So what is the best language in the world? Which language has the most words

October 24, 2013

Many people are interested in linguistics. They are reading interesting books L. Uspensky and are looking for an answer to the question, what is the richest language on our planet? You should try to answer their question.

For a long time, philologists have been struggling with the question: what language of the world is the most lexically rich? In what language would a person be able to most accurately and gracefully express what is in his soul? It is difficult to answer this question right away, because everyone will consider it native language the richest. In English there are a lot of proverbs related to rain, in German you can express abstract concepts very accurately, French helps to accurately express even the most ornate epithets. The Japanese language is traditionally divided into two parallel dialects - feminine and masculine, Norwegian - into Bokmål and modern Norwegian, and what can we say about the Russian language - it has thousands of dialects.

Unfortunately, the Guinness Book of Records has chosen as the leader in the number of words Greek language not Russian. With the help of a special program, it was possible to calculate that there are more than 5 million words in the Greek language (for comparison, there are about 1.3 million words in English).

However, as one of the popular sayings says, "Russians do not give up." Linguists of the NKRY created a special program that was able to most objectively calculate the number of words in our language. It turned out that the Russian language is eight times richer than Greek. More than 40 million words (40 megawords) were counted in the national corpus of the Russian language. But this is not the limit: in connection with the development of our language, scientists are already planning to create a dictionary of 200 megawords, which would include absolutely all words, both modern and ancient, and dialect, and invented, and even obscene.

Sometimes, when discussing the Russian language as one of the richest, one recalls an anecdote about how representatives of four European nationalities met, including Russian. And he offered his friends a bet that only in Russian can a story be made up of words starting with the same letter. And after all, he succeeded: Petukhov Petr Petrovich, lieutenant of the Podolsky Fifty-fifth Infantry Regiment, received a letter by mail full of wishes, and pleasant ones at that. Petukhov liked the invitation of Perepelkina Praskovya Petrovna ... "and so on.

However, many see Chinese as the richest language in the world. There was even a contest "The Richest Language", which was held in 2003 in the United States, and where the winner was the Chinese language. However, professional linguists believe that this is not the case. The Chinese language is distinguished by a rich grammatical basis rather than a lexical one.

Many scientists consider the dialects of the Indians, as well as various African tribes, little known to us, to be the richest languages. Adverb North American Indians Chippewa has over 6,000 verb forms, and the Haida language has over 70 prefixes. The Eskimo language is also distinguished by its grammatical richness - there are more than 60 forms of the present tense in it! That is why the Eskimo language is difficult to learn for a European person who is used to a maximum of 16 forms of different times.

Another rich language is Tabasaran, which has more than forty-eight cases of nouns. If we judge the richness of the language by the number of letters in the alphabet, then the Khmer language is in the lead, in the alphabet of which there are 73 letters. The most consonant sounds in the Ubyh language are 85, among the ready-made ones there are 8 variations of the sound “g”.

But to us Russians, of course, our native language will seem richer than others. The Russian language does not have a colossal number of letters, consonants and vowels, intricate grammatical forms. But there is an incredible lexical wealth that allows you to most accurately express each thought, to clothe it in nice shape. This is what helped many famous Russian classics to create their works - an inexhaustible vocabulary of the Russian language. And in order to increase this wealth every year, one should take care of the language, preserve old and little-used words, draw new ones from other languages and create neologisms.

It is difficult to answer the question of which language is the richest without linguistic expertise. In fact, for every native speaker, his native language is the most beautiful and richest, and this is completely natural.

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Four linguists met at one of the symposiums: an Englishman, a German, an Italian and a Russian. There was talk of languages. They began to argue, and whose language is more beautiful, better, richer, and what language does the future belong to?

The Englishman said: "England is a country of great conquerors, navigators and travelers who spread the glory of its language to all corners of the whole world. English is the language of Shakespeare, Dickens, Byron - undoubtedly, best language in the world".

"Nothing like that," said the German, "our language is the language of science and physics, medicine and technology. The language of Kant and Hegel, the language in which best work world poetry - Goethe's Faust.

“You are both Wrong,” the Italian entered into an argument, “think, the whole world, all of humanity loves music, songs, romances, operas! In what language do the best love romances and brilliant operas sound? In the language of sunny Italy!”

The Russian was silent for a long time, listened modestly, and finally said: “Of course, I could also, like each of you, say that the Russian language - the language of Pushkin, Tolstoy, Turgenev, Chekhov - surpasses all the languages of the world. But I will not go according to your way. Tell me, could you write a short story in your languages with a plot, with a consistent development of the plot, so that all the words of the story begin with the same letter? This puzzled the interlocutors very much and all three said: "No, in Our Tongues it is impossible." Then the Russian answers: "but in our language it is quite possible, and I will prove it to you now. Name any letter." The German replied: "It doesn't matter. The letter "P" for example.

"Very well, here is the Story for this Letter," replied the Russian.

Pyotr Petrovich Petrov, Lieutenant of the 55th Podolsk Infantry Regiment, received a letter in the mail full of good wishes. "Come," wrote the charming Polina Pavlovna Perepyolkina, "we'll talk, dream, dance, take a walk, we'll visit a half-forgotten, half-overgrown pond, go fishing. Come, Pyotr Petrovich, visit as soon as possible."

Petukhov liked the offer. Figured: I'll come. I grabbed a half-worn field cloak, I thought: it will come in handy.

The train arrived in the afternoon. Pyotr Petrovich was received by Polina Pavlovna's most venerable father, Pavel Panteleimonovich. "Please, Pyotr Petrovich, Sit down more comfortably," said dad. A bald nephew came up and introduced himself: "Porfiry Platonovich Polikarpov. Please, please."

The lovely Polina appeared. Full shoulders were covered with a transparent Persian scarf. We talked, joked, invited to dine. They served dumplings, pilaf, pickles, liver, pate, pies, cake, half a liter of orange juice. We had a hearty meal. Pyotr Petrovich felt a pleasant satiety.

After eating, after a hearty snack, Polina Pavlovna invited Pyotr Petrovich to take a walk in the park. In front of the park stretched a half-forgotten, half-grown pond. Ride under sail. After swimming in the pond, we went for a walk in the park.

"Let's sit down," suggested Polina Pavlovna. Sit down. Polina Pavlovna moved closer. We sat down, were silent. There was a first kiss. Pyotr Petrovich got tired, offered to lie down, spread out a half-worn field cloak, thought: it came in handy. Lie down, lie down, fall in love. Pyotr Petrovich is a prankster, a scoundrel," Polina Pavlovna said habitually.

"Let's get married, let's get married!" whispered the bald nephew. "Let's get married, let's get married," the dad who came up boomed. Pyotr Petrovich turned pale, staggered, then ran away. Having run, I thought: "Polina Petrovna - A wonderful Party, Fullness to take a steam bath."

The prospect of obtaining a beautiful estate flashed before Pyotr Petrovich. Hastened to send an offer. Polina Pavlovna accepted the offer, and later they got married. Friends came to congratulate, brought gifts. Passing the package, they said: "Beautiful Couple."

Interlocutors - linguists, having heard the story, were forced to admit that the Russian language is the best and richest language in the world.

Four linguists met at one of the symposiums: an Englishman, a German, an Italian and a Russian. We were talking about languages. They began to argue, and whose language is more beautiful, better, richer, and what language does the future belong to?

The Englishman said: “England is a country of great conquerors, seafarers and travelers who spread the glory of her language to all corners of the whole world. English - the language of Shakespeare, Dickens, Byron - is undoubtedly the best language in the world.

“Nothing of the kind,” said the German, “Our language is the language of science and physics, medicine and technology. The language of Kant and Hegel, the language in which the best work of world poetry is written - Goethe's Faust.

“You are both wrong,” the Italian entered into an argument, “Think, the whole world, all of humanity loves music, songs, romances, operas! In what language do the best love romances and brilliant operas sound? In the language of sunny Italy!

This puzzled the interlocutors very much and all three said: "No, in our languages it is impossible." Then the Russian answers: “But in our language it is quite possible, and I will prove it to you now. Name any letter. The German replied: “It doesn't matter. The letter "P" for example.

“Fine, here’s a story for you with this letter,” the Russian replied.

Pyotr Petrovich Petukhov, Lieutenant of the 55th Podolsky Infantry Regiment, received a letter in the mail full of good wishes. “Come,” wrote the charming Polina Pavlovna Perepelkina, “we’ll talk, dream, dance, take a walk, visit a half-forgotten, half-overgrown pond, go fishing. Come, Pyotr Petrovich, to stay as soon as possible.

Petukhov liked the offer. Figured: I'll come. He grabbed a half-worn field cloak, thought: it will come in handy.

The train arrived in the afternoon. Pyotr Petrovich was received by Polina Pavlovna's most venerable father, Pavel Panteleimonovich. “Please, Pyotr Petrovich, sit down more comfortably,” said dad. A bald nephew came up and introduced himself: “Porfiry Platonovich Polikarpov. Please, please."

"Let's sit down," suggested Polina Pavlovna. Sit down. Polina Pavlovna moved closer. We sat down, were silent. There was a first kiss. Pyotr Petrovich got tired, offered to lie down, spread out a half-worn field cloak, thought: it came in handy. Lie down, lie down, fall in love. “Pyotr Petrovich is a prankster, a scoundrel,” Polina Pavlovna said habitually.

"Let's get married, let's get married!" whispered the bald nephew. “Let's get married, let's get married,” boomed the dad who came up. Pyotr Petrovich turned pale, staggered, then ran away. Having run, I thought: “Polina Petrovna is a wonderful party, it’s enough to take a steam bath.”

Interlocutors-linguists, having heard the story, were forced to admit that the Russian language is the best and richest language in the world.

The Englishman said: "England is a country of great conquerors, navigators and travelers who spread the glory of its language to all corners of the whole world. English - the language of Shakespeare, Dickens, Byron - is undoubtedly the best language in the world."

"Nothing like that," said the German, "our language is the language of science and physics, medicine and technology. The language of Kant and Hegel, the language in which the best work of world poetry, Goethe's Faust, is written."

"Very well, here is the Story for this Letter," replied the Russian.

Petukhov liked the offer. Figured: I'll come. I grabbed a half-worn field cloak, I thought: it will come in handy.

Interlocutors - linguists, having heard the story, were forced to admit that the Russian language is the best and richest language in the world.

Not only philologists like to argue about which language is the richest and most beautiful. Of course, for each person, his native language will be the best, most beautiful and, of course, the most unique.

There are no rules by which we could determine which language is the most harmonious and perfect. However, almost each has its own characteristics that distinguish it from all the others and give many reasons for pride to the people who speak it. In this article, I will try to show just a little how diverse the language map of the planet is. In the future, I will return to this topic more than once, because each language has some amazing feature, thanks to which it can be considered a champion in a particular area.

And you can start the story just from the simplest - from the number of words in the language.

As for the richness of the vocabulary, the Greek language takes the leading position here: it has 5 million words. The English language, for example, contains only about half a million words. At the same time, we are unlikely to call English “poor”. This can only be said by someone who is not familiar with classical literature created in English, and has no idea how “capacious” this language is. Many would likely agree that the best way to define the "richness" of a language is its expressive capabilities. And there are not many languages that can compare with Russian and German. Is not it?

Now let's turn to the "poor" languages. Did you know that the Taki language spoken in parts of French Guinea has only 340 words? But even with such a modest vocabulary, people manage to communicate well with each other.

The Guinness Book of World Records doesn't have a "most beautiful language" category for obvious reasons, but instead there are plenty of other language records that are sure to surprise anyone. For example, the Abaza alphabet is considered the longest of the currently existing alphabets (by the way, 65 alphabets are used in the world). It has only 82 letters. The Cambodian alphabet is only slightly inferior to it: it consists of 74 letters. It is followed by the Khmer alphabet containing 72 letters. The shortest alphabet is found in the Rotokas language from the island of Bougainville (Papua New Guinea). It has only 11 letters. And in the Hawaiian alphabet, there is only one more - 12.

The earliest example of alphabetic writing was found in Ugarit (now Ras Sharma, Syria). It dates from around 1450 BC. and is a clay tablet with 32 cuneiform letters applied to it.

The most ancient letter is considered "o". It remained unchanged in the same form in which it was adopted in the Phoenician alphabet (about 1300 BC).

In English and Hungarian, the letter "E" is considered the most common.

The letter "Q" is the least used in modern European languages(the exception is French).

There are more than 20 synonyms for the word "snow" in the Eskimo language, and many more words for shades white color. It also has 63 forms of the present tense, and simple nouns have 252 inflections.

The inhabitants of Papua New Guinea speak about 700 languages (this is about 10 percent of all languages in the world). In addition, among these languages, there are many local dialects that are used to communicate with each other in neighboring villages.

The Chippewa language of the North American Indians contains the largest number verb forms (there are about 6000 of them). In another Aboriginal language North America- haida - 70 prefixes are used, which is also a record.

In the Tabasaran language, which is widespread on the territory of Dagestan, there are 48 cases of nouns (in Hungarian, for example, there are only 24 of them, and in Russian - 6).

In Turkish, there is only one irregular verb - olmak ("to be"), and in English there are 283 such verbs.

There are three genders in Russian, German and Romanian, two in French, Danish and Swedish, one in Finnish and Hungarian, and four in the Australian Aboriginal language Diirbalu: masculine, feminine, neuter and edible.

The largest number of consonants (80-85) is contained in the Ubykh language (the Abkhaz-Adyghe group of the Caucasian family), the smallest - 6 - in the Rotokas language (yes, yes, in the very one whose alphabet is considered the shortest).

The most vowels are in the Sedang language (Central Vietnam) - 55, and the least - in the Abkhazian (there are only 2 of them).

The most common sound is the vowel "a" - there is no language in which it would not be. There are languages where "a" has different degrees longitudes (Slovak, Hungarian, etc.).

The Czech sound is recognized as the rarest, which is a conjointly pronounced “r” and “zh” - [rzh]. Even the closest relative of the Czech language, Slovak, cannot boast of this sound. It is also interesting to note that in the Czech language "rzh" is one of the main sounds: without it, it is impossible to pronounce such traditional folk names like "Jiri", "Przemysl", etc.

In the southern Bushman languages, there is another rare sound - a kind of click of the tongue. Even a special sign was invented to depict it on a letter.

AT Japanese there is no “l” sound familiar to Europeans. And at the same time, Japanese is rightfully called one of the most melodic languages on the planet.

The largest number of values has English word set (58 values as a noun; 126 as a verb; 10 as a participle adjective). And is it possible after that to refuse carriers of English language in practicality?

If we turn to Asian languages, then they seem to be completely “woven” from records. For example, in Chinese, where there are no verb conjugations or tenses, there is a huge vocabulary. And, of course, as befits a language that has a history of more than one millennium, Chinese can be proud of its amazing writing. The 40-volume Chinese dictionary Zhongwen Dajidian contains a total of 49,905 characters. The phoneme [i] in the IV tone has 84 meanings, and among them there are such as “clothes”, “hiccups” and “lousy”. In the written language, there are 92 hieroglyphs for the syllable [i] in tone IV. The most difficult is the hieroglyph [se] - "talkative", consisting of 64 lines. However, nowadays it is not actually used. Of the common this moment the most difficult is the hieroglyph "nan". It contains 36 dashes and means "stuffy nose". And if suddenly you decide to go to a Chinese pharmacy with complaints of a runny nose, you have every chance to depict this very hieroglyph on a piece of paper. And then you will certainly understand!

By the way, Mandarin Chinese is the most used language in the world, spoken by more than 885 million people. Spanish is in second place (332 million), English is third (322 million), and Bengali is fourth (189 million). By the way, Russian is in 7th place in this list (170 million) and is the most widely spoken language in Europe.

There are over 1,000 on the African continent different languages. The Berber language of North Africa has no written form. And Afrikaans, known as the Boer language, was considered a dialect of Dutch until the early 20th century. And yet this language has no family ties with its African neighbors and belongs to the West Germanic group of languages. Unique case, is not it?

Some linguists also believe that Latin language has not ceased to be colloquial at all, it has only undergone minor changes. The closest relative of Latin is the Castilian language. According to some reports, Occitan and Sardinian can compete with it. All these languages are so similar to Latin (even Italian differs from its distant ancestor much more than they do) that one can believe that the language of the ancient Romans lives on to this day. Latin, by the way, is recognized as "the most alive of dead languages". Its study is mandatory in many countries of the world, not only for philologists, but also for historians. Doctors are also forced to understand Latin terminology. And not only them. The secrets of Latin grammar are also penetrated by simply interested persons.

There are about 5-6 thousand languages in the world, and about two die every month.... Languages disappear and appear. And each of them is interesting. It would be useful to talk about the curious features of some of them, if only in order to better understand how valuable the language that you speak and love is.

Kurkina AnaTheodora