[Foundation-l] A simple question on languages.

[phoebe ayers]

On Jan 23, 2008 8:08 AM, Gregory Maxwell <gmaxwell at 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?

<snip>

> Note that I'm asking 'effectively communicate' not 'communicate in a
> This seems like a simple and important question which others should
> have asked and answered definitively long ago, yet I can't seem to
> find a good reference. It also seems to me to be the sort of question
> which should play an important role in the foundation's long term
> resource allocations.

With some quick searches:

I suspect that the four-volume tome "The written languages of the
world : a survey of the degree and modes of use"
http://worldcat.org/oclc/4931003
would answer your question, but you'll probably have to go to a
university library to use it.

This book:
http://www.amazon.com/Languages-Globalising-World-Jacques-Maurais/dp/0521533546
does seem to address the question of which languages will predominate,
and also heavily references a 1997 report by David Graddol called "The
Future of English?" which seems to sort out how widely the big
languages are spoken vs the little ones. This doesn't directly answer
your question but will probably will point you in the right direction.
I would imagine there are many other books relating to globalization
and languages that might also address the question.

There are several language reference works that catalog the number of
native speakers of any given language; I'm fond of "The Dictionary of
Languages", not least because it's fun to browse. However, again may
not answer your question on a global scale with regard to literacy.
http://www.amazon.com/Dictionary-Languages-Definitive-Reference-More/dp/0231115695

Finally, I'd be surprised if the Ethnologue doesn't address this --
but I don't have one handy to check.
http://www.ethnologue.com/print.asp
(though, given its relative importance in what we do, the Foundation
should definitely have one on hand -- and I'd be happy to buy one to
start off a new SF office library :) )

As someone else pointed out, it's the issue of multi-lingual speakers
and not counting people twice that is the tricky part. Determining
global literacy rates also seems pretty tough, since I would assume
there are probably countries that don't have accurate data for that.

-- phoebe