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Topic: linguistics

An early cuneiform writing tablet
Science
Friday, 7/24, 04:41 AM

The World May Have Had 10 Times as Many Languages 2,000 Years Ago

  • A new study estimates that humans spoke tens of thousands of languages around 2,000 years ago, perhaps ten times the roughly 7,000 spoken today.
  • The researchers argue the great fall came as large empires spread a few dominant tongues.
  • Some linguists are skeptical of the numbers.

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