Uruguay
The European occupation of Uruguay lasted for centuries. Uruguay was constantly subjected to foreign influences until the late 20th century, which inherently left a lasting influence on the culture and languages of Uruguay observed today. Spanish is the official language of Uruguay. However, there are a number of different languages which are also recognized as important in this South American country. The majority of the residents of Uruguay are of European descent, which is a result of the native inhabitants of the country having been largely displaced by the invading European powers throughout the centuries. Nearly 88% of the population claims to have European ancestry, primarily of Spanish or Italian descent. Furthermore, descendants of England, France, Germany and Argentina make up a small section of the total population of Uruguay. Africans, who were mostly brought in the country as European slaves, make up an even smaller proportion of the country’s population. This varied ethnic composition is reflected in the languages spoken inside the country. Spanish in Uruguay is spoken by approximately 99% of the population which numbers around 3.42 million people, making it the most widely spoken and represented language in the country. It is used in educational institutions, for...
Croatia
The Republic of Croatia is a Central European nation with a population of around 4 million people. Due to the slow population growth rates, Croatia has been open to immigrants from all over the world in an attempt to boost its population numbers. Immigrants in Croatia make up 10% of the total population. Some of the minority communities in Croatia include Slovaks, Serbs, Bosnians, Hungarians, Czechs, and Italians. The rights of most of these minority groups are recognized and protected by the Constitution of Croatia. Some of the minority languages spoken in Croatia include Serbian, Czech, Hungarian, Italian, Slovak, and Romani. The use of minority languages is allowed in an official capacity in the municipalities, as per the Constitution. The official language of Croatia is Croatian, which is also the most popular language in the country. 95% of the population are Croatian native speakers. Latin was the official language of Croatia before the adoption of Croatian as the country’s official language in the 19th century. A blend of Serbian and Croatian named the Serbo-Croatian language, was used in Croatia from 1945 until 1991. There are three main dialects of the Croatian language: Shtokavian, Kajkavian, and Chakavian. The language utilizes the...
Belarus
Belarus is an Eastern European country, located in the north of the region. With a population of around 9.5 million, Belarus is a very ethnically diverse nation. Throughout most of its history, Belarus has been under the rule of other countries and kingdoms, which explains the high number of languages spoken in the country today. Along with the two official languages, Belarus is home to several minority languages as well. The official languages include Belarusian and Russian, while the minority languages include Polish, Ukrainian, and Eastern Yiddish. Belarusian, along with Russian, is one of the two official languages in Belarus. Old Belarusian is considered to be one of the oldest versions of the Belarusian language, which belongs to the East Slavic language family and is a descendant of Old East Slavic. The Soviet unification which started after the Second World War caused Russian to become the principal form of communication. After Belarus gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, Belarusian became more popular and was the only official language for a while, until public protest led to the inclusion of Russian as a state language. In the years since, the interest in preserving Belarusian in the country has declined...
Lebanon
Lebanon is a Middle-Eastern country located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea, at the junction between Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. Lebanon is officially called the Lebanese Republic, and is home to around 6.007 million people. The country is predominantly Muslim, with Islam accounting for an estimated 56.3% of the population. Lebanon is also a founding member and part of the 22 countries which comprise the Arab League. Arabic is the national and the official language used in Lebanon, but English and French are also used in the country. Two forms of Arabic can be found in Lebanon: colloquial Arabic, which branches out into many dialect varieties, and classical Arabic. Classical Arabic is the main language used throughout the Arab world, and is chiefly a written language. Arabic is used for public speeches and media broadcasts in Lebanon. Lebanese colloquial developed from the Syrian Arabic dialect. This dialect includes the Arabic spoken by the Lebanese, as well as Palestinians, Syrians, and Jordanians, and has been influenced by Aramaic. Across Lebanon, the dialect changes from region to region, with the dialect spoken by the Druzes being regarded as distinctive. Furthermore, other languages that can be heard throughout Lebanon...
Tanzania
Tanzania is an East African country and a multilingual nation where Swahili (or Kiswahili) is regarded as the official language. English is also widely spoken, and other languages spoken in the country include the native languages of various ethnic groups. These ethnic languages are mainly originated from Bantu and Nilotic origin and have various levels of growth; 58 out of 126 are considered to be in vigorous use, with 18 developing ones, some dying ones, and three languages which have become extinct. Most of Tanzania’s population is fluent in their native language as well as one other language – mainly Kiswahili. A considerable portion of the population also possesses considerable knowledge of the English language. As aforementioned, Swahili is the official and most widely spoken language throughout Tanzania. It is a Bantu language that developed due to frequent interactions between Arab traders and the Bantu communities inhabiting East Africa’s coastal region. Nearly 20 million people speak Swahili as their native language. As the national language of Tanzania, Swahili is used in all spheres of life, such as politics, legal affairs, business, media, education, music, and technology. Most spoken foreign language in Tanzania is English, which comes as no surprise, given...
Macau
Macau, or officially The Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China, is a city in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea, south of the city of Guangzhou. Macau is a special administrative region of China which maintains separate governing and economic systems from mainland China. Cantonese and Portuguese are the official languages of Macau. This is partly because, being a Special Administrative Region, Macau is allowed a higher degree of autonomy compared to other parts of China due to the Chinese policy of “one country, two systems”. One of the official languages and the predominant language in Macau is Cantonese, which is a variant of Chinese originating in Guangdong and which is spoken by 87.5% of the total population of Macau. 80.1% speak it as a first language, while 7.5% regard it as their second language. The Cantonese variety is spoken in southern China where Macau is located, which is why Cantonese is spoken in Macau. The other official language is Portuguese, which is only spoken fluently by about 7% of the population. 3% of the population are native speakers. The influence of Portuguese in Macau is a reflection of its colonial history. A...
Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan is a country located in Central Asia, where Uzbeks constitute 81% of the population. Thus, the most widely spoken language in the country is the Uzbek language. The Uzbek language is the official state language of Uzbekistan which is spoken by approximately 85% of the population. Uzbek is a Turkic language which is closely related to the Uyghur language. Both languages belong to the Turkic language family; more precisely, the Karluk language subdivision. The Uzbek language is externally influenced by Arabic, Persian, and Russian, and is considered to be a later form or the direct descendant of Chagatai, an extinct Turkic language that was once adopted as Central Asia’s common language. Uzbek does not have vowel harmony, a type of phonological process which involves the limitation on which vowels may be used next to each other in a sentence, unlike the other languages belonging to the Turkic language family. Russian is the second most spoken language of Uzbekistan, with an estimated 5.4% of the population of Uzbekistan who speak it. Russian is an essential language for conducting interethnic communication in the country, especially when it comes to governmental, technical, business, and scientific usage. Russian is used as a primary...
Slovenia
Slovenian or Slovene is recognized as Slovenia’s official and national language. Due to the country having served as a meeting hub for many Uralic, Slavic, Romance, and Germanic cultural and linguistic regions throughout history, Slovenia today is a multicultural hub with many European languages spoken inside its borders. Aside from Slovenian, Italian and Hungarian are recognized as co-official languages. Many other foreign and immigrant languages are also present in Slovenia. Slovenian language is part of the South Slavic language group of the Indo-European family. An estimated 2.1 million people speak it as their first language. The language is used in legislation and communication by local and national authorities, as stipulated by Slovenia’s law. Printed and broadcast media is also conducted in Slovene, and if it is in another language, it must be translated, subbed, or dubbed. Slovene is also used as an instruction medium for students at all educational levels. After Slovenia became part of the European Union on May 1, 2004, Slovene was adopted as the official language of the country. There are several dialects of the Slovene language which are further grouped into eight categories. The dialects are significantly different, to the point that some of them are...
Lithuania
There are over 85% of native speakers of Lithuanian in Lithuania, which is the country’s official language. 90% of the speakers in the country are fluent. Lithuanian is considered a national identity, due to the centuries of its usage in the country. For this reason, the ability to speak Lithuanian has been used since the 19th century in order to determine whether an individual is a Lithuanian citizen or not. Aside from Lithuanian, other minor languages, such as Russian and Polish, are spoken in some regions of Lithuania by its native speakers. As aforementioned, the official national language in Lithuania is Lithuanian. Lithuanian is also used as an official language in the European Union and is the most popular language in Lithuania, with over 3 million native Lithuanian speakers. Lithuanian is part of the Indo-European language family and an Eastern Baltic language. Lithuanian is the most conservative language of all languages in the Indo-European family, having retained most of the original features found in ancient languages, such as Ancient Greek. The Lithuanian language experienced its greatest threat during the years of Soviet occupation in the 20th century, when Russification started to encourage the use of the Russian language in the...
Serbia
The official and national language of Serbia is Serbian, serving as the native language of about 88% of the country’s population. The Serbian language is the only European language written using two distinct scripts: Latin and Cyrillic. The Serbian Cyrillic is declared as the official script of the nation by the Constitution of Serbia, while the Latin script is described as the “script in official use”. 47% of the people in Serbia prefer using the Latin Serbian script as opposed to the 36% who support the use of the Cyrillic script, while 17% had no preference for either one. There are several dialects of the Serbian language, with the Torlakian language being the most widespread one in the south of the country. The Torlakian dialect is also considered to be one of the transitional dialects between Serbian and Bulgarian. Other dialects spoken in Serbia include: Šumadija-Vojvodina, Prizren South Morava, Smederevo-Vršac, Kosovo-Resava, Svrljig-Zaplanje, Eastern Herzegovina, and Zeta-South Sandžak. Modern standard Serbian is based on the Šumadija-Vojvodina and Eastern Herzegovina. There are also a total of 15 minority languages officially recognized and spoken in Serbia, including: Bosnian, Croatian, Albanian, Romani, Romanian, Slovak, Rusyn, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Ukrainian, Pannonian Rusyn, Montenegrin, and Hungarian. Vlach...
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijani or Azeri is the most widely spoken and the official language of Azerbaijan, spoken by 92.5% of the country’s total population. Over half of these speakers are monolingual and can only communicate in Azerbaijani. The Azerbaijani language is closely related to the Turkish language and serves as the main language in education. It is also used in government administration, media channels, and for daily communication purposes by the people in the country. There are also several minority languages spoken in Azerbaijan, with Russian and Armenian as the most widely spoken ones. Both Russian and Armenian are spoken as the native language for about 1.5% of the population each. The break-away Nagorno-Kharabakh region of the country is home to most of the Armenian speakers in Azerbaijan. There are also a number of other minority languages spoken in Azerbaijan, most of which are endangered due to the extremely low number of people speaking the languages. In fact, all the minority languages other than Armenian, Georgian, Avar, Lezgian, and Talysh, are endangered. Although these languages are not very commonly heard in Azerbaijan, they are spoken more widely elsewhere in the world. These include Budukh, Juhuri, Kryts, Khinalug, Cek, Rutul, Tsakhur, Tat, and...
Jordan
Jordan is an Arab Kingdom in Western Asia and a relatively small country with a population of about 10 million people, of which nearly 3 million people are non-citizens. 98% of the population is comprised of Arabs, while the rest is made up of Armenians, Circassians, and Chechens. Although there are several languages spoken inside the country, Modern Standard Arabic is the official language of Jordan, which is spoken by almost the entire population, including the minority communities. Arabic is used in media as well as in most written documents. Given the country’s position as the junction between the Middle East and Arabia, Jordan is an intersection of many Arabic dialects. These dialects have been influenced by French, English, and Turkish languages, and have greatly impacted the vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation of the Jordanian variant of Arabic, Jordanian Arabic. The three varieties of Arabic spoken in Jordan include: urban, rural, and Bedouin Jordanian. Urban Arabic is a mix of those aspects of Arabic spoken by immigrants from Palestine, Hauran, and Moab. Rural Arabic is spoken by people from rural areas, while the Bedouin language is spoken by Jordanians who live in the desert located in the eastern part of the...
Tunisia
Tunisia is one of the most homogenous of the Maghreb states when it comes to the languages spoken by its people. The official language of Tunisia is Literary Arabic, which is a language with several standard versions. Literary Arabic is the literary variety of the Arabic language which is used in formal speech and writing in Tunisia. While Modern Standard Arabic is the official language of Tunisia, Tunisian Arabic, or Darija, is the country’s native language. The large number of migrations that took place in Tunisia’s history contributed to the diverse linguistic landscape of the country. Some of the major languages spoken in Tunisia include the Tunisian Darija or the Tunisian Arabic, spoken by the vast majority of Tunisian people. Tunisian Arabic, locally known as Darija or Tunsi, is a set of dialects with no formal body or standards, closely related to the Maltese language and influenced by Arabic, Turkish, Spanish, French, and Italian. It was also influenced by the various settlers in Tunisia and has evolved greatly through the years. Today, it is Tunisia’s national language which is spoken by 11 million people and is hardly understood by the Middle Eastern Arabic speakers due to the differences between it...
Paraguay
Spanish and Guarani are the two official languages of the Republic of Paraguay, making it a bilingual nation. Nearly 87% of the country’s population speaks Spanish as either a first or second language. Spanish is an Indo-European language in the Romance branch. Guarani is an indigenous language of the Tupian family which, along with Spanish, enjoys the status of an official language of Paraguay. The Guarani language is spoken by about 4,650,000 people, which translates to over 90% of the people of Paraguay. 52% of the Guarani speakers in rural areas are monolingual. Guarani also has a significant number of non-indigenous speakers, which is a rare phenomenon in the countries and regions where European colonial languages dominate the linguistic landscape. There is a large number of Spanish-Guarani bilingual speakers in Paraguay, which is why there are many expressions used in the country which tend to mix the two languages. Indigenous and minority languages spoken in Paraguay by about 50,000 speakers include: Ache, Ayoreo, Chamacoco, Iyo’wujwa (Chorote), Kaskiha, Lengua, Maka, Nivacle, Pai Tavytera, Sanapana, Toba Qom, and Maskoy. Some of these languages, such as Maskoy, are at the brink of extinction due to the extremely low number of people who speak...
Countries and Their Languages
The United States is a country founded by immigrants, and even today serves as home to people from all kinds of different backgrounds. Various cultures and languages pervade the United States, and since there is no official language in the country, there is a wide range of languages one can encounter inside the country, with the most widely spoken being: - English Spanish Chinese French Tagalog Vietnamese Korean German Arabic Russian The most spoken language in the USA with about 231 million speakers is English, which, despite not being the official language, is recognized as the de facto national language. The next most spoken language in the USA is Spanish, as more and more Spanish speakers have been immigrating to the US over the years. Due to this, almost everything can be offered in Spanish, and more and more high school students are choosing to take Spanish as their foreign language. Chinese, with over 3 million speakers, owes its recognition in the USA due to the Gold Rush of the 1800s, during which many Chinese immigrants moved to California. San Francisco became the first city to have a Chinatown – an area with a high concentration of Chinese-Americans – and...