I just want to make it clear what is meant by the size of languages:

• Large languages have more than 100,000 native speakers.  Some may have millions and certain ones hundreds of millions.

• Smaller languages have between 10,000 and 100,000 native speakers.  Such don’t risk going extinct unless their number drops quickly.

• Small languages have less than 10.000 and may have just a few hundred speakers.  They often risk going extinct.

Please note there are several thousand languages in the world.  Most of the large languages have an established orthography.  The exceptions are usually minority languages with low social status.

Ignorance on geography can make people underestimate the number of languages.  The average American presumably believes Europe to have only 6 – 8 large languages.  These would then be English, French, German, Greek, Italian, Russian and possibly Dutch (if they know about it).  Spanish they might not know to have originated in Europe.  Have they heard of more they are all assumed to be small.  In reality Europe is divided in 44 countries.  48 if you count the ones partially in Europe but not having their capital there.  Most of these countries have their own majority language.  Otherwise they share majority language with at least one neighbour.  All these languages have more than 100,000 speakers.  In addition there are minority languages which sometimes can be large.  I think the largest is Catalan, having millions of native speakers.

Nearly all of Africa fell victim to colonialism during the decades around 1900.  Colonial empires drew borders without consideration of existing population.  Population movements have not been as large as one might think.  In South Africa the non-indigenous consist less than 20% of the population.  In Angola and Namibia it is less than 10%.  The rest of Africa is almost entirely inhabited by a pre-colonial population.  In North Africa Arabs dominate although the Berbers still exist.  Otherwise few counties even have a majority language.  In other words, one natively spoken by more than half the population.  Instead many are a mosaic of loads of different languages.  Oftentimes the language of the colonial empire is used to talk with other peoples.  However, it may be an indigenous language too, which was already widespread before.  In both cases it can be mistaken for the country’s only language.

In Asia Arabic is not as widespread as people think.  It only dominate the Arabian Peninsula and the former Fertile Crescent.  In the later area descendants of the Babylonians still exist.  Nowadays they are called Syriacs and are mostly Christians.  They speak several different languages which size I am uncertain of.  Israel of cause has its own majority language.  All other countries further north in West Asia have this too.  Moreover, these languages are not related to Arabic.  Two of these countries – Iran and Turkey – have Arabic-speaking minorities.  No other minority languages in the area are related to Arabic either.

In Central Asia there are five countries previously belonging to the Soviet Union.  Each of these five countries has its own majority language.  They too have minority languages in the same way as Europe.  Afghanistan has no majority language.  Instead it is several languages being in regional majority in different part of the country.  I count this country as Central Asia although it is debateable.

What I consider South Asia has fallen victim to colonialism.  Britain conquered areas or forced regional monarchs to submit to the country.  When these countries become independent it was usually with different borders.  Four out of the seven countries have no majority language.  Instead they are patchworks of large regional languages.  The ones which have majority languages are Bangladesh, the Maldives and Sri Lanka.  The last one has a considerable minority speaking an entirely different language.  All over South Asia are scattered minority languages.  They are either small or not in majority anywhere.

In Southeast Asia the situation is also mixed.  The six countries on the mainland have each a majority language.  In addition there are many minority languages of various sizes.  Malaysia includes part of the large island of Borneo too.  Embedded in this is Brunei which has only one indigenous language.  Indonesia and the Philippines have many regional majority languages.  For the speakers of different languages to understand each other both use an indigenous language.  Lacking a majority language East Timor do this too.  What stands out culturally is the city-state of Singapore.  Its population mostly descends from late immigrants.  Consequentially it is very mixed without any majority language.

What people call “Chinese” is actually 8 – 9 languages.  Then I define language as a group of mutually understandable dialects.  I for this reason prefer to speak about the group of Chinese languages.  These are spoken by more than 90% of China’s population.  This does not stop there from being loads of minority languages in the country.  These vary in size from millions to a few thousand.  In some parts of the country the largest are in majority.  On the other hand Chinese languages have taken over Taiwan.  The languages spoken by the natives all seem to be small.

Japan, South and North Korea are entirely dominated by their majority languages.  Mongolia has a majority language and several considerable minority languages.  Siberia is part of Russia and is dominated by Russian.  Which neither stops the indigenous languages from still existing.  The natives has historically fallen victim to something comparable to colonialism.  Except for some areas in the south Russia established a government first.  Add a deficiency in checks and balances and an already existing population became heavily exploited.

North America is dominated by three languages: English, Spanish and French.  Only some areas in the north have majority of Eskimo languages.  Otherwise the languages of the natives are found as scattered minorities.  In the US and Canada they are smaller and small languages.  Canada has a French-spoken minority and the US a Spanish-spoken one.  In Mexico Spanish is the majority language although many of the natives’ still live on.  Aztec is still spoken by more than a million people.  At least ten more languages have more than 100,000 speakers.  In addition there are dozens of languages which are smaller or small.

The native’s languages being in minority also applies to Central America.  Nearly all countries there have Spanish as its majority language.  The only exception is Belize where English is in majority.  It is only in the Caribbean the indigenous languages have disappeared.  The majority languages on these islands either originated in Europe or as creoles.  There is a movement away from the latter.

South America has larger variation in what language is spoken.  The largest country is Brazil which largest language is Portuguese.  Nearly all other languages in the country are smaller or small.  Paraguay is largely bilingual with Guarani and Spanish.  Both Bolivia and Peru have considerable minorities speaking the natives’ languages.  Otherwise the pattern of the natives’ minority languages reoccurs.  In most other countries Spanish is in majority.  The exceptions are Guyana and Suriname where most speak creoles.

The largest concentration of languages is found on New Guinea.  There the difficult terrain makes it hard to get across.  As a result up to a thousand languages have arisen on New Guinea.  Most are small languages or consists of creoles.  The largest exception is Enga which is spoken in the eastern part of the island’s central highland.  It has a couple of hundred thousand speakers.

Both Australia and New Zealand now have English-speaking majority.  In contrast the situation is different for the countries’ pre-colonial languages.  Australia has been inhabited for at least 50,000 years.  However, the population was very spare and never really developed agriculture.  Most died in a few decades from starvation and contagious diseases.  A few dozen languages still exist but they are all small.  New Zealand was populated not until the 13th century by the ancestors of the Maori.  The time since then is too short for a language to divide into several.  Consequentially only one minority language is indigenous in this country.  It is a smaller language and not just a small one.

 

Uploaded on the 24th of October 2024.