- There are roughly 7,500 languages today — English, Mandarin, Hindi, Spanish, Arabic and French are the most widely spoken.
- Researchers estimate ancient human societies may have spoken tens of thousands of languages (peaking perhaps 30,000–75,000), far more than now.
- Language loss from empires to colonialism has accelerated decline — about half of today's languages are endangered, and 90% of people speak just 10% of them.
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