On 23/01/2008, Gregory Maxwell gmaxwell@gmail.com wrote:
What is the minimum number of languages must you write in to effectively communicate with 99.9999% of all the world's literate people?
99.999 % would probably be around 200. "Literate" is the killer here. Most mass literacy programs are generally run by governments who tend to standardize on a very small number of languages (well outside india which has 22). So you could make a reasonable start by looking at the number of official languages.
99.9999% is harder since groups of say 10K are going to have more of an impact.