Languages In 36 editions of 36.

• Mandarin Chinese 12.44%,
• Spanish 4.85%,
• English 4.83%,
• Arabic 3.25%,
• Hindi 2.68%,
• Bengali 2.66%,
• Portuguese 2.62%,
• Russian 2.12%,
• Japanese 1.8%,
• Standard German 1.33%,
• Javanese 1.25% (2009 est.)

note: percents are for "first language" speakers only; the six UN languages - Arabic, Chinese (Mandarin), English, French, Russian, and Spanish (Castilian) - are the mother tongue or second language of about half of the world's population, and are the official languages in more than half the states in the world; all told, there are about 6,900 languages spoken in the world

Arabic (official), French (lingua franca), Berber dialects: Kabylie Berber (Tamazight), Chaouia Berber (Tachawit), Mzab Berber, Tuareg Berber (Tamahaq)

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)

• Setswana 78.2%,
• Kalanga 7.9%,
• Sekgalagadi 2.8%,
• English (official) 2.1%,
• other 8.6%,
• unspecified 0.4% (2001 census)

French (official), native African 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 (official), 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),
• tribal languages

French (official), Arabic (official), Sara (in south), more than 120 different languages and dialects

• Arabic (official),
• French (official),
• Shikomoro (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),
• Lingala and Monokutuba (lingua franca trade languages),
• many local languages and dialects (of which Kikongo is the most widespread)

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

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

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

Spanish (official) 67.6%, other (includes French (official), Fang, Bubi) 32.4% (1994 census)

• Tigrinya (official),
• Arabic (official),
• English (official),
• Tigre,
• Kunama,
• Afar,
• other Cushitic languages

English (official, used for government business), siSwati (official)

• Oromigna (official regional) 33.8%,
• Amarigna (Amharic) (official) 29.3%,
• Somaligna 6.2%,
• Tigrigna (official regional) 5.9%,
• Sidamigna 4%,
• Wolayitigna 2.2%,
• Guaragigna 2%,
• Affarigna 1.7%,
• Hadiyigna 1.7%,
• Gamogna 1.5%,
• other 11.7%,
• English (official) (major foreign language taught in schools),
• Arabic (official) (1994 census)

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

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

• 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 (includes English (official)) 36.1% (2000 census)

French (official)

note: each ethnic group has its own language

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

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

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

English 20% (official), some 20 ethnic group languages few of which can be written or used in correspondence

• Arabic (official),
• Italian,
• English (all widely understood in the major cities);
• Berber (Nafusi, Ghadamis, Suknah, Awjilah, Tamasheq)

• French (official),
• Malagasy (official),
• English

• Chichewa (official) 57.2%,
• Chinyanja 12.8%,
• Chiyao 10.1%,
• Chitumbuka 9.5%,
• Chisena 2.7%,
• Chilomwe 2.4%,
• Chitonga 1.7%,
• other 3.6% (1998 census)

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

• Arabic (official and national),
• Pulaar,
• Soninke,
• Wolof (all national languages),
• French,
• Hassaniya

• Creole 80.5%,
• Bhojpuri 12.1%,
• French 3.4%,
• English (official; spoken by less than 1% of the population),
• other 3.7%,
• unspecified 0.3% (2000 census)

Mahorian (a Swahili dialect), French (official language) spoken by 35% of the population

• Arabic (official),
• Berber languages (Tamazight (official), Tachelhit, Tarifit),
• French (often the language of business, government, and diplomacy)

• Emakhuwa 25.3%,
• Portuguese (official) 10.7%,
• Xichangana 10.3%,
• Cisena 7.5%,
• Elomwe 7%,
• Echuwabo 5.1%,
• other Mozambican languages 30.1%,
• other 4% (1997 census)

• English (official) 7%,
• Afrikaans (common language of most of the population and about 60% of the white population),
• German 32%,
• indigenous languages (includes Oshivambo, Herero, Nama) 1%

• French (official),
• Hausa,
• Djerma

English (official), Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo (Ibo), Fulani, over 500 additional indigenous languages

• Kinyarwanda (official, universal Bantu vernacular),
• French (official),
• English (official),
• Kiswahili (Swahili, used in commercial centers)

English

Portuguese (official)

• French (official),
• Wolof,
• Pulaar,
• Jola,
• Mandinka

• Creole 91.8%,
• English (official) 4.9%,
• other 3.1%,
• unspecified 0.2% (2002 census)

• English (official, regular use limited to literate minority),
• Mende (principal vernacular in the south),
• Temne (principal vernacular in the north),
• Krio (English-based Creole, spoken by the descendants of freed Jamaican slaves who were settled in the Freetown area, a lingua franca and a first language for 10% of the population but understood by 95%)

• Somali (official),
• Arabic (official, according to the Transitional Federal Charter),
• Italian,
• English

• IsiZulu (official) 23.82%,
• IsiXhosa (official) 17.64%,
• Afrikaans (official) 13.35%,
• Sepedi (offcial) 9.39%,
• English (official) 8.2%,
• Setswana (official) 8.2%,
• Sesotho (official) 7.93%,
• Xitsonga (official) 4.44%,
• siSwati (official) 2.66%,
• Tshivenda (official) 2.28%,
• isiNdebele (official) 1.59%,
• other 0.5% (2001 census)

• English (official),
• Arabic (includes Juba and Sudanese variants) (official),
• regional languages include Dinka,
• Nuer,
• Bari,
• Zande,
• Shilluk

• Arabic (official),
• English (official),
• Nubian,
• Ta Bedawie,
• Fur

note: program of "Arabization" in process

• Kiswahili or Swahili (official),
• Kiunguja (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 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

• French (official, 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, one of the languages of commerce),
• French (commerce),
• Berber (Tamazight)

• English (official national language, taught in grade schools, used in courts of law and by most newspapers and some radio broadcasts),
• Ganda or Luganda (most widely used of the Niger-Congo languages, preferred for native language publications in the capital and may be taught in school),
• other Niger-Congo languages,
• Nilo-Saharan languages,
• Swahili,
• Arabic

Hassaniya Arabic, Moroccan Arabic

• Bemba (official) 30.1%,
• Nyanja (official) 10.7%,
• Tonga (official) 10.6%,
• Lozi (official) 5.7%,
• Chewa 4.9%,
• Nsenga 3.4%,
• Tumbuka 2.5%,
• Lunda (official) 2.2%,
• Kaonde (official) 2%,
• Lala 2%,
• Luvale (official) 1.7%,
• English (official) 1.7%,
• other 22.5% (2000 Census)

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

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

• Icelandic,
• English,
• Nordic languages,
• German widely spoken

Norwegian, Russian

• Afghan Persian or Dari (official) 50%,
• Pashto (official) 35%,
• Turkic languages (primarily Uzbek and Turkmen) 11%,
• 30 minor languages (primarily Balochi and Pashai) 4%,
• much bilingualism,
• but Dari functions as the lingua franca

note: the Turkic languages Uzbek and Turkmen, as well as Balochi, Pashai, Nuristani, and Pamiri are the third official languages in areas where the majority speaks them

• Armenian (official) 97.7%,
• Yezidi 1%,
• Russian 0.9%,
• other 0.4% (2001 census)

• Azerbaijani (Azeri) (official) 90.3%,
• Lezgi 2.2%,
• Russian 1.8%,
• Armenian 1.5%,
• other 3.3%,
• unspecified 1% (1999 census)

Bangla (official, also known as Bengali), English

• Sharchhopka 28%,
• Dzongkha (official) 24%,
• Lhotshamkha 22%,
• other 26%

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

note: Mongolian is official in Nei Mongol, Uighur is official in Xinjiang Uygur, and Tibetan is official in Xizang (Tibet)

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

note: Abkhaz is the official language in Abkhazia

• 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)

Japanese

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

Korean

Korean, English (widely taught in junior high and high school)

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

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

• Khalkha Mongol 90% (official),
• Turkic,
• Russian (1999)

• Nepali (official) 47.8%,
• Maithali 12.1%,
• Bhojpuri 7.4%,
• Tharu (Dagaura/Rana) 5.8%,
• Tamang 5.1%,
• Newar 3.6%,
• Magar 3.3%,
• Awadhi 2.4%,
• other 10%,
• unspecified 2.5% (2001 census)

note: many in government and business also speak English (2001 est.)

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

Russian (official), many minority languages

• Sinhala (official and national language) 74%,
• Tamil (national language) 18%,
• other 8%

note: English, spoken competently by about 10% of the population, is commonly used in government and is referred to as the link language in the constitution

Tajik (official), Russian widely used in government and business

• Turkmen (official) 72%,
• Russian 12%,
• Uzbek 9%,
• other 7%

• Uzbek (official) 74.3%,
• Russian 14.2%,
• Tajik 4.4%,
• other 7.1%

English (official)

English (official), local dialects

• Papiamento (a Spanish-Portuguese-Dutch-English dialect) 66.3%,
• Spanish 12.6%,
• English (widely spoken) 7.7%,
• Dutch (official) 5.8%,
• other 2.2%,
• unspecified or unknown 5.3% (2000 census)

English (official), Creole (among Haitian immigrants)

English

• Spanish 46%,
• Creole 32.9%,
• Mayan dialects 8.9%,
• English 3.9% (official),
• Garifuna 3.4% (Carib),
• German 3.3%,
• other 1.4%,
• unknown 0.2% (2000 census)

English (official)

• English (official) 95%,
• Spanish 3.2%,
• other 1.8% (1999 census)

Spanish (official), English

Spanish (official)

• Papiamentu (a Spanish-Portuguese-Dutch-English dialect) 81.2%,
• Dutch (official) 8%,
• Spanish 4%,
• English 2.9%,
• other 3.9% (2001 census)

English (official), French patois

Spanish (official)

Spanish (official), Nahua (among some Amerindians)

English (official), French patois

Spanish (official) 60%, Amerindian languages 40%

note: there are 23 officially recognized Amerindian languages, including Quiche, Cakchiquel, Kekchi, Mam, Garifuna, and Xinca

French (official), Creole (official)

Spanish (official), Amerindian dialects

English, English patois

English

• Spanish (official) 97.5%,
• Miskito 1.7%,
• other 0.8% (1995 census)

note: English and indigenous languages found on the Atlantic coast

Spanish (official), English 14%

note: many Panamanians are bilingual

Spanish, English

French (primary), English

English (official)

English (official), French patois

• French (official),
• English,
• Dutch,
• French Patois,
• Spanish,
• Papiamento (dialect of Netherlands Antilles)

English, French patois

• English (official) 67.5%,
• Spanish 12.9%,
• Creole 8.2%,
• Dutch (official) 4.2%,
• Papiamento (a Spanish-Portuguese-Dutch-English dialect) 2.2%,
• French 1.5%,
• other 3.5% (2001 census)

• English (official),
• Caribbean Hindustani (a dialect of Hindi),
• French,
• Spanish,
• Chinese

English (official)

• English 74.7%,
• Spanish or Spanish Creole 16.8%,
• French or French Creole 6.6%,
• other 1.9% (2000 census)

• Albanian (official - derived from Tosk dialect),
• Greek,
• Vlach,
• Romani,
• Slavic dialects

• Catalan (official),
• French,
• Castilian,
• Portuguese

• German (official nationwide) 88.6%,
• Turkish 2.3%,
• Serbian 2.2%,
• Croatian (official in Burgenland) 1.6%,
• other (includes Slovene, official in Carinthia, and Hungarian, official in Burgenland) 5.3% (2001 census)

• Belarusian (official) 23.4%,
• Russian (official) 70.2%,
• other 6.4% (includes small Polish- and Ukrainian-speaking minorities) (1999 census)

• Dutch (official) 60%,
• French (official) 40%,
• German (official) less than 1%,
• legally bilingual (Dutch and French)

• Bosnian (official),
• Croatian (official),
• Serbian

• Bulgarian (official) 76.8%,
• Turkish 8.2%,
• Roma 3.8%,
• other 0.7%,
• other (unknown) 10.5% (2011 census)

• Croatian (official) 96.1%,
• Serbian 1%,
• other and undesignated (including Italian, Hungarian, Czech, Slovak, and German) 2.9% (2001 census)

• Czech 94.9%,
• Slovak 2%,
• other 2.3%,
• unidentified 0.8% (2001 census)

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

note: English is the predominant second language

• Estonian (official) 67.3%,
• Russian 29.7%,
• other 2.3%,
• unknown 0.7% (2000 census)

• Bulgarian,
• Czech,
• Danish,
• Dutch,
• English,
• Estonian,
• Finnish,
• French,
• Gaelic,
• German,
• Greek,
• Hungarian,
• Italian,
• Latvian,
• Lithuanian,
• Maltese,
• Polish,
• Portuguese,
• Romanian,
• Slovak,
• Slovene,
• Spanish,
• Swedish

note: 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 (2007)

Faroese (derived from Old Norse), Danish

• Finnish (official) 91.2%,
• Swedish (official) 5.5%,
• other (small Sami- and Russian-speaking minorities) 3.3% (2007)