Country |
Official and national Languages |
Other spoken Languages
|
| Afghanistan |
Pashtu (Pushtu), Dari 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 |
Putonghua (Mandarin) |
Wu (spoken in Shanghai), Yue (Cantonese) and 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, English (the most important language for national, political,
and commercial communication) |
Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Kashmiri, Malayalam, Marathi,
Oriya, Panjabi, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu |
| 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, 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 |
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,
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 |
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 8%, 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. |
Languages of the World 
