Читать книгу Anthropology For Dummies - Cameron M. Smith - Страница 17

Depending on whom you ask, humanity as a whole speaks something like 6,000 human languages (though most people on Earth speak only one of about five languages). Chapter 13 explains what language is and how linguistic anthropologists investigate how language evolved in the first place — one of the most fascinating questions in all of anthropology. In laying out a clear definition of language, linguistic anthropologists have had to compare human communication with the communication systems of other living things. All of what they’ve learned — from the fascinating study of how humans acquire language to the layers of meaning that seem to only be present in human communication — give humanity a better understanding of just how unique and precious language is.

That uniqueness is in jeopardy, though, because languages become extinct every year as more people take up just speaking just one of the handful of main languages spoken worldwide today.