How many languages are there in the world and which is the first language?

Vedic Sanskrit.

Rest of the answer same as Bob.

The exact number is hard to say, specifically since it's often quite difficult to distinguish between languages and dialects. However, numbers around 7,000 are often quoted.

There is no one first language and there is no oldest language. We have no idea whether "language" first occured in one place, in one area, or simultaneously in different area, and since they couldn't write, we'll never know. We don't know how these tribes called eachother back then either, so we'll never know what to call these beginning languages.

In any case, languages were not created all at once. Communication improved very gradually over many generations, probably as slowly as intellectual and physical changes would allow, possibly over thousands of years.

All current languages stem from these beginnings, like branches all going down to a trunk, and all languages are equally old.

EDIT: Must have its own alphabet? You mean we can't count English, French, Spanish, etc.? Did you know that most languages are not written? Writing was only invented a few thousand years ago -- do you mean to say that what people spoke before were not languages? And how does writing a language make it more a language?

No exact and 100% answer to either of your question

if someone tells you otherwise it is false

According to Ethnologue, there are currently 6,912 living languages

The first language nobody knows

The first language was more than likely a primitive form that evolved from the basics and grew\

The oldest languages in the world inclures, Sanskrit, Tamil, Greek, Hebrew, Latin

English is a very new language only 2,000 years old

You obviously don't understand how language, or humanity for that matter, evolves.

There is no "first language". Different tribes undoubtedly created means of communication in different places, at similar points in history... maybe oral, maybe written, maybe using interpretive dance. Who can say?

And there is really no way of counting the number of languages. It's hard enough to estimate the number of languages just spoken in New York City. There's still a lot of argument over what languages are known to be spoken in Spain. What makes you think you can pinpoint the number in the entire world?

There are many languages in the world.Ifact there r more than 329 languages r spoken in india.and the no.of total languages r 4009.

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Total_languages_in_the_w...

for more information refer to

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_...

check this link

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=200805...

and this

http://hubpages.com/hub/Theory_The_Worlds_Oldest_L...

And you will conclude that we don't have enough facts to make conclusions about the oldest language

But i believe, the language used by the early man, the one that included actions, pictorial ways and that blabbering

Also , the dinosaurs would have also communicated in some way or the other...won't you call it a language? Then why not the oldest?

More than 60 million and sanskrit is first .......for more information go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_...

sanskrit was the first and there are roughly around 7,000

greek is the first languAGE

i don't think about others and future or the past..

so..my answer becomes...i don't know.