Which Language Has the Most Phrases?
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Some languages are identified for his or her difficult grammar guidelines or troublesome pronunciations. However which language is thought for having the most important vocabulary? And does having essentially the most phrases make a language harder to be taught?
The reply to all these questions is dependent upon your view of language and the completely different approaches to counting phrases in world languages. Discover out which language has essentially the most phrases, in line with linguists and language dictionaries, and why some languages have extra phrases than others.
The 6 languages with essentially the most phrases
Discovering which language has essentially the most phrases is dependent upon a number of elements. Counting the phrases in a language’s dictionary is one approach to decide who has essentially the most phrases in a language, however dictionaries generally exclude slang phrases and archaic phrases that aren’t in use anymore. Moreover, some dictionaries solely embody a headword (the phrase that begins a brand new dictionary entry) as soon as, whereas others embody all types of a headword.
To search out out which language has essentially the most phrases, we used a mixture of the language’s dictionary and any language initiatives designed to report its use. Whereas the order of the languages might differ as their vocabularies shift and alter, these languages at the moment have the biggest vocabularies on this planet.
1. English
With its many language influences and phrases borrowed from different cultures, English in all probability has essentially the most phrases in a language. English is a Germanic language with vocabulary from many cultures, together with Romance languages like French and Spanish.
So, what number of phrases are within the English language? English accommodates between 470,000 and a million phrases, relying on whether or not you’re counting dictionary phrases or complete phrases ever used within the language. Add the a whole lot of recent phrases added to dictionaries yearly, mixed with the numerous dialects and slang phrases used around the globe, and the English vocabulary grows each time you utilize it!
2. Korean
Korean has nearly as many phrases as English. In 2016, the Nationwide Institute of Korean Language launched the Urimalsaem (also called the Woori Mal Saem). This open-source, on-line dictionary permits customers so as to add Korean phrases for lexicographers to overview and approve, making it a residing doc of Korean vocabulary.
Relating to what number of phrases are within the Korean language, we don’t have a precise quantity. Nevertheless, the Urimalsaem started at over a million phrases and continues to extend every single day.
3. Tamil
Formally, Tamil accommodates round 3.8 lakh (100 thousand) phrases. However an internet Tamil dictionary referred to as the Sorkuvai lists its present phrase depend at over a million phrases. This open-source dictionary additionally permits customers so as to add Tamil phrases that they know, together with slang phrases that won’t seem in formal Tamil language guides.
The Sorkuvai contains Tamil phrases from many dialects, in addition to over 100,000 Tamil phrases discovered within the Agarathi, one other on-line dictionary. These vocabulary initiatives allow each historic and trendy Tamil phrases to coexist in a single supply.
4. Portuguese
There are greater than 818,000 Portuguese phrases within the Aulete Digital, the first on-line Portuguese dictionary. Priberam’s Dictionary of the Portuguese Language, a up to date Portuguese dictionary, lists over 110,000 phrases that embody widespread phrases and basic vocabulary.
The true variety of Portuguese phrases is probably going between these numbers. Nevertheless, like different languages, Portuguese continues to evolve and develop its vocabulary.
5. Swedish
The Svenska Akademiens ordbok (Swedish Dictionary) accommodates 511,960 Swedish phrases. Revealed by the Swedish Academy, the dictionary is accompanied by the Svenska Akademiens Ordlista, a dictionary that lists over 126,000 trendy Swedish phrases and phrases.
Although Swedish is a Germanic language like English, it has fewer phrases as a result of it hasn’t had as many language influences. Although it contains loanwords from different Scandinavian languages, it isn’t as extensively spoken as English, giving it fewer dialects so as to add to the whole phrase depend.
6. Arabic
You might have heard that Arabic has over 12 million phrases, which might put it on the high of the “most phrases in a language” record. However this determine comes from a guide that lists all potential roots, not simply the phrases which have a definition.
Linguists put the variety of Arabic phrases nearer to 200,000 distinct phrases. Whereas it does embody many root kinds, Arabic doesn’t embody many phrases borrowed from different languages. Arabic’s many dialects and historic significance additionally make it very troublesome to find out the precise variety of phrases within the language.
How do languages add new phrases?
It might be extra simple to discover a record of languages with phrase counts that by no means change. However residing languages are always shifting as outdated phrases fall out of use and new phrases start to explain new conditions and generations.
Listed below are just a few ways in which languages are likely to increase, and which languages are extra doubtless to make use of them.
Agglutinative languages
In agglutinative languages resembling Turkish, Japanese, and Finnish, audio system frequently kind new phrases as a part of on a regular basis speech. That’s as a result of agglutinative languages simply mix morphemes, the smallest constructing blocks of which means in a language, to create new phrases.
Some languages wind up with extraordinarily lengthy phrases created by means of agglutination, such because the Turkish phrase Çekoslovakyalılaştıramadıklarımızdanmışsınız, which interprets to “You might be a kind of that we weren’t in a position to convert into Czechoslovakians.” However every new phrase counts as yet another in a language’s vocabulary!
Compound phrases and portmanteaus
Some languages develop by including two phrases collectively to create compound phrases. English is one such language, as we see from compound phrases like “firehouse” and “basketball.” New phrases additionally come up while you mix phrases into portmanteaus, which take items of two phrases (as in trendy phrases like “chillax” and “hangry”).
Different Germanic languages, together with Dutch and German, create new compound phrases and portmanteaus on a regular basis. Some lengthy German compound phrases can describe very particular conditions!
Loanwords
When two cultures reside close to one another, they typically trade loanwords (borrowed phrases from one other language). For instance, English contains many loanwords from French in addition to Spanish and different Romance languages. That’s one of many causes the English language contains so many phrases.
Cultures which have traditionally been extra remoted of their languages don’t embody many loanwords in any respect. Whereas many European languages embody robust Arabic influences, for instance, Arabic contains only a few non-Arabic loanwords.
Slang phrases
It doesn’t matter what language you realized first, you recognize that slang can dramatically change the best way individuals communicate. Some slang makes its method into official dictionaries (together with the favored Gen Z time period “yeet”!), whereas different slang phrases exist in informal conversations.
What number of phrases do you could know to be fluent?
Even when we did have a definitive reply to the variety of phrases in a language, it wouldn’t be significantly helpful to most language learners. An English dictionary might have a whole lot of 1000’s of headwords, however the common native speaker solely is aware of about 15,000-20,000 lemmas (consider a lemma as a phrase and all of its kinds, like previous tense, plural, and so forth.).
One linguistic professor estimates that folks have to know simply 800 lemmas of a language to grasp 75% of each day conversations. That’s nice information if you happen to’re trying to be taught a brand new language and really feel like a million phrases is a tall order!
Study a brand new language with Rosetta Stone, regardless of the variety of phrases
Realizing what number of phrases a language has doesn’t inform you a lot about how troublesome it’s to be taught. What issues are the a number of hundred most steadily used phrases, which Rosetta Stone will help you perceive. Use useful instruments just like the Rosetta Stone App to be taught widespread phrases you’d use in on a regular basis interactions, and get began in your new language studying journey as we speak!
