1.4 Types of language

1.4.1 Natural languages and artificial languages

　 A natural language is one that is the mother tongue of an ethnic community. It is estimated that there are about 4,000 natural languages in the world. The uncertainty is due to various factors. Firstly, new peoples, and therefore languages, continue to be discovered in the unexplored regions of the world. Secondly, a language may die --- there are no longer native speakers of the language. This is happening to languages of smaller communities of the world. Thirdly, the distinction between language and dialect is not always clear-cut.

　 Among natural languages in the world, some have achieved special status due to historical reasons and are chosen as official languages. Latin used to be a medium of education in Western Europe throughout the middle ages, and French the language of international diplomacy from the 17th to the 20th century. Today, English is the (an) official language of over 40 countries. It tops the list of official languages, with an estimated population of 1,400 million English speakers. Natural languages that are used to break the barrier of communication between nations are called world lingua franca.

　 Before world lingua francas were used, people used to desire a universal language. The desire led to the invention of artificial languages　---　languages which are specially invented to facilitate international communication. The idea began to flourish in the 17th century. Since then a number of artificial languages have been invented, among which Esperanto still exists today. It was created by a Polish oculist, Ludwig Lazarus Zamenhof (1859-1917). The scheme was first published in Russian, using the pseudonym ‘Doktoro Esperanto’ (Doctor Hopeful). Although Esperanto is taught in some schools and universities and some journals are published in it, the artificial language is still yet to be accepted as an international language.