Native Tongue

With my newfound interest in all things language, sort of, I did a little googling and as you might have guessed, the most common languages are not exactly what . . . you might have guessed.

This map shows the major languages spoken worldwide. That's a heleboel of green. Sorta makes you think Russian might be the other language you should learn.

But this next graph clears that all up.

Of course, everybody knows which language is spoken by the most people.

Chinese. Of course.

That's the not-so-big pink spot on that map up there.

It still amazes me that well over 1/3 of all the people in the world live in that pink spot up there and that small orange spot underneath it. That is 1 of every 3 people on earth!

China and India.

The numbers on the graph have increased a little, but the percentages are pretty much the same. If Chinese weren't complicated enough - it even has 12 dialects!

"That's a heleboel of dialects."

and in Chinese: 这是一个很大的方言。

I would probably need to stop with "a" and "an". a= 一 and an= 个

Both English and Spanish speakers are right at 330,000,000 now. At 330 million, that's still about 4 Chinese speakers for every English speaker. Which further reminds me how fortunate we are that Belgian schools teach English and not Chinese!

I took 2 years of Spanish in high school and another 2 quarters at LaTech so I know a little Spanish. Particularly essential Spanish phrases like:

"I'd like a margarita on the rocks with salt."

"Me gustaría una margarita en las rocas de sal."

The next ones on the Top Ten list of most-spoken languages surprised me. Arabic - which actually has more like 220,000,000 now and not unlike Chinese, has 16 different dialects depending on which country you live in - i.e. Egypt or Iraq or . . .

This is "Hello, how are you?" in Arabic. Way over here on the right.

مرحبا ، كيف حالك؟

Yeah, and it's written right to left.

And we thought Dutch was a challenge.

Numbers 5, 6, and 7 of the Top Ten are Hindi, Portuguese, and Bengali.

Hindi is spoken in India.

Bengali in Bangladesh.

I have got to get out more. I don't even know where most of these places are.

I suppose I did know Portuguese is spoken in Portugal since they both begin with Portug, but until I got to Europe, I never even thought about where Portugal was on the map.

(BTW - it's right next to Spain :)

I definitely could have used a few more geography lessons. Why don't they teach more geography in school? Or was it just my school?

Oh, and I have this idea about that - teaching geography - another day - another post.

This is "I'm fine, and you?" in Hindi.

मैं ठीक हूँ, और तुम?

At least it's written from left to right. That's something.

And "How do you say . . . in Portuguese?" in Portuguese.

"Como se diz . . . em Português?"

Now, that's a language I could possibly learn. An accent mark and little rooftop here and there, but at least it's all A B C's.

I have no idea how to say "Hello" or anything else in Bengali . . . it may be one of the Top Ten most spoken languages, but it is not on Goggle Translate.

So rounding out the Top 10 are Russian, Japanese, and German. Although German is taught to students in Belgium, just as English and French are, we don't hear much of it spoken. We have noticed that the majority of Germans we've encountered don't typically know English as all Belgians do.

Thankfully, I have heard of Russian, Japanese, and German and I actually do know where these countries are. As a matter of fact, Germany is only a half hour from our house, as the crow flies.

"I would be lost without Google Translate" in Russian. No, I would be lost without Google Translate, period.

Я хотел бы быть потеряны без.

I guess, like Hindi, the only thing I can say about this is that at least it's written from left to right.

This says "Dutch is looking easier and easier" in Japanese.

オランダ人は楽に探しています。

And it's true. Dutch is looking easier and easier.

While it may be a heleboel easier than Russian, "I think I'm glad I don't need to learn German!" in German.

"Ich glaube, ich bin froh, dass ich nicht brauchen, Deutsch zu lernen."

While Dutch is the official language of the northern half of Belgium, French is the official language of the southern half of Belgium. Long, long . . . long story. Another day - another post.

French is 16th on this list of a gazillion languages. Dutch is down at #42, right between Indonesian and Sindhi.

Sindhi? Yeah, that's one of the languages spoken in Pakistan. I guess considering there are . . . well, take a look at this . . .

according to the website of one language expert, Ethnologue . . .

Ethnologue language name index

Listing of 7413 primary names only.

For 41,186 alternate names and dialect names use the search site.

Yep, you can search their database of over 7,000 primary languages and 41,000 alternate names and dialects.

Dutch being at #42 doesn't seem so "way down on the list" any more.

I've read that the Chinese language has as many as 15 million "words", but I've also read that you can get along by only knowing about 1,000 characters. That's still a heleboel of characters.

There are about 500,000 words in the English language. You can double that if you include scientific terms.

By comparison . . .

French has about 50,000 for an approximate 10:1 ratio to English. Ten English words for every French word?

That's not so surprising when you consider there's one English word that has 380 synonyms. Can you guess what it is?

Think about it.

I'll tell you. In a second.

Spanish and Dutch have around 250,000 for a 2:1 ratio to English.

So, any way you look at it . . .

dat is een heleboel woorden and een groot aantal andere talen!

(that's a lot of words and a lot of languages!)

So, thanks for stopping by and . . .

Good day!

or

Fine day!

or

Pleasant day!

or

Splendid day!

or

Stupendous . . .