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Some facts about the world's 6,800 tongues

Eight countries account for more than half of all languages.

• Papua New Guinea, 832 languages.
• Indonesia, 731.
• Nigeria, 515.
• India, 400.
• Mexico, Cameroon and Australia, just under 300 each.
• Brazil, 234.

The island of New Guinea, which the nation of Papua New Guinea shares with the Indonesian state of Irian Jaya, is home to just 0.1 percent of the world's population, yet its residents speak one-sixth of all languages, or some 1,100 tongues.

More than 100 languages can be heard on the tiny archipelago of Vanuatu, in the South Pacific Ocean near Australia. It is home to about 190,000 people.

India has 15 official languages, more than any other nation.

The 10 most common first languages, and number of speakers:

• Mandarin Chinese, 885 million.
• Spanish, 332 million.
• English, 322 million.
• Arabic, 220 million.
• Bengali, 189 million.
• Hindi, 182 million.
• Portuguese, 170 million.
• Russian, 170 million.
• Japanese, 125 million.
• German, 98 million.

• Percentage of world's languages of Asian origin: 32
• Percentage of world's languages of African origin: 30
• Percentage of world's languages of Pacific origin: 19
• Percentage of world's languages of American origin: 15
• Percentage of world's languages of European origin: 4
• Percentage of world's children raised as bilingual speakers: 66 percent.
• Percentage of U.S. residents who are bilingual: 6.3 percent.

-- The Associated Press

Sources: Worldwatch Institute, Summer Institute of Linguistics






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