Hospitals & Asylums
World Languages HA-27-2-06
|
Country |
Languages (%) |
|
Afghan Persian or Dari
(official) 50%, Pashtu (official) 35%, Turkic
languages (primarily Uzbek and Turkmen) 11%, 30 minor languages (primarily Balochi and Pashai) 4%, much
bilingualism |
|
|
English, Greek |
|
|
Albanian (official - derived
from Tosk dialect), Greek, Vlach,
Romani, Slavic dialects |
|
|
Arabic (official), French,
Berber dialects |
|
|
Samoan 90.6% (closely related to
Hawaiian and other Polynesian languages), English 2.9%, Tongan 2.4%, other
Pacific islander 2.1%, other 2% |
|
|
Catalan (official), French,
Castilian, Portuguese |
|
|
Portuguese (official), Bantu and
other African languages |
|
|
English (official) |
|
|
English (official), local
dialects |
|
|
Spanish (official), English,
Italian, German, French |
|
|
Armenian 97.7%, Yezidi 1%, Russian 0.9%, other 0.4% (2001 census) |
|
|
Dutch (official), Papiamento (a
Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, English dialect), English (widely spoken),
Spanish |
|
|
English 79.1%, Chinese 2.1%,
Italian 1.9%, other 11.1%, unspecified 5.8% (2001 Census) |
|
|
German (official nationwide),
Slovene (official in |
|
|
Azerbaijani (Azeri) 89%, Russian
3%, Armenian 2%, other 6% (1995 est.) |
|
|
English (official), Creole
(among Haitian immigrants) |
|
|
Arabic, English, Farsi, Urdu |
|
|
Bangla (official, also known as Bengali), English |
|
|
English |
|
|
Belarusian, Russian, other |
|
|
Dutch (official) 60%, French
(official) 40%, German (official) less than 1%, legally bilingual (Dutch and
French) |
|
|
English (official), Spanish,
Mayan, Garifuna (Carib),
Creole |
|
|
French (official), Fon and Yoruba (most common vernaculars in south), tribal
languages (at least six major ones in north) |
|
|
English (official), Portuguese |
|
|
Dzongkha (official), Bhotes speak various Tibetan dialects, Nepalese speak
various Nepalese dialects |
|
|
Spanish (official), Quechua
(official), Aymara (official) |
|
|
Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian |
|
|
Setswana 78.2%, Kalanga 7.9%, Sekgalagadi 2.8%, English 2.1% (official), other 8.6%,
unspecified 0.4% (2001 census) |
|
|
Portuguese (official), Spanish,
English, French |
|
|
English (official) |
|
|
Malay (official), English,
Chinese |
|
|
Bulgarian 84.5%, Turkish 9.6%,
Roma 4.1%, other and unspecified 1.8% (2001 census) |
|
|
French (official), native
African languages belonging to Sudanic family
spoken by 90% of the population |
|
|
Burmese, minority ethnic groups
have their own languages |
|
|
Kirundi (official), French
(official), Swahili (along |
|
|
Khmer (official) 95%, French,
English |
|
|
24 major African language
groups, English (official), French (official) |
|
|
English (official) 59.3%, French
(official) 23.2%, other 17.5% |
|
|
Portuguese, Crioulo
(a blend of Portuguese and West African words) |
|
|
English |
|
|
French (official), Sangho (lingua franca and national language), tribal
languages |
|
|
French (official), Arabic
(official), Sara (in south), more than 120 different languages and dialects |
|
|
Spanish |
|
|
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 groups entry) |
|
|
English (official), Chinese,
Malay |
|
|
Malay (Cocos
dialect), English |
|
|
Spanish |
|
|
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) |
|
|
English (official), Maori |
|
|
Spanish (official), English |
|
|
French (official), 60 native
dialects with Dioula the most widely spoken |
|
|
Croatian 96.1%, Serbian 1%,
other and undesignated 2.9% (including Italian, Hungarian, Czech, Slovak, and
German) (2001 census) |
|
|
Spanish |
|
|
Greek, Turkish, English |
|
|
Czech |
|
|
Danish, Faroese, Greenlandic (an
Inuit dialect), German (small minority) |
|
|
English, Greek |
|
|
French (official), Arabic
(official), Somali, Afar |
|
|
English (official), French
patois |
|
|
Spanish |
|
|
Tetum (official), Portuguese (official), Indonesian, English |
|
|
Spanish (official), Amerindian
languages (especially Quechua) |
|
|
Arabic (official), English and
French widely understood by educated classes |
|
|
Spanish, Nahua
(among some Amerindians) |
|
|
Spanish (official), French
(official), pidgin English, Fang, Bubi, Ibo |
|
|
Afar, Arabic, |
|
|
Estonian (official) 67.3%,
Russian 29.7%, other 2.3%, unknown 0.7% (2000 census) |
|
|
Amharic, Tigrinya, Oromigna, Guaragigna, Somali,
Arabic, other local languages, English (major foreign language taught in
schools) |
|
|
Czech, Danish, Dutch, English,
Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Latvian,
Lithuanian, Maltese, Polish, Portuguese, Slovak, Slovene, Spanish, Swedish;
note - only official languages are listed; Irish (Gaelic) will become the
twenty-first language on 1 January 2007 |
|
|
English |
|
|
Faroese (derived from Old
Norse), Danish |
|
|
English (official), Fijian,
Hindustani |
|
|
Finnish 92% (official), Swedish
5.6% (official), other 2.4% (small Sami- and
Russian-speaking minorities) (2003) |
|
|
French 100%, rapidly declining
regional dialects and languages (Provencal, Breton, Alsatian, Corsican,
Catalan, Basque, Flemish) |
|
|
French |
|
|
French 61.1% (official),
Polynesian 31.4% (official), Asian languages 1.2%, other 0.3%, unspecified 6%
(2002 census) |
|
|
French (official), Fang, Myene, Nzebi, Bapounou/Eschira, Bandjabi |
|
|
English (official), Mandinka, Wolof, Fula, other
indigenous vernaculars |
|
|
Arabic, Hebrew (spoken by
Israeli settlers and many Palestinians), English (widely understood) |
|
|
Georgian 71% (official), Russian
9%, Armenian 7%, Azeri 6%, other 7% |
|
|
German |
|
|
English (official), African
languages (including Akan, Moshi-Dagomba,
Ewe, and Ga) |
|
|
English (used in schools and for
official purposes), Spanish, Italian, Portuguese |
|
|
Greek 99% (official), English,
French |
|
|
Greenlandic (East Inuit),
Danish, English |
|
|
English (official), French
patois |
|
|
French (official) 99%, Creole
patois |
|
|
English 38.3%, Chamorro 22.2%,
Philippine languages 22.2%, other Pacific island languages 6.8%, Asian
languages 7%, other languages 3.5% (2000 census) |
|
|
Spanish 60%, Amerindian
languages 40% (23 officially recognized Amerindian languages, including
Quiche, Cakchiquel, Kekchi,
Mam, Garifuna, and Xinca) |
|
|
English, French, Norman-French
dialect spoken in country districts |
|
|
French (official), each ethnic group
has its own language |
|
|
Portuguese (official), Crioulo, African languages |
|
|
English, Amerindian dialects,
Creole, Hindi, Urdu |
|
|
French (official), Creole
(official) |
|
|
Italian, Latin, French, various
other languages |
|
|
Spanish, Amerindian dialects |
|
|
Chinese (Cantonese), English;
both are official |
|
|
Hungarian 93.6%, other or
unspecified 6.4% (2001 census) |
|
|
Icelandic, English, Nordic
languages, German widely spoken |
|
|
English enjoys associate status
but is the most important language for national, political, and commercial
communication; Hindi is the national language and primary tongue of 30% 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 |
|
|
Bahasa Indonesia (official, modified form of Malay), English,
Dutch, local dialects, the most widely spoken of which is Javanese |
|
|
Persian and Persian dialects
58%, Turkic and Turkic dialects 26%, Kurdish 9%, Luri
2%, Balochi 1%, Arabic 1%, Turkish 1%, other 2% |
|
|
Arabic, Kurdish (official in
Kurdish regions), Assyrian, Armenian |
|
|
English (official) is the
language generally used, Irish (official) (Gaelic or Gaeilge)
spoken mainly in areas located along the western seaboard |
|
|
English, Manx Gaelic |
|
|
Hebrew (official), Arabic used
officially for Arab minority, English most commonly used foreign language |
|
|
Italian (official), German
(parts of Trentino-Alto Adige
region are predominantly German speaking), French (small French-speaking
minority in |
|
|
English, patois English |
|
|
Japanese |
|
|
English 94.5% (official),
Portuguese 4.6%, other 0.9% (2001 census) |
|
|
Arabic (official), English
widely understood among upper and middle classes |
|
|
Kazakh (Qazaq,
state language) 64.4%, Russian (official, used in everyday business,
designated the "language of interethnic communication") 95% (2001
est.) |
|
|
English (official), Kiswahili
(official), numerous indigenous languages |
|
|
I-Kiribati, English (official) |
|
|
Korean |
|
|
Korean, English widely taught in
junior high and high school |
|
|
Arabic (official), English
widely spoken |
|
|
Kyrgyz (official), Russian
(official) |
|
|
Lao (official), French, English,
and various ethnic languages |
|
|
Latvian (official) 58.2%,
Russian 37.5%, Lithuanian and other 4.3% (2000 census) |
|
|
Arabic (official), French,
English, Armenian |
|
|
Sesotho (southern Sotho),
English (official), Zulu, Xhosa |
|
|
English 20% (official), some 20
ethnic group languages, of which a few can be written and are used in
correspondence |
|
|
Arabic, Italian, English, all
are widely understood in the major cities |
|
|
German (official), Alemannic dialect |
|
|
Lithuanian (official) 82%,
Russian 8%, Polish 5.6%, other and unspecified 4.4% (2001 census) |
|
|
Luxembourgish (national language), German (administrative language),
French (administrative language) |
|
|
Cantonese 87.9%, Hokkien 4.4%, Mandarin 1.6%, other Chinese dialects 3.1%,
other 3% (2001 census) |
|
|
Macedonian 66.5%, Albanian
25.1%, Turkish 3.5%, Roma 1.9%, Serbian 1.2%, other 1.8% (2002 census) |
|
|
French (official), Malagasy
(official) |
|
|
Chichewa 57.2% (official), Chinyanja 12.8%, Chiyao 10.1%, Chitumbuka 9.5%, Chisena 2.7%, Chilomwe 2.4%, Chitonga 1.7%,
other 3.6% (1998 census) |
|
|
Bahasa Melayu (official), English,
Chinese (Cantonese, Mandarin, Hokkien, Hakka, |
|
|
Maldivian Dhivehi (dialect of Sinhala, script derived from Arabic), English spoken by
most government officials |
|
|
French (official), Bambara 80%, numerous African languages |
|
|
Maltese (official), English
(official) |
|
|
Marshallese 98.2%, other
languages 1.8% (1999 census) |
|
|
French, Creole patois |
|
|
Arabic (official), Pulaar, Soninke, French, Hassaniya,
Wolof |
|
|
Creole 80.5%, Bhojpuri 12.1%, French 3.4% (official), other 3.7%,
unspecified 0.3% (2000 census) |
|
|
Mahorian (a Swahili dialect), French (official language) spoken
by 35% of the population |
|
|
Spanish, various Mayan, Nahuatl, and other regional indigenous languages |
|
|
English (official and common
language), Trukese, Pohnpeian, Yapese, Kosrean, Ulithian, Woleaian, Nukuoro, Kapingamarangi
|
|
|
Moldovan (official, virtually
the same as the Romanian language), Russian, Gagauz
(a Turkish dialect) |
|
|
French (official), English,
Italian, Monegasque |
|
|
Khalkha Mongol 90%, Turkic, Russian (1999) |
|
|
English |
|
|
Arabic (official), Berber
dialects, French often the language of business, government, and diplomacy |
|
|
Emakhuwa 26.1%, Xichangana 11.3%,
Portuguese 8.8% (official; spoken by 27% of population as a second language),
Elomwe 7.6%, Cisena 6.8%,
Echuwabo 5.8%, other Mozambican languages 32%,
other foreign languages 0.3%, unspecified 1.3% (1997 census) |
|
|
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 |
|
|
Nauruan (official, a distinct |
|
|
Nepali 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) |
|
|
Dutch (official), Frisian
(official) |
|
|
Papiamento 65.4% (a
Spanish-Portuguese-Dutch-English dialect), English 15.9% (widely spoken),
Dutch 7.3% (official), Spanish 6.1%, Creole 1.6%, other 1.9%, unspecified
1.8% (2001 census) |
|
|
French (official), 33
Melanesian-Polynesian dialects |
|
|
English (official), Maori
(official) |
|
|
Spanish 97.5% (official), Miskito 1.7%, other 0.8% (1995 census) |
|
|
French (official), Hausa, Djerma |
|
|
English (official), Hausa,
Yoruba, Igbo (Ibo), Fulani |
|
|
Niuean, a Polynesian language closely related to Tongan and
Samoan; English |
|
|
English (official), |
|
|
Philippine languages 24.4%,
Chinese 23.4%, Chamorro 22.4%, English 10.8%, other Pacific island languages
9.5%, other 9.6% (2000 census) |
|
|
Bokmal Norwegian (official),
Nynorsk Norwegian (official), small Sami- and
Finnish-speaking minorities |
|
|
Arabic (official), English, Baluchi, Urdu, Indian 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% |
|
|
Palauan 64.7% official in all
islands except Sonsoral (Sonsoralese
and English are official), Tobi (Tobi and English are official), and Angaur
(Angaur, Japanese, and English are official), Filipino
13.5%, English 9.4%, Chinese 5.7%, Carolinian 1.5%, Japanese 1.5%, other
Asian 2.3%, other languages 1.5% (2000 census) |
|
|
Spanish (official), English 14%;
note - many Panamanians bilingual |
|
|
Melanesian Pidgin serves as the
lingua franca, English spoken by 1%-2%, Motu spoken
in Papua region |
|
|
Spanish (official), Guarani (official) |
|
|
Spanish (official), Quechua
(official), Aymara, and a large number of minor
Amazonian languages |
|
|
two official languages -
Filipino (based on Tagalog) and English; eight
major dialects - Tagalog, Cebuano,
Ilocano, Hiligaynon or Ilonggo, Bicol, Waray, Pampango, and Pangasinan |
|
|
English (official), Pitcairnese (mixture of an 18th century English dialect
and a Tahitian dialect) |
|
|
Polish 97.8%, other and
unspecified 2.2% (2002 census) |
|
|
Portuguese (official), Mirandese (official - but locally used) |
|
|
Spanish, English |
|
|
Arabic (official), English
commonly used as a second language |
|
|
French (official), Creole widely
used |
|
|
Romanian (official), Hungarian,
German |
|
|
Russian, many minority languages
|
|
|
Kinyarwanda (official) universal Bantu vernacular, French
(official), English (official), Kiswahili (Swahili) used in commercial centers
|
|
|
English |
|
|
English |
|
|
English (official), French
patois |
|
|
French (official) |
|
|
English, French patois |
|
|
Samoan (Polynesian), English |
|
|
Italian |
|
|
Portuguese (official) |
|
|
Arabic |
|
|
French (official), Wolof, Pulaar, Jola, Mandinka |
|
|
Serbian 95%, Albanian 5% |
|
|
Creole 91.8%, English 4.9%
(official), 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%) |
|
|
Mandarin 35%, English 23%, Malay
14.1%, Hokkien 11.4%, Cantonese 5.7%, Teochew 4.9%, Tamil 3.2%, other Chinese dialects 1.8%,
other 0.9% (2000 census) |
|
|
Slovak (official) 83.9%,
Hungarian 10.7%, Roma 1.8%, Ukrainian 1%, other or unspecified 2.6% (2001
census) |
|
|
Slovenian 91.1%, Serbo-Croatian
4.5%, other or unspecified 4.4% (2002 census) |
|
|
Melanesian pidgin in much of the
country is lingua franca; English is official but spoken by only 1%-2% of the
population |
|
|
Somali (official), Arabic,
Italian, English |
|
|
IsiZulu 23.8%, IsiXhosa 17.6%,
Afrikaans 13.3%, Sepedi 9.4%, English 8.2%, Setswana 8.2%, Sesotho 7.9%, Xitsonga
4.4%, other 7.2% (2001 census) |
|
|
Castilian Spanish 74%, Catalan
17%, Galician 7%, Basque 2%; note - Castilian is the official language
nationwide; the other languages are official regionally |
|
|
Sinhala (official and national language) 74%, Tamil (national
language) 18%, other 8% |
|
|
Arabic (official), Nubian, Ta Bedawie, diverse dialects of Nilotic,
Nilo-Hamitic, Sudanic
languages, English |
|
|
Dutch (official), English
(widely spoken), Sranang Tongo
(Surinamese, sometimes called Taki-Taki, is native
language of Creoles and much of the younger population and is lingua franca
among others), Hindustani (a dialect of Hindi), Javanese |
|
|
Norwegian, Russian |
|
|
English (official, government
business conducted in English), siSwati (official) |
|
|
Swedish, small Sami- and Finnish-speaking minorities |
|
|
German (official) 63.7%, French
(official) 20.4%, Italian (official) 6.5%, Serbo-Croatian 1.5%, Albanian
1.3%, Portuguese 1.2%, Spanish 1.1%, English 1%, Romansch
0.5%, other 2.8% (2000 census) |
|
|
Arabic (official); Kurdish,
Armenian, Aramaic, Circassian widely understood;
French, English somewhat understood |
|
|
Mandarin Chinese (official),
Taiwanese (Min), Hakka dialects |
|
|
Tajik (official), Russian widely
used in government and business |
|
|
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 |
|
|
Thai, English (secondary
language of the elite), ethnic and regional dialects |
|
|
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) |
|
|
Tokelauan (a Polynesian language), English |
|
|
Tongan, English |
|
|
English (official), Hindi,
French, Spanish, Chinese |
|
|
Arabic (official and one of the
languages of commerce), French (commerce) |
|
|
Turkish (official), Kurdish,
Arabic, Armenian, Greek |
|
|
Turkmen 72%, Russian 12%, Uzbek
9%, other 7% |
|
|
English (official) |
|
|
Tuvaluan, English, Samoan, |
|
|
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 |
|
|
Ukrainian (official) 67%,
Russian 24%; small Romanian-, Polish-, and Hungarian-speaking minorities |
|
|
Arabic (official), Persian,
English, Hindi, Urdu |
|
|
English, Welsh (about 26% of the
population of |
|
|
English 82.1%, Spanish 10.7%,
other Indo-European 3.8%, Asian and Pacific island 2.7%, other 0.7% (2000
census) |
|
|
Spanish, Portunol,
or Brazilero (Portuguese-Spanish mix on the
Brazilian frontier) |
|
|
Uzbek 74.3%, Russian 14.2%,
Tajik 4.4%, other 7.1% |
|
|
local languages (more than 100)
72.6%, pidgin (known as Bislama or Bichelama) 23.1%, English 1.9%, French 1.4%, other 0.3%,
unspecified 0.7% (1999 Census) |
|
|
Spanish (official), numerous
indigenous dialects |
|
|
Vietnamese (official), English (increasingly
favored as a second language), some French, Chinese, and Khmer; mountain area
languages (Mon-Khmer and Malayo-Polynesian) |
|
|
English 74.7%, Spanish or
Spanish Creole 16.8%, French or French Creole 6.6%, other 1.9% (2000 census) |
|
|
Wallisian 58.9% (indigenous Polynesian language), Futunian 30.1%, French 10.8%, other 0.2% (2003 census) |
|
|
Arabic, Hebrew (spoken by
Israeli settlers and many Palestinians), English (widely understood) |
|
|
Hassaniya Arabic, Moroccan Arabic |
|
|
Chinese, Mandarin 13.69%,
Spanish 5.05%, English 4.84%, Hindi 2.82%, Portuguese 2.77%, Bengali 2.68%,
Russian 2.27%, Japanese 1.99%, German, Standard 1.49%, Chinese, Wu 1.21%
(2004 est.) |
|
|
Arabic |
|
|
English (official), major
vernaculars - Bemba, Kaonda,
Lozi, Lunda, Luvale, |
|
|
English (official), Shona, Sindebele (the language
of the Ndebele, sometimes called Ndebele), numerous but minor tribal dialects
|
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the CIA World Fact Book on