Linguistic demography is the
statistical study
A statistical hypothesis test is a method of statistical inference used to decide whether the data at hand sufficiently support a particular hypothesis.
Hypothesis testing allows us to make probabilistic statements about population parameters.
...
of
languages among all populations. Estimating the number of speakers of a given language is not straightforward, and various estimates may diverge considerably. This is first of all due to the question of defining "
language" vs. "
dialect". Identification of varieties as a single language or as distinct languages is often based on ethnic, cultural, or political considerations rather than
mutual intelligibility. The second difficulty is
multilingualism, complicating the definition of "native language". Finally, in many countries, insufficient
census data add to the difficulties.
Demolinguistics is a branch of
Sociology of language observing linguistic trends as affected by population distribution and redistribution and by the status of societies.
Most spoken languages
The following table compares the estimates of Comrie (1998) and Weber (1997)
[Bernard Comrie, Encarta Encyclopedia (1998); George Weber “Top Languages: The World’s 10 Most Influential Languages” in Language Today (Vol. 2, Dec 1997)] (number of native speakers in millions). Also given are the estimates of
SIL Ethnologue (2005).
Comparing estimates that do not date to the same year is problematic due to the 1.14% per year growth of
world population (with significant regional differences).
This table shows that for the world's largest languages, it is impossible to give an estimate of the number of native speakers with a certainty better than maybe 10% or 20% or so.
See also
*
List of languages by number of native speakers
*
List of languages by total number of speakers
*
Abstand and ausbau languages
*
Autonomous language
*
Language geography
*
Languages in censuses
Many countries and national censuses currently enumerate or have previously enumerated their populations by languages, native language, home language, level of knowing language or a combination of these characteristics.
Afghanistan
Pashto and ...
Case studies:
**
Language demographics of Quebec
This article presents the current language demographics of the Canadian province of Quebec.
Demographic terms
The complex nature of Quebec's linguistic situation, with individuals who are often bilingual or multilingual, requires the use of mul ...
**
Language Spoken at Home (U.S. Census)
Language Spoken at Home is a data set published by the United States Census Bureau on languages in the United States. It is based on a three-part language question asked about all household members who are five years old or older. The first part a ...
Notes
Literature
*
Johanna Nichols, ''Linguistic Diversity in Space and Time'', University of Chicago Press (1992), .
*David I. Kertzer and Dominique Arel (eds.), ''Census and Indentiry : The Politics of Race, Ethnicity, and Language in National Censuses'', {{ISBN, 978-0-521-80823-1.
*Jacques Pohl, ''Demolinguistics and Language Problems'' (1972).
*
H. Kloss, G. McConnell (eds.), ''Linguistic Composition of the Nations of the World'' vol. 2, ''North America'', Quebec (1974–1984).
External links
CIA - The World Factbook
- first language vs total speakers, degree of influence, etc. Plus graphs and charts.
EthnologueUnicode.org Top Languages by GDP Graphs
Linguistics
Language