A CENSUS OF WORDS.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XVIII, Issue XIII, 27 March 1897, Page 381

A CENSUS OF WORDS.

It isgenerally admitted that 5.000 expressions are amply sufficient for common use. The vocabulary of a writer seldom surpasses that number. With 7,000 words a language is acquired thoroughly. According to Brachet, the number of French words in the Dictionnaire de t'Academie is 27,000. including 6.000 primitive expressions. The Littre Dictionary contains about 66,000 words. English, according to Jonnson contained 15,01.0 words : but Thommery gives to the English of the present day, 87.000 words. An ordinary German dictionary has about 42,000 words, and a Spanish dictionary, 52,000. Chinese is composed of 41,000 known words in an imperial dictionary of the eighteenth century. Arabic has probably the greatest numter of expressions. It has about 30,000 words but what richness it possesses compared especially to that other language of the Levant, Hebrew, the poorest of all. For example, wine, although forbidden bv Mohammed, has 140 different names in Arabic, not to indicate the different varieties, but simply to signify the juice of the grape. A cup of wine has about ten expressions, and the camel, the horse and the lion have hundreds of names.