Why do humans speak different languages?

[Counterclocking]

Why is it we don’t all speak English?

[MidnightOwl57]

The main reason why there are so many languages has to do with distance and time. Groups of people are always on the move, seeking new opportunities. And languages change over time, too.

While different groups of people initiated contact with each other, they developed languages that were often a mix of the two already spoken ones. These would often start out as simplified versions of both dominant languages and evolve into proper languages by being transmitted to the next generations

[MidnightOwl57]

Thank you for MHO

[purplepoppy]

English is so dominant because of the vast size of America. But people like their own languages, it gives them a sense of identity as in the proverb “A nation without a language is a nation without a heart.”

[NamerOfStars]

Because people were speaking varied languages thousands of years before English existed, and there's no real reason some obscure branch of German would change that.

The only time when all of humanity ever spoke just one language was in the brief period after the first person to figure it out did so, but before the second one did.

[ArrowheadSW]

Before the days of modern travel, the average person never travelled over 50 miles from where they were born. People "mostly" stayed put and the language served their area. Of course there were exceptions and some people did move and explore.

[slatyb]

Because groups separated and their languages grew separately. Already much of the world can communicate in English because much of the internet is in English.