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What are the "Supra-Regional Languages"?

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topaztrex
Triglot
Newbie
Indonesia
Joined 5928 days ago

20 posts - 37 votes
Speaks: Mandarin, Indonesian*, English

 
 Message 1 of 9
12 April 2011 at 3:25pm | IP Logged 
From what I know, the "World Languages" are:
1. English
2. Chinese
3. Spanish
4. Russian
5. Arabic
6. French

To a lesser extent, the list could also include "Supra-Regional Languages". What do you
think about the languages on the list below? Would they classify as one of the "Supra-
Regional Languages"?
1. Portuguese
2. Dutch-Afrikaans
3. Malay-Indonesian
4. Persian
5. Italian
6. German
7. Swahili
8. Hindi-Urdu
9. Bengali
10. Japanese

What other languages that would fall into this category?
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Ari
Heptaglot
Senior Member
Norway
Joined 6341 days ago

2314 posts - 5695 votes 
Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese
Studies: Czech, Latin, German

 
 Message 2 of 9
12 April 2011 at 3:46pm | IP Logged 
You'll have to define the category for us to be able to answer that. What makes a language supra-regional?

Edited by Ari on 12 April 2011 at 4:39pm

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topaztrex
Triglot
Newbie
Indonesia
Joined 5928 days ago

20 posts - 37 votes
Speaks: Mandarin, Indonesian*, English

 
 Message 3 of 9
12 April 2011 at 3:54pm | IP Logged 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_language
http://ca.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=2010111619083 9AAYXhHK

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Leftcoaster
Diglot
Newbie
China
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22 posts - 36 votes
Speaks: English*, Spanish
Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin, Russian

 
 Message 4 of 9
12 April 2011 at 8:44pm | IP Logged 
Is portuguese really a supra-national language? It's spoken in Brazil and Portugal but beyond that, its influence is severely limited by other languages like English and Spanish.
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tbone
Diglot
Groupie
United States
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92 posts - 132 votes 
Speaks: English*, German
Studies: Spanish, Russian

 
 Message 5 of 9
12 April 2011 at 9:07pm | IP Logged 
Japanese isn't very regional. Dutch and Italian still have scattered colonial outposts where they're spoken, but that's
not very regional in nature, either. Latin might have a better shot at the list.
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Jon1991
Groupie
United Kingdom
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98 posts - 126 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish, French, Russian

 
 Message 6 of 9
12 April 2011 at 9:27pm | IP Logged 
tbone wrote:
Japanese isn't very regional. Dutch and Italian still have scattered colonial outposts where they're spoken, but that's
not very regional in nature, either. Latin might have a better shot at the list.


But I wouldn't say there's a high possibility of running into a Dutch speaker in Indonesia anymore (Suriname of course) or an Italian speaker in Libya or Somalia.
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Matheus
Senior Member
Brazil
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Speaks: Portuguese*
Studies: English, French

 
 Message 7 of 9
12 April 2011 at 11:16pm | IP Logged 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_number_of_ native_speakers


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kenshin
Triglot
Newbie
Taiwan
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17 posts - 34 votes
Speaks: Taiwanese, Mandarin*, English
Studies: Japanese, German, French

 
 Message 8 of 9
13 April 2011 at 11:27am | IP Logged 
I tried to come up with the idea here how a Supra-Regional Language would be :

#1 A language has a number of speakers between 35 million - 100 million.

#2 Besides, it is an official language of at least one country and also spoken and taught
in adjacent regions.

Also another thought on the topic. Any language belonging to Eskimo-Aleut languages group
also makes me think they are"Supra-Regional ", since they are sort of confined to the
vast arctic territory. Probably not many people outside that region know much about those
languages.

Edited by kenshin on 13 April 2011 at 11:45am



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