SmilingStraw Diglot Newbie United States Joined 4722 days ago 35 posts - 37 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Arabic (Written)
| Message 1 of 58 29 December 2011 at 1:10am | IP Logged |
I was recently googling information on languages and came up with a Wikipedia entry about "World language" which mentiones what a world language is.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_language
Apparently, a world language meets the following criteria:
-a large number of speakers
-a substantial fraction of non-native speakers (function as lingua franca)
-official status in several countries
-a linguistic community not defined strictly along ethnic lines (multiethnic, pluricentric language)
-one or more standard registers which are widely taught as a foreign language
-association with linguistic prestige
-use in international trade relations
-use in international organizations
-use in the academic community
-significant body of literature
In general the following are considered world languages:
-English
-Spanish
-French
-Portuguese
Some also include:
-Mandarin
-German
-Arabic
-Russian
-Hindustani
Do you agree with this outlook, or should ther ebe more or less languages listed? I also like how that out of the first four, three are Romance languages.
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hrhenry Octoglot Senior Member United States languagehopper.blogs Joined 4942 days ago 1871 posts - 3642 votes Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe
| Message 2 of 58 29 December 2011 at 1:24am | IP Logged |
SmilingStraw wrote:
I also like how that out of the first four, three are Romance languages. |
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I think more importantly, all four came from countries that colonized great portions of the world, or at least several continents.
While the other languages conquered and colonized greater regions, they never had the reach that the first four have had throughout history.
R.
==
Edited by hrhenry on 29 December 2011 at 1:25am
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Thor1987 Groupie Canada Joined 4546 days ago 65 posts - 84 votes Studies: German
| Message 3 of 58 29 December 2011 at 2:07am | IP Logged |
Pretty cool stuff, but for the record arabic,mandarin, and russian would have to be
considered world languages.
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jarm Newbie Australia Joined 4724 days ago 33 posts - 55 votes Speaks: English*
| Message 4 of 58 29 December 2011 at 2:46am | IP Logged |
Swahili, Persian and Malay might fit that list, as well.
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Thor1987 Groupie Canada Joined 4546 days ago 65 posts - 84 votes Studies: German
| Message 5 of 58 29 December 2011 at 8:33am | IP Logged |
hrhenry wrote:
SmilingStraw wrote:
I also like how that out of the first four, three
are Romance languages. |
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I think more importantly, all four came from countries that colonized great portions of
the world, or at least several continents.
While the other languages conquered and colonized greater regions, they never had the
reach that the first four have had throughout history.
R.
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What a surprise the four most western states conlinized the largest portions
of the western world.
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Марк Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 4868 days ago 2096 posts - 2972 votes Speaks: Russian*
| Message 6 of 58 29 December 2011 at 9:23am | IP Logged |
Where does Portuguese function as lingua franca and where is it widely taught as a
foreign language?
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Flarioca Heptaglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 5694 days ago 635 posts - 816 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, Esperanto, French, EnglishC2, Spanish, German, Italian Studies: Catalan, Mandarin
| Message 7 of 58 29 December 2011 at 3:52pm | IP Logged |
Марк wrote:
Where does Portuguese function as lingua franca and where is it widely taught as a
foreign language? |
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Portuguese is mandatory in high school in Argentina and Uruguay, and widely taught in many other countries in South America and Africa.
It has a status of "Lingua franca" in many places of Africa and some spots in Asia.
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hrhenry Octoglot Senior Member United States languagehopper.blogs Joined 4942 days ago 1871 posts - 3642 votes Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe
| Message 8 of 58 29 December 2011 at 4:08pm | IP Logged |
Flarioca wrote:
It has a status of "Lingua franca" in many places of Africa and some spots in Asia.
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True. This year I had to translate a couple casino/vendor contracts completed in Macao, Portuguese into English. End client was an American casino.
R.
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