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.
Since then, different forms of language began to evolve, and today there are around 7000 different languages being spoken by the 6 billion or so of the worldâs population. Many of these can be grouped together into a language family, based on similarities in such elements as vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation.