| Pages in topic: < [1 2 3] > | Poll: How many languages and dialects are spoken in your home country? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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Balasubramaniam L. 
India
Local time: 07:21
Member (2006)
English to Hindi
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SITE LOCALIZER | More than 1500 | Nov 19, 2014 |
Two, Hindi and English, are officially recognized as the state languages of India. Hindi has more than 500 million speakers. And 28 are recognized officially as national languages. Each has more than a million speakers. The actual number of languages spoken in India is much higher. A census conducted in 1961 recorded 1,652 mother tongues. If dialects of each of these are taken into account, the number would be much higher.
Many of these languages are spoken only in small isolated po... See more Two, Hindi and English, are officially recognized as the state languages of India. Hindi has more than 500 million speakers. And 28 are recognized officially as national languages. Each has more than a million speakers. The actual number of languages spoken in India is much higher. A census conducted in 1961 recorded 1,652 mother tongues. If dialects of each of these are taken into account, the number would be much higher.
Many of these languages are spoken only in small isolated pockets by a few thousand people.
[Edited at 2014-11-19 12:00 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Julian Holmes
Japan
Local time: 10:51
Member (2011)
Japanese to English
And I can 'speak' two fluently and variants of Kansai-ben or Kansai dialect. It's nice to speak and sound like a local yokel sometimes. 
It's diversity in culture and language that makes us strong. I wonder if apes and lions have dialects, too. 
Small edit
[Edited at 2014-11-20 13:29 GMT]
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| So nice this poll! | Nov 19, 2014 |
In Argentina, we speak Spanish at home, at work, in the media and, of course, we learn Spanish at school, with a strong emphasis on English as a second language. However, there are some (unfortunately small) indigenous populations that still speak their own dialects: "Mapuche", "Quechua" and "Guaraní" are some of the best kept native dialects. A couple of years ago, I lived in Corrientes, in the northeast region of Argentina, and I was so positively amazed about how a lot of people -even young-... See more In Argentina, we speak Spanish at home, at work, in the media and, of course, we learn Spanish at school, with a strong emphasis on English as a second language. However, there are some (unfortunately small) indigenous populations that still speak their own dialects: "Mapuche", "Quechua" and "Guaraní" are some of the best kept native dialects. A couple of years ago, I lived in Corrientes, in the northeast region of Argentina, and I was so positively amazed about how a lot of people -even young- were able to speak Guaraní.
See: http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenguas_de_Argentina ▲ Collapse
| | | | | > 10 for sure | Nov 19, 2014 |
Here in Singapore, we have four major races (excluding the new immigrants in recent years): Chinese, Malay, Indian (predominantly Tamil) and Eurasian, each having its own language and dialects. We have four official languages: English, Chinese, Malay and Tamil. Chinese dialects alone are numerous. I don't know the exact count. Whatever it is, all languages and their dialects certainly add up to > 10.
| | | | Yaotl Altan
Mexico
Local time: 19:51
Member (2006)
English to Spanish
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More than 10. I live in, perhaps, on of the most culturally rich countries on the planet. I think India, Syria and/or Iran could compete with Mexico in that field.
[Modifié le 2014-11-19 15:21 GMT]
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Official languages in Italy include Italian, French, Slovenian, German, Sardinian and possibly Albanian. Then there are innumerable dialects, which are quite different from standard Italian. People living in the same province sometimes cannot understand each other's dialect. There is debate as to whether some dialects are in fact languages, e.g. Sicilian. People tend to speak dialect in the home and with friends and relatives. Add to all that the various immigrant/expat languages.
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| Languages in France | Nov 20, 2014 |
Tim Drayton wrote:
Well, there are two official languages in my adopted home of the Republic of Cyprus, Greek and Turkish, but as a result of the ethnic conflict of the 60's and early 70's and later de facto partition of the island, Greek and Turkish speakers now mainly live in separate zones which have to all extents and purposes become monolingual, so Greek is the main official language where I live. There are also Armenian and Aramaic-speaking Cypriots, although these languages do not have official status. As a legacy of British colonialism, most people here also speak some English, and quite a few are very fluent in the language of their former colonial masters. There are also the so-called 'Charlies', people of Cypriot heritage who grew up abroad (almost invariably in English-speaking countries such as the UK and Australia) and have settled on their parents' or grandparents' island, and they obviously speak native-level English, their accents often pointing to their north London origins. On the other hand, about 20% of the population of the government-controlled part of Cyprus is foreign, so in practice many other languages are spoken here. There is a large community from South Asia in Cyprus and, in particular, Singhalese and Tagalog can be heard on the streets. Quite a few Arabic speakers live here. Now that Cyprus is a member of the EU, it is open to migration from other EU countries, and along with the sizable British community here (of which I am one), there are significant numbers of residents from such newer EU-member countries such as Poland, Romania and Bulgaria who speak their respective national language.
Thank you for sharing this story Tim! I don't know if it was meant to be exhaustive, but I think you omitted to mention Russian/Russians! (or maybe they have just a financial, not physical, presence on Kypros)
To my dear fellow translators who "boasted" about having so many dialects in their country... You better stay modest.... Papua New Guinea has over 850 dialects, and it's much smaller than your massive subcontinents (USA, Mexico, India, etc.)!!! 
In France there's only one official language. There are many dialects but they are not actively spoken. From memory, the most active ones are Breton (brezhoneg), Basque (euskara) and Corsican (corsu).
| | | | Mario Freitas
Brazil
Local time: 22:51
Member (2014)
English to Portuguese
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The only official language is Portuguese, and also the only one spoken by a number of people large enough to be considered statistically.
However, there are four aspects we must consider:
1) Dozens of Indian languages spoken by several tribes that have little contact with civilization or even those who have been "civilized" and still speak their languages.
2) There are many cities in the states of Santa Catarina, Paraná and Rio Grande do Sul that were buil... See more The only official language is Portuguese, and also the only one spoken by a number of people large enough to be considered statistically.
However, there are four aspects we must consider:
1) Dozens of Indian languages spoken by several tribes that have little contact with civilization or even those who have been "civilized" and still speak their languages.
2) There are many cities in the states of Santa Catarina, Paraná and Rio Grande do Sul that were built by German, Italian and Polish colonizers, among others, that still speak their original languages regularly.
3) We have a huge numbers of Japanese, Chinese and Lebanese/Syrian citizens in Brazil who still speak Japanese, Chinese and Arabic. Brazil has the largest Japanese and Lebanese populations outside Japan and Lebanon, respectively.
4) Everyone has to learn English in Brazil, unless they don't go to school. At least from 5th to 12th grade, we all have English lessons twice a week in school, and most of us have additional English lessons outside school. A good 30% of the Brazilian population is able to at least communicate the basics in English. The level of both school and private course English lessons is not sufficient for anyone to be fluent in English, though, even for those who complete the full course in private institutions. But English is understood in Brazil, mostly. ▲ Collapse
| | | | expressisverbis
Portugal
Local time: 02:51
Member (2015)
English to Portuguese
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| The oldest dialect of the Portuguese language | Oct 27, 2022 |
The dialect where "v" is pronounced as "b", like in Spanish and Galician: the Northern Portuguese, spoken in coastal northern Portugal from Viana do Castelo to Porto and stretching inland as far as Braga.
The roots of the Portuguese language are based here.
| | | | Tony Keily
Local time: 03:51
Italian to English
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| Language and dialect | Oct 28, 2022 |
There is debate as to whether some dialects are in fact languages, e.g. Sicilian.
The question was bound to come up sooner or later, and I'm not going to go into the question of the difference(s) between language and dialect.
However, in the Italian case, it's worth noting than when Italy was unified in the 19th century, only about 2% of the population outside of Tuscany spoke what we now call 'Italian' (the percentage will be up for debate, but the point is still valid).
So what were the 98% speaking if not language(s)? Since Tuscan/Italian had never been spoken where they lived, they couldn't have been speaking 'dialects of Italian'. Their languages belonged to different subgroups of the Romance language family, with varied historical development unrelated to Tuscan. In many cases there were also marked structural differences.
I would say that they were (and to an extent still are) speaking 'unrecognised/unofficial languages'.
In the case of Sicily, I would say that the Italian spoken in Sicily is a (main) 'regional dialect of Italian', while the separate Sicilian language has a number of main dialects of its own. It also has its own literary heritage.
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That is to say, in Amsterdam, where I live. The city accommodates officially 180 nationalities, and then I am still not talking about dialects. Do your maths.
[Edited at 2022-10-28 11:26 GMT]
| | | | Mr. Satan (X)
English to Indonesian
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