Tongue tied: Humans once spoke tens of thousands of languages, so what happened?

A new study has found that linguistic diversity in human history peaked much later than previously thought and then rapidly declined with the rise of empires. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT According to the study, published in the journal Science, the languages spoken today are the legacy of the small number of tongues that survived a major 'language bottleneck' in the past. To reach this conclusion, researchers analysed the linguistic diversity of 171 hunter-gatherer communities living today and used the data to estimate how many languages were spoken on Earth roughly 12,000 years ago, after the last Ice Age. On that basis, when the global population was still below 7 million, around 4,500 to 6,200 different languages were spoken worldwide. The number of languages grew for thousands of years The research suggests that as the world's population grew, so too did linguistic diversity. Between roughly 1,000 and 3,000 years ago – in other words, relatively recently – tens of thousands of different languages were spoken around the globe. The scientists describe this period as the 'golden age' of linguistic diversity. However, this period did not last long. The study finds that linguistic diversity then entered a rapid and largely irreversible decline. Claire Bowern, one of the authors of the study, said the most surprising finding was that the peak of linguistic diversity occurred so recently, adding: "The highest level of linguistic diversity may not have occurred in the distant Palaeolithic, as is often assumed, but in the period when states grew and the first empires emerged." The researchers found that the Age of Empires, which began around 4,000 years ago, did not initially reduce linguistic diversity, but that about 2,000 years ago the number of languages worldwide started to drop 'as if falling off a cliff'. According to the study, the main driver of this decline was the expansion of multi-ethnic states and large empires. Strengthening political structures absorbed smaller communities and imposed their own languages, while local tongues gradually disappeared. Only 7,500 languages remain today Today, around 7,500 languages are spoken across the world. Although this is higher than the estimated figure 12,000 years ago, it is far lower than the tens of thousands of languages believed to have existed at the peak of diversity. Data from the Endangered Languages Project suggests that around 3,300 of the languages currently spoken are under serious threat. Of these, 437 are considered critically endangered. The researchers say that more than 400 languages have vanished completely over the past 50 years. Colonialism stands out as one of the key factors in this process. For instance, the division of areas inhabited by indigenous communities in Africa's Kalahari Desert by national borders has fractured the communities that speak N|uu. Today, it is thought that only one person is still able to speak this language fluently. Bans and economic pressure played a role According to the study, legal prohibitions, violence and forced assimilation have all played an important part in the disappearance of many languages. In addition, pressure to switch to dominant languages such as English and Spanish has also contributed to the decline in linguistic diversity. Scientists note that although the current pace of language loss is very high, the new study indicates that extinctions in the past occurred even more rapidly than they do today.