journals seeking sensationalism, exaggeration for attraction.
Yellow Pages: A classified telephone directory.
Yellow Line: On the road-crossing an offence.
RED
Red Carpet Welcome: A welcome extended to royals, VVIPs on a red carpet.
Red Letter Day: A moment of history.
Red Tapism: A term used against delays in Government processes.
Red Hot: Strike it when it is red hot - meaning the appropriate time to strike.
CULTURE:
Agriculture: A practice or profession of farming.
Horticulture: Science of plant cultivation including the process of preparing soil for plantation.
Floriculture: Cultivation of ornamental and flowering plants.
Api Culture: Practice of Bee Rearing.
Seri Culture: Silk farming.
Aquaculture: Farming of aquatic organisms.
Pisciculture: A practice of farming fish.
Monoculture: The practice of producing or growing one single crop over a wide area.
Mariculture : Cultivation of marine organisms.
Silviculture : Growing of trees and forests.

Telugu.

Malayalam.

Tamil and Sanskrit.

Cyrillic.

Papua New Guinea - with more than 700 dialects.

Chinese Mandarin.

Inuktitut.

Assamese - Bhutan; Bengali - Bangladesh
Bhojpuri - Nepal; Hindi - Fiji, Guyana, Suriname
Hindustani - Mauritius; Punjabi - Pakistan.
Sindhi - Pakistan; Tamil - Malaysia, Singapore, Sri Lanka.

Pair of words that is used together, usually conjoined and the order of elements cannot be reversed. Eg: Live and Let Live.

They are five line comic verses. Edward Lear is most famous for this.

The first letter of each of the lines when put together spell out a word.

English.

A word that is formed by rearranging the letters of a word or phrase to form new words or phrases.

Majuscule – Upper case or Capital Letters.
Miniscule – Lower Case or Small Letters.

Omega

Aldo Manuzzio.

William Jones – 1746-1794 – British Philologist – He knew 13 languages thoroughly and another 28 languages reasonably well, making him a  “hyperpolyglot”.

A person with a high degree of proficiency in different languages.

Jose Rizal – A Filipino who knew 22 languages.

Philology – a study of languages.

P.V.Narasimha Rao – A Telugu by birth, he was proficient in Hindi, Urdu, Oriya, Marathi, Bengali, Gujarati, Tamil and also spoke well in English and Other foreign languages like French, Arabic, Spanish, German, Greek,Latin and Persian.

Quecha.

Greek and Latin.

One word expression for omitting vowels or syllables in expressions, like – “we’ll” instead of “we will”.

E.

Greek.

Giuseppe Tucci – 1894-1984 – Specialist on Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism. He was fluent in many European languages and also Asian languages like, Sanskrit, Bengali, Pali, Prakrit, Chinese and Tibetan.

LANGUAGES	SPOKEN IN COUNTRIES:
A
Albanian	Albania
Arabic	Algeria, Bahrain, Chad, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon,Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sahrawi Arab Democratic Regpublic, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, UAE, Yemen.
Armenian	Armenia, Russia, Syria
Azeri	Azerbaijan
Assamese	Assam, and Bhutan
Aymara	Bolivia, Peru
Affar	Djibouti
Ambarika	Ethiopia
Amerindian	Mexico
Azerbaijani	Azerbaijan, Russia.
B
Berber	Algeria, Morocco
Bantu	Angola, Gabon, Mozambique, Zambia
Bengali	West Bengal, some eastern states of India & Bangladesh
Belorussian	Belarus, Russia
Bulgarian	Bulgaria
Bubi	Equatorial Guinea
Burmese	Myanmar
Bhasa	Indonesia
Bambara	Mali
Bislama	Vanuatu
Bhojpuri	Bihar, some parts of Chhatisgarh, Jharkhand
Baluchi	Pakistan
Brahvi	Pakistan.
C
Catalan	Andorra, Spain
Chakma	Bangladesh
Comoran	Comoros
Congo	Congo
Czech	Czech
Chechewa	Malawi
Croatian	Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro.
Chinese	Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam.
Chinese Mandarin	China, Taiwan
Crioulo	Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau
Creole	Guyana, Haiti
D
Dari	Afghanistan
Dzongka	Bhutan
Danish	Denmark
Dutch	the Netherlands, Indonesia, Suriname
Divehi	Maldives
Djerma	Niger
Dinka	Sudan
Dubian	Sudan
E
Egyptian	Egypt
Estonian	Estonia
F
French	France, Algeria, Andorra, Belgium, Benin, Burundi, Burkino Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Chad, Central African Republic, Congo, Cote-d-Ivoire, DR Congo, Djibouti, Dominica, Gabon, Grenada, Guinea, Haiti, Laos, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Mali, Madagascar, Mauritania, Mauritius, Monaco, Niger, Rwanda, Seychelles, Switzerland, Togo, Tunisia, Vanuatu,Vietnam.
Flemish	Belgium
Fon	Benin
Fang	Equatorial Guinea
Fijian	Fiji
Finnish	Finland
Filippino	Philippines
G
Greek	Greece, Albania, Cyprus
German	Germany, Azerbaijan, Austria, Belgium, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Namibia, Romania, Switzerland.
Gurung	Bhutan
Georgian	Georgia, Russia
Gilbertese	Kiribati
Gurrani	Paraguay
Galioian	Spain
Gaelic	UK
H
Hindi	North India, Fiji, Guyana, Suriname
Hungarian	Hungary, Romania
Hebrew	Israel
Hindustani	Mauritius
Hansa	Niger, Nigeria
Hakka Dialects	Southern China.
I
Italian	Italy, Argentina, Monaco, San Marino, Somalia, Switzerland
Issa	Djibouti
Icelandic	Iceland
Irish	Ireland
Iba	Nigeria
J
Javanese	Indonesia, Suriname
Japanese	Japan, Marshall Islands.
K
Kirundi	Burundi
Khmer	Kampuchea(Cambodia)
Kiswahili	DR Congo, Kenya, Tanzania
Khurdish	Iran, Iraq, Syria, Turkey
Kazakh	Kazakhstan
Kikuyu	Kenya
Korean	Korea (both)
Kirghiz	Kyrgystan
Karen	Myanmar
Kinyarwanda	Rwanda.
L
Lhotsam	Bhutan
Lingala	Congo, DR Congo
Lao	Laos, Thailand
Latvian	Latvia
Lithuanian	Lithuania, Latvia
Luxembourgish	Luxembourg
Lomwe	Malawi
Luganda	Uganda
Latin	Vatican
M
Magh	Bangladesh
Malay	Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore, Thailand
Mandinka	Gambia
Macedonian	Macedonia
Malagasy	Madagascar
Maltese	Malta
Manhalese	Marshall Islands
Monegasque	Monaco
Mongolian	Mongolia
Maithri	Nepal
Maori	New Zealand
Melanesian	Papua New Guinea
Magyar	Slovakia
N
Nauruan	Nauru
Nepali	Nepal
Norwegian	Norway
Ndebela	Zimbabwe
O
Oromina	Ethiopia
P
Papuan	Papua New Guinea
Palauan	Palau
Pushto	Afghanistan, Pakisan
Punjabi	Punjab, India and Pakistan
Persian	Afghanistan, Iran
Portuguese	Portugal, Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, East Timor, Guinea Bissau, Mozambique, Sao Tome & Principe.Patois Dominica, St. Kitts & Nevis
Pudgin English	Equatorial Guinea, Solomon Islands
Pular	Mauritania
Polish	Poland
Q
Quechua	Bolivia, Peru
Quechuan	Equador
R
Russian	Russia, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyztan, Latvia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan.
Romanian	Romania, Moldovia
Rosque	Spain
Romanch	Switzerland
S
Spanish	Spain, Andorra, Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Chile, Columbia, Costa Rica, Cuba,Dominican Republic,Ecuador, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, USA, Venezeula
Serb	Serbia & Montenegro, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina
Setswana, Sishona	Botswana
Sudanic	Burkino Faso
Sangho	Central African Republic
Soninke	Mauritania
Shan	Myanmar
Swedish	Sweden, Finland
Sesotho	Lesotho
Sindhi	Pakistan
Swahili	Rwanda
Samoan	Samoa
Slovak	Slovakia
Sloevenian	Sloevenia
Somali	Somalia
Sinhala	Sri Lanka
Sarantengo	Suriname
Swazi	Swaziland
Scots	UK
Shorra	Zimbabwe.
T
Turkish	Turkey, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Iran.
Teke	Congo
Tetum	East Timor
Tamil	Malaysia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, India (Tamilnadu)
Tigrigana	Eritrea, Ethiopia
Taiwanese	Taiwan
Tadzhik	Tajikistan
Thai	Thailand
Tongan	Tonga
Tuvaluan	Tuvalu
Turkmenish	Turkmenistan
U
Urdu	Pakistan, Guyana, India
Ukrainian	Ukraine, Moldovia, Russia
Uzbek	Uzbekistan, Russia
V
Vietnamese	Vietnam
W
Welsh	UK
Wolof	Mauritania, Senegal
Y
Yoruba	Benin, Nigeria
Yao	Malawi.