How languages differ
Tones, word order, clicks, counting words: one question at a time, mapped across the world.
- Is it tonal?In a tonal language, pitch distinguishes words: Mandarin mā “mother” and mǎ “horse” differ only in tone.
- Where does the verb go?“I eat apples” — Chinese and English put the verb in the middle; Japanese, Korean and Turkish put it last (“I apples eat”); Classical Arabic, Welsh and many Austronesian languages often put it first.
- Do you need a classifier to count?Chinese says “three volume-of book”, “three animal-of cat” — never just “three book”.
- Do nouns have gender?The moon is feminine in French (la lune) but masculine in German (der Mond).
- Is there an inclusive “we”?Many languages have two words for “we”: one that includes the listener and one that does not.
- How does counting work?Most languages count in tens.
- Is there a word like “the”?English, French, Arabic and Hungarian have definite articles; Chinese, Russian and Japanese do not, leaving “the book” or “a book” to context.
- Does the verb mark the past?English changes the verb itself — walk, walked; Chinese leaves the verb alone and uses particles or time words.
- Is there a polite “you”?Mandarin has nín, French vous, German Sie, Spanish usted — a different “you” for respect or distance.
- Must you say how you know?In languages with evidentials, a statement carries a mark of how you know it — seen with your own eyes, heard from others, or inferred.
- How many vowels?Some languages manage with three vowels, as many Aboriginal Australian languages do; others have more than twenty.
- How many consonants?Consonants vary even more: Hawaiian has 8, while some languages of the Caucasus and southern Africa have more than 80.
- Are there clicks?Snap the tongue off the roof of your mouth and you have made a click.