World languages

Guest   Mon Aug 18, 2008 5:16 pm GMT
According to this webpage there are 9 World languages: English, French, Spanish, German, Chinese, Arabic, Portuguese, Russian and Hindi.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_language


Are you agree?

I think that only English, Spanish and French are really international languages: official in more than 20 countries and studied around the World.


Arabic is official in a lot of countries but it is not a language. There are a lot of dialects very different.

Russian is official in only 4 countries.

German is official in only 5 countries.

Chinese and Hindi are very spoken but in one country.


What do you think?
Guest   Mon Aug 18, 2008 5:31 pm GMT
Yes. These 3 languages are official in almost all the international organizations.
Guest   Mon Aug 18, 2008 8:30 pm GMT
Hiri Motu is pretty important...
Breiniak   Tue Aug 19, 2008 3:48 am GMT
French is highly overrated as a world language. In most countries French is spoken it is spoken by the minority as mother tongue. In fact, perhaps France is the ONLY nation with a majority of French speakers (Monaco put aside) and Haitian is a language of its own anyway.

I agree, it's still a great cultural language to learn, but hardly a world language. The name "world language" promotes arrogance anyway. People who loudly dream of a world where only one language is spoken deserve to die IMO. ^^
Guest   Tue Aug 19, 2008 7:34 am GMT
You are right. French is weak even in countries where is an official language.

So, if we don't include French, which is the third one to add with English and Spanish? Chinese? Arabic?
Guest   Tue Aug 19, 2008 7:43 am GMT
THERE IS ONLY ONE WORLD LANGUAGE FOR FUCKS SAKE IT IS ENGLISH! EVEN SPANISH IS NOT A WORLD LANGUAGE - IT IS REGIONAL JUST LIKE RUSSIAN AND FRENCH! THERE IS ONLY ONE GODDAMNED WORLD LANGUAGE - AND THAT DOESN'T MAKE THE OTHERS LESS IMPORTANT, JUST THE REALITY OF THE MATTER!
Guest   Tue Aug 19, 2008 8:08 am GMT
You are right. English is more important than all the other languages. However, there are always 3 languages considered as World languages, like in the Olympic Games. You can see:

in 1900, French, German and English

in 1950, English, French and Russian

in 2008, English, Spanish and...?
Guest   Tue Aug 19, 2008 8:13 am GMT
<in 2008, English, Spanish and...?>


From 2008, English, French, Spanish, Arabic, ......
Guest   Tue Aug 19, 2008 8:16 am GMT
French at the Olympic games doesn't really mean very much... Just a historical relic leftover from the past. Kind of like lots of institutions still have mottos in Latin even though no one studies it anymore, or like how Maori is an official language of New Zealand even though no one speaks it anymore.
Guest   Tue Aug 19, 2008 9:45 am GMT
Perhaps that is the reason why a lot of French speakers are fanatic. They have the feeling that French is a weak language, and they need to support it strongly.

It is only dominant in France, and a minority in all other countries: Canada, Belgium, Switzerland, French African countries, etc.

Besides, according to all experts, French is the international language that will suffer the most important fall this century.


My opinion:

2008-2050: English, Spanish and Chinese.
Ralf   Tue Aug 19, 2008 10:02 am GMT
Yes. That is true. French is overestimated. A fast comparison between French and German:

French: official in 29 countries.
German: official in 6 countries.


But, if you add only big countries (more than 1 million people) where the language is dominant (spoken by over 51% of the population), the list is:

French: 1 country. France. (perhaps Belgium too).
German: 3 countries. Germany, Austria and Switzerland.


Which is stronger?
Guest   Tue Aug 19, 2008 11:05 am GMT
In My Humble Opinion, let‘s just compare "population" with one another.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

1, Spanish: only 1 country, in Europe, (Spain: 45,000,000 population),

2, Italian: 2 countries, in Europe, (Italy: 59,000,000 population, Switzerland: ignore)

3, French: 3 countries, (France: 64,000,000 population, Belgium: ignore, Switzerland: ignore)

4, German: 3 countries, (Germany: 83,000,000 population, Austria: 8,300,000 population, Switzerland: ignore)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Which is the puniest or weakest? ------ Spanish!
Guest   Tue Aug 19, 2008 11:12 am GMT
OK. I prefer to compare population, but all the World:

1. Spanish: 500 million people

2. French: 130 million people

3. German: 100 million people

4. Italian: 60 million people


Which is the less spoken of the UNO languages?

French, of course!

PD. That is not my humble opinion, that are data!
Guest   Tue Aug 19, 2008 11:32 am GMT
<<French: official in 29 countries.
German: official in 6 countries. >>

Yes it is true that French is more important than German. However, German is also insignificant, so that's not great. I may as well feel proud of Hottentot because it's more widely spoken than Hiri Motu.

I repeat, the ONLY world language is English. All others are like annoying ants crawling up the arm. Just shake your arm and knock them to the ground. Then, once on the ground, raise the foot and stamp the life out of them.
Guest   Tue Aug 19, 2008 11:37 am GMT
LOL... Hispanic fanatics usually tend to exaggerate the amount of Spanish-speaking people, as much as I know, the exact number should be 400 millions (Spain+Latin America+USA). This data was offered by Oxford Uni.

OK, Let's just trust in the data you provided, why have you always mentioned about dislikeful Latin American countries? There're only population boom, extreme poverty, and social commotion or coup d'etat in Latin America. Even the most remarkable countries such as Mexico and Brazil (Brazilian speak Portuguese) count for nothing in terms of many aspects. Yes, French-speaking African countries are all poor too, but it doesn't matter, because we don't take them into account, when we talk about the importance of French. Do you dare to give up poor Latin America to compare Spanish with French? No, you don't.