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Poll: How many languages are spoken in your country of residence?
Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
ProZ.com Staff
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Nov 6, 2010

This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "How many languages are spoken in your country of residence?".

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Noni Gilbert Riley
Noni Gilbert Riley
Spain
Local time: 15:46
Spanish to English
+ ...
Officially spoken? Nov 6, 2010

If not, for the vast majority of European countries, for example, the answer would be way high.

Even so, I fear we have a day or so's squabbling ahead of us, unless we take this in a lighthearted vein.



 
Interlangue (X)
Interlangue (X)
Angola
Local time: 15:46
English to French
+ ...
3 official Nov 6, 2010

... plus all those spoken by the more or less numerous communities of expats and immigrants (not taken into account for official and administrative purposes).

 
Gianluca Marras
Gianluca Marras  Identity Verified
Italy
Local time: 15:46
English to Italian
official: 1 Nov 6, 2010

Italian

 
writeaway
writeaway  Identity Verified
French to English
+ ...
3 official languages yes......... Nov 6, 2010

Interlangue wrote:

... plus all those spoken by the more or less numerous communities of expats and immigrants (not taken into account for official and administrative purposes).


and not forgetting the multitude of home-grown regional and local dialects, including Walloon dialects, Flemish dialects and Brussels dialect


 
Elena Simonelli
Elena Simonelli  Identity Verified
Italy
Local time: 15:46
Member (2006)
English to Italian
+ ...
3! Nov 6, 2010

Gianluca Marras wrote:

Italian

Giancluca, where do you live?
Also French and German are official languages in two regions.


 
Simon Bruni
Simon Bruni  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 14:46
Member (2009)
Spanish to English
Three, possibly four Nov 6, 2010

English, Welsh, Scottish Gaelic and Lowland Scots (not sure how official Scots is...) There have been attempts to revive Cornish and Manx but sadly they no longer have any native speakers. That said, there are a myriad of dialects and hundreds of different communities from around the world. I once lived in a part of London where all the signs were in Urdu and Bengali.

 
Williamson
Williamson  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 14:46
Flemish to English
+ ...
A tower of babel Nov 6, 2010

Interlangue wrote:

... plus all those spoken by the more or less numerous communities of expats and immigrants (not taken into account for official and administrative purposes).


In all about 30? The 23 languages of the European-Union, plus all the languages of the personnel of the delegations accredited to the E.U., plus Arabic (Molenbeek), Japanese, Chinese and Russian.

[Edited at 2010-11-06 11:16 GMT]


 
Annabel Rautenbach
Annabel Rautenbach  Identity Verified
Local time: 16:46
Member (2007)
Dutch to English
+ ...
SITE LOCALIZER
South Africa has 11 official languages! Nov 6, 2010

But I can only name a few ... Afrikaans, English, Zulu, Xhosa, Pedi, Sotho, Tshwana, if I am not mistaken , the others are variations of Sotho (North and South), but I cannot currently think of the others....

 
Richard Boulter
Richard Boulter  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 08:46
Spanish to English
+ ...
One official language in the U.S., but... Nov 6, 2010

The official language in the U.S. is English, in the sense that all government documents are initially produced in our little dialect of the language. However, just in small-town Boise, the school district reports providing services for children in around 180 languages because this area is a target community for federally-supported refugees from many countries. Translation and interpretation in each of these languages is 'officially' required under federal and state law, for each public servic... See more
The official language in the U.S. is English, in the sense that all government documents are initially produced in our little dialect of the language. However, just in small-town Boise, the school district reports providing services for children in around 180 languages because this area is a target community for federally-supported refugees from many countries. Translation and interpretation in each of these languages is 'officially' required under federal and state law, for each public service provided (education, legal/court, medical, social, housing, psychological, etc.), wherein the providing entity uses federal money for ANY of its clients/patients. If it provides services under Medicare for an English-speaking person, it must provide the same services to all persons equally in the languages of all others it serves.

In this sense, all languages are official in the U.S. It makes translation/interpreting a viable vocational option for many talented people settling here; a goodly number of the refugees arrive holding Masters degrees (etc. + / -) in their disciplines, while others pursue higher education as soon as possible, after learning English; and some are taking available training in interpretation and/or translation, as available. They can be viable professionals, either sooner or later, on the international language-service market, too.
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Thayenga
Thayenga  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 15:46
Member (2009)
English to German
+ ...
There's 1 official language Nov 6, 2010

However, in some districts of Berlin Turkish seems to also be an (almost) official language, since many directional signs are both in German and in Turkish. In some areas one feels as if being in Istanbul...which is a plus for the city and, even more so, for the "shoppers".

Other than that, I'd dare say that nearly every language on this planet is represent here, especially the "eastern" ones such as Polish, Bulgaria
... See more
However, in some districts of Berlin Turkish seems to also be an (almost) official language, since many directional signs are both in German and in Turkish. In some areas one feels as if being in Istanbul...which is a plus for the city and, even more so, for the "shoppers".

Other than that, I'd dare say that nearly every language on this planet is represent here, especially the "eastern" ones such as Polish, Bulgarian, Russian, Korean, Vietnamese... and many African languages. In short, you name it, we've got. This is mainly based on the fact that Germany is being considered to be an "immigration" state.
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John Cutler
John Cutler  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 15:46
Spanish to English
+ ...
2+1 Nov 6, 2010

Here in Catalonia, both Spanish and Catalan are official languages, although to diffuse the constant rivalry between the two, the Catalan Government has adopted an official stance that everyone should be trilingual and learn English, French, or another option as a third tongue.

 
keshab
keshab  Identity Verified
Local time: 20:16
English to Bengali
+ ...
SITE LOCALIZER
In India - 22+ Nov 6, 2010

Hindi and English - These are two official languages of communication for the government of India but in aggregate there are 22 national languages including Hindi and English in India. In addition to that, there are many dialects and sub dialects exists in every language. So there are more than 22 languages are spoken in India.

 
Thomas Pfann
Thomas Pfann  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 14:46
Member (2006)
English to German
+ ...
Re: Germany - Don't forget the official minority languages Nov 6, 2010

Thayenga wrote:
There's 1 official language [in Germany].


Well, even in Germany there are a few minority languages which pretty much have the status of an official language. In the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein there a few of those, most notably Danish and Frisian. In the areas where these languages are spoken street signs are bilingual and local authorities have to accept official correspondence in those languages. The languages enjoy the same status as the German language in those areas.

The same is true for Sorbian in the Lusatia region of eastern Germany.

The Romani language, too, is an official minority language in Germany.

[Edited at 2010-11-06 13:00 GMT]


 
Cristina Heraud-van Tol
Cristina Heraud-van Tol  Identity Verified
Peru
Local time: 09:46
Member (2005)
English to Spanish
+ ...
Officially 3 Nov 6, 2010

Spanish, Quechua and Aymara, but there are several Amazonian languages as well.

 
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Poll: How many languages are spoken in your country of residence?






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