What If Asian Countries Were Divided By Language?

[@General.Knowledge]

*Are there any main languages I missed?*

[@eeinen]

bro you missed dragon language, mostly spoken in Tibet ocean

[@Sharif_karbalai]

No you didn't But some are upset that you mentioned one specific language......

[@colonelchief395]

Thanks for adding kurdish! Sound of cring turks 😋

[@edwardsnowden8821]

Your Map is not consistent, it divides Chinese into northern and southern branches, while Tibetan which for all intents and purposes is three different languages with a common writing system is not divided as such.

[@politonno2499]

Spanish has presence in the Philipines

[@bitkower]

In India, state borders are largely drawn linguistically and I think it's one of the smartest things it did as a modern nation. Unlike drawing borders based on religion or perceived ethnic identity, language connects people and no war has ever been fought over language alone.

[@dv9239]

Unfortunately The division is still not great Because my state is the youngest formed in India called Telangana we share language with another but not same culturally Language division is not right in a place like India In some areas people want separate state for speaking a different language in a state where another language is dominant but people are different culturally In some places people want separate state because they are different culturally though they speak same language like in our case

[@bitkower]

@@dv9239 but look at the rest of the world, currently and throughout history, and imagine how much worse it would he if the states were determined by religious majority and how bad it would be if each state's religious majority had free reign to suppress the religious minorities. It's not perfect as it is, but it could be a lot worse. Look at everywhere else that the British drew the borders and they've stayed the same ever since. India made a smart move changing the internal borders.

[@sheevpalps3846]

Jason Bitkower is right. Even when Telangana split from Andhra, there wasn’t even a major riot or conflict that happened before or after. It was borne out of political and even cultural identity. Telangana, for centuries, was invaded more by Muslims and was part of several empires Andhra wasn’t. Same applies vice versa, like the Vijayanagara Empire. India made a smart decision on linguistic division and any inter-state issues have been resolved peacefully and efficiently.

[@subhasish661411]

Bangladesh liberation war was fought because of language. Because Pakistan government wanted to impose urdu on Bengali speaking nation.

[@pathoithingz4320]

@@subhasish661411 geez that was your understanding of the bangladesh war ? hope u properly read about it's cause again

[@wonderingwayne3480]

It would be interesting to see how these line up with natural borders like mountain ranges, river basins, deserts ect.

[@General.Knowledge]

Good point! Those make sense as a natural divide for language use

[@socialistrepublicofvietnam1500]

I mean, you just have to look at Southeast Asia and Tibet Like you can see in Austroasiatic, Vietic (Vietnamese + Muong) and Khmer are all in the lowlands, while Bahnaric, Katuic, and Khmuic are all relegated to the highlands Same with the Palaungics, Pakanics, Aslian, etc In Myanmar, the lowlands are dominated by the Burmese (though the delta used to be dominated by the Mon of the Austroasiatic language family), and other languages like Shan, Karen, Wa, Palaung, Kachin, etc, are stuck in the mountains In the Kra-Dai family, Thai and Lao are in the lowlands and basically every other Kra-Dai language such as the Tay languages, the Zhuang, etc are in the highlands The Caucasus Mountains are one of the most diverse places in the world, all because the mountains isolated people for long enough to develop new languages Indonesia has literally hundreds or even thousands of distinct languages because its geography divided them in a way similar to the Caucasus. There is the Acehnese, Javanese, Sunda, Malay, Balinese, and even some non-Austronesian languages such as the Halmaheran languages I will not be listing off example languages for the Annamite, Burmese, and Himalayan mountains, because I would have a seizure. But examples of language families in the area would include Austroasiatic (Palaung), Kra-Dai (Shan), Austronesian (Jarai), Sino-Tibetan (Karen), Indo-European (Nepalese), and probably some that I am forgetting

[@rewanthr]

@@socialistrepublicofvietnam1500 Thank you!

[@beadingbusily]

@@socialistrepublicofvietnam1500 Lover of languages, history, and the world here. Joking about seizures is as funny as getting run over by a truck. If you don't have them, it's not funny. If you've ever really had to help people survive serious seizures, it's not amusing at all. If you continue to joke about seizures, may you have one at the worst, most perilous moment.

[@socialistrepublicofvietnam1500]

@@beadingbusily joking about getting running over by a truck is not the best comparison to make, seeing as i am currently laughing at that too. but i do see your point about insensitivity and agree that seizures shouldnt be taken lightly

[@papazataklaattiranimam]

Turkic languages are very similar on the whole, except for the highly divergent Chuvash language of the Volga region of Russia . I would say they differ less on the whole than say, the Germanic languages . They certainly aren’t all mutually intelligible, but it’s still quite easy for speakers of the different Turkic languages to learn one of those which are not immediately intelligible . For example, there’s probably less difference between the Uighur language and the Turkish of Turkey than between German and Danish despite the fact that German and Danish are geographically right next to each other and Turkish and Uighur are geographically very distant .

[@crpse-qf6rh]

@@ReekyCheeks ermeni

[@akanay22]

@@ReekyCheeks I don't see how Turkey using Turkish as its main language has anything to do with what they said. Doesn't matter though because it is legal to speak Kurdish in public.

[@israilkolas5853]

@@ReekyCheeks even street signs are in kurdish in cities like diyarbakır tf are you talking about. if you speak kurdish in public nothing happens. kurdish was banned between 1980-1991. not anymore.

[@obliviscarisomnia]

@@ReekyCheeks u guys are so fkn cringe to shit on a country that u never been to, nothing happens.

[@Zejva]

@@ReekyCheeks Iran, also, only allows its persian language. Banning and even openly/publicly humiliating the languages/cultural identities of ethnic minorities. But you wouldn't complain about that, would you? 🤥

[@alanjyu]

Regarding your map of China, it's not a map of the languages spoken. Instead the map shows the names of the provinces. Also, "Southern Chinese" is not a language. There are some very distinct languages. Hokkien (Min dialectal group) preserves elements of Old Chinese while Cantonese is a derivative of Middle Chinese as is Hakka and Shanghainese (Wu dialectal group). There is extreme diversity and variation in this part of China because it's not so easy to get around when compared to the North where Mandarin is mainly spoken. All this being said, inspite of the variety of Chinese languages, the use of a non-phonetic/visual approach to writing allows different Chinese groups to communicate without necessarily knowing how words were pronounced in different Chinese languages.

[@jeffrey2326]

@@nitaseely6830那你到底是怎麼看到這影片了

[@YiYi-gm1dt]

@Anglo 〉 Han 什么臭傻逼，急死你算了。

[@tonyyang855]

Come and get it or forget about it.

[@andrewzhang9748]

@Anglo 〉 Han but HongKongese speak Chinese, it's just a port

[@neurowayne]

@@andrewzhang9748 Hong Kong citizens speak Cantonese and they read and write real Chinese. It is not just a port, it is a home for millions of Chinese who want to free from fear, communism, and dictator

[@alantew4355]

I am still fascinated how Madagascar, which is so far away from Southeast Asia, shares the same language family, the Austronesian languages.

[@dauf69]

Those damn Borneans venture so far away lol

[@gilnahnu]

genetically many of them are southeast asian as well.

[@arthurmorganSUN]

@@dauf69 actually, the DNA is closer to the Sumatrans.

[@DaveChuaa]

@@arthurmorganSUN I mean, Sumatrans are in the same group with Borneans. If you group Austronesian speaking people, it’s… -Philippines, Taiwan (Ami & Yami), Indonesia (Minahasa, Gorontalo, North Sulawesi), Malaysia (Kinabalu) -Malay Language (Majority of Indonesia and Malaysia) -Malaysia (Borneo), Indonesia (Sumatra) -Indonesia (Areas near East Timor) -Pacific Islanders [Polynesia] [Micronesia] [Melanesia]

[@richamnsjkla]

Dayak Maanyan (on of Borneo ethnic lang) same with Malagasy, the truth that first world explorer come from Borneo too

[@junaid2606]

In India, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana were initially one state. That's why they both speak Telugu. They split in 2014 to form separate states due to management, political and other socio-economic reasons.

[@doit2810]

Don't forget socio-cultural reasons

[@charithreddy23]

@@doit2810socio-cultural reasons didn’t do much conflict in this case.

[@rangoman1815]

If Telengana deserve to be a separate state then Gorkhaland is also justified!

[@saptarsheepaul1705]

@@charithreddy23 You can go Nepal and make Gorkhaland for the Nepali people there.

[@charithreddy23]

@@saptarsheepaul1705 what am I supposed to do with it 🗿

[@landove1486]

Indonesian/Bahasa Indonesia is a National Language created solely for unifying Indonesia post Independence (1945). It is a 2nd/3rd language for most Indonesians. Take an example, Sundanese spoken by people from West Java is not mutually intelligible with Javanese spoken by people from Central Java. But both can understand each other using Bahasa Indonesia. Indonesia in fact has the most number of languages in the world, only behind Papua New Guinea. There are approx 700 different languages (not dialects) currently exist in the country.

[@daffa9488]

If it’s still BEHIND Papua New Guniea then Indonesia ain’t the country with the MOST number of languages, silly overproud people

[@landove1486]

@@daffa9488 LOL .... Sir, I suggest you to watch more movies or news in English so you won't make any more stvpid comment in the future.

[@rizkyadiyanto7922]

its older than that. Indonesian Bahasa exist at least since Sumpah Pemuda in 1928.

[@RadenWA]

@@daffa9488 half of Papua is literally in Indonesia tho 🤷‍♂️

[@DeihanDzilky]

*_BHINNEKA TUNGGAL IKA!!!_* 🇮🇩❤️🇮🇩

[@kalamagz]

When you were prefacing it with how the you would group the languages, I was so sure you were gonna miss the nuance over in the Philippines where I won’t be able to understand anyone from just a few kilometers north and the next island south. But you captured that so well! Colonial era education taught us that those were just dialects, but all the anthropologists are trying to correct that thinking and telling us that we do speak completely different languages.

[@voralles1911]

Agreed. I found it a bit weird as he talk quite a lot about how India and Pakistan should be separated yet mention only a little about countries like Philippines and Indonesia which also had a lot of language on their own. Still, for someone completely unknown to Asian language, this video is a great introduction.

[@xtsgaming8518]

@@voralles1911 the main problem is the literature being immature. For example, the Bicol language is scholarly divided into dialects, but some of the dialects are non-mutually intelligible, though some may have similar sentence construction, etc. For example, someone from Camarines Norte (which has a bicol speaking and tagalog speaking area, unlike what is shown in the map). A person from CN would understand someone from Naga (province next door in Camarines Sur), Legazpi (1 province away in Albay, and some parts of Sorsogon (The literal end of the bicol peninsula mainland) and maybe someone from the island provinces off the mainland. The very same person who can understand those people even though geographically separated would barely understand someone from the Rinconada area in Camarines Sur, the province next door that Naga is also a part of. Fun fact, even in the same province, Rinconada won't be understood by most people not from the Rinconada area. The only reason someone from outside the Rinconada area would understand it is through being exposed to Rinconada language and culture. Another fun fact, Rinconada is sometimes more similar to Visayan and Malay languages in general. As far as I know, the major reason it's classified as a bicol dialect is the fact that it's a language within Bicol and is very to use and understand as long as you know the translation from other bicol languages (almost if not the same grammar, sentence construction, etc), the words are just almost completely different. For something to be a dialect, it has to be a certain amount mutually intelligible while also being very similar in many aspects, but Rinconada is like literally a different language when spoken to other native Bicol speakers, and is apparently more closely related to the oldest versions of Bicol (Proto-bicol) than other Bicol "dialects". After that lengthy discussion, it has to be pointed out that there's is like 2-3 major literature's that try to group and study the bicol languages, and they all disagree on so many things. When there is barely any references and the small amount of references even try to contradict and refute each other's claims, you can barely discuss or create an appropriate consensus unless you go and conduct your own field study.

[@senoalamsyah7481]

As Indonesian myself i feel what you feel. People in Indonesia and SEA in general tend to confuse when it come to separate between Leanguage, Dialect and Accent. For example Malaysian still think that all language in Indonesia is just Malay dialect even when it doesn't have the same root with Malay like Papuan for example.

[@kalamagz]

@@xtsgaming8518 dai ko aram ini!

[@melancholy9236]

@@xtsgaming8518 napansin ko sa wika ng Naga, halo ang salita: may tagalog, at visayan. kakalipat ko pa lang naman haha

[@stevejohnson3357]

Language is 1 factor, maybe the most important. But history and community of interest are also important. If you had a pocket of speakers located a long way away from the main group they would have many differences from the main group apart from language.

[@General.Knowledge]

That's true! I'm curious if that's the case with those remote German communities in Russia?

[@solgerWhyIsThereAnAtItLooksBad]

Its amazing those still exist in large numbers after multiple attempts to get rid of them

[@_MC529]

@@General.Knowledge we'd love to reunite with them :(

[@sheepmasterrace]

Technically speaking the entirety of Japan, Korea, Singapore, and parts of malaysia, vietnam, indonesia and burma are all former ‘pockets’ of Chinese speakers. So you can pretty clearly see the differences

[@brainrottedindividual]

@@sheepmasterrace that's not true. there is no evidence they are chinese. the concept of china or anything alike didn't even exist when korea and japan were settled. their languages aren't related to any chinese mainland language afawk. in fact the origin of korean and japanese is not really conclusive. it's strongly suggested they are related, but it's not clear to what. and we don't really know where they came from, but probably not what is now china, rather the russian far-east. genetically they seem closer to pacific islanders and oceanians and thai and vietnamese than to chinese. also what is chinese? the country has many ethnicities and language groups. there is no real answer to what is chinese except to what we today define as chinese. historically when talking about early human migration and language it's not a helpful term.

[@user-vi5ib5gz3j]

10:10 Indonesian, Malay, and Filipino have a lot of similarities. We don't talk just Tagalog and basic Malay, but other languages around also have many similarities. For example, Javanese and Ilokano. There are many similarities among its words.

[@justsomehaatonpassingby4488]

the most closest language in the Philippines to the Malay would be Tausug, Maguindanaon and Meranao... Tagalog and bisaya is already swamped with Spanish words that only very few words would be understandable to a native malay speaker...

[@user-vi5ib5gz3j]

@@justsomehaatonpassingby4488 Yes. You're right 👍🏻

[@romanr.301]

@@justsomehaatonpassingby4488 You do realize the majority of Tagalog vocabulary is still native Tagalog, right? Also, a lot of the prefixes and suffixes used in Tagalog verbs are similar to Malay prefixes, except that they're fossilized in Malay to not conjugate based on aspect, while Tagalog retains this extensively. It's not just "very few words," there are quite a few cognates between the languages.

[@justsomehaatonpassingby4488]

@@romanr.301 If you compare Tagalog to Tausug, a Malay speaking person would understand Tausug than Tagalog, though it's true that the core Tagalog still has some semblance to the Malay language, but point is, Tagalog language has more Spanish (about 13% purely of Spanish origin, though if you include common words for daily concepts like numbers, prices, day, month or etc... You can get up to 40% Spanish depending on who you ask) than Malay (which Tagalog has about 10% of words), not to mention about the code switching between English, Tagalog and Spanish words that Filipino's use in speaking, which would make it harder for a Malay to really understand the language... As such the most closest language we have to the Malay Languages is the 3 afforementioned language

[@justdont2378]

@@romanr.301 The similarity is still there yes but if you were to pick apart the Filipino language and pick it word by word then you would see that someone who speaks Malay would have a much harder time trying to understand Filipino than a someone who speaks Spanish (especially Mexican Spanish) that other guy was right, this language is "swamped" with Spanish vocabulary and the Malay speakers have a much better chance understanding other languages

[@vishwesh_nh]

Indian states were drawn on a linguistic basis Which is the reason why almost every has its own language Also the the states which seem like they just speak Hindi have their own dialects

[@doit2810]

Only a fraction were drawn on language. Majority's borders are either politically convenient or the same from the British era. This is why so many Indian states have Hindi as their official language even though their languages are almost always entirely different from Hindi and is not their mother tongues.

[@lamewater772]

@@doit2810 Excepting the cow belt states where the borders were drafted out of political convenience, most other state borders were drawn with the linguistic groups in mind

[@vishwesh_nh]

@@doit2810 The states which have Hindi as an official language have their own dialects

[@doit2810]

@@lamewater772 those cow belt are themselves the biggest proportion of land and people in India

[@doit2810]

@Seeyou Seemee no

[@fardiorin9133]

Indonesian is the only standardized language which was born purely from artifical and conscious intervention to be adopted by all of Indonesians, unlike so many other countries where one special language was chosen as the official language without conscious modification.

[@lutfiprayogi2]

Political intervention in standardizing the use of a certain language is common anywhere, in different extents. Just for small comparison example, people in negeri-negeri in current Malaysia used to speak different languages/dialects, some are very much different from modern standard Bahasa Malaysia. After the forming of Malaysia, Bahasa Melayu Riau-Johor was chosen to be used and developed as the standard Bahasa Melayu/Malaysia in the whole country. Just like the development of Bahasa Melayu Riau-Johor into Bahasa Indonesia that consider the existing languages and needs of Indonesians, the development of it into Bahasa Malaysia does the same respectively.

[@mysteriousDSF]

The whole grammar of Bahasa Indonesia feels insanely simple and artificial.

[@haha-nz8pw]

@@lutfiprayogi2 I think Bahasa Indonesia rooted from Bahasa Melayu Riau-Lingga, not Riau-Johor.

[@lutfiprayogi2]

@@haha-nz8pw yeah I believe it’s more proper to say so, even tho Bahasa Melayu Riau-Lingga-Johor are pretty much similar.

[@mycarima3497]

@@haha-nz8pwRiau-Johor is also accurate because they were part of the same sultanate before the 1824 anglo-dutch treaty

[@ayeshaclassesgk]

General knowledge🖤♥️💚💜love your videos, you create lots of positive things. Thank you for creating this lovely content । So kind of you always, keep it up

[@spanking1715]

FYI: In Indonesia we have 718 languages (The country with the second most spoken language in the world), it's not a dialect but it's a language. Each region in Indonesia has its own language, 1380 ethnic groups have their own language. The language is very different in each area, so it's like a foreign language that is impossible to understand. This regional language is used by Indonesians in everyday life, while our national language is the language used to speak to people from outside our regional area. It can be said that our national language is only a second language after our local language.

[@TheHedleyNicholasShow]

Even Papua on its own has so many Languages, relative to its size!

[@avocatdo8393]

yeah even like javanese has different accents & not all java share the same words & grammar

[@Vincrand]

So if you take a random language out of those 718. You mean to say that someone with full knowledge of any of the other 717 languages will have no idea what the other is talking about?

[@hull4bal00]

@@Vincrand yes, some of it will sound similar, but you can't understand it, let alone making conversation.

[@Pike737]

10-20 people something can't be classified as a language

[@Immortal-Daiki]

In Japan's case, it can also be divided into 4 linguistic regions. Ainu in Hokkaido, Japanese in Mainland Japan, Ogasawara Pidgin in the Ogasawara Islands and the Okinawan languages of Okinawa

[@starborneolympus3907]

Ainu has only like 20 native first-language speakers left at this point tho.

[@arienka5264]

@@starborneolympus3907 Ainu people are native to not only Hokkaido but also other parts of Japan. Nevertheless, there aren't any left except Hokkaido. Those in Hokkaido also assimilated through racism, discrimination, etc. I wouldn't include them because they are on the verge of extinction.

[@ANTSEMUT1]

@@starborneolympus3907 yes but even though they don't speak it, some 25,000 people identify as Ainu in Japan on the national census.

[@K1ddkanuck]

@@arienka5264 Irish was on the verge of extinction at one point. Look at it now, given its cultural revitalization. You could say the same about a lot of indigenous languages in Canada which amongst the First Nations are beginning to once again be spoken more and more. A language is only extinct if it is allowed to die. The consequences of not allowing that to happen are frankly vast.

[@islandsunset]

@@K1ddkanuck though better but Irish is still in the ICU. More needs to be isn't?

[@fluffymumu7102]

🇵🇭 There are 182 distinctly different spoken languages in the Philippines, and among those languages there are different dialects depending on the province. There are 11 “main” languages with more than 5 million speakers for each language. The lingua franca Filipino is based on Tagalog, which is the language spoken in the capital in Metro Manila. English is the mode of instruction from the first level to beyond PhDs. Laws are written in English. Code-switching comes naturally to Filipinos and are natural polyglots, speaking between 1-4 Filipino languages, as well as English. One of the reasons why Filipinos are so westernized is because Filipinos consume a lot of american media, and in the recent decade, kdramas and kpop. Most Manileños think and speak in Tag-lish ( a mixture of tagalog and english), most Cebuanos think and speak in Bis-lish (a mixture of Bisaya and English) and most Davaoeños think and speak in both Taglish and Bislish. There are 7641 islands in the Philippines, so geographically and culturally speaking, there was little hope of becoming cohesive or homogenous, which is why the Spanish had a very firm hold on the country for 333 years, followed by the Americans and the Japanese occupations. It’s also funny that for all those years, only a handful of the population speak Chavacano, a Spanish Creole language in Zambuanga peninsula. Only 3% of the population actually have spanish blood, since only the filipino nobility, daughters of rajahs and datus were allowed to marry the spanish conquistadors. Genetically (53%), we are more related to indonesians and malaysians, and around 36% have some form of chinese ancestry.

[@buhingkalbaryo]

how about the natives like negritos?

[@i_hate_rock_and_metal]

• Based on recent Archaeological findings (fossils/artifacts), prehistoric (Kalinga) people already existed and roamed the Luzon Islands for more than 700,000 years ago (or even much earlier than 2 million years ago). They already have their own language, culture and beliefs...🤔 • Austronesian migration (Formosan) migration: 60,000-70,000 years ago...🤔 • Afro-Asiatic (Black Pygmies) migration: 40,000-60,000 years ago...🤔 • Indo-Malayan migration: 4,000-6,000 years ago...🤔 • China, Indian, Arab and other Asian traders: 1,000-2,000 years ago...🤔 • Buddhism/Hinduism arrived in PH: 900 CE...🤔 • Islam arrived in PH: 1300 CE... (Islam was created in 610 CE)🤔 • Spanish/Portuguese explorer: 1521 CE...🤔 • Christianism: 1600s CE... (Judaism was created in 20th Century BCE and Christianism was created in 1st Century CE) 🤔 • British colonizer: 1700s CE...🤔 • Americans: 1899...🤔 • Japanese: 1941...🤔

[@RamKumar-kv1fx]

If you already didn't know, in 1956, Indian states were redrawn based on linguistic boundaries. That's the reason the Indian map was so clearly demarked.

[@jumarkpelismino5632]

In the Philippines, we have 130 to 180 languages, depends on linguistic classification...

[@Cloudkirb]

That's a lot wow

[@doit2810]

Always fascinates. I always thought Filipinos only spoke Tagalog till my one Filipino friend lectured me in detail about the scary amount of thr quite different languages and dialects on the islands when I ignorantly told him that they only had one language to deal with.

[@bmona7550]

@@doit2810 If you said the country only has one language in the Philippines all the Tagalog and Bisaya speakers in the area will fight for supremacy 😂

[@sentamizh3133]

I love Philippines 🤗💚

[@juamu1132]

peenoise fried

[@balpreetsingh6834]

The partition of the Indian subcontinent was tragic for the Punjabi and Bengali speaking people, where communities were divided through a random line, drawn by an aloof Britisher in a fortnight in case of Punjab, based upon religion.

[@General.Knowledge]

I guess this is the case for a lot of places in Africa and Asia. Many communities that should be together were split up, and vice versa too.

[@lifeboy1978]

@@shrey._.77s You can’t compare Bengalis and Punjabis with those other examples. 1947 partition was a long standing nightmare for these two races. Millions of people became homeless, 3 millions Hindu and Sikh women were raped, many people were forcefully converted. If you see some of the Bengali and Punjabi movies related to partition, you won’t be able to stop your tears ! 😢😢 and same thing happened to Tamils in Srilanka. Frankly speaking you won’t be able to fathom the pain, unless your own house would have been burnt down! 😢😢😢 I feel pain when I write this comment.

[@lifeboy1978]

@@General.Knowledge Mr GK - exodus of Bengali and Punjabi Hindus and Sikhs can only be compared with Holocaust by Hitler.

[@ryanmarlin2974]

@@lifeboy1978 🤣🤣🤣

[@lifeboy1978]

@@ryanmarlin2974 rude. Probably Hitler has resurrected into you ! Your name is Ryan Hitler.

[@alistairt7544]

Oh gosh, I remember growing up in the Philippines, whenever we travel and visit a different region and province where they speak another language, I have zero clue what they're talking about. Same when there are family gatherings where people speak different languages and it's really impossible to understand each other, unless we spoke in Filipino to each other. Then when I studied French, it was amazing when I tried reading Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese that I could understand more with other language within the Romance family better than the languages within the language family of Philippine languages. It was eye opening lol

[@Clinton221087]

I genuinely love your videos. How about an African one? I'd love to see one of South Africa specifically as we have 11 official languages, but many of them being mutually intelligible. There would most probably be four. Nguni (Zulu, Sesotho, etc), Tsonga, Afrikaans and English.

[@caeruleusvm7621]

You've got it slightly wrong. Nguni languages are Zulu, Xhosa, Ndebele and Swazi, Sotho languages are another group, including Sotho (South Sotho), Pedi (North Sotho) and Tswana (Once called West Sotho). Venda and Tsonga are in groups of their own - not mutually intelligible. English and Afrikaans are both Germanic, though not mutually intelligible. This, of course, is a massive oversimplification. The 11 languages are the standardised, literary forms. North Sotho, for example, is a collection of several languages, but the Pedi dialect is the literary standard.

[@diamondore4830]

*him : mentioned how divided languange in philippines, mainland southeast asia, east asia, south asia, west asia, and central asia. *also him : forgot to mention how divided language in indonesia

[@itsBulgarianGeographyball]

Thank you for the interesting videos! I have watched them all with my family!

[@kazi_the_wood_fire]

Nice bro

[@CharDhue]

Sure in Indonesia we use bahasa Indonesia which similar to malay. but each local and each island have very different languages, it's not just dialect it's very very different to the point I can't understand

[@Kane_2001]

only Sumatran Malays and Kalimantan Malays are similar to Malaysia, people from Java Island, Sulawesi Island, Papua, are not similar

[@DeihanDzilky]

*_Agree!!!_*

[@nanotsuki]

​ people, especially the western tend to brush off local languange as "dialect" when the difference could be more than Dutch and Germany, or Portugese and Spain. Which on my ears sounds relatively the same, share some words, but they said it's different languange. Idk where the line draw. Good luck learning Sundanese and trying to speak to Batak people thinking they were mere dialect of "Indonesian"

[@별-s7e]

@@Kane_2001 Jakarta or the Betawi tribe also uses the Malay language because they are a new ethnic group that mixes from various tribes in Indonesia

[@SetuwoKecik]

@@Kane_2001 Javanese and Sundanese speaks the form of language in the same group as Malay language: Western Austro-Polynesian. The only language groups that different from the rest of archipelago are Melanesian group: from Papua, some parts of Maluku and Eastern Sunda Islands. Ffs, I really despise the fact that we're always trying to divide each other just because of Dutch and British colonized different parts of our country.

[@craiglungren8703]

So when will there be the next video of the series? Next could be “What if African Countries were divided by Language?” Or “What if North American Countries were divided by Language?” Or “What if Oceanian Countries were divided by Language?” I’m hoping to see the next one of those videos posted in KZbin soon. 🙂

[@SantaFe19484]

Now do a video on what Africa would look like with each language or tribe being its own country.

[@mrtree.1]

North Africa is probably going to be a big country

[@elitettelbach4247]

This is really fascinating! Loving this series!

[@purnendubhowmikshuvropbs7]

Please make videos about: What If African Countries Were Divided By Language? What If North American Countries Were Divided By Language? What If Oceania Countries Were Divided By Language?

[@oohaak]

excellent and different content..congratulations and good luck my friend

[@ماهنور-ن2ن]

Assalamualaikum. I am an uzbek (karluk) speaker of Turkic language. And I understand easily Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Uyghur, karakalpak, turkmen, Azeri, tatar and about 70% Turkish. Others that are situated in Russia (Siberian) are less than 50% ofc ig.

[@thefirm4606]

As language is a major component in our ability to participate in our world, it’s one of the best signifiers for borders (if borders are truly needed) I can think of. Great video ❤

[@drpriyeshmaharana]

I speak Odia, one of classical languages of India.... ❤️❤️

[@dhitikabarua7677]

Still not popular like punjabi Or bengali.. 😂

[@reactDevelopment]

Amazing bro I speak Malayalam one of 6 classical language of our country

[@doit2810]

It'll be dead by the coming century since many Odias increasingly identify as Hindi speakers

[@crisrhys7889]

this is a great information and it gives me more knowledge about my neighboring countries.

[@MichaelSidneyTimpson]

You kinda grouped Korean and Japan together but they are actually isolates and not genetically related (only through borrowings.). You left off the Ainu languages also. Also, Jeju dialect of Korean, is almost a language onto itself, and only nominally intelligible. North and South Korean have actually diverged a fair bit, albeit they still can communiate without too much difficulty.

[@aimy5637]

It's actually so annoying when people brush off a language as dialects but on ground you cannot understand the other language even one bit by knowing only one of the two languages...right

[@MichaelSidneyTimpson]

@@aimy5637 As the famous quote goes, "the difference between a dialect and a language is an army". ha ha. What bugs me is the insistence of the PRC calling all the Sinitic (aka Chinese) languages as dialects even though they absolutely cannot understand each other (i.e., a Mandarin speaker absolutely cannot understand someone speaking Cantonese or Taiwanese Hoklo, etc.)

[@n.c9653]

@@MichaelSidneyTimpson but they can write what they mean on a piece of paper and all will understand. This cannot be said for many others. And you'd be wrong to say speakers of different dialects can't understand each other. It's true to a certain extent but not exactly. Mandarin is the people's language and aspiring connector of the sinic world.

[@MichaelSidneyTimpson]

@@n.c9653 yes there is a lot of nuances...and opinions, I realize. I get my information from first-hand sources living in my home...my own family who are native speakers in Mandarin and Hoklo. At the same time, one could theorectically write Korean and Vietnamese in Chinese characters as well, but they are absolutely not Chinese languages, in fact, not even related (except for borrowings.). And I do know Korean and Chinese, so I know that directly.

[@n.c9653]

@@MichaelSidneyTimpson no.. You cannot write Korean or Vietnamese in Chinese Characters (especially for Vietnamese). For Koream and Japanese, they did borrow many Chinese characters but The so-called dialects in China share almost exactly the same written characters, grammar and sentence structures.

[@Thrilla4romManila]

Very true. Tagalog and Indonesian sound so similar phonetically when you hear it spoken, but I totally don't understand what my Indonesian friends say when they talk and vice versa.

[@Frihed-hq7ot]

Is it possible for you to provide links of the different maps you use in the description in your future videos? Would love to see that!

[@StefanVeenstra]

Currently learning japanese and noticed many dialects are referred to by their location of former provinces. Friend of mine from Aichi region likely speaks with an east Mikawa accent. Don't know the differences enough to distinguish anything but Kanto, Kansai and Hokkaido. Recently started to learn tagalog, bisaya and cebuano as well, besides that, tutor has told me the Philippines has some 180 recognized languages (Not just dialects!). From what I understand tagalog is the main language taught throughout the Philippines, but locally at least from Cebu to Davao and many regions in between speak cebuano or bisaya. Accents and dialects can vary greatly even in a tiny nation like the Netherlands, where I'm from, there's a clear distinct sound and way of speaking between the even tinier provinces and often even differ within those provinces. Languages are useful not only because they are interesting, and get you around, if you learn it proper you can catch locals who pretend friendly and cordial in your face yet talk shit behind your back.

[@AchyutChaudhary]

What I feel cool about Asiatic languages is that not only are there a lot of them…but most have got their own Writing Scripts as well! Such as… 🇮🇳 हिन्दी 🇧🇩 বাংলা 🇮🇳 తెలుగు 🇮🇳 தமிழ் 🇮🇳 ગુજરાતી 🇵🇰 اُردُو 🇮🇳 ಕನ್ನಡ 🇮🇳 ଓଡିଆ 🇮🇳 മലയാളം 🇮🇳 ਪੰਜਾਬੀ 🇧🇹 ལྷ་སའི་སྐད་ 🇱🇰 සිංහල 🇲🇲 မြန်မာစကား 🇹🇭 ภาษาไทย 🇱🇦 ພາສາລາວ 🇰🇭 ភាសាខ្មែរ …how many of these Asian Languages can you recognise? 😄

[@rohitchaoji]

All of them! Hindi, Bengali, Telugu, Tamil, Gujarati, Urdu, Kannada, Odia, Malayalam, Punjabi, Dzongkha (Bhutanese), Sinhala, Burmese, Thai, Lao, Khmer

[@mycarima3497]

there are also scripts like these in maritime southeast asia but they are not common anymore

[@buttxrontoast-7100]

13

[@bcoveplmene9791]

In Indonesia there are: Javanese Sundanese Balinese Bugis-Makassarese Lampungnese Bataknese Rejangnese, etc They are used in street's name tags

[@buttxrontoast-7100]

@@bcoveplmene9791 BANG GW ORANG INDO JUGA

[@KyleDB150]

I can tell how much work this took, not just to check how much sense it makes to group up related languages, but also to try not to annoy people too much haha

[@davidguy209]

fascinating. no wonder the other videos were so successful. i'm gonna have to look out for them...

[@mr.gamewatch6165]

Imagine if every country were divided by languages

[@SetuwoKecik]

Nah, I don't want a massive english-speaking country. It's going to be annoying.

[@doit2810]

Would be hard to define since not all languages are considered as separate by people

[@realize4368]

4:48 Correction: not „a bit“ of the people speak Pashto in Afghanistan, in fact even though Dari Persian is the lingua franca there, Pashtuns are the majority ethnic group and have therefore the most number of speakers in the country !

[@General.Knowledge]

This is true!

[@doit2810]

Yes Dari is only used to communicate with non-Pashtuns there

[@Zabi-S]

Pashtuns does not = Pashto-speaking people exclusively. You are confusing an ethnic group with a language. Dari-speaking people are also Pashtuns, who make up the majority of the ethnic group in Afghanistan. Similarly, other ethnic groups (Tajik, Hazara or Uzbeks) can speak Pashto.

[@Zabi-S]

@@doit2810 This is completely false.

[@doit2810]

@@Zabi-S dari is only a lingua franca in Afghanistan. It's not a native tongue. The fact that Pakistani Pashtuns do not know Dari properly is proof of this.

[@unpersonalizedperson]

The Austronesian people really are marine people. They even reached the Island of Hawaii, Oceania, and Madagascar in Western Africa. If you're Indonesian, you might've heard a folk song that said "Nenek Moyang ku seorang pelaut" which translated into "My Ancestor are sealer ⛵"

[@3c3k]

You mean "sailer" not "sealer" sir

[@warishgurung4468]

The two main language family of Nepal are Indo European and Sino Tibetan Burman. Main language of Indo European in Nepal Nepali, Maithili, Bhojpuri, Bajjika, Doteli, Urdu, Awadhi, Tharu. Main language of Sino Tibetan Burman in Nepal Magar, Tamang, Newari, Rai, Gurung, Limbu, Sherpa, Thakali

[@doit2810]

When Nepal better preserves and promotes languages like Maithili, Bhojpuri, Awadhi, Bajjika, and others even though the country where these languages come from and where they have the most speakers (ie India) does not... Ironic!

[@atharvzemse6599]

@@doit2810 These languages are in india too but are classified as dialects of Hindi.

[@nenenindonu]

The status of Tungusic languages is just :(

[@SlimJim3082]

Asia the birthplace of religion and languages.. y'all should keep up

[@shinilpm]

About Language Families- You missed out Dravidian Languages. It has nearly 30cr speakers in the Southern Part of India. It has more speakers than some of the Language Families mentioned.

[@paul5475]

Fun fact the Philippines Indonesia and Malaysia was actually planning before to unite as one federation. But it fails since the countries has different political views and it's really hard to unite the nations since they had different colonizers. People believe that Filipinos Indonesians and Malaysians came in the same race. But the discovery of Austronesians debunk the theories. Also it is also the reason why South East Asian Nation was created because of this three countries first attempt to unite..

[@Ix-.-xI]

only Indonesia and Philippines actually, due to the same sense of islanders identity, but then Malaya/Malaysia illegally colonized northern Borneo which should be Indonesian and Philippines territory, the unification was failed due to these Malaya's illegal attempt of annexation (which then backed by the British). Sarawak and Sabah belongs to Indonesia and Philippines respectively.

[@LingkunganSekitarKu]

STOP CALL US 🇮🇩🇲🇾🇧🇳 "ASIA" WE ARE "SOUTH THOUSEND ISLANDER" WE ARE NOT NARROW EYES Maybe VIETNAMESE In Categories Family of ASIA Because Close With China Border and They Are Culture Same Like : Eat With Copstick, Chinese New Year Etc

[@papazataklaattiranimam]

In fact, Turkic-speaking peoples have played a major role in Iranian history, ruling the country from the eleventh century up to the early twentieth. Even today they represent more than a quarter of Iran's population. Foltz, R. (2016) Iran in world history. Oxford etc.: Oxford University Press. p.61 Homa Katouzian, "Iranian history and politics", Published by Routledge, 2003. p. 128: "Indeed, since the formation of the Ghaznavids state in the tenth century until the fall of Qajars at the beginning of the twentieth century, most parts of the Iranian cultural regions were ruled by Turkic-speaking dynasties most of the time.

[@ariyannikdell3085]

as i know even they are turkic speaking people rule over iran, you're not one of them i don't know why you proud something you have never been achieved that. and also some german royal families rule over major European countries but i never saw any random person in germany going to youtube comments say the bulshiet about some german rule over some counteries but turks from turkey always proud something they never achieve that.

[@siberianwolf331]

@@ariyannikdell3085 TURKS AND İRAN EXCHANGES POPULATİON TÜRKİC AZERİ POPULATİON GO TO TURKEY KURDS GO TO İRAN.

[@HolocaustisJoke]

Lol those Turkic only ruled because they assimilated in Iranian cultures.

[@Rajbhandari88]

You forgot “Newari” or what officially is Nepal Bhasha. Only Kathmandu valley was known as Nepal in pre modern times. What is now known as “Nepali” is used to be called Gorkha Bhasha. You can see this in institutions like Gorkha Bhasha Parashikni Samiti (Gorkha Language Publication Committee) or Gorkhapatra (Gorkha-Paper) the first printing press and the first newspaper in Nepal. If you are dividing by languages then “Newari” should get it’s own place because it is much older language than “Nepali”. There was not even a single written literature in “Nepali” until mid 19th century. While there have been “Newari” poets and writers since 14th century. Even the so called greatest poet of “Nepali” mostly plagiarised most of his writings form older “Newari” literature.

[@doit2810]

Don't tell this to ultra-Nepali territorial nationalists. They've dreams all across the Himalayas and you've limited their origins to merely the Kathmandu valley.

[@koumoutsa1]

Great video as always, keep up the good work, this channel is very interesting!

[@hughmungus1767]

This video omits an important factor. While it would be convenient if everyone in a country spoke the same language, people also communicate in writing so they would have to (eventually) use the same script for that language to maximize their communications. To take just one example, how many different scripts are used to write the Turkic languages? I have no idea but it's not hard to imagine a country where everyone spoke a roughly similar Turkic language but every street sign contained half a dozen (or more) written forms. Ultimately, these new countries would want to standardize both the standard spoken version of the language AND chose a single script for writing it. Politically, I think wise leaders would want to set a policy of adopting a standard spoken and written version of the language over a substantial period of time, say 50 years, or else they could probably expect significant tensions between users of the different dialects of the language. They would also need to make provisions for minorities who continued to speak/write other languages unless perhaps they expect to deport such people.

[@Dave_Sisson]

Under Mustafa Kemal, Turkey changed from Arabic script to Latin. One of the Central Asian countries, (possibly Kazakhstan?) is now changing their script from Cyrillic to Latin.

[@mariajoaoferrazdeabreu150]

Very interesting video, congrats.

[@thefallenkingdom9]

Do a video on if each native American nations maps. It would be cool to see the current nations borders plus the land they use to occupy pre-colonialism.

[@martalli]

Actually, that would be depressing.

[@paulochon7692]

That would make me sad but I think it's a good idea, as a few people only are aware of how diverse the native American languages used to be and still are !

[@thefallenkingdom9]

@@paulochon7692 even i who is a creek native American didn't understand there was much difference until i was a teen.

[@wzzruknz6695]

Correction:The people of noth eastern state of indian (Tripura) speak kokborok( which means people's language)

[@DaveChuaa]

Austronesian language family is very diverse. The closest to us Filipinos are the Yami and Ami of Taiwan, and some Indonesians & Malaysian groups. If you group it… -[Philippines, Taiwan (Ami & Yami), Indonesia (Minahasa, Gorontalo, North Sulawesi), Malaysia (Kinabalu)] -[Majority of Indonesia and Malaysia] [Malaysia (Borneo), Indonesia (Sumatra)] -Indonesia (Areas near East Timor) -Pacific Islanders [Polynesia] [Micronesia] [Melanesia]

[@kjul.]

Please do the same for Africa next! :)

[@FauzyZain]

in fact there is a ±700 hundred local language in Indonesia. My hometown Province itself has a 4 Major culture that has their own local languages with many dialects. There is Makassar, Bugis, Toraja and Mandar. that 4 is somehow related but most of the vocabulary are different. For example my culture is Makassar and Bugis are very closely related because of the history. Men : Makassar = Burane | Bugis = Urane but Women : Makassar = Baine | Bugis = Makkunrai Close but different Also, Our national language is Indonesia, but because of this diversity the Indonesian language has many Dialect depend on the where the speakers comefrom, or what speaker's mother tongue. For Example : I walk to the market : Std. Indonesia = Saya pergi ke Pasar | Makassar ver. = pigika Ke pasar | Bugis : Pergika ke pasar and they have their tone and accent so we can tell the people's come from based on the sound.

[@dragskcinnay3184]

8:29 I'd like to point out that many of the different languages of Myanmar aren't dialects of Burmese AT ALL. A fair few of them aren't mutually intelligible with Burmese, and some of them are straight out from a different family, having no connection to Burmese whatsoever. Examples include languages spoken by the Shan people, that belong to the same falily as Thai, and Mon, belongic to the same family as Khmer

[@senoalamsyah7481]

Agree, some of them indeed share the same root with the Burmese language but not dialect of Burmese, like Chin or Karen for example. More like Germany and Austrian have the same roots but different language or Germany and Dutch. And Some of them don't share the same root with Burmese at all like Shan and Mon who are more closer to Thai and Khmer respectively

[@KdamSamout]

Khmer and "Thai" aren't at all in a family group , the austroasiatic are the native to the mainland South East Asia however u could be right since "Thai" made up by alot ethics mostly Khmer and tai .

[@dragskcinnay3184]

@@KdamSamout I'm not sure you understood what I said (although I myself didn't understand what you said either). It didn't say that Khmer and Thai are part of a common language family - because they're not. What I said was that some languages spoken in Myanmar, for example Mon, are part of the the same language family as Khmer (the Austroasiatic family), and some other languages spoken in Myanmar, for example the Shan languages, are part of the same family as Thaï, the (Tai-Kra-Dai family)

[@KdamSamout]

@@dragskcinnay3184 sure that's what I meant to clarify.

[@dragskcinnay3184]

@@KdamSamout Alright, we're good then

[@hbourangful]

I 100% agree with comment 148. Kurds are a Iranian/Persian tribe (historical Meads) and are even more Persian than Tajik or most of the Afghans. They are not native to the northern Iraq, Easter Turkey and definitely not Syria. In fact most of the area that they are occupying today was inhabited by Assyrians and Arminians less than 100 years ago.

[@alanjyu]

you seriously counted the comments from the top? good on you.

[@zhiaryassen1634]

Lol.. if you considered it like that, then turkey (turks) definitely not native to its own land.

[@doit2810]

​@@zhiaryassen1634 yes Turks are largely Anatolians and Greek lmao

[@paulochon7692]

@@zhiaryassen1634 Turkic civilisations came from central Asia...

[@hbourangful]

Zhiryassen your absolutely correct, in fact only 100 years ago Constantinople/todays Istanbul was a majority Greek city. Greek inhabitants were forced out if luck or killed by Turks during the world war. Additionally presence of Ottomans rule barely goes back to 1400s. Turkish people are very much related to Mongolians and share many of the similar linguistics and genetics and very much oriental. But when traveling and you look around you don’t see too many orientals but you noticed people that look Greek, Arminians and Assyrians. These people were given a choice Between conversion to Islam and giving up There heritage and speak Turkish or Die. That’s todays Turkey and Azerbaijan reality.

[@Marvel2328]

Your breakdown (or lack thereof) of Japanese is kinda weird. You place it in the same section as Korean, but then don't talk about it at all. Just to clarify, Japanese and Korean are not dialects of the same language, or even related languages at all. There was a fringe theory in linguistics called the "Altaic" theory which grouped Korean, Japanese, Mongolian, and Turkic, but it's since been debunked yet remains wildly popular as an urban myth on the internet. Also worth mentioning that the map you include of Japan is a historical dialect map, which does not apply to modern day. Nowadays, Standard Japanese has widely displaced the old dialects, so that Japanese is mutually intelligible across the country other than a few elderly speakers.

[@jacklazzaro9820]

3:34 This linguistic map is actually made from Columbia University professor Michael Izady. He has a website with other maps like this.

[@eavocado5890pppj]

It's clear he is Iranian lol, since he disregards also l the different Arabic dialects and downplays the amount of Arabic speakers in the Persian gulf side of Iran.

[@papazataklaattiranimam]

Turkish is mutually intelligible, barring vocabulary differences, with the Turkic languages spoken in adjacent areas, in particular Gagauz, Qashqai, Salar, Azerbaijani, Uzbek, and Turkmen, and a speaker of Turkish can be understood as far east as Kyrgyzstan. Strictly speaking, the "Turkish" languages spoken between Mongolia and Turkey should be called Turkic languages, and the term "Turkish" should refer to the language spoken in Turkey alone. It is common practice, however, to refer to all these languages as Turkish, and differentiate them with reference to the geographical area, for example, the Turkish language of Azerbaijan.

[@shahinasgarov597]

*Turkic

[@LingkunganSekitarKu]

in indonesia (Hamil) it's Mean Pregnant Same Like Kyrgyzstan

[@himssendol6512]

I’ve lived in hong kong and cantonese is very different from beijing mandarin.

[@dgrszkyp]

Most Kurds live in Western Turkey. As a Turk, I support the establishment of Kurdistan, if most Kurds will live in Kurdistan. Many Turks think like me, but they do not say that there will be a reaction. Half of the Kurds vote for separatist parties, half for Islamists.

[@islammehmeov2334]

Good thing ther will be no Kurdistan

[@janki3353]

Eastern turkey*

[@shahinasgarov597]

@@janki3353 He doesn't even have idea where Kurds live in Turkey. Look at this turk😂

[@dgrszkyp]

@@shahinasgarov597 Most Kurds live in western cities of Turkey

[@dgrszkyp]

@@janki3353 I'm not talking about the Kurdish region, I'm talking about where Kurds mostly live.

[@DavidozGames]

Could you do this video with countries in/around the Pacific?

[@Jaylio]

Trying to remember a world map with this model would be impossible lol

[@emolohtrab3468]

Very cool video thank you

[@sagarshrestha2361]

While Nepal does use Nepali as its Lingua Franca, if it were to be divided by languages it'd have 123 countries within the tiny nation itself.

[@staffan-]

I had no idea that the main language in Tajikistan wasn't Turkic. Maybe that is a contributing factor to the tensions with neighbouring Kyrgyzstan? They are less similar than I thought, at least.

[@LalaLa-ze7kv]

They are not similar at all

[@TheBobVova]

Tajiks are Indo-Europeans.

[@staffan-]

@@LalaLa-ze7kv Yes, this was what I suddenly understood. That opens up for greater understanding of this region and was an eye-opener for me. In my ignorance, I just viewed Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan as "the two small Central Asian former Soviet republics bordering China with a pre-dominantely Turkic population".

[@doit2810]

Yes Tajiks are an Iranic people. Kurds, Afghans, Balochis, Persians. All of them Iranic peoples.

[@williswameyo5737]

Tajik shares a lot in common with Persian, it is Indo-Iranian, it can be groupef with Persian, Pashto and Dari

[@rinotilde2699]

Language families to make countries doesn't make sense in Southeast Asia. We can't even understand each other just within the Philippines.

[@Baller474]

Do Africa next

[@christopher.tanujaya]

So basically Armenia keeps its current territory + Artsakh & Javakhk.

[@paulochon7692]

In another reality it would have a territory for western Armenian language, which only barely survives in the diaspora today, but sadly even Armenia itself as a country struggles to survive... Look at the Lachin corridor blockade for example... Thousands of people are dying of hunger right now and nobody does anything 😔

[@_MC529]

Ngl, division by language would make for much more sense and less conflict (if it was implemented in the first place of course), especially in Africa

[@doit2810]

I'm assuming you mean this for India in which case it is only true for a handful of states

[@_MC529]

@@doit2810 I rather meant Central Asia, the southeastern peninsula and Indonesia Especially Iran, Pakistan and the former Soviet states make little to no sense in their division About India, I personally wouldn't know if a division by language group, especially considering the Dravidian and Indo-European languages might make more sense. Northern Indians are far better off economically, hold more influential positions and are the picture which gets represented to the world. Internal tensions, especially under the current, highly hindu-nationalistic government, keep on rising as minorities get ignored or pushed out of day-to-day affairs. Myanmar is another case of "division through diversity"

[@cs0345]

Division by language would cause more conflict Africa, especially in the regions where there are multiple languages spoken. In Africa, the government language is usually a colonial one like English or French

[@_MC529]

@@cs0345 why though?

[@cs0345]

@@_MC529 Different language and ethnic groups often live in the same areas as each other and the boundaries of the ethnic groups are unclear, so you can't always just draw a line and say that one group should live here and another should live on the other side without a policy of ethnic cleansing, like what happened in India's partition. Not to mention there are thousands of ethnicities and languages spoken in Africa, so it wasn't viable to carve up Africa into so many smaller, weaker states

[@kmr_tl4509]

10:15 These are not dialects, they're mutually unintelligible languages. You only emphasized that Indonesian and Filipino (just call it Tagalog, because that's what it really is) are mutually unintelligible but within each country there are several dozens of distinct languages, all widely spoken by up to millions of people.

[@MichaelSidneyTimpson]

Also, the Andaman islands were just grouped with India out of convenience after independence. Their languages are wildly unique and not related to anyone else.

[@dynamitebsb4520]

What do u mean by grouped with India. India just like greek and persia is an ancient country. May be even older than the two. Ofcourse the only existing ancient civilization of the three. And yes the language spoken in these islands are indo aryan expect that one tribe thats untouched

[@MichaelSidneyTimpson]

@@dynamitebsb4520 You are mistaken, all native andamanese aborigianl languages are isolates and not related to any other languages, including those in India. The islands are closer to Malaysia, in fact. The Andaman islands were not part of ancient Indian kingdoms...they did not even know they were there.

[@doit2810]

That is true for the natives of the islands. But the migrants who now form the majority there are from ethnic groups that are from India such as the Bengalis, the Tamils, Odias, etc. THIS is the reason those islands are a part of India. Also the British were just tired by that point even though there was a small attempt to make them a part of Britain for strategic reasons. Post-war clarity made them give up on that and just hand it over to India instead.

[@doit2810]

​@@dynamitebsb4520 those Indo-Aryan speakers (false because the second biggest group are Dravidian Tamils) are non-native migrants. The natives of the islands are VERY different. Yes there was a history of Indian rule (and later European rule) on those islands hence why the islanders didn't treat Indians as aliens BUT they're not Indians in terms of ethnicity. They're still an entirely different people who even to this day are largely isolated from the affairs of the Indian mainland.

[@ANTSEMUT1]

@Michael Timpson slightly closer to Indonesia than Malaysia.

[@ganggang2537]

I’m not sure why you grouped Korean and Japanese together and skipped explaining Japan all together. Korean and Japanese are completely unrelated and Japanese is most likely related to austronesian apart from being an isolate

[@知-k3q]

Japanese is related to austronesian family, and Korean is related to Tungusic language family.😂However, due to the strong China culture, 70% of Japanese and Korean words come from Chinese.Bloodline, culture, architecture, religion and thought have all become the main body of China culture, while the local Shamanism culture and Shinto culture have become subcultures.😂

[@知-k3q]

Japanese and Korean people hate China so much, but they keep promoting what they think is Japanese and Korean culture, but actually Chinese culture.🤣Koreans don't even publicize their national religion, Shamanism and culture at all.😂Shintoism and sex worship culture are only promoted on mythical occasions in Japan. Generally, the courtyards, tea ceremony, Zen, calligraphy, music and armor are all from China.😂

[@Spacemongerr]

@@知-k3q Why are you laughing-crying? It looks like you are mocking the other person when you do that

[@GL-iv4rw]

Maybe he still believes in the Altaic theory 😂 None the less Japonic and Austronesian hailed from the Yangtze civilization

[@circleo4381]

😂😂😂 why are we laughing crying 😂😂?

[@mohammadissa3609]

All of the Arabic dialects are highly mutually intelligible. Apart from Moroccan and Algerian, we do understand each other quite very well. Of course, some words can be ambiguous but when speaking to each other, we understand everything.

[@omarmansuri7099]

A lot of Indian states were in fact created due to languages.

[@alanjyu]

Exactly. There was no India until the British created that, along with Pakistan.

[@vinnies1556]

@@alanjyu hHow wrong you are sire. Even though we dint have India but we have always have had an idea of a unified state. Many have tried to acheive that but it was largley unseen until after the british left.

[@martalli]

@@vinnies1556 Even Ashok did not quite unify the whole subcontinent. In that case, why not consider the lands unified by Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, or the ROman Empire as a potential unified nation? I suspect South Indians would not all share the same world view of a homogenous India being its natural destiny.

[@doit2810]

​@@martalli you misunderstood the South Indians to just the proud Tamils. The other south Indians esp those from the northern part of South India are quite keen on the whole all-India project. Even among Tamils it's merely a fraction (though a sizeable one at that) that believes they're a separate civilisation on their own right and a smaller fraction of these too would have dreams to secede.

[@doit2810]

​@@martalli comparing Ashoka's military conquests to the random colonisation efforts of the other invaders is myopic if you think about it. Ashoka largely brought in similar ethnic groups that at many points in history considered themselves to be part of the same civilisation even if they weren't keen to cooperate or unite. On the other hand, there is nowhere where Alexander or Genghis would have considered the Persians to be their people or a similar culture but merely an inferior one that their superior race has defeated. They were distant and alien. For Ashoka, the lands he united weren't.

[@imamatdalimunthe]

Some Tagalog words are the same or sounds like Indonesian, Batak or Java. Anak (Child). Father: ama (tag) = amang (bat). Mother: ina (tag) = inang (bat). Mosquito: Lamok (tag) = nyamuk (ind). Me/I: ako (tag) = aku (ind). The main difference that I note, we Indonesian do not change the verb while Tagalog change. Kaen, kakaen, kumakaen. Makan, sudah makan, sedang makan.

[@MichaelSidneyTimpson]

In Taiwan, there are many people who grew up speaking something other than Mandarin in their home, especially beyond the Taipei region. What they grew up speaking is not mutually intelligible with Mandarin. These are Hoklo, Hakka, and the multitude of Austronesian Aboriginal languages. Also, a lot of people in Taiwan will mix a few words together from Mandarin, Hoklo, English, and Japanese, (and sometimes even a little Korean these days) into sentences during conversation.

[@GL-iv4rw]

I wonder where their Korean came from, K-drama?

[@ginnylin]

@@GL-iv4rw the Hallyu wave has been going on in places like Taiwan, China and other Asian countries since the 90s.

[@GL-iv4rw]

@@ginnylin is the Hallyu fandom enough to alter entire spoken languages? So i guess i can becoming Japanese if I'm obsessed enough with anime

[@chrischin5454]

懒叫 dont bullshit...

[@MichaelSidneyTimpson]

@@chrischin5454 They fact that you wrote laziness in Simplified characters demonstrates you probably don't have first hand knowledge of Taiwan, whereas I can just ask a family member in my house.

[@norctwofoursixzeroone828]

I'm from Indonesia. I'm neither a historian nor a linguist. Our language, Bahasa Indonesia (Bahasa=Language) is relatively new and was designed to unify our ethnic groups (1,340 according to wikipedia) and to bridge the language & dialect barriers in Dutch East-Indies (Indonesia before independence). Mostly rooted in Melayu language (spoken in Malaysia, parts of Sumatra (Western & Southern?), Singapore and Brunei. Bahasa Indonesia was also created to help fight the Dutch, it was formally introduced (and formally established) in (edit) 1928 during Dutch colonialism. They didn't realize how unifying the language would be. It served as quite a sharp tool during in our war for independence. By our independence in 1945, Bahasa Indonesia was fully established as our national language. 9:50 our map in the video shows Malayo-Sumbawan as basic language, a similar root I think? which shows a similar language group. I don't know man, I'm not a scholar and I don't know which scientist established the groupings (assuredly, with valid arguments & facts)but it's kind of wonky that the Malayo-Sumbawan grouping encapsules Sumatra, Malay Peninsula, Borneo, Java and small islands west of Java (we call them Western Nusa Tenggara) while an actual Sumbawa region and Sumba island is located in the Lesser Sundas (we call them Eastern Nusa Tenggara). Nusa=a clump of islands/ a region, Tenggara=southeast. Btw, the native Western Java people are called Sundanese & their language is Sunda. Lesser Sundas probably originated from the Sunda tectonic plate but ah, well...oy vey. Confused yet? Get ready for more headbangers. Again -not a linguist, but I assure you when a Javanese man speaks proper Javanese, the most provincial Madura people (tiny northeast island from Java) will NOT understand what he says, Bali (island immediately east from Java) people won't understand. Sumatrans won't understand, Borneo people won't understand. And vice-versa. That Sumatra Island? When Central Sumatra people speaks proper Batak language, the Northern Sumatra people will NOT understand, the western won't understand, the south won't understand. Sometimes it gets crazy. 4 major dialects in Java only. Natives of Jakarta -our capital in West Java speaks Betawi (which actually an amalgamation of Melayu, Arabic and West-Central-East Javanese + etc etc, because the Betawi people have roots in Malay, Java, Arab, China, Cambodia, Dutch, Portugal, etc etc) and if not for Bahasa Indonesia, they will only understand small parts of Western or Central/Eastern Javanese language. It's like, a person walks across the Indonesian archipelago. Comes to a mountain. Beyond that mountain? At least a new dialect or even a new language. Walks 200km, another dialect. Beyond the sea? Definitely new language. My dad was born in a small village in East Java during Dutch colonialism period and he can easily recognize people from the next villages from their dialect. Nuts!

[@krishnayadav023]

Bhasa is also a hindi word which exactly the same meaning

[@norctwofoursixzeroone828]

@@krishnayadav023 Absolutely! Hinduism and Buddhism were the oldest religions in Indonesia. The spread of Hinduism brought language and culture from India. A big chunk of Javanese mythology came from Mahabharata, Ramayana, etc. They continuously being retell through one of our proudest heritage, the wayang (shadow puppets & golek puppets). I apologize, I'm not debating beliefs vs myths, just stating the general facts. Nowadays, we have Spider Man, Batman, Superman, etc. My dad's hero is Karna. One of our Dept Store's name is Ramayana. All religious leaders were one called Pendeta (from Pandit). There's a NGO for twins called Nakula Sadewa. I know people whose name is Bimo, Sena, Yudistira, even my real name is from sanskrit. India & Indonesia went together a looong way. Even though still fighting for independence from the British, India was among the first nations to recognize our independence. Cheers!

[@krishnayadav023]

@@norctwofoursixzeroone828 thanks brother you don't claim yourself as a descendent of Arabs....

[@ElSemih]

As a turk I understand azerbaijanian turkish, a bit of turkmen,tatar, some uyghurian but the rest not really. Especially kazakh and krygys are hard to understand

[@Sharif_karbalai]

How so? What's the major difference between standard Turkish and Kazakh?

[@ElSemih]

@@Sharif_karbalai The pronunciation and words that are cognates sometimes are similar but not similar enough. Often the same words are used differently. Turkish and kazakh are as similar as for example german and dutch or french and spanish

[@Sharif_karbalai]

@@ElSemih that's not so similar is it? Like what words?

[@nesfan8]

...And everyone lived happily ever after

[@papazataklaattiranimam]

1:29 is actually an exaggerated map

[@Sharif_karbalai]

It's really not It's actually more than that The north khurasan and central Anatolia isn't on this map

[@sadrick1639]

Neredeyse Lazları da Kürt yapıyorlarmış. Kürtlerin doğum hızı Lazlara ve Türklere göre daha yüksek ama yine de Kürtlerin o bölgelerde o kadar çok olduğunu düşünmüyorum.

[@ariyannikdell3085]

@@Sharif_karbalai yeah he is right north Khorasan majority kurdish population because of one king this migration happened nader shah afshar force kurmanj Kurdish people from zagros to north Khorasan

[@siberianwolf331]

@@Sharif_karbalai EXCHANGE KURD POPULATİON İN TURKEY KURDS İS İRANİC.

[@doit2810]

​@@Sharif_karbalai and what about Armenian lands that were snatched from them?

[@campbellblock3061]

Why does the thumbnail feature groupings in Iran and Pakistan much different than in the video? The featured language maps divided Pakistan into Indian and Iranian regions, and both Iran and Afghanistan had large non-Iranian regions.

[@josueveguilla9069]

What if African Countries were divided by Language?

[@TertseghaILan]

I hope you are able to do one for Africa too. That would be really cool

[@hweiktomeyto]

Bisaya and Cebuano are the same thing and these are languages, not dialects. Unless you're talking about Tanay-Paete Tagalog, Bulacan Tagalog, Marinduque Tagalog, ETC

[@johnramirez3247]

Yes, i am from mindanao and I call my language colloquially as bisaya, but I know that cebuano is the academic term.

[@antares9353]

@@johnramirez3247 I'm from Mindanao too. My first language is Cebuano. People here also speak that language. But no one really calls it Cebuano, most people call Cebuano as Bisaya or Binisaya.

[@arc7495]

@@johnramirez3247 yes, and also, I really hate it when some Filipinos refer Cebuano (Bisaya) as a dialect.

[@hweiktomeyto]

@@arc7495 same

[@akhlism.marifat9204]

As an archipelago with tens of thousands islands, I think Indonesia and Philippines would be divided into hundreds of countries. The government data from Indonesia states that there are 718 regional languages still used and 326 of them are of Papuan origin.

[@RoamingHeathen]

The thumbnail lists “Iranian/Pakistan”. I’m guessing you meant to write Persian.

[@Pihu523]

I got questions about a maharastrian language today. It's a tribal language, of 70 families where only half of those speak it now. There are so many endangered languages here and many already are lost.

[@Uptotheceilingdowntothefloor]

The issue of whether Arabic is one language or many languages is politically charged, in the same way it is for the varieties of Chinese, Hindi and Urdu, Serbian and Croatian, Scots and English, etc. In contrast to speakers of Hindi and Urdu who claim they cannot understand each other even when they can, speakers of the varieties of Arabic will claim they can all understand each other even when they cannot.[68] While there is a minimum level of comprehension between all Arabic dialects, this level can increase or decrease based on geographic proximity: for example, Levantine and Gulf speakers understand each other much better than they do speakers from the Maghreb. The issue of diglossia between spoken and written language is a significant complicating factor: A single written form, significantly different from any of the spoken varieties learned natively, unites a number of sometimes divergent spoken forms. For political reasons, Arabs mostly assert that they all speak a single language, despite significant issues of mutual incomprehensibility among differing spoken versions.[69] From a linguistic standpoint, it is often said that the various spoken varieties of Arabic differ among each other collectively about as much as the Romance languages.[70] This is an apt comparison in a number of ways. The period of divergence from a single spoken form is similar-perhaps 1500 years for Arabic, 2000 years for the Romance languages. Also, while it is comprehensible to people from the Maghreb, a linguistically innovative variety such as Moroccan Arabic is essentially incomprehensible to Arabs from the Mashriq, much as French is incomprehensible to Spanish or Italian speakers but relatively easily learned by them. This suggests that the spoken varieties may linguistically be considered separate languages.

[@doit2810]

I don't think I've ever met any sane Hindi or Urdu speaker say that they cannot understand each other. Those are only the most politically motivated who hate the idea of sharing anything with their neighbours. The only thing they'd fight over is who speaks more of what, do Indians speak more Urdu or Pakistanis speak more Hindi since many of them don't even know what Hindustani is or wouldn't care to listen when you tell them.

[@GaryROC]

I live in Taiwan. Many people here claim mandarin and hokkian & hakka are single language called "Chinese", even they are NOT mutually inteligiable. Your explanation of "diglossia" helps me resolve my comfusion.

[@chandy3859]

At least my non Chinese speaking friends can claim ignorant. When they learn for the first time. That not all Chinese language is mutually intelligible and i speak hokkien and i don't understand mandarin.

[@prajwalkannadiga8737]

Hindi/Urdu same scripts differ. Hindi = Hindus in north india speaks. Urdu = muslims in indian n Pakistan speaks

[@deanticocombar7529]

@@doit2810 nope pure hindi was not understandable and Urdu itself is divided Pakistani Urdu and Hyderabadi Urdu in India Hyderabadi Urdu is spoken which is mostly Hindi influence

[@MichaelSidneyTimpson]

It might have been worth mentioning that India is mostly divided by Indo-Aryan lanuages in the north and (unrelated to them), Dravidian languages in the South.

[@tusk5847]

who tf made the middle eastern map? he definatly never visited anatolia because there is not the massive amount of minorities in central anatolia

[@Sharif_karbalai]

That's next to lake tuz which it doesn't have many people anyways So if this map is correct it will mean like 250k people

[@furkandogan4623]

@@Sharif_karbalai But there isn't that much kurds there either

[@Sharif_karbalai]

@@furkandogan4623 it's a significant minority in places like #cihanbeyli and #tavaşançalı

[@furkandogan4623]

@@Sharif_karbalai Those places are in Konya, where 2.2 million people lives, and they have 57 thousand people in total. Not all of them are Kurdish. Let's say 70% of them are Kurdish, and this gives us a total of nearly 40 thousand Kurdish people. That much of an area shown in the video is not true. It just can't. In that map, it's like half the whole city of Konya.

[@Sharif_karbalai]

@@furkandogan4623 in this map around lake tuz is covered with kurdish marks Which is not wrong

[@martalli]

It is very likely that current linguistic borders may not line up with current political boundaries, but they often reflect previous political boundaries.

[@louvendran7273]

Your video is really disappointing. Pakistan is not a language nor is Chinese. There is Mandarin, Cantonese, Turkic and other minority languages. Urdu is a slight variation from Hindi mainly script and a few Arabic/Persian loan words. Jafna/Eelam is Tamil so are parts of Malaysia. Just like you pointed out the Kurds, you have excluded Pastunistan or Tamilikam. I apologise for others I excluded I have limitited knowledge.

[@edwardsnowden8821]

nor is tibetan, if one goes by your standards

[@HolocaustisJoke]

Pashtunistan is just another term for "Loi Afghanistan"(Greater Afghanistan).

[@paulochon7692]

He didn't really talk about the Caucasus, the Circassian, Armenian and Georgian languages... I'm disappointed too but maybe is it for another video?

[@fahimfaisalbasher9069]

Despite having there differences, Assamese and Bengali have a lot of similarities (when I first heard Assamese I thought it was a dialect of Bangla as it resembles a lot the Sylheti dialect). Therefore the regions of West Bengal, Bangladesh, Meghalaya, Assam, Tripura and even Odisha (their language is also quite similar), could form one united country.

[@jl-mj3xn]

Your bit on Chinese language was incredibly poorly done. Wtf is 'Southern Chinese' - there are like 3+ Chinese language groupings there alone which are pretty much mutually unintelligible. Hokkien/Teochew are incredibly different languages to Cantonese. More broadly, among the Chinese languages spoken among Han Chinese, there is a high degree of mutual unintelligibility.