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Language > Languages > Note: Countries Compared

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DEFINITION: This entry provides a rank ordering of languages starting with the largest and sometimes includes the percent of total population speaking that language.
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COUNTRY DESCRIPTION
American Samoa most people are bilingual (2000 census)
China Mongolian is official in Nei Mongol, Uighur is official in Xinjiang Uygur, and Tibetan is official in Xizang (Tibet)
Denmark English is the predominant second language
East Timor there are about 16 indigenous languages; Tetum, Galole, Mambae, and Kemak are spoken by significant numbers of people
European Union only official languages are listed; German, the major language of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, is the most widely spoken mother tongue - over 19% of the EU population; English is the most widely spoken language - about 49% of the EU population is conversant with it
Georgia Abkhaz is the official language in Abkhazia
Malaysia in East Malaysia there are several indigenous languages; most widely spoken are Iban and Kadazan
Marshall Islands English (official), widely spoken as a second language
Nepal many in government and business also speak English (2001 est.)
New Zealand shares sum to 114.6% due to multiple responses on census
Nicaragua English and indigenous languages on Atlantic coast
Papua New Guinea 820 indigenous languages spoken (over one-tenth of the world's total)
Serbia and Montenegro Romanian, Hungarian, Slovak, Ukrainian, and Croatian all official in Vojvodina; Albanian official in Kosovo
Sri Lanka English is commonly used in government and is spoken competently by about 10% of the population
Sudan program of "Arabization" in process
Switzerland German, French, Italian, and Romansch are all national languages, but only the first three are official languages
Tanzania Kiswahili (Swahili) is the mother tongue of the Bantu people living in Zanzibar and nearby coastal Tanzania; although Kiswahili is Bantu in structure and origin, its vocabulary draws on a variety of sources including Arabic and English; it has become the lingua franca of central and eastern Africa; the first language of most people is one of the local languages
Turkey there is also a substantial Gagauz population in the European part of Turkey
United States Hawaiian is an official language in the state of Hawaii

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Interesting observations about Language > Languages > Note

Factoid #219

  • English is the official language in over 20 countries. However, it's spoken in 85.

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