Indonesia has been ranked as the country with the second highest\nnumber of living languages in the world, according to data from the\nSummer Institute of Linguistics International processed by Our World in\nData. The archipelago boasts 709 languages that are still actively\nspoken, placing it just behind Papua New Guinea, which leads the list\nwith 843 languages.<\/p>\n
The data underscores how geographical conditions, history, migration,\nand the level of isolation of a country play a significant role in\nshaping linguistic diversity. Despite having a population of less than\n12 million, Papua New Guinea retains hundreds of languages thanks to its\nmountainous terrain, numerous islands, and communities that have\nhistorically lived separated from one another. This number is almost\ndouble that of India, a country with a much larger population.<\/p>\n
At the other end of the spectrum, North Korea ranks at the bottom\nwith only two living languages: Korean and Korean Sign Language. This\nlimited diversity is closely linked to the country\u2019s extreme political\nisolation following the division of the Korean Peninsula after World War\nII. A similar pattern is observed in Cuba and the Dominican Republic,\nwhere the dominance of Spanish since the colonial era has led to the\ngradual disappearance of indigenous languages, with African linguistic\ninfluences eventually merging into the Spanish spoken there. The data\nreveals that while only 20 countries globally have 100 or more living\nlanguages, many nations that now have very few languages once possessed\nfar greater linguistic diversity that was eroded by colonisation,\ncultural assimilation, and the extinction of native tongues.<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/indonesia-ranks-second-globally-with-709-living-languages-1783925526", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }