Språkliga Stormakter

I like to read. Unfortunately, it takes me more than a week to finish a single book these days with my jobs and all my other free time during the week being sacrificed to the languages I'm learning. So, I decided to borrow a book about languages in hopes of killing two birds with one stone. Swedish linguist and author of the book Limits of Language, Mikael Parkvall published an interesting cartogram along with his book. It's entitled "språkliga stormakter" (linguistic powers... or perhaps more appropriately, "linguistic superpowers), which draws into proportion, the countries of the world in relation to how many languages are used.
"Languages are very unevenly distributed among the countries of the world. The map tries to capture this fact by rendering each country in a size corresponding to the number of languages spoken in it. (Because of the inherent problems in accomplishing this, sizes are rather approximate)."

The Countries in Red are:
1. Papua-Nya Guinea (Papua New Guinea): 823 languages
2. Indonesien (Indonesia): 726 languages
3. Nigeria: 505 languages
4. Indien (India): 387 languages
5. Mexiko (Mexico): 288 languages
6. Kamerun (Cameroon): 279 languages
7. Australien (Australia): 235 languages
8. (Kongo-Kinshasa) Democratic Republic of Congo 218 languages
9. Kina (China): 201 languages
10. USA: 176 languages

I wonder why Papua New Guinea has so many languages. I can sort of understand why Indonesia has so many since it's one country but it's a series of large and small archipelagos; before the Dutch colonized it, they were independent islands with separate languages so it makes sense. It's puzzling why there are so many languages there... is it because of the high biodiversity in Papua New Guinea? Is it because it's an island?

Today's Random Quiz:

You Are an Optimist

You definitely see the sunny side of life, even when things aren't going so great. And while you may not be a realist, your optimism has really improved your quality of life. You have the energy to take charge, solve your problems, and enjoy life for what it is. Optimists are happier and healthier - so keep thinking positive!

Are You An Optimist or Pessimist?