Return-Path: <@FINHUTC.HUT.FI:LOJBAN@CUVMB.BITNET> Received: from FINHUTC.hut.fi by xiron.pc.helsinki.fi with smtp (Linux Smail3.1.28.1 #1) id m0rlaK4-00007WC; Mon, 6 Mar 95 12:47 EET Message-Id: Received: from FINHUTC.HUT.FI by FINHUTC.hut.fi (IBM VM SMTP V2R2) with BSMTP id 0153; Mon, 06 Mar 95 12:47:31 EET Received: from SEARN.SUNET.SE (NJE origin MAILER@SEARN) by FINHUTC.HUT.FI (LMail V1.1d/1.7f) with BSMTP id 0150; Mon, 6 Mar 1995 12:47:30 +0200 Received: from SEARN.SUNET.SE (NJE origin LISTSERV@SEARN) by SEARN.SUNET.SE (LMail V1.2a/1.8a) with BSMTP id 2942; Mon, 6 Mar 1995 11:43:32 +0100 Date: Mon, 6 Mar 1995 05:45:05 -0500 Reply-To: Logical Language Group Sender: Lojban list From: Logical Language Group Subject: Top 12 langanguages in speakers - Loglan/Lojban 1995 list X-To: conlang@diku.dk, lojban@cuvmb.cc.columbia.edu To: Veijo Vilva Content-Length: 6659 Lines: 158 The 12 most spoken languages - 1995 Loglan/Lojban Project baseline values Following is data derived from the 1995 Encyclopedia Brittanica Book of the Year regarding language populations for the top 12 languages, which are the baseline set for the Loglan/Lojban project (only the top 6 are used for Lojban gismu making). For comparison, summary numbers from 1994 are also shown, along with amount of change. I think that these numbers serve as a fairly authoritative estimate of the number of speakers of the 12 languages, and unlike other published estimates, my methodology in generating the numbers is open to inspection, along with source data for individual countries. (See signature for the Lojban ftp site, filename "LANGSTAT.95" has the supporting data) The number of 2nd language speakers is determined by taking actual counts of such 2nd language (or creole) speakers generated by official sources and reported in the Brittanica. An increment is added to reflect 2nd language literacy in the official language of a country, presuming that all official languages of the country are taught in the schools, based on official-source literacy figures. Finally, for Arabic/Moslem countries, the status of Arabic as a religious language is used to generate an additional increment. This is most significant for Iran where the religion is heavily state supported even though the official language is not Arabic, and there are few native speakers of that language. Having determined these numbers, the Lojban gismu-making weights are determined by summing the number of native speakers and 1/2 the total from all 3 methods of estimating 2nd language speakers (since these 3 methods include an elimination of overlap in the calculation). The total of 1st and all 2nd language speakers is not used in the Lojban algorithm. The 1995 numbers are summarized as follows (in millions): native 2nd/creole+literacy+religion Total speakers native+1/2*2nd normalized weight for 6 languages based on 1.0 total. Chinese 801.552 314.039+25.225 1140.816 971.184 .347 (-.001) Hindi 413.231 66.39+206.000 685.621 549.426 .196 (+.002) English 334.786 187.907+59.895 582.588 448.343 .160 (-.003) Spanish 330.999 12.644+11.531 355.174 343.086 .123 ( 0) Russian 210.948 0+77.965 288.913 249.930 .089 (+.001) Arabic 205.272 0+19.705+46.991 271.968 238.620 .085 (+.001) Bengali 183.860 0+.927 184.787 184.323 Portuguese 166.662 6.294+10.028 182.984 174.823 Japanese 125.086 0 125.086 125.086 French 74.529 41.198+29.477 145.204 109.866 Malay-Indon. 37.752 137.526 175.278 106.515 German 94.768 1.714+8.511 104.993 99.880 These were the 1994 numbers (The Russian 2nd language numbers were of lower quality because most of the ex-CIS states had no reported literacy figures in the Brittanica, and I used a floor value that turned out to be significantly low). native 2nd/creole+literacy+religion native+1/2*2nd normalized weight for 6 languages based on 1.0 total. Chinese 792.183 310.584+21.957 958.454 .348 Hindi 405.745 56.6+201.225 534.658 .194 English 329.906 163.662+73.214 448.343 .163 Spanish 325.856 7.069+15.723 337.252 .123 Russian 210.772 0+62.456 242.000 .088 Arabic 198.468 0+19.264+48.323 232.262 .084 Bengali 180.290 0+.904 180.742 Portuguese 164.124 6.199+9.238 171.843 Japanese 124.6059 0 124.6059 French 72.589 41.384+23.010 104.786 Malay-Indon. 36.656 .04+133.053 103.203 German 91.616 1.716+7.625 96.287 For comprison, here is the total speakers from the 1987 World Almanac and the numbers used in the 1987 original Lojban gismu-remaking effort, which were based on the 1985 Brittanica BotY. Note that Hindi passed up English in about 1989 due to rapidly increasing numbers of native speakers along with a major increase in literacy which is continuing. The drop in native English, French, German, and Indonesian speakers is due to the switching of creole speakers and some estimates of non-native official language speakers (especially in Africa) from native to 2nd language totals. 1987 1987 gismu-remaking 1995 World Almanac native 2nd n+1/2s norm. weight weight Chinese 788 752.1 319.1 911.7 .360 .347 English 420 366.5 322.4 527.7 .208 .160 Hindi 382 294 200.3 394.2 .156 .196 Spanish 296 264.7 58.2 293.8 .116 .123 Russian 285 164.3 109.7 219.12 .087 .089 Arabic 177 155.9 57.7 184.8 .073 .085 Bengali 171 87 80.8 127.4 Portuguese 164 110.4 45.5 133.2 Malay/Indon. 128 121.1 39.5 140.9 Japanese 122 120.1 0.6 120.4 German 118 105.4 18.3 114.6 French 114 81.1 75.5 118.9 ---- lojbab = Bob LeChevalier, President, The Logical Language Group, Inc. 2904 Beau Lane, Fairfax VA 22031-1303 USA 703-385-0273 lojbab@access.digex.net Ask me about the artificial language Loglan/Lojban, or see the Lojban WWW Server href="http://xiron.pc.helsinki.fi/lojban/" We also have material available via ftp (ftp.cs.yale.edu, directory pub/lojban). email mailing list (listserv@ and lojban@cuvmb.cc.columbia.edu). The LLG is funded solely by contributions, and are needed in order to support electronic and paper distribution.