[thechat] Most spoken languages in the world

Syed Zeeshan Haider szh at softhome.net
Thu Jul 4 05:18:01 CDT 2002


Hi Madhu,
When I wan in Saudi Arabia, I happened to meet with many Indian shopkeepers and
salesmen (mostly Muslims). About one third of those Indians could not speak and
understand Hindi and English. For this reason my father and me had to
communicate with them in Arabic (my father can speak Arabic fluently but I am
still learning).
I am still curious why couldn't those Indians speak Hindi?
I think you know that most Hindi speakers can understand and speak Urdu also.
Thank you,
Syed Zeeshan Haider.
http://syedzeeshanhaider.faithweb.com/

----- Original Message -----
Date: Thu, 04 Jul 2002 10:30:42 +0530
To: thechat at lists.evolt.org
From: Madhu Menon <webguru at vsnl.net>
Subject: Re: [thechat] Most spoken languages in the world
Reply-To: thechat at lists.evolt.org

At 06:49 AM 7/4/2002, Paul Cowan wrote:
>Because:
> > The more people in India speaking English detracts from Hindi, the number
> > two language.
>
>There's the problem. The set of Indian people who speak Hindi and
>the set of Indian people who speak English are not (necessarily)
>disjoint sets -- or anything like it. So the above sentence is not
>always an either/or proposition.

Exactly. While English is the language of business and education here,
almost all Indians have a different first language. Since the Northern,
Hindi-speaking regions have the higher levels of population (and
illiteracy), Hindi is the most widely-spoken language, though it has
several dialects. And thanks to our film industry, lovingly called
"Bollywood" (which also happens to be the largest film industry in the
world), many people in the Southern, Eastern, and Western states can also
speak Hindi.

So... even if the number of English-speaking people *does* rise, it will
never be that they speak *only* English. Chances are that the majority will
probably speak Hindi too.

Regards,

Madhu

<<<   *   >>>
Madhu Menon
User Experience Consultant
e-mail: webguru at vsnl.net








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