Why do different peoples have different languages? Why do people speak different languages?

Why are there so many languages?

There is no single answer to this question, as there is to all questions concerning the distant past. There are several versions. According to one of them, there is a single language from which all others were born. According to another version, Neanderthals developed a person with two mutations in the FOXP2 gene on chromosome 7, as a result of which this person’s body became capable of language.

People began to ask the question of language a very long time ago, since the times of ancient Egypt. Ancient people, when they encountered foreigners, did not understand their speech and considered them second-class citizens. The Greeks contemptuously called them “barbarians” because their speech seemed like a meaningless set of sounds: “bar-bar-var”. Nowadays, with the help of computers, people can recreate many ancient languages ​​based on the roots of modern words. Studying languages ​​from different angles, linguists have discovered that many languages, even at first glance completely different, have something in common. But why are they different? The answer can be based on observations of the languages ​​of modern people. There are words in the Russian language that are called differently in different regions. Some people call “beets” “buryak”, “Thursday” - “chetverik”, “curb” - “curb”. It all depends on the dialects. Neighbors have almost no differences in language; those who live further away have differences in individual words or sounds. But their speech can still be understood. But understanding neighbors' neighbors is no longer so easy. And it’s impossible to make out what those distant people are saying. This is how a new language appears. It is easy to determine that Russian and French are different languages: speakers of one do not understand speakers of the other at all. What is "pomme" in French? It is unlikely that a person who has not studied French will guess that this is an “apple”. And if you compare Russian and Ukrainian: “yabloko”, then there is no need for translation, the word is clear, of course. Despite the fact that the languages ​​are different, people who speak them can easily understand each other - there is a lot in common between them. But in addition to the distance of peoples from each other in terms of distance and time, the appearance of different languages ​​is greatly influenced by geography. On the island of New Guinea, the population speaks almost a thousand different languages! And all because the island’s territory is dotted with mountains and jungles. It is difficult for people to navigate through it, they rarely communicate, they hardly exchange new words, so each village has developed its own language. And linguists call the Caucasus the “mountain of languages”. There was even an old Arabic legend: “Allah had a bag in which different languages ​​were stored. While traveling around the world, he gave each nation one language. But when he traveled around the whole world, except the Caucasus, there were still a lot of languages ​​left in the bag. Allah just "He turned the sack over the mountains and poured out all the languages. Therefore, now each tribe there has its own dialect." There are a lot of such countries and localities with different dialects.

Why do people speak different languages? There is no clear answer to this question. Scholars and the Bible interpret it differently. The first claim that initially all people spoke the same language and understood each other perfectly. They resolved all issues that arose peacefully, without resorting to violence. To some extent this was due to their compact living. To put it simply, all the tribes lived in the same neighborhood and could easily communicate with each other, in the same language, understandable to everyone.

The Bible has a different point of view. To have access to heaven, people decided to build a tower, which was called the Tower of Babel. However, they did not ask God for permission, which angered him. As punishment, he settled people all over the planet and forced them to speak different languages, which led to serious difficulties in their communication.

This is how the Bible interprets multilingualism. Scientists agree that the process of the emergence of different languages ​​was quite long. At first, people lived on earth in small groups and communicated with each other using gestures. Their main occupation was hunting. But in the process of evolution, humans developed additional needs, which led to the unification of various tribes. Now a person needed not only to hunt, but also to build housing, engage in agriculture, make tools, sew clothes, etc. This could only be done together. This is exactly how peoples arose, with their own language of communication.

Initially, it differed little from its primitive counterpart, and only over time began to acquire its own dialect. At the same time, this process occurred individually among different peoples. The end result is well known to us. Today, every nation has its own language, and in order to understand each other we are forced to resort to the help of a translator. At the same time, linguistic transformation continues. To some extent, this is facilitated by wars that lead to the seizure of foreign territories. As a result, a merging of languages ​​occurs, leading to the emergence of certain linguistic symbioses and completely unique dialects. This, for example, is the dialect of Transcarpathians. Their language contains many Slovak, Magyar, Ruthenian and Ukrainian words.

This is how new languages ​​arise. They may retain their grammar but include entirely new expressions. In this case, the language of the conqueror’s people always wins. This, for example, happened with the Frankish tribes, who lost their language and came under the influence of Gaul. All that remains of it is the name of the country, which we all know well. In this case we are talking about France.

There are approximately 5,000 living languages ​​and dialects around the world. The multilingualism of the Earth's population developed for many reasons, for example, the fragmented life of ancient tribes who lived in groups and did not even suspect the existence of other people. Each tribe created its own so-called proto-language, which subsequently developed and branched. There are about 13 such proto-languages ​​in total.

Residents of different countries around the world speak different languages. Sometimes in one state there are several dozen languages ​​and dialects, for example, in the USA, in New York alone, people speak 129 languages ​​and dialects. There are living (spoken), dead (for example, Latin) languages, the language of the deaf and dumb, artificial languages, and even fictional ones, for example, Elvish from J. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy.
The common function of all varieties of languages ​​is communicative. This is a means of sound, sign (written) and gesture communication, transmission of information.

There are still two scientific hypotheses about the origin of languages, as well as many myths and legends. Some scientists suggest that all modern languages ​​originate from one language, the so-called proto-world. However, it is not necessarily the primary language. There may have been other languages ​​in the past that became extinct. This linguistic hypothesis is called the monogenesis theory.

The second hypothesis, the theory of polygenesis, is that existing languages ​​are descended from several proto-languages ​​that were created and developed independently of each other. In any case, none of the concepts can be confirmed historically due to the great length of time and lack of evidence.

One way or another, the tribes that inhabited the Earth several thousand years ago already spoke different languages. The planet's population grew, states were created, mass migrations and mixing of peoples took place, lands were seized, and the social structure changed. All these changes could not but affect the development of languages.

Tribes grew, branched out, conquered new territories, the same languages ​​developed differently in different places, and dialects appeared. Thus, these days it is difficult to imagine that, for example, English and Russian languages ​​belong to different branches (Germanic and Balto-Slavic) of the same language family - Indo-European. Its proto-language, Proto-Indo-European, arose about 5-6 thousand years ago.

There are 5000, and according to some sources about 7000, languages ​​in the world. They are studied by the extensive humanities science of linguistics. Linguists study language laws and derive general patterns, develop and supplement the existing classification. The world's languages ​​have many common features, so linguistics studies similar trends in languages, analyzes them and derives universal hypotheses that are characteristic of most known languages.

According to biblical legends, in ancient times people became so proud that they decided to build a city and a tower as high as heaven. The Lord God decided to hinder the builders by confusing their languages.

The result of God's wrath was not long in coming. The builders could not understand each other, thereby the construction of the skyscraper was stopped, and people dispersed throughout the globe.

There is an explanation in the differences in the language of people and from a scientific point of view. Linguists say that language, as a means of communication between people, is constantly changing. It is argued that there is no barrier that would protect him from change.

There are approximately 5,000 living languages ​​and dialects around the world. The multilingualism of the Earth's population developed for many reasons, for example, the fragmented life of ancient tribes who lived in groups and did not even suspect the existence of other people.

Each tribe created its own so-called proto-language, which subsequently developed and branched. All languages ​​that descend from one proto-language can be classified as one “family” of languages. There are about 13 families of languages ​​around the world, from which many of the existing languages ​​have evolved.