Sounding the Alphabet Around the World
by The languages spoken around the world are made up of varying numbers of sounds and these sounds are written down using a whole range of alphabets. The number of letters you need to write depends on the language. Vietnamese is one of the hardest and although some of the North American Indian languages were less complex in terms of sounds, their concepts were often difficult for outsiders to grasp.
I never really stopped to think how many different sounds it takes to make a language, but, of course, it depends on the language. In actual speech, English has as many as twenty different vowel sounds. Some languages have lots more and some fewer.
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The languages of Southeast Asia have the largest number of vowel sounds. In Vietnam there are several languages. Sedang has fifty-five and Bru comes a close second with forty different vowel sounds.
Some of the languages spoken in southern Russia, in the Caucasus Mountains have only one vowel sound which is a sort of open ‘a’ as in the word ‘arch’.
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English uses twenty-four consonant sounds but those Caucasus languages mentioned above use over seventy different ones. At the other extreme, an American Indian language spoken by the Mohawks has only seven.
When it comes to writing words on paper, each language utilises an alphabet to represent all the sounds in the language. Some languages use pictographic script and there is a symbol for each different word. Good examples of this are Chinese and ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. It is a much simpler system to use an alphabet.
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The Cambodian alphabet has seventy-four letters and the Rotokas one, which is used in the Solomon Islands, has only eleven letters.
So, whichever language you learn to speak and write as your native language, the process will be a lengthy one if you are to get it right and for those who learn second, and third languages, the challenge is enormous.
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There do seem to be people who are especially gifted this way and are multi-lingual. By this I mean that they can speak fluently and write in three, four, five and sometimes six different languages. I admire these people immensely and often come across them in the course of my work as a TEFL teacher.
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Post CommentGeorge W Whitehead
On May 3, 2009 at 2:14 am
A lovely informative piece, Louie.
Christine Ramsay
On May 3, 2009 at 2:39 am
This is very interesting. My son who now lives in Japan has learnt to speak the language and write in Japanese letters and I have a brother who is fluent in seven languages. He is amazing.
Great work.
Christine
Betty Carew
On May 3, 2009 at 7:16 am
An excellent article Louie I didn’t know about these other lanuages. Great write and read.
clay hurtubise
On May 3, 2009 at 4:16 pm
I’m speechless!
Thanks,
Clay
Daisy Peasblossom
On May 3, 2009 at 7:46 pm
I’m only fluent in English, and have a bit of high school Spanish–which is to say, I can read it, ask for the bathroom and order a meal without too much embarrassment. But just that bit has given me a respect for those who learn languages. Good reminder that languages are different and that our English ways are not universal.
Lex92
On May 4, 2009 at 4:49 pm
very informative!
C Jordan
On May 4, 2009 at 4:49 pm
I found the information on those languages with so few vowels and consonants fascinating.
Glynis Smy
On May 8, 2009 at 1:29 pm
That was interesting, I now speak a little Greek. I also speak a little French and German. I enjoyed this article, thanks.