Hi John,
According to the US Census Bureau world population clock, there are
6,345,346,181 humans on this beautiful planet of ours.
http://www.census.gov/main/www/popclock.html
Ten Most Widely Spoken Languages in the World Language:
1st: Chinese (Mandarin): 1,075,000,000 = 17%
2nd: English: 514,000,000 = 8%
9th: Malay-Indonesian: 176,000,000 = 3%
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0775272.html#A0774735
Total of the three: 1,765,000,000
Your daughter will be able to communicate with about 28% of the
world's population. Wow, that is fantastic.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Additional Links:
Language Families of the World:
"Malay and Indonesian (essentially the same language) account for
about 140 million"
http://www.ship.edu/~cgboeree/languagefamilies.html
Chinese Mandarin:
Total number of people using the Language in all countries: 885,000,000
http://www.pro-tran.be/Sprachen-Information/spin_CHN.html#Sprachen%20Information
"There are about 200 languages that have a million or more native
speakers. Mandarin Chinese is the most common, being spoken by around
874,000,000 people as a native language. English is a distant third
with approximately 341,000,000 native speakers."
1. Mandarin Chinese:
Approximate number Of NATIVE Speakers (in the year 2000): 874,000,000
3. English: 341,000,000
http://anthro.palomar.edu/language/language_1.htm
Another population clock:
http://www.ibiblio.org/lunarbin/worldpop
I hope this is what you are looking for. If you have any questions or
had something else in mind, just let me know and I'll have another
look. Ofcourse, since I have been working on this, the population has
grown to 6,345,354,367, so I really should go back and recalculate...
Thank you,
hummer
Google Search Terms Used:
"world population"
"world languages" mandarin statistics
"world languages" statistics
"world language statistics"
world mandarin "language statistics" |
Request for Answer Clarification by
johnfrommelbourne-ga
on
01 Feb 2004 00:33 PST
Dear Hummer,
Thanks for your efforts to date. But before I rate you
could you just assure me that I am wrong i thinking that figures are
slightly underdone as it appras to me that the figures you quote are
made up mostly of what the sites call "native speakers", which
concerns me a litle. For instance there is a billion people in
India/Pakistan or perhaps more. I know their native languages is Hindi
or the Pakistani language but I would have thought that a great many
of them would be able to speak English well enough to get by
also.Likwise in regards Europe. I have traveled there three times and
although in countries where English was certainly not the native
language, e.g Sweden, Germany, Switzerland I found ahuge amount of the
population could speak English very well indeed.
Could you therefore please consider the above, or at least test the
theory via whatever links you use.
Thanks Hummer, your efforts are most appreciated,
John Birkin
|
Clarification of Answer by
hummer-ga
on
01 Feb 2004 08:07 PST
Dear John,
Ackk, you're going to rate me? That sounds ominous. Please reconsider
and rate only my answer. 8-)
Just a note to thank you for your clarification and to let you know I
am working on it - will let you know how I make out.
Till later,
hummer
|
Clarification of Answer by
hummer-ga
on
01 Feb 2004 13:01 PST
Dear John,
Okey dokey, here we go... As it has already been mentioned, we can
find a figure for the number of people in the world who speak a
language but given that many will speak more than one, the number of
people who your daughter will be able to speak to will allude us.
However, for the sake of your question, I'll take a stab at it.
Given the world population of 6,400,000,000, and using the following
links as a guide, we can estimate that she will be able to speak to:
24% of the population in English (1,500,000,000)
16% of the population in Mandarin (1,025,000,000)
3% of the population in Indonesian ( 200,000,000)
Perhaps it would be safe to say that she will be able to speak to
about one-third of the world's population (no less than 24% and no
more than 43%).
LINGUIST List 6.1003
Tue Jul 25 1995
Sum: Are most people bilingual?
Grosjean (1982:2): "It is an interesting fact that no really precise
statistics exist concerning the number and distribution of speakers of
two or more languages."
http://www.linguistlist.org/issues/6/6-1003.html
"Over half the world's population is bilingual and many people are multilingual"
"It is an interesting fact that no really precise statistics exist
concerning the number and distribution of speakers of two or more
languages in the nations of the world. Although almost all current
encyclopedias and survey books list the main languages of the world,
there are no comparable figures on the use of two or more languages."
"Lieberson (1981) agrees that though censuses are the best large-scale
way to figure out the extent of multilingualism, they are full of
problems. Another more precise way of examining multilingualism is a
sociolinguistic survey of a given community, but though this yields
more reliable data, such studies on a worldwide scale are impractical.
Nevertheless, there's certainly room for more research in this area
and a more reliable and comprehensive survey of the worldwide
prevalance of both individual and societal multilingualism."
"Multilingualism is a newer term than bilingualism. Multilingualism
includes not only those who speak two languages (bilinguals) but also
those who speak more than two languages. Much work uses bilingualism
in the same broad sense of knowing more than one language; in this
page, I will use the two terms interchangeably."
http://www.uoregon.edu/~lsjones/multilin.html
"However, if you decide to add in the people who speak the language as
an everyday second language, then English shoots up, since millions of
people are in this position, in Canada, the USA, Africa, the Indian
subcontinent, Singapore, Hong Kong, Wales, Scotland, and elsewhere.
And, if you decide to count total fluent speakers, then English
displaces Mandarin and takes over the top spot: the number of fluent
English-speakers, while unknown, is estimated at perhaps over a
billion."
http://www.linguistlist.org/~ask-ling/archive-1998.7/msg00398.html
ENGLISH: 1,500,000,000
Q. How many people in the world speak English?
A. About one-and-a-half billion (1,500,000,000) people spoke English
at the start of the 21st century. That is one quarter (¼) of all
people on earth. More than 400 million (400,000,000) speak English as
their first language. The rest speak English as a second or third
language for their professional and personal lives.
http://help.englishclub.com/el_howmany.htm
MANDARIN: 1,025,000,000
"Over one billion people speak Chinese."
http://www.mpls.k12.mn.us/departments/tis/world_languages/why_us/chinese.html
Total Speakers
Mandarin Chinese 1,025,000,000
http://www.riverdeep.net/current/2001/01/012501_vocabulary.jhtml
INDONESIAN: 200,000,000
200 million used Malay (Indonesian and Malaysian)
http://www.englishpen.org/writersintranslation/news/factsandfigures/
Additional Links:
1st and 2nd language (combined) knowledge around the world by country:
"The following list shows the total number of speakers of a given
language (including non-native as well as native speakers of that
language). Remember, the degree of knowledge will vary a great among
those considered to "speak" the language non-natively."
Mandarin 1,075 million
English 514
Malay-Indonesian 176
http://www.onetongue.org/English/html/4/4blanguagestats.html
In 2002, twelve languages were used by about two-thirds of the world:
o 1,000 million people used Chinese
o 550 million used Hindi or Urdu
o 450 million used Spanish
o 290 million used Russian
o 200 million used Malay (Indonesian and Malaysian)
o 180 million used Arabic
o 180 million used Portuguese
o 130 million used French
o The number of people using English is growing so rapidly that
statistics vary enormously, but it has been estimated that nearly 700
million people speak it fluently, and 1,800 million can handle it
competently
http://www.englishpen.org/writersintranslation/news/factsandfigures/
Thank you for your patience - will look forward to hearing from you.
hummer
|
Request for Answer Clarification by
johnfrommelbourne-ga
on
03 Feb 2004 09:30 PST
Hummer,
I am sorry to stall any longer as I can see you have put
some good work into it but just lastly is it now reasonable to say
that at worst using the "native speakers" only criterion that she
could effectively converse with 24% of the world's population but that
if one added the "native speakers" to those who can speak one of the
three languages as a second language,
( where "second language" means only basic skills) then the prcentage
of the world she could talk to becomes sonmthing closer to 42%,yes?no?
John
|
Clarification of Answer by
hummer-ga
on
03 Feb 2004 12:49 PST
Hi John, please don't apologize, I am happy that you are posting
clarification requests rather than giving up before you have your
answer.
Personally, I think 42% is high - here is why:
English (all): 24%
Mandarin (native): 14%
Indonesian (native): 2%
Using those figures, the absolute minimum number of people she can
communicate with is 24% because that is how many people communicate in
English. Some of those people may or may not speak Mandarin or
Indonesian but it really doesn't matter, the percentage of 24% remains
constant.
Now you can add in *some* of the native speakers of Mandarin and
Indonesian, but only those who do not speak English (because they are
already counted in). Would you feel comfortable saying that
one-quarter of Mandarin and Indonesian speakers do not speak English?
If so, then:
Native speakers:
874,000,000 Mandarin
140,000,000 Indonesian
1,014,000,000 total
253,500,000 one quarter (non-English speakers)
1,500,000,000 English all
1,753,000,000 English all plus non-English speakers
27.4% English speakers in world (which is near to the my first figure of 28%)
If one-half do not speak English:
507,000,000 one-half (non-English speakers)
2,007,000,000 English all plus non-English speakers
31.4% English speakers in world
John, unless I'm missing something, I think 30% would be a reasonable
estimate (depending on how many Mandarin and Indonesian speaker do not
speak English).
I hope I've been able to make myself clear - I have it clear in my
head but it's hard to know if it's coming across in print.
Again, will look forward to hearing from you,
hummer
(I used the following figures)
NATIVE SPEAKERS:
1st language knowledge around the world by country
The following list shows the total number of speakers of a given
language as native speakers ...according to the World Almanac and Book
of Facts 2002:
Chinese, Mandarin 874 million
English 341
http://www.onetongue.org/English/html/4/4blanguagestats.html
"Malay and Indonesian (essentially the same language) account for
about 140 million"
http://www.ship.edu/~cgboeree/languagefamilies.html
|
Request for Answer Clarification by
johnfrommelbourne-ga
on
04 Feb 2004 03:21 PST
Ok Hummer I will continue the exchange just one more time but only
because you said you dont mind further interaction and I just want to
be absolutely positive I understand what you are saying and you
likewise understand what I am saying. I acknowledge however that I
better think about a good rating and perhaps a tip for you very very
soon, and I will.
Now, let me tell you what I think. I think I can work out the likely
anwser myself via what you have said and the links you supplied. On
this basis i think the answer is on the higher side, say >40% rather
than 24%.
I.E In its most simplistic terms the question is as follows, for the
purpose of claryfying it in its absolutely simplest form that is-:
If the enture worlds population was lined up in single file and my
daughter being able to speak any of three lanuages was asked to
converse with all that she could then a likley scene would be... No 1
in the queue comes forward and identifies herself as Soo Lin, lady
from China who can only speak Mandarin; chalk up one conversation out
of one attempt to my daughter so far. No 2 comes forward and he is
from Kansas and can only speak English. Therefore two successful
conversations to date yes? No 3 is from Swaziland and can only speak
Swahili; my daughter cannot speak or converse with her at all. No 4 is
from Indonesian and can speak Indonesian and English; my daughter can
converse with him making a total of three out of four of the first
four people in the world's queue of people lined up one after the
other that she can converse with. No 5 is from Russia and only speaks
Russian so now progressive total is 3 out of five. No 6 is from
England and only speaks English. 4 out of six. No 7 is French and
although can speak French and Spanish cannot converse with my daughter
at all,No 8 speaks only Portugese and No 9 only Arabic. The total of
the world she can speak to so far in a meaningful conversation is 4
out of nine. If the line-up continued then I think the answer would be
around 40%,yes?
|
Clarification of Answer by
hummer-ga
on
04 Feb 2004 19:45 PST
John, sorry for delay - I'll get back to you Thursday. hummer
|
Clarification of Answer by
hummer-ga
on
05 Feb 2004 12:47 PST
Hi John,
Hopefully I'll be able to post this today as promised - GA seems to be
feeling a bit woozy today.
Yes, I understand what you are saying but I do believe that 40% is
high using current statistics (given the maximum is 42% or 43%
including many folks being counted more than once), *but* as the
global village grows and your daughter grows, I think 40% will be just
the right figure in a few years - how's that?
I think the best we can do now, without those important multilingual
statistics, is to agree that it's somewhere between 30% and 40% - and
rising.
All the best,
hummer
|
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2 Comments
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