Here
is a very interesting article from the Washington Post: “The World’s Languages,in 7 Maps and Charts.” The article provides a really fascinating
breakdown of what the world speaks. Here
are a few highlights.
1. There
are 7,102 living languages in the world, and Asia and Africa by far have the
most by continent. Europe has the least.
2. Of
the 7.2 billion people of the world, two-thirds have these twelve languages as
their native tongue: Chinese, Hindu-Urdu, English, Arabic, Spanish, Russian,
Bengali, Portuguese, German, Japanese, French, and Italian.
3. The
number of countries that speak English is 101, the largest number. Arabic is a distant second.
4. English
is the actual official language in 35 countries, of which the United States is
not one of them. The US does not have an
official language.
5. English
is by far the most commonly learned language in countries that have other
languages as their native.
There
are lots of other interesting facts and worth going over to read it.
You don't mention the language I use when the hammer hits my finger hard instead of the nail.
ReplyDeleteGod bless.
That's got a language group of its own. ;)
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