Languages In 36 editions of 36.

• Arabic (official),
• French,
• Berber dialects

Portuguese (official); various Bantu dialects

• French (official);
• Fon and Yoruba most common vernaculars in south;
• at least six major tribal languages in north

English (official), Setswana

French (official); tribal languages belong to Sudanic family, spoken by 90% of the population

Kirundi and French (official); Swahili (along Lake Tanganyika and in the Bujumbura area)

Portuguese and Crioulo, a blend of Portuguese and West African words

English and French (official), 24 major African language groups

• French (official);
• Sangho (lingua franca and national language);
• Arabic, Hunsa, Swahili

• French and Arabic (official);
• Sara and Sango in south;
• more than 100 different languages and dialects are spoken

official languages are Arabic and French but majority of population speak Comoran, a blend of Swahili and Arabic

• French (official),
• Lingala,
• Swahili,
• Kingwana,
• Kikongo,
• Tshiluba

French (official); many African languages with Lingala and Kikongo most widely used

French (official), over 60 native dialects; Dioula most widely spoken

French and Arabic (both official); Somali and Afar widely used

Arabic (official); English and French widely understood by educated classes

• Spanish (official),
• pidgin English,
• Fang,
• Bubi,
• Ibo

English and siSwati (official); government business conducted in English

• Amharic (official),
• Tigrinya,
• Orominga,
• Guaraginga,
• Somali,
• Arabic,
• English (major foreign language taught in schools)

• French (official),
• Fang,
• Myene,
• Bateke,
• Bapounou/Eschira,
• Bandjabi

• English (official);
• Mandinka,
• Wolof,
• Fula,
• other indigenous vernaculars

English (official); African languages include Akan, Moshi-Dagomba, Ewe, and Ga

French (official); each tribe has its own language

Portuguese (official); Criolo and numerous African languages

English and Swahili (official); numerous indigenous languages

Sesotho (southern Sotho) and English (official); also Zulu and Xhosa

• English (official);
• more than 20 local languages of the Niger-Congo language group;
• English used by about 20%

Arabic; Italian and English widely understood in major cities

French and Malagasy (official)

English and Chichewa (official); other languages important regionally

• French (official);
• Bambara spoken by about 80% of the population;
• numerous African languages

• Hasaniya Arabic (official);
• Hasaniya Arabic,
• Pular,
• Soninke,
• Wolof (official)

• English (official),
• Creole,
• French,
• Hindi,
• Urdu,
• Hakka,
• Bojpoori

Mahorian (a Swahili dialect), French

• Arabic (official);
• several Berber dialects;
• French is often the language of business, government, and diplomacy

Portuguese (official); many indigenous dialects

• English is official language;
• Afrikaans is common language of most of population and about 60% of white population, German 32%, English 7%;
• several indigenous languages

French (official); Hausa, Djerma

English (official); Hausa, Yoruba, Ibo, Fulani, and several other languages also widely used

French (official); Creole widely used

Kinyarwanda, French (official); Kiswahili used in commercial centers

English

Portuguese (official)

• French (official);
• Wolof,
• Pulaar,
• Diola,
• Mandingo

English and French (official); Creole

• English (official);
• regular use limited to literate minority;
• principal vernaculars are Mende in south and Temne in north;
• Krio is the language of the resettled ex-slave population of the Freetown area and is lingua franca

• Somali (official);
• Arabic,
• Italian,
• English

• Afrikaans,
• English (both official);
• many vernacular languages,
• including Zulu,
• Xhosa,
• North and South Sotho,
• Tswana

Arabic (official), Nubian, Ta Bedawie, diverse dialects of Nilotic, Nilo-Hamitic, and Sudanic languages, English; program of Arabization in process

• Swahili and English (official);
• English primary language of commerce, administration, and higher education;
• Swahili widely understood and generally used for communication between ethnic groups;
• first language of most people is one of the local languages;
• primary education is generally in Swahili

French, both official and language of commerce; major African languages are Ewe and Mina in the south and Dagomba and Kabye in the north

Arabic (official); Arabic and French (commerce)

• English (official);
• Luganda and Swahili widely used;
• other Bantu and Nilotic languages

Hassaniya Arabic, Moroccan Arabic

English (official); about 70 indigenous languages

English (official); Shona, Sindebele

Eskimo dialects, Danish

Icelandic

Russian, Norwegian

• Pashtu 35%,
• Afghan Persian (Dari) 50%,
• Turkic languages (primarily Uzbek and Turkmen) 11%,
• 30 minor languages (primarily Balochi and Pashai) 4%;
• much bilingualism

• Armenian 93%,
• Russian 2%,
• other 5%

• Azeri 82%,
• Russian 7%,
• Armenian 5%,
• other 6%

Bangla (official), English widely used

Bhotes speak various Tibetan dialects - most widely spoken dialect is Dzongkha (official); Nepalese speak various Nepalese dialects

• Standard Chinese (Putonghua) or Mandarin (based on the Beijing dialect);
• also Yue (Cantonese), Wu (Shanghainese), Minbei (Fuzhou), Minnan (Hokkien-Taiwanese), Xiang, Gan, Hakka dialects, and minority languages (see ethnic divisions)

• Georgian (official language) 71%,
• Russian 9%,
• other 20% - Armenian 7%,
• Azerbaijani 6%

• Hindi, English, and 14 other official languages - Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil, Urdu, Gujarati, Malayalam, Kannada, Oriya, Punjabi, Assamese, Kashmiri, Sindhi, and Sanskrit;
• 24 languages spoken by a million or more persons each;
• numerous other languages and dialects, for the most part mutually unintelligible;
• Hindi is the national language and primary tongue of 30% of the people;
• English enjoys associate status but is the most important language for national, political, and commercial communication;
• Hindustani, a popular variant of Hindi/Urdu, is spoken widely throughout northern India

Japanese

Kazakh (Qazaq; official language), Russian

Korean

Korean; English widely taught in high school

Kirghiz (Kyrgyz)

Divehi (dialect of Sinhala; script derived from Arabic); English spoken by most government officials

Khalkha Mongol used by over 90% of population; minor languages include Turkic, Russian, and Chinese

Nepali (official); 20 languages divided into numerous dialects

• Urdu and English (both official);
• total spoken languages - Punjabi 64%, Sindhi 12%, Pashtu 8%, Urdu 7%, Balochi and other 9%;
• English is lingua franca of Pakistani elite and most government ministries, but official policies are promoting its gradual replacement by Urdu

• Estonian NA%,
• Latvian NA%,
• Lithuanian NA%,
• Russian NA%,
• other NA%

• Sinhala (official);
• Sinhala and Tamil listed as national languages;
• Sinhala spoken by about 74% of population, Tamil spoken by about 18%;
• English commonly used in government and spoken by about 10% of the population

Tajik (official) NA%

• Turkmen 72%,
• Russian 12%,
• Uzbek 9%,
• other 7%

• Uzbek 85%,
• Russian 5%,
• other 10%

English (official)

English (official), local dialects

• Dutch (official),
• Papiamento (a Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, English dialect),
• English (widely spoken),
• Spanish

English; some Creole among Haitian immigrants

English

• English (official),
• Spanish,
• Maya,
• Garifuna (Carib)

English (official)

English

Spanish (official), English spoken around Puerto Limon

Spanish

English (official); French patois widely spoken

Spanish

Spanish, Nahua (among some Indians)

English (official); some French patois

French, creole patois

Spanish, but over 40% of the population speaks an Indian language as a primary tongue (18 Indian dialects, including Quiche, Cakchiquel, Kekchi)

French (official) spoken by only 10% of population; all speak Creole

Spanish, Indian dialects

English, Creole

French, Creole patois

English

• Dutch (official);
• Papiamento, a Spanish-Portuguese-Dutch-English dialect predominates;
• English widely spoken;
• Spanish

Spanish (official); English- and Indian-speaking minorities on Atlantic coast

• Spanish (official);
• English as native tongue 14%;
• many Panamanians bilingual

Spanish (official); English is widely understood

English

English (official), French patois

English, some French patois

• English (official),
• Hindi,
• French,
• Spanish

English (official)

English (official), but Spanish and Creole are widely spoken

Albanian (Tosk is official dialect), Greek

Catalan (official); many also speak some French and Castilian

German

• Byelorussian NA%,
• Russian NA%,
• other NA%

• Flemish (Dutch) 56%, French 32%, German 1%;
• legally bilingual 11%;
• divided along ethnic lines

Serbo-Croatian 99%

Bulgarian; secondary languages closely correspond to ethnic breakdown

Serbo-Croatian 96%

Czech and Slovak (official), Hungarian

• Danish,
• Faroese,
• Greenlandic (an Eskimo dialect);
• small German-speaking minority

• Estonian NA% (official),
• Latvian NA%,
• Lithuanian NA%,
• Russian NA%,
• other NA%

Faroese (derived from Old Norse), Danish

Finnish 93.5%, Swedish (both official) 6.3%; small Lapp- and Russian-speaking minorities

French (100% of population); rapidly declining regional dialects (Provencal, Breton, Alsatian, Corsican, Catalan, Basque, Flemish)

German

• English and Spanish are primary languages;
• Italian, Portuguese, and Russian also spoken;
• English used in the schools and for official purposes

Greek (official); English and French widely understood

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

Italian, Latin, and various other languages

Hungarian 98.2%, other 1.8%

• Irish (Gaelic) and English;
• English is the language generally used,
• with Gaelic spoken in a few areas,
• mostly along the western seaboard

English, Manx Gaelic

• Italian;
• parts of Trentino-Alto Adige region are predominantly German speaking;
• small French-speaking minority in Valle d'Aosta region;
• Slovene-speaking minority in the Trieste-Gorizia area

English and French (official), with the Norman-French dialect spoken in country districts

• Latvian NA% (official),
• Lithuanian NA%,
• Russian NA%,
• other NA%

German (official), Alemannic dialect

• Lithuanian (official),
• Polish NA%,
• Russian NA%

• Luxembourgisch,
• German,
• French;
• many also speak English

Maltese and English (official)

Romanian; (Moldovan official), Russian

• French (official),
• English,
• Italian,
• Monegasque

Dutch

• Macedonian 70%,
• Albanian 21%,
• Turkish 3%,
• Serbo-Croatian 3%,
• other 3%

Norwegian (official); small Lapp- and Finnish-speaking minorities

Polish

Portuguese

• Romanian,
• Hungarian,
• German

Italian

Serbo-Croatian 100%

• Slovenian 91%,
• Serbo-Croatian 7%,
• other 2%

• Castilian Spanish;
• second languages include Catalan 17%,
• Galician 7%,
• Basque 2%

Swedish, small Lapp- and Finnish-speaking minorities; immigrants speak native languages

• total population - German 65%,
• French 18%,
• Italian 12%,
• Romansch 1%,
• other 4%;
• Swiss nationals - German 74%,
• French 20%,
• Italian 4%,
• Romansch 1%,
• other 1%

• Ukrainian,
• Russian,
• Romanian,
• Polish

• English,
• Welsh (about 26% of population of Wales),
• Scottish form of Gaelic (about 60,000 in Scotland)

• Arabic (official);
• English also widely spoken;
• Farsi, Urdu

• Greek,
• Turkish,
• English

Arabic, Israeli settlers speak Hebrew; English widely understood

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

• Arabic (official),
• Kurdish (official in Kurdish regions),
• Assyrian,
• Armenian

• Hebrew (official);
• Arabic used officially for Arab minority;
• English most commonly used foreign language

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

Arabic (official); English widely spoken

Arabic and French (both official); Armenian, English

• Arabic (official);
• English,
• Balochi,
• Urdu,
• Indian dialects