When this series started, the Bradford family consisted of Tom, the father, a respected columnist for the Sacramento Register, Joan, his wife for about 25 years, and the eight children of the couple, all of them were very normal but quite independent. Unexpectedly, actress Diana Hyland died of cancer and was written off the series after 5 episodes.
Let's first take a closer look at the linguistic diversity that existed five hundred years ago. In 1500 there were probably about 7 thousand languages spoken across the earth, most still groupable into the 25 or so major families represented today.
Arabic, which is spoken by 221 million people, is the official language in 23 nations, according to Bloomberg. Bloomberg notes their list differs from the top foreign languages studied in U.S. colleges in 2009 from the Modern Language Association, published in December 2010.