Where is the greatest language diversity? South Africa? Mexico? Papua New Guinea? The United States?
Here’s a hint:
There are about 7,000 languages in the world—and only about 200 members in the United Nations. The winning country has more than 800 languages.
Facts:
The United States has about 380 languages—mostly through immigration. Mexico, at last count, had close to 500 mostly indigenous languages. South Africa has 11 official languages and more than 100 others (indigenous and immigrant languages combined).
Papua New Guinea, with a population of only 8,563, has 820 languages. That’s about one language per thousand residents—the highest level of language diversity in the world.
