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Papua New Guinea has the most languages of any country, with 820 in use. The country’s isolated tribes are thought to have developed their own languages and dialects. Only three languages are official.
Papua New Guinea has 820 different languages in use, the most languages of any country. Although the country is approximately 178,703 square miles (462,840 square km), about the size of California, it has more than 10% of the world’s total number of languages, estimated to be around 6,900. This is thought to be because Papua New Guinea is heavily segmented into small tribes isolated by mountains, swamps and forests, which may have led to each tribe developing its own languages and dialects. Papua New Guinea, however, has only three official languages: Tok Pisin, Hiri Motu and English.
Learn more about languages:
The most widely spoken language in the world is Mandarin, with approximately 12% of the world’s people using it.
An estimated 2,400 languages are at risk of extinction, and languages are estimated to go extinct at a rate of one every two weeks.
The Bible is the book available in the most languages — more than 2,400 — followed by the children’s book Pinocchio, which has been translated into more than 260 languages.
