2. 外语
  3. A language is a system of sounds, gestures, or characters used by humans to communicate their ideas and feelings. There are abou

A language is a system of sounds, gestures, or characters used by humans to communicate their ideas and feelings. There are abou

admin2011-01-05  83
问题     A language is a system of sounds, gestures, or characters used by humans to communicate their ideas and feelings. There are about 4,000 spoken languages in the world. Some are spoken by millions of people. Other languages have only a few speakers.
    All languages have rules for forming words and for ordering those words in sentences. In written languages, meaning is expressed through a system of characters and rules for combining those characters. In spoken languages, meaning is expressed through a system of sounds and rules for combining those sounds. Many deaf people use sign languages, in which gestures do the work of the sound system of spoken languages.
    Word order is more important in English than it is in some other languages, such as Russian. The sound system is very important in Chinese and in many languages spoken in West Africa.
    Languages are always changing, but they change very slowly. People invent new words for their language, borrow words from other languages, and change the meanings of words as needed. For example, the English word byte was invented by computer specialists in 1959. the English word tomato was borrowed from Nahuatl, and American Indian language spoken in Mexico. The English word meat once referred to food in general.
    There are several major language families in the world. The languages in each family are related, and scientists think they came from the same parent family. Language families come in different sizes. The Austronesian family contains at least 500 languages, including Pilipino, Malay, and Maori. The Basque language, spoken in northern Spain, is the only member of its language family.
    The Indo-European language family contains 55 languages, including English, German, Spanish, Russian, and Hindi.
    Another language family is Sino-Tibetan, which includes Chinese, Burmese, and Tibetan. The Afro-Asiatic family includes Arabic, Hebrew, and Amharic. There are about 150 American Indian languages spoken today. These languages have many differences and have been divided into more than 50 language families.
    People learn languages by listening, copying what they hear, and using the language. Most children learn their first languages easily, and sometimes other languages as well. Adults often must work harder at learning a second language.
How many languages are spoken all over the world?
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答案About 4,000
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本试题收录于： C类竞赛（非英语专业本科）题库大学生英语竞赛（NECCS）分类
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大学生英语竞赛（NECCS）

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