In how many languages is the Roman Catholic mass celebrated?

Hi Maryr,

First of all I want to tell you that there is probably no precise way
to calculate your answer. How can we possibly know about or count
every single language that anyone has ever conducted the Roman
Catholic Mass in? Some languages are pretty obscure and some regions
so remote, I don’t think there is away to find them all.

An example –

“There is a Sater Frisian version of the Roman Catholic Mass and a
Mass in Sater Frisian is held at least every two years in Saterland.
More biblical texts in Sater Frisian are in progress.”
http://www.eurolang.net/Languages/Frisian.htm

And, I have to agree with the commenter, Kriswrite, the mass is
probably now celebrated in every language spoken.

But, let’s get some numbers to work with. 

How many languages are spoken worldwide? 

6000 – 7000

European Year of Languages 2001 - The celebration of linguistic
diversity
http://www.cactuslanguage.com/info/europeanyearoflanguagesessayonlinguisticdiversity.php

Foundation for Endangered Languages
http://www.ogmios.org/123.htm

What if we assume that the languages where Catholic masses are
ROUTINELY conducted to large groups of people also had bibles
translated to that language? The logic would say that any language
that had enough Christian worshippers to warrant a Christian bible
translation would also include a percentage of Catholics, and
therefore would be language that The Catholic Mass would be conducted
in.

I think that’s a pretty safe bet that these numbers would be fairly
close.

So, how about this?

“Informed estimates put the number of languages spoken in the world at
6,500. At 2,261, the number of those in which all or some part of the
Bible has been published represents a little over one third of the
total.”

BIBLE SOCIETY
http://www.biblesociety.org/wr_358/slr_2000.htm


BIBLE IS NOW IN 2,197 OF THE WORLD'S LANGUAGES
http://www.internetbookinfo.com/ibic/include/whatsnew98/msg00134.html

That should provide you with the information you need.

Thanks for your question—

K~
Search terms:
Languages catholic mass
Translation catholic mass
“number of languages worldwide”

I was unable to find any statistics, but Mass is now given in nearly
all languages--whatever the parish may speak.

As one website states: "Vatican II sanctioned the use of the
vernacular in the Roman rite, and the Mass is now celebrated in almost
every language in the world."
(http://www.angelfire.com/realm/shades/magic/mass.htm)

kriswrite

Besides the 6500 languages, there are perhaps a million dialects, and
we could argue that some of the 6500 languages are dialects as most
languages share some words, and some lots of words. The mass in 2000
languages is exactly the correct number for some set of criteria such
as no more thn two major herisies per million words.  2 At least one
million words of the mass in this languague spoken in the past 56
years.   3 No more than one thousand important omissions per million
words etc    Neil