At present，the world has about 6,800 languages.The distribution of these languages is hugely uneven.The general rule is that mild zones have relatively few languages，often spoken by many people，while hot，wet zones have lots，often spoken by small numbers.Europe has only around 200 languages；the Americas about 1,000；Africa 2,400；and Asia and the Pacific perhaps 3,200，of which Papua New Guinea alone accounts for well over 800.The median number(中位数) of speakers is a mere 6,000，which means that half the world’s languages are spoken by fewer people than that.