Languages In 36 editions of 36.

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

Portuguese (official), Bantu dialects

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

English (official), Setswana

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

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

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

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

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

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

• Arabic (official),
• French (official),
• Comoran (a blend of Swahili and Arabic)

• French,
• Lingala,
• Swahili,
• Kingwana,
• Kikongo,
• Tshiluba

French (official), African languages (Lingala and Kikongo are the most widely used)

French (official), 60 native dialects Dioula is the most widely spoken

• French (official),
• Arabic (official),
• Somali,
• Afar

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

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

• Tigre and Kunama,
• Cushitic dialects,
• Tigre,
• Nora Bana,
• Arabic

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

• 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 (including Akan, Moshi-Dagomba, Ewe, and Ga)

French (official); each tribe has its own language

• Portuguese (official),
• Criolo,
• African languages

• English (official),
• Swahili (official),
• numerous indigenous languages

• Sesotho (southern Sotho),
• English (official),
• Zulu,
• Xhosa

English 20% (official), Niger-Congo language group about 20 local languages come from this group

• Arabic,
• Italian,
• English,
• all are widely understood in the major cities

French (official), Malagasy (official)

• English (official),
• Chichewa (official),
• other languages important regionally

• French (official),
• Bambara 80%,
• numerous African languages

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

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

Mahorian (a Swahili dialect), French

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

Portuguese (official), indigenous dialects

English 7% (official), Afrikaans common language of most of the population and about 60% of the white population, German 32%, indigenous languages

• French (official),
• Hausa,
• Djerma

• English (official),
• Hausa,
• Yoruba,
• Ibo,
• Fulani

French (official), Creole widely used

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

English

Portuguese (official)

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

• English (official),
• French (official),
• Creole

English (official; regular use limited to literate minority), Mende principal vernacular in the south, Temne principal vernacular in the north, Krio the language of the re-settled ex-slave population of the Freetown area and is lingua franca

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

Afrikaans (official), English (official), Zulu, Xhosa, North Sotho, South Sotho, Tswana, and many other vernacular languages

• Arabic (official),
• Nubian,
• Ta Bedawie,
• diverse dialects of Nilotic,
• Nilo-Hamitic,
• Sudanic languages,
• English

note: program of Arabization in process

Swahili (official; widely understood and generally used for communication between ethnic groups and is used in primary education), English (official; primary language of commerce, administration, and higher education)

note: first language of most people is one of the local languages

• French (official and the language of commerce),
• Ewe (one of the two major African languages in the south),
• Mina (one of the two major African languages in the south),
• Dagomba (one of the two major African languages in the north),
• Kabye (one of the two major African languages in the north)

Arabic (official and one of the languages of commerce), French (commerce)

• English (official),
• Luganda,
• Swahili,
• Bantu languages,
• Nilotic languages

Hassaniya Arabic, Moroccan Arabic

English (official)

note: 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 96%,
• Russian 2%,
• other 2%

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

Bangla (official), English

Dzongkha (official), Bhotes speak various Tibetan dialects; Nepalese speak various Nepalese dialects

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

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

English enjoys associate status but is the most important language for national, political, and commercial communication, Hindi the national language and primary tongue of 30% of the people, Bengali (official), Telugu (official), Marathi (official), Tamil (official), Urdu (official), Gujarati (official), Malayalam (official), Kannada (official), Oriya (official), Punjabi (official), Assamese (official), Kashmiri (official), Sindhi (official), Sanskrit (official), Hindustani a popular variant of Hindu/Urdu, is spoken widely throughout northern India

note: 24 languages each spoken by a million or more persons; numerous other languages and dialects, for the most part mutually unintelligible

Japanese

Kazakh (Qazaq; official language), Russian (language of interethnic communication)

Korean

Korean, English widely taught in high school

Kirghiz (Kyrgyz) - official language, Russian

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

• Khalkha Mongol 90%,
• Turkic,
• Russian,
• Chinese

Nepali (official), 20 languages divided into numerous dialects

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

Russian, other

Sinhala (official and national language) 74%, Tamil (national language) 18%

note: English is commonly used in government and is spoken by about 10% of the population

Tajik (official)

• 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,
• 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

Spanish

Spanish, Nahua (among some Indians)

English (official), French patois

French, creole patois

Spanish 60%, Indian language 40% (18 Indian dialects, including Quiche, Cakchiquel, Kekchi)

French (official) 10%, 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)

note: English- and Indian-speaking minorities on Atlantic coast

Spanish (official), English 14% note:

many Panamanians bilingual

Spanish (official), English widely understood

English

English (official), French patois

English, French patois

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

English (official)

• English (official),
• Spanish,
• Creole

Albanian (Tosk is the official dialect), Greek

• Catalan (official),
• French,
• Castilian

German

• Byelorussian,
• Russian,
• other

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%, other 4%

Czech, Slovak

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

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

Faroese (derived from Old Norse), Danish

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

French 100%, rapidly declining regional dialects and languages (Provencal, Breton, Alsatian, Corsican, Catalan, Basque, Flemish)

German

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

• Greek (official),
• English,
• French

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

• Italian,
• Latin,
• various other languages

Hungarian 98.2%, other 1.8%

• Irish (Gaelic),
• spoken mainly in areas located along the western seaboard,
• English is the language generally used

English, Manx Gaelic

• Italian,
• 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)

• English (official),
• French (official),
• Norman-French dialect spoken in country districts

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

German (official), Alemannic dialect

• Lithuanian (official),
• Polish,
• Russian

• Luxembourgisch,
• German,
• French,
• English

Maltese (official), English (official)

Moldovan (official); note - virtually the same as the Romanian language, Russian

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

Dutch

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

Norwegian (official)

note: small Lapp- and Finnish-speaking minorities

Polish

Portuguese

• Romanian,
• Hungarian,
• German

Italian

Serbo-Croatian 95%, Albanian 5%

Slovak (official), Hungarian

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

• Castilian Spanish,
• Catalan 17%,
• Galician 7%,
• Basque 2%

Swedish note:

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

• German 65%,
• French 18%,
• Italian 12%,
• Romansch 1%,
• other 4%

note: these are figures for Swiss nationals only - German 74%, French 20%, Italian 4%, Romansch 1%, other 1%

• Ukrainian,
• Russian,
• Romanian,
• Polish

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

• Arabic,
• English,
• Farsi,
• Urdu

• Greek,
• Turkish,
• English

• Arabic,
• Hebrew (spoken by Israeli settlers),
• English (widely understood)

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