What is one thing you don't understand...

[Jazzy]

about people?

 

[APS]

How they can be so inconsiderate and rude.

 

[otis booard]

I'm still fascinated by how people, living in areas relatively close to each other, specifically Europe, developed so many individual languages and dialects as opposed to one or two. Why is there not a single European language spoken throughout Europe? Instead there are at least 25 individual official languages and several more unofficial dialects

 

[Jazzy]

I don't understand the concept of miserable people who make it a mission to make everyone else around them miserable too.

 

[~KAGE-008]

The fact some people won't understand that others have some condition that really affects their lives.

 

[Evil Eye]

areas relatively close to each other

Without modern forms of transportation those areas are a lot less close. Not to mention free travel wasn't really a given in the past.

 

[Justbec]

What Jazzy said... and people who lie to make themselves look better than they are.

 

[otis booard]

Without modern forms of transportation those areas are a lot less close. Not to mention free travel wasn't really a given in the past.

Yes, but aren't many European countries all geographically very close to each other? Especially their borders.

 

[Evil Eye]

Yes, but aren't many European countries all geographically very close to each other? Especially their borders.

Well sure, but most borders aren't exactly walking distance from the seat of government (which usually decides the language). People in border regions often speak multiple languages and the local dialect might just be bit of a mishmash of the languages of both countries.

 

[otis booard]

Well sure, but most borders aren't exactly walking distance from the seat of government (which usually decides the language). People in border regions often speak multiple languages and the local dialect might just be bit of a mishmash of the languages of both countries.

So what are the different influences that led to humans in Europe developing different languages as opposed to different dialects of a universal European one, or just the same language?

 

[Aura]

How and why people are so materialistic and money orientated.
And how they can be so blinkerd

 

[Evil Eye]

So what are the different influences that led to humans in Europe developing different languages as opposed to different dialects of a universal European one, or just the same language?

Dialects evolve into different languages over time. Groups of people who live apart will develop different accents, and if they meet something new they won't name it the same (probably), some words or forms of address might fall out of use due to negative or positive connotations (the word dictator comes to mind, in modern usage it's pretty negative, wasn't always that way though). Before you know it they've got their own dialect, then *poof* a new language is born.
As for different influences... conquest is usually a big one. Let's go with English, England's been conquered by Celts, Normans, Angles, you name it. Loads of words from many different origins: alchemy is Arab, pork is French, dyke is Dutch. It also works in reverse, colonise India and suddenly you need names for all of their foods, which means you end up copying words like curry.
A couple thousand years of conquest and trade tends to add loads of foreign influences to a language