* No official census: There's no single, universally agreed upon authority tracking every language spoken.
* Constantly evolving: Languages are constantly changing, with new dialects emerging and some languages becoming extinct.
* Defining "language": It's difficult to draw a line between a language and a dialect, especially when there's a continuum of variation.
However, we can talk about some important aspects of language diversity:
* Number of languages: Estimates range from 6,000 to 7,000 languages spoken worldwide.
* Language families: Languages are grouped into families based on common ancestry. Some major families include Indo-European (English, Spanish, Hindi), Sino-Tibetan (Chinese, Tibetan), Afro-Asiatic (Arabic, Hebrew), Niger-Congo (Yoruba, Swahili), and Austronesian (Malay, Tagalog).
* Most spoken languages: Based on speaker numbers, some of the most widely spoken languages include Mandarin Chinese, English, Hindi, Spanish, Arabic, and Bengali.
To get a better idea of the languages spoken in a particular region, you can consult resources like:
* Ethnologue: This website provides information on languages around the world, including their speakers, locations, and classifications.
* UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger: This resource focuses on languages at risk of extinction.
Remember that language diversity is a valuable part of our cultural heritage, and it's important to respect and celebrate all languages spoken today.