Which Word Belongs To Which Language

English got its millionth word just days ago. But what of Hindi lagging far behind with just 1,20,000 words?

Language is an identity marker and that means we have to find which language can be considered to be most suitable to express your thoughts.  One way to judge could be to look at the number of words in each language.

Number of words in each language

English 10,00,000
Chinese 500,000+
Japanese 232,000
Spanish 225,000+
Russian 195,000
German 185,000
Hindi 120,000
French 100,000
Toki Pona 197
Source: Global Language Monitor, 2009

But is it the right way to judge?

Considering the millionth English word might have been Hindi, ‘Jai Ho’, isn’t it time we gave a thought to these two questions :-

  1. How can we really know which word belongs to which language?
  2. Does a thinner dictionary mean those who speak the language are lost for words?

What do you think?

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