![]() This total is then broken down into indigenous (ind.) and immigrant (imm.) languages. Living in a country where the language is monolingual means even the idea of having an official language that isnt your own is, well, foreign.But weve already looked at Switzerland where there are three official languages, and South Africa where there are eleven, and in their own ways for both of these countries, multilingualism works. ‘Total’ shows the overall number of languages spoken as a first language in the country. The full ranking of the world’s most multilingual countries is below. World’s most multilingual countries – ranked Interestingly, Cuba has only five languages, explained in part by the fact that it’s an island nation but perhaps also by its history of political isolation. It’s not surprising that small countries and islands comprise the rest of the bottom five: British Indian Ocean Territory has one language while Vatican State, Tokelau and San Marino among others have only two. This Asian country is notoriously insular with vice-like controls on press, freedom of speech, freedom of movement and freedom of association. NORTH KOREA – which is predictable once you know the answer. Pambudi Yoga Perdana/Shutterstock Indonesia is the 2nd most multilingual countryĬan you guess which country is the least multilingual? It has only one language within its borders and therefore zero chance that two randomly selected people will have different mother tongues. The country has a relatively small population of seven million, which means it is incredibly likely that two randomly selected people will have different mother tongues. This diversity is largely explained by the country’s topography: deep valleys and unnavigable terrain separated hundreds of different clans for centuries, giving rise to distinct languages and customs. Papua New Guinea takes the top spot with an overwhelming 839 languages. the number of people who speak more than one language), rather the world’s most multilingual countries – a count of the number of languages used as a first language in the country. It’s important to note that the ranking isn’t a measure of multilingualism on a personal level (i.e. Kaijankoski CC BY-SA 2.0 The world’s most multilingual countries are not necessarily crowded There are 56 languages spoken across its lands meaning if we chose to, we could likely learn a new language from someone who speaks a different one.Įthnologue, the premier authority on languages, has ranked the world’s most multilingual countries based on the number of living languages spoken within its borders. ![]() This is a shame because on a country level, the UK has a very healthy degree of multilingualism. A few years of infrequent lessons from beleaguered GCSE teachers aren’t nearly enough to instil multilingualism on a personal level. Credit: Extract from the Egyptian Constitution 1923 is shown at top right of this post, taken from the Springer paper.We take a look at the world’s most multilingual countries, from Papua New Guinea with over 800 languages to the one country with only a single languageĪs guardians of the world’s lingua franca, we English have little incentive for learning a second language. Some corpora are available in-house only, while others can be accessed freely – see here.
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