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.
The size of the region may have little impact on how many languages are spoken. In Canada and the United States, for example, only about 101 languages are spoken, while over 832 languages are spoken in the small region of Papua New Guinea, an area with a population of only about 4 million.