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There is probably no way to arrive at a meaningful answer to the question, because words are more complex than they seem to be. Roots of words (sometimes called stems) can sometimes stand alone and are sometimes combined with 'affixes', what we call prefixes (before the root) or suffixes (after the root). Are all possible used combinations of roots and affixes different words? Two or three words or more are sometimes combined to give a unique meaning. Is this collection of words a 'word'? In German and perhaps other languages, words are often put together without space to form new words. This can be done somewhat freely, and future combined words are not yet known. This is only the beginning of looking at the complex question.

But the fact that you ASKED the question is extremely interesting. Maybe a way to think about this is to ask if there is a certain number of basic concepts or ideas for which human beings find verbal expression, spoken or written. There would be a huge over-lap world wide, since most or all of the concepts would be shared among speakers of any of the world's languages. Check the links for some ideas.

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14y ago

What else can I help you with?