Geography
Why Linguistic Diversity Clusters in Mountainous Regions
Quick fact
New Guinea, a single mountainous island, is home to over 800 languages — roughly 12% of all languages on Earth, in just 0.5% of the world's land area.
Why this is interesting
Have you ever noticed that tiny mountain regions are packed with languages, while vast flat plains often share one? Why would the hardest-to-reach places be the most linguistically diverse?