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West African nation is the third most multi-lingual country in the world

Nigerian flag
Nigerian flag
Nigeria is the third most multi-lingual country in the world with 526 languages.
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Nigeria ranks third in the list of most multi-lingual countries in the world.

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Ethnologue published this finding in November 2016. Papua New Guinea and Indonesia are the only two countries that rank higher than Nigeria.

According to the list, Nigeria has 526 languages. Papua New Guinea and Indonesia have 839 and 707 languages respectively. Cameroon also makes it to the top 10 with 281 languages.

Papua New Guinea has a population of only seven million people. Its topography is the reason behind the linguistic diversity. North Korea is last on the list of multi-lingual countries.

You can check out the top ten list below;

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50 Nigerian languages might soon be extinct. This is according to the Linguistic Association of Nigeria (LAN).

"Let me use this opportunity to advise the Federal Government on the need to reawaken the national language policy project which is moribund already.

"There is also an urgent need to establish language centers to prevent possible extinction of most minority languages in the country" said Prof. Chinyere Ohiri-Aniche at the  five-day annual conference of LAN held in Jos in 2016.

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