Country |
Official and national Languages |
Other spoken Languages
|
Afghanistan |
Pashto (Pashtu, Pushtu) an Eastern Iranian language, it is the native language of the Pashtun people.
Dari Persian (Fārsī-ye Darī) also known as Afghan Persian. |
other Turkic and minor languages. |
Armenia |
Armenian (Hayeren) is an independent, one-language subgroup within the Indo-European
language family.
The unique Armenian alphabet, which consists of 39 characters, was created in
405 AD by a monk named Mesrop Mashtots. |
Russian widely used |
Azerbaijan |
Azerbaijani (Azeri; a Turkic language of the Altaic family)
89% |
Russian 3%, Armenian 2%, other 6% |
Bahrain |
Arabic (Arabiyya) |
English, Farsi, Urdu |
Bangladesh |
Bengali (Bangla) |
English |
Bhutan |
Bhutanese (Dzongkha) |
The Bhotes (the principal ethnic majority 50%) speak various Tibetan dialects
like Tshanglakha and Khenkha, Nepalese speak various Nepalese dialects like Lhotsamkha. |
Brunei Darussalam |
Malay, English |
Chinese |
Cambodia |
Khmer spoken by more than 95% of the population (Khmer language is influenced
by spoken and written Thai) |
some French still spoken, English increasingly popular as a second language. |
China |
Standard Chinese called also Putonghua (普通话) or Mandarin. |
Wu 吴语 - spoken in Shanghai and in Zhejiang province and Jiangsu province.
Yue 粤 - Cantonese, official in Hong Kong and Macau.
Uyghur (Xinjiang)
English (Hong Kong), Portuguese (Macau), Tibetan (Tibet), Mongolian (Inner Mongolia).
Other Chinese
dialects like Min, Hakka (Kejia), Gan and Xiang. |
Cyprus |
Greek, Turkish |
English |
Georgia |
Georgian |
Russian, Armenian, Azeri and other.
note: Abkhaz
is the official language in Abkhazia. |
India |
Hindi, Urdu
English (the most important language for national, political,
and commercial communication) |
Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Kashmiri, Malayalam, Marathi,
Oriya, Panjabi, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu. |
Indonesia |
Bahasa Indonesia (official, modified form of Malay) |
English, Dutch, local dialects, the most widely spoken of
which is Javanese. |
Iran |
Persian and Persian dialects 58% (Farsi) |
Turkic dialects 26%, Kurdish 9%, Luri 2%, Balochi 1%, Arabic |
Iraq |
Arabic (Arabiyya), Kurdish (official since 8 March 2004) |
Assyrian (Syriac-Aramaic), Armenian, Turcoman
|
Israel |
Hebrew (Ivrit), Arabic |
Yiddish, Ladino, Judeo-Arabic, Judeo-Tat, and Judeo-Berber,
English is the major
foreign language. |
Japan |
Japanese (Nihongo) |
Ryukyuan languages |
Jordan |
Arabic (Arabiyya) |
English widely understood among upper and middle classes. |
Kazakhstan |
Kazakh (Qazaq, state language) 64.4%, Russian (official,
used in everyday business, designated the "language of interethnic communication")
95% |
|
Korea (North) |
Korean (Choso'nmal or Choson'o) |
|
Korea (South) |
Korean (Hangungmal); Korean is written in Hangeul,
the Korean alphabet. |
English widely taught in junior high and high
school. |
Kuwait |
Arabic (Arabiyya) |
English widely spoken. |
Kyrgyzstan |
Kyrgyz, Russian |
note: in December 2001, the Kyrgyzstani legislature
made Russian an official language, equal in status to Kyrgyz. |
Laos |
Lao |
Thai, French, English, and various ethnic languages |
Lebanon |
Arabic (Arabiyya) |
French, English, Armenian |
Macau |
Putonghua (Mandarin), Portuguese |
everyone speaks Yue Chinese (Cantonese), English is used as a "working language". |
Malaysia |
Bahasa Melayu |
English, Chinese dialects, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Panjabi,
and Thai;
note: in addition, in East Malaysia several indigenous languages
are spoken, the largest are Iban and Kadazan. |
Maldives |
Maldivian Dhivehi (dialect of Sinhala, script derived from Arabic) |
English spoken by most government officials. |
Mongolia |
Khalkha Mongol (a branch of the Altaic family) |
Turkic, Russian |
Myanmar (Burma) |
Burmese |
Some English is spoken in tourist destinations,
135 minority ethnic groups have their own languages. |
Nepal |
Nepali (official and lingua franca of the country)
90% |
sixty ethnic groups, who speak seventy different dialects
and eleven major languages like Tibeto-Burman, Lhotsamkha, Nepalbhasa, Tamang
languages; minorities Bhutanese (Dzongkha), Tibetan languages, possibly Chinese
dialects.
note: many in government and business also speak English |
Oman |
Arabic (Arabiyya) |
English, Baluchi, Urdu, Indian dialects. |
Palestine |
Arabic (Arabiyya), Hebrew (Ivrit, spoken by Israeli settlers
and many Palestinians) |
English (widely understood) |
Pakistan |
Urdu, English (official and "lingua franca" of Pakistani elite
and most government ministries) |
Punjabi 48%, Sindhi 12%, Siraiki (a Punjabi variant) 10%, Pashtu 8%, Balochi
3%, Hindko 2%, Brahui 1%, Burushaski, and other 8% |
Philippines |
Filipino (based on Tagalog) and English. Filipino
is the national language. English is also widely used and is the medium of instruction
in higher education. |
Major dialects: Tagalog, Cebuano, Ilocan, Hiligaynon or
Ilonggo, Bicol, Waray, Pampango, and Pangasinense. |
Qatar |
Arabic (Arabiyya) |
English commonly used as a second language. |
Saudi Arabia |
Arabic (Arabiyya) |
|
Singapore |
Chinese, Malay, Tamil, English |
|
Sri Lanka |
Sinhala (official and national language) 74%,
Tamil (national language) 18% |
other 8%
note: English is commonly used in government
and is spoken competently by about 10% of the population. |
Syria |
Arabic (Arabiyya) |
Kurdish, Armenian, Aramaic, Circassian widely understood; French, English
somewhat understood. |
Taiwan |
Chinese Mandarin (PuTongHua) |
Taiwanese (Min), Hakka dialects. |
Tajikistan |
Tajik |
Russian widely used in government and business. |
Thailand |
Thai |
English (secondary language of the elite), ethnic and regional
dialects. |
Timor-Leste |
Tetum, Portuguese |
Indonesian, English;
note: there are about 16 indigenous languages;
Tetum, Galole, Mambae, and Kemak are spoken by significant numbers of people. |
Turkey |
Turkish (türkçe) |
Kurdish, Arabic, Armenian, Greek |
Turkmenistan |
Turkmen 72% |
Russian 12%, Uzbek 9%, other 7% |
United Arab Emirates |
Arabic (Arabiyya) |
Persian, English, Hindi, Urdu |
Uzbekistan |
Uzbek 74.3% |
Russian 14.2%, Tajik 4.4%, other 7.1% |
Viet Nam |
Vietnamese |
English (increasingly favored as a second language), some
French, Chinese, and Khmer; mountain area languages (Mon-Khmer and Malayo-Polynesian)
|
Yemen |
Arabic (Arabiyya) |
|
Sources: Ethnologue, ISO Country Names (ISO 3166-1), ISO Languages Names
(ISO 639-1), CIA World Factbook and others. |