Department of Other Languages
Although the importance of English language as an international language cannot be ignored, other languages like Turkish, French, German, and Spanish have got their specific volunteers. The regular courses of these languages are held in different time intervals based on volunteers’ demand and are exactly held in similar conditions to English language courses of DLC.
The following figure represents the vast distribution and variety of languages all around the world. Also, the following table represents the details of the vast variety of languages, the names of the countries and the population of them.
The 50 Most Widely Spoken Languages (1996)
|
Rank, |
Countries2 |
Population3 |
|
Language |
(in millions) |
|
|
1. Chinese, Mandarin |
Brunei, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia, Philippines, Singapore, S. Africa, Taiwan, Thailand |
1120 |
|
2. English |
Australia, Belize, Botswana, Brunei, Cameroon, Canada, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Fiji, The Gambia, Ghana, Guyana, India, Ireland, Israel, Lesotho, Liberia, Malaysia, Micronesia, Namibia, Nauru, New Zealand, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Samoa, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Somalia, S. Africa, Suriname, Swaziland, Tonga, U.K., U.S., Vanuatu, Zimbabwe, many Caribbean states, Zambia. |
480 |
|
3. Spanish |
Algeria, Andorra, Argentina, Belize, Benin, Bolivia, Chad, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Rep., Ecuador, El Salvador, Eq. Guinea, Guatemala, Honduras, Ivory Coast, Madagascar, Mali, Mexico, Morocco, Nicaragua, Niger, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Spain, Togo, Tunisia, United States, Uruguay, Venezuela. |
332 |
|
4. Arabic |
Egypt, Sudan, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Lybia, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Jordan, Yemen, UAE, Oman, Iraq, Lebanon |
235 |
|
5. Bengali |
Bangladesh, India, Singapore |
189 |
|
6. Hindi |
India, Nepal, Singapore, S. Africa, Uganda |
182 |
|
7. Russian |
Belarus, China, Estonia, Georgia, Israel, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Mongolia, Russia, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, U.S., Uzbekistan |
180 |
|
8. Portuguese |
Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, France, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Portugal, São Tomé and Príncipe, Macau |
170 |
|
9. Japanese |
Japan, Singapore, Taiwan |
125 |
|
10. German |
Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Czech Rep., Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Kazakhstan, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Paraguay, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Switzerland |
98 |
|
11. Chinese, Wu |
China |
77.2 |
|
12. Javanese |
Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore |
75.5 |
|
13. Korean |
China, Japan, N. Korea, S. Korea, Singapore, Thailand |
75 |
|
14. French |
Algeria, Andorra, Belgium, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, France, Gabon, Guinea, Haiti, Ivory Coast, Laos, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Monaco, Morocco, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Seychelles, Switzerland, Togo, Tunisia, Vanuatu, Vietnam |
72 |
|
15. Turkish |
Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, Macedonia, Romania, Turkey, Uzbekistan |
69 |
|
16. Vietnamese |
China, Vietnam |
67.7 |
|
17. Telugu |
India, Singapore |
66.4 |
|
18. Chinese, Yue(Cantonese) |
Brunei, China, Costa Rica, Indonesia, Malaysia, Panama, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam |
66 |
|
19. Marathi |
India |
64.8 |
|
20. Tamil |
India, Malaysia, Mauritius, Singapore, S. Africa, Sri Lanka |
63.1 |
|
21. Italian |
Croatia, Eritrea, France, Italy, San Marino, Slovenia, Switzerland |
59 |
|
22. Urdu |
Afghanistan, India, Mauritius, Pakistan, S. Africa, Thailand |
58 |
|
23. Chinese, Min Nan |
Brunei, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand |
49 |
|
24. Chinese, Jinyu |
China |
45 |
|
25. Gujarati |
India, Kenya, Pakistan, Singapore, S. Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe |
44 |
|
26. Polish |
Czech Rep., Germany, Israel, Poland, Romania, Slovakia |
44 |
|
27. Ukrainian |
Poland, Slovakia, Ukraine |
41 |
|
28. Persian |
Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Oman, Qatar, Tajikistan, U A Emirates |
37.3 |
|
29. Chinese, Xiang |
China |
36 |
|
30. Malayalam |
India, Singapore |
34 |
|
31. Chinese, Hakka |
Brunei, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Panama, Singapore, Suriname, Taiwan, Thailand |
34 |
|
32. Kannada |
India |
33.7 |
|
33. Oriya |
India |
31 |
|
34. Panjabi, Western |
India, Pakistan |
30 |
|
35. Sunda |
Indonesia |
27 |
|
35. Panjabi, Eastern |
India, Kenya, Singapore |
26 |
|
36. Romanian |
Hungary, Israel, Moldova, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro, Ukraine |
26 |
|
37. Bhojpuri |
India, Mauritius, Nepal |
25 |
|
38. Azerbaijani, South |
Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Turkey |
24.4 |
|
40. Maithili |
India, Nepal |
24.3 |
|
41. Hausa |
Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ghana, Niger, Nigeria, Sudan, Togo |
24.2 |
|
43. Burmese |
Bangladesh, Myanmar |
22 |
|
44. Serbo-Croatian4 |
Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro, Slovenia |
21 |
|
45. Chinese, Gan |
China |
20.6 |
|
46. Awadhi |
India, Nepal |
20.5 |
|
47. Thai |
Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia |
20 |
|
48. Dutch |
Belgium, France, Netherlands, Suriname |
20 |
|
49. Yoruba |
Benin, Nigeria |
20 |
|
50. Sindhi |
Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Singapore |
19.7 |
Source: Ethnologue, 13th Edition, Barbara F. Grimes, Editor. © 1996, Summer Institute of Linguistics, Inc.