Languages In 36 editions of 36.

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

Portuguese (official), Bantu and other African languages

• 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 belonging 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 and Sango (in south), more than 100 different languages and dialects

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

• French (official),
• Lingala (a lingua franca trade language),
• Kingwana (a dialect of Kiswahili or Swahili),
• Kikongo,
• Tshiluba

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

French (official), 60 native dialects with Dioula 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

• Afar,
• Amharic,
• Arabic,
• Italian,
• Tigre and Kunama,
• Tigrinya,
• minor tribal languages

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), about 20 tribal languages, of which a few can be written and are used in correspondence

• 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:

• Oshivambo,
• Herero,
• Nama

• French (official),
• Hausa,
• Djerma

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

French (official), Creole widely used

• Kinyarwanda (official) universal Bantu vernacular,
• French (official),
• English (official),
• Kiswahili (Swahili) 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

11 official languages, including Afrikaans, English, Ndebele, Pedi, Sotho, Swazi, Tsonga, Tswana, Venda, Xhosa, Zulu

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

note: program of Arabization in process

• Kiswahili or Swahili (official),
• Kiunguju (name for Swahili in Zanzibar),
• English (official, primary language of commerce, administration, and higher education),
• Arabic (widely spoken in Zanzibar),
• many local languages

note : Kiswahili (Swahili) is the mother tongue of 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, and it has become the lingua franca of central and eastern Africa; the first language of most people is one of the local languages

• French (official and the language of commerce),
• Ewe and Mina (the two major African languages in the south),
• Kabye (sometimes spelled Kabiye) and Dagomba (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), major vernaculars - Bemba, Kaonda, Lozi, Lunda, Luvale, Nyanja, Tonga, and about 70 other indigenous languages

• English (official),
• Shona,
• Sindebele (the language of the Ndebele, sometimes called Ndebele),
• numerous but minor tribal dialects

• Eskimo dialects,
• Danish,
• Greenlandic (an Inuit dialect)

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 89%,
• Russian 3%,
• Armenian 2%,
• other 6% (1995 est.)

Bangla (official), English

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

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

• Armenian 7%,
• Azeri 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

Kazak (Qazaq) official language spoken by over 40% of population, Russian official language spoken by two-thirds of population and used in everyday business

Korean

Korean, English widely taught in high school

Kirghiz (Kyrgyz) - official language, Russian - official language

note: in March 1996, the Kyrgyzstani legislature amended the constitution to make Russian an official language, along with Kirghiz, in territories and work places where Russian-speaking citizens predominate

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

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

Nepali (official), 20 other languages divided into numerous dialects

Punjabi 48%, Sindhi 12%, Siraiki (a Punjabi variant) 10%, Pashtu 8%, Urdu (official) 8%, Balochi 3%, Hindko 2%, Brahui 1%, English (official and lingua franca of Pakistani elite and most government ministries), Burushaski, and other 8%

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), Russian widely used in government and business

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

• Uzbek 74.3%,
• Russian 14.2%,
• Tajik 4.4%,
• other 7.1%

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,
• Mayan,
• Garifuna (Carib)

English (official)

English

Spanish (official), English spoken around Puerto Limon

Spanish

English (official), French patois

Spanish

Spanish, Nahua (among some Amerindians)

English (official), French patois

French (official) 99%, Creole patois

Spanish 60%, Amerindian languages 40% (23 Amerindian languages, including Quiche, Cakchiquel, Kekchi)

French (official) 10%, Creole

Spanish, Amerindian 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 Amerindian-speaking minorities on Atlantic coast

Spanish (official), English 14%

note: many Panamanians bilingual

Spanish, English

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 56%,
• French 32%,
• German 1%,
• legally bilingual 11%

Serbo-Croatian (often called Bosnian) 99%

Bulgarian, secondary languages closely correspond to ethnic breakdown

Serbo-Croatian 96%, other 4% (including Italian, Hungarian, Czechoslovak, and German)

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

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

German (official), Alemannic dialect

• Lithuanian (official),
• Polish,
• Russian

• Luxembourgish,
• German,
• French,
• English

Maltese (official), English (official)

• Moldovan (official, virtually the same as the Romanian language),
• Russian,
• Gagauz (a Turkish dialect)

• 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 6%,
• other 3%

• Castilian Spanish 74%,
• Catalan 17%,
• Galician 7%,
• Basque 2%

Swedish

note: small Lapp- and Finnish-speaking minorities

• German 63.7%,
• French 19.2%,
• Italian 7.6%,
• Romansch 0.6%,
• other 8.9%

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

• Ukrainian,
• Russian,
• Romanian,
• Polish,
• Hungarian

• 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