Why a Language Map of the World is Impossible

The world has 193 countries, but around 7,000 languages. And these languages are less and less restricted to their region of origin, thanks to war and travel. For example, when my family gathers around the dinner table, the languages they can speak are English, Spanish, French, Norwegian, Nepali, Hindi, Urdu, Quechua, and Swahili. And those are only among four adults! But they speak English because we all know that one. So how would you assign languages to a place on a map? Going by a nation's "official" language is no help, because that often means nothing. Many nations have several, some nations have none, and some are a compromise. Things get really complicated when speakers of the same language use different dialects and cannot understand each other, and when different languages are so similar that you don't need to learn them. I once knew a Canadian woman who spoke Polish, and was surprised when she went to Ukraine and understood people speaking Russian. 

The Map Men, Jay Foreman and Mark Cooper-Jones, humorously take us on a tour of the world's languages, how they came about, and how they became so mixed up. Their conclusion? You can't put them on a map, for many reasons. There's a skippable ad from 4:18 to 5:52, but at least they make it obvious. (via Damn Interesting)