Languages of the World – Part 3

Part 3 of a six part (week) blog series that will cover all the countries of the world and the dominant languages within those countries. This data is meant to improve identifying and selecting target languages when considering a geographical area to market/translate into. For this 3rd post, we have 40 countries ranging from Ghana to Lebanon. All of these numbers and facts can be attributed to research done in the CIA’s World Factbook. Please note: This list is in no way meant to be an exporting destination guide as not all listed countries are cleared by The U.S. Government for international trade.

Ghana
Asante 14.8%, Ewe 12.7%, Fante 9.9%, Boron (Brong) 4.6%, Dagomba 4.3%, Dangme 4.3%, Dagarte (Dagaba) 3.7%, Akyem 3.4%, Ga 3.4%, Akuapem 2.9%, other 36.1% (includes English (official)) (2000 census)

Gibraltar
English (used in schools and for official purposes), Spanish, Italian, Portuguese

Greece
Greek 99% (official), other 1% (includes English and French)

Greenland
Greenlandic (East Inuit) (official), Danish, English

Grenada
English (official), French patois

Guam
English 38.3%, Chamorro 22.2%, Philippine languages 22.2%, other Pacific island languages 6.8%, Asian languages 7%, other languages 3.5% (2000 census)

Guatemala
Spanish 60%, Amerindian languages 40% (23 officially recognized Amerindian languages, including Quiche, Cakchiquel, Kekchi, Mam, Garifuna, and Xinca)

Guernsey
English, French, Norman-French dialect spoken in country districts

Guinea
French (official); note – each ethnic group has its own language

Guinea-Bissau
Portuguese (official), Crioulo, African languages

Guyana
English, Amerindian dialects, Creole, Caribbean Hindustani (a dialect of Hindi), Urdu

Haiti
French (official), Creole (official)

Holy See (Vatican City)
Italian, Latin, French, various other languages

Honduras
Spanish, Amerindian dialects

Hong Kong
Cantonese 90.8% (official), English 2.8% (official), Putonghua (Mandarin) 0.9%, other Chinese dialects 4.4%, other 1.1% (2006 census)

Hungary
Hungarian 93.6%, other or unspecified 6.4% (2001 census)

Iceland
Icelandic, English, Nordic languages, German widely spoken

India
Hindi 41%, Bengali 8.1%, Telugu 7.2%, Marathi 7%, Tamil 5.9%, Urdu 5%, Gujarati 4.5%, Kannada 3.7%, Malayalam 3.2%, Oriya 3.2%, Punjabi 2.8%, Assamese 1.3%, Maithili 1.2%, other 5.9% note: English enjoys the status of subsidiary official language but is the most important language for national, political, and commercial communication; Hindi is the most widely spoken language and primary tongue of 41% of the people; there are 14 other official languages: Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil, Urdu, Gujarati, Malayalam, Kannada, Oriya, Punjabi, Assamese, Kashmiri, Sindhi, and Sanskrit; Hindustani is a popular variant of Hindi/Urdu spoken widely throughout northern India but is not an official language (2001 census)

Indonesia
Bahasa Indonesia (official, modified form of Malay), English, Dutch, local dialects (the most widely spoken of which is Javanese)

Iran
Persian and Persian dialects 58%, Turkic and Turkic dialects 26%, Kurdish 9%, Luri 2%, Balochi 1%, Arabic 1%, Turkish 1%, other 2%

Iraq
Arabic, Kurdish (official in Kurdish regions), Turkoman (a Turkish dialect), Assyrian (Neo-Aramaic), Armenian

Ireland
English (official) is the language generally used, Irish (Gaelic or Gaeilge) (official) spoken mainly in areas along the western coast

Isle of Man
English, Manx Gaelic (about 2% of the population has some knowledge)

Israel
Hebrew (official), Arabic used officially for Arab minority, English most commonly used foreign language

Italy
Italian (official), German (parts of Trentino-Alto Adige region are predominantly German speaking), French (small French-speaking minority in Valle d’Aosta region), Slovene (Slovene-speaking minority in the Trieste-Gorizia area)

Jamaica
English, English patois

Japan
Japanese

Jersey
English 94.5% (official), Portuguese 4.6%, other 0.9% (2001 census)

Jordan
Arabic (official), English widely understood among upper and middle classes

Kazakhstan
Kazakh (Qazaq, state language) 64.4%, Russian (official, used in everyday business, designated the “language of interethnic communication”) 95% (2001 est.)

Kenya
English (official), Kiswahili (official), numerous indigenous languages

Kiribati
I-Kiribati, English (official)

Korea, North
Korean

Korea, South
Korean, English widely taught in junior high and high school

Kosovo
Albanian (official), Serbian (official), Bosnian, Turkish, Roma

Kuwait
Arabic (official), English widely spoken

Kyrgyzstan
Kyrgyz 64.7% (official), Uzbek 13.6%, Russian 12.5% (official), Dungun 1%, other 8.2% (1999 census)

Laos
Lao (official), French, English, and various ethnic languages

Latvia
Latvian (official) 58.2%, Russian 37.5%, Lithuanian and other 4.3% (2000 census)

Lebanon
Arabic (official), French, English, Armenian

Next Week – Lesotho to Norway!