Sage-Tips

Which language has most number of words?

English
If we were to base our answer solely on the strict number of dictionary entries, English is among the largest languages by word count. It has more than 200,000 words in the Oxford English Dictionary, including 171,476 words in use and 47,156 obsolete words.

How many words are the same in every language?

According to scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, there is only one word in existence that’s the same in every language, and that word is ‘huh’.

Which language has least vocabulary?

That metaphorical process is at the heart of Toki Pona, the world’s smallest language. While the Oxford English Dictionary contains a quarter of a million entries, and even Koko the gorilla communicates with over 1,000 gestures in American Sign Language, the total vocabulary of Toki Pona is a mere 123 words.

Do all languages have in common?

All languages have sentences; both the basic building blocks (parts of speech like nouns and verbs) and the systems for constructing sentences out of these building blocks are very similar across languages: there is no language without nouns and verbs and pronouns, though other categories, like adjectives and adverbs.

Does English really have more words than other languages?

Have you heard language experts say that English has more words than other languages? The claim is made but it’s practically impossible to verify. Steven Frank, the author of The Pen Commandments claims that English has 500,000 words with German having about 135,000 and French having fewer than 100,000.

Do all languages use the same symbols for amounts?

The vast majority of languages have separate words for particular amounts. Many of these use the same symbols for these amounts as we do in English. The French might say “dix” when the English say “ten”, but we both write “10”. But many languages do not use the same symbols.

How many words are common to all languages?

This is a position most often associated with Chomsky and most popularly explained by Steven Pinker. Semantic Primes claims that there are about 60 words that are common to all languages and through which all meaning can be described (they call this Natural Semantic Metalanguage).

Do numbers in different languages have the same numerals?

Numbers in Different Languages: Typesetting Multilingual Numerals Not all languages share the same numerals; something it can be importantly to remember from the start of the design process. A page design that plays on the shape of a number might fall apart when typeset in a foreign language. First, what we all have in common.