How many people in the world speak more than one language?

Answer 1

Scientists have counted approx. 6500 languages, half of which are, however, threatened to die off soon, as they are no longer passed on.

Not counted in above figure are pure sign-languages or computer-languages.

Non-linguists are often confused- as they consider the written language as the more important side of any language. However, the opposite is true amongst language-specialists: true linguists - masters in their trade - consider the sound of a language as the important part and treat its written representation with nonchalance.

Phonetic and phonology busy themselves with the lowest units of a language (tunes, sounds).She considers the production and transfer and conception of sounds.

Whereas the phonology brings sounds into a system that differentiates sounds according to their meaning. Sign language - including body language - gestures with hands, feet etc. very often do not stand alone but rather underline sound language. There's a joke going round: bind an Italian his hands and he's at a loss of words!

Answer 2

As of 2012 there are about 7 billion people in the world, and slightly less than half of them are believed to be at least bilingual.