What portion of (or how many people in) the world speaks a language that is normally written from right to left (Arabic, Farsi, Hebrew etc)
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M$3 Answers
Lets' start by enumerating the languages this includes. According to http://www.omniglot.com/writing/direction.htm#rtl these are:
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Ancient Berber, Ancient Egyptian (Demotic), Ancient Egyptian (Hieratic), Ancient Egyptian (Hieroglyphic), Aramaic, Arabic*, Avestan, Chinese **, Cypriot, Enochian, Etruscan, Hebrew, Iberian (Northern), Kharosthi, Linear B, Old Italic, Orkhon, Mandaic, Mende, Meroïtic (Cursive), Middle Persian, Nabataean, N'Ko, Parthian, Phoenician, Proto-Elamite, Psalter, Sabaean, Samaritan, Sogdian, Tifinagh, Syriac, South Arabian, Thaana
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Many of these are no longer in current use except possibly by a few scholars, so I'll ignore them.
Aramaic - spoken by only a small number of people, so I'll ignore it in the following.
- quote (http://www.omniglot.com/writing/aramaic.htm ) -
Aramaic was once the main language of the Jews and appears in some of the Dead Sea Scrolls. It is still used as a liturgical language by Christian communities in Syria, Lebanon and Iraq, and is still spoken by small numbers of people in Iraq, Turkey, Iran, Armenia, Georgia and Syria.
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Arabic - 221 million speakers
- quote (http://www.omniglot.com/writing/arabic.htm ) -
Arabic is a Semitic language with about 221 million speakers in Afghanistan, Algeria, Bahrain, Chad, Cyprus, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Oman, Palestinian West Bank & Gaza, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Tunisia, Turkey, UAE, Uzbekistan and Yemen.
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Chinese - 1325 million (see http://www.google.com/publicdata?ds=wb-wdi&met=sp_pop_totl&idim=country:CHN&dl=en&hl=en&q=population+of+china )
- quote (http://www.omniglot.com/writing/chinese.htm ) -
Traditionally Chinese was written from right to left in vertical columns. The first publication in Chinese using horizontal (left to right) text was Robert Morrison's Dictionary of the Chinese language, published in 1815–1823 in Macau. The increasing use of words in Western languages, especially English, in Chinese texts from the early 20th century made horizontal texts more popular.
Since 1949 horizontal writing has become the standard in the PRC, and all PRC newspapers changed from vertical to horizontal text in 1956, though some headlines are written vertically, as are inscriptions of signs on most state organisations.
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Hebrew - 8 million
- quote (http://www.omniglot.com/writing/hebrew.htm ) -
Today Hebrew is spoken by some 5 million people in Israel, where it is an official language along with Arabic. and a further 2 to 3 million people speak the language in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Palestinian West Bank and Gaza, Panama, the UK and USA.
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N'Ko alphabet (used to write Mandekan) - 5 million
- quote (http://www.omniglot.com/writing/nko.htm ) -
Mandekan, a member of the Mande group of Niger-Congo languages spoken by about 5 million people in Mali, Senegal, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso and Sierra Leone. Mandekan, which is also known as Manding or Mandingo, is actually a group of closely related dialects, including Bambara and Dyula, which some linguists classify as separate languages.
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Syriac alphabet (used to write Neo Aramaic) - 0.2 million
- quote (http://www.omniglot.com/writing/syriac.htm ) -
Assyrian Neo-Aramaic, a diverse group of Eastern Aramaic/Syriac dialects spoken by about 200,000 people mainly in Iraq, Syria, Iran, Armenia, Georgia and Turkey.
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Thaana alphabet (used to write Maldivian) - 0.3 million
- quote (http://www.omniglot.com/writing/thaana.htm ) -
Dhivehi (Maldivian), an Indo-Aryan language spoken by about 300,000 people in the Maldives and on India's Minicoy Islands.
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Arabic characters are used in other languages ("Used to write: Arabic, Baluchi, Dari, Hausa, Kabyle, Kashmiri, Kazak, Kurdish, Kyrghyz, Malay, Morisco, Pashto, Persian/Farsi, Punjabi, Sindhi, Siraiki, Tatar, Turkish, Uyghur, Urdu and a number of other languages" according to http://www.omniglot.com/writing/arabic.htm ):
Baluchi - 7 million
- quote (http://www.omniglot.com/writing/baluchi.php ) -
Baluchi is a Northwestern Iranian language spoken by about seven million people.
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Persian or Farsi - 130 million
- quote (http://www.omniglot.com/writing/persian.htm ) -
Persian is a member of the Iranian branch of Indo-European languages spoken by about 130 million people, mainly in Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan.
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Hausa - 39 million
- quote (http://www.omniglot.com/writing/hausa.htm ) -
Hausa is a Chadic language with about 39 million speakers. It is spoken mainly in northern Nigeria and Niger, and also in Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, CAR, Chad, Congo, Eritrea, Germany, Ghana, Sudan and Togo.
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Kabyle - ~7.5 million
- quote (http://www.omniglot.com/writing/kabyle.php ) -
Kabyle is a Berber language with about 7-8 million speakers, most of whom live in Algeria, mainly in Kabylie in the north of the country.
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Kashmiri - 4.5 million
- quote (http://www.omniglot.com/writing/kashmiri.htm ) -
Kashmiri or Koshur is an Indo-Aryan language with about 4.5 million speakers in India, Pakistan and the UK. The Kashmiri alphabet was adopted from the Urdu version of the Arabic script.
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Kazakh - 8 million
- quote (http://www.omniglot.com/writing/kazakh.htm ) -
Kazakh or Qazaq is a Turkic language spoken in Kazakhstan, Russia and China by about 8 million people.
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Kurdish - 26 million
- quote (http://www.omniglot.com/writing/kurdish.htm ) -
Kurdish is a member of the Western Iranian branch of Indo-European languages. Approximately 26 million people speak Kurdish in Iraq, Turkey, Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Armenia, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan, Kazakstan and Afghanistan
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Kyrgyz - 1.5 million
- quote (http://www.omniglot.com/writing/kirghiz.htm ) -
Kyrgyz or Kirghiz is a Turkic language with about 1.5 million speakers in Kyrghyzstan and China.
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Malay/Indonesian - 188 million
- quote (http://www.omniglot.com/writing/malay.htm ) -
Malay is an Austronesian language spoken in Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei and Thailand. The total number of speakers of Standard Malay is about 18 million. There are also about 170 million people who speak Indonesian, which is a form of Malay.
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Pashto - ~50 million
- quote (http://www.omniglot.com/writing/pashto.htm ) -
The exact number of Pashto speakers is not known for sure, but most estimates range from 45 million to 55 million.
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Panjabi - 60 million
- quote (http://www.omniglot.com/writing/gurmuki.htm ) -
Panjabi or Punjabi, an Indo-Aryan language spoken by about 60 million people in Pakistan and the Indian state of Panjab.
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Sindhi - ~20 million
- quote (http://www.omniglot.com/writing/sindhi.htm ) -
Sindhi is an Indo-Aryan language with about 17 million speakers in the south-eastern province of Sind in Pakistan and about 2.8 million people in India.
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Siraiki - 14 million
- quote (http://www.omniglot.com/writing/siraiki.htm ) -
Siraiki is a member of the Indo-Aryan branch of Indo-European languages and spoken by about 14 million people in the central Pakistan provinces of Sindh and Punjab.
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Tatar - 7 million
- quote (http://www.omniglot.com/writing/tatar.htm ) -
Tatar is a Turkic language with about 7 million speakers in Russian republic of Tatarstan, and also in Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Belarus, China, Estonia, Finland, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkey (Europe), Turkmenistan, Ukraine, USA and Uzbekistan.
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Turkish - 70 million
- quote (http://www.omniglot.com/writing/turkish.htm ) -
Turkish is a Turkic language with about 70 million speakers in Turkey and in 35 other countries, including Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Cyprus, Denmark, El Salvador, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Honduras, Iran, Iraq and Israel.
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Uyghur - 10 million
- quote (http://www.omniglot.com/writing/uyghur.htm ) -
Uyghur is a Turkic language with about 10 million speakers mainly in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China, and also in Afghanistan, Australia, Germany, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Turkey, the USA and Uzbekistan.
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Urdu - 104 million
- quote (http://www.omniglot.com/writing/urdu.htm ) -
Urdu is an Indo-Aryan language with about 104 million speakers, including those who speak it as a second language.
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M$Interestingly enough, Japanese is usually written vertically, but when written horizontally it is written left to right, except before WWII, when it was right to left.
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M$Thanks for that answer, xerxes, and welcome to Mahalo! And, thank you, too, yoavf - and welcome!
I'd just add that the question mentioned Farsi, which is estimated to be spoken by 60-70 million. They use the Arabic alphabet, but were not included in the 467 million estimate in the Wikipedia article. So, that brings it up over 7% of the world's population (6.8billion).
http://www.milatova.com
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M$
Whoops, completely late... no idea why I didn't notice your comment, @opher.
It's a difficult question - in theory Arabic is the "mother" language for which so many other languages use its script, therefore languages like Urdu and Farsi I would exclude, as they are distinct languages, but their writing system is not distinct from Arabic. Turkish has its own semi-Latin-based writing system, so again I would not include it as (A) most speakers write with this alphabet, and (B) if they do write with the Arabic alphabet, again I would only see this as Arabic imposing this way of writing - not necessarily Turkish.
For Hebrew, I admit my numbers may be different. It's tough, considering the second-language speakers abroad and in the US. I believe I just counted the native speakers in my answer, to keep it simple - I honestly can't remember...
Let me know if I can answer any more questions. :)
Thanks for the detailed answer!
- can you narrow it to official languages? - For example for 'Hebrew', count only residents of Israel.
This is a very tough thing to do, as even where a language is the official language of a country or region, not all people who live there speak the language. For example, take Urdu, spoken by 104 million worldwide, some as a second language. It is the official language in Pakistan (population 169 million, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pakistan ), and an official language in the Indian capital of New Delhi (population 12 million), as well as the Indian states of Andhra-Praddesh (population 76 million http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andhra_Pradesh ), and Uttar-Pradesh (poulation 191 million http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uttar_Pradesh ). Thus, the population total of the countries and regions where Urdu is an official language is 448 million, or over 4 times the total Urdu-speakers in the world. Thus, regretfully, your follow-up question is far beyond the scope of your initial query, and would likely require an extremely intensive and in-depth study by someone more qualified in the study of languages than am I.
I might be able to shed some light on this. @opher provided quite an excellent and detailed answer, but I might remove quite a few of the languages provided on his list, as languages like Chinese and Berber are increasingly using left-to-right writing systems. While they do technically count, it does not reflect a majority of writers in that language. In addition, some writing systems are considered dialects and not official languages (eg, Cypriot, which actually exists in many forms - Cypriot Turkish, Cypriot Greek, etc). So my personal list of right-to-left languages would be: Arabic, Hebrew, Mandaic (a liturgic language, but currently spoken and sometimes referred to as Neo-Aramaic), Mende, N'Ko, Samaritan, and Thaana.
Arabic - Spoken by ~280 million native speakers and ~250mil non-native speakers, the official language of 25 countries.
Hebrew - Spoken by ~5.3mil native speakers and ~2mil non-native speakers in Israel.
Mandaic - Spoken by ~5,500 people spoken in a small community in Iran (not an official language).
Mende - Spoken by ~1,480,000 people, and while it is not the official language, it is the lingua franca of Sierra Leone.
N'Ko - The writing system for the Mande languages (Mandinka, Soninke, Bambara, Bissa, Dioula, Kagoro, Bozo, Mende, Susu, Yacouba, Vai, and Ligbi) which are spoken in Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania, Senegal, The Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Benin, and Nigeria - the official languages of all those countries, however, is either English or French.
Samaritan - Spoken by ~700 people mostly in Israel and the West Bank, is not an official language.
Thaana - the writing system of Dhivehi, spoken by ~350,000 people in the Republic of Maldives
Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org and my own knowledge as a linguist-by-hobby :)
Interestingly, Phoenician (now a dead language and script) is the ancestor of both many European languages and the Semitic languages - somewhere along the way, a derivative of Phoenician (which evolved into the Greek alphabet, and then the Latin alphabet now used by most European languages today) started writing left-to-right, while Phoenician itself as well as the Semitic dervatives (Arabic, Hebrew, etc) as well as many African languages (no doubt influenced by Middle Eastern conquerers) continued writing right-to-left. What caused the change is a mystery, I've still yet to figure it out.
Thanks @potterarchy. However, I'm curious, would you exclude Urdu, Turkish, Panjabi, Malay, Indonesian, Pashto, Farsi, and all the other non-Arabic languages I listed, that use the Arabic script, written from right to left, and which are spoken collectively by about 746 million people on top of the 210 (or 280 million, or 530 million) speakers of Arabic?
As for Hebrew, you should count at least 7 million citizens of Israel (Jewish or not) who speak it, though it is quite likely that the difference between the 5.3 million you count and my 7-8 million number is largely due to folks for whom it is a second language, and who are already counted under the Arabic-speaking number.