Bengali Language

[Cricket Crazy]

Bengali language BANGLA is the 5th in the world language ranking.

The list is too long so just check out the link.

http://www.photius.com/rankings/languages2.html

Are you proud?

[adel]

haha..it's ahead of hindi...did not expect that...
and was also a bit surpised to see among the countries in which bangla is spoken the most...

[ialbd]

Bangladesh, India & Singapore?? Singapore really??

[cricket_dorshok]

Originally Posted by ialbd
Bangladesh, India & Singapore?? Singapore really??

you know, how many languages the people of Singapore speak in, 15!!

[Cricket Crazy]

189 million people speak Bengali. Dats a lot. China is ranked 1 bcoz they got too much people in their country. English is 2nd because its an internatoinal laguage. Most people speak english. Spanish is 3rd bcoz its a cool language. many people in school and college learn it. Arabic is 4th coz everyo muslim wants to learn it and many do.

Bengali is 5th in the world. Now my Pakistani and Indian friends wants to learn it aswell.

[ammark]

Originally Posted by Cricket Crazy
Spanish is 3rd bcoz its a cool language. many people in school and college learn it.

You left out an entire continent in which except one every country's national language is Spanish.

Arabic is 4th coz everyo muslim wants to learn it and many do.

And the fact that Arabic is a language spoken by nations and peoples stretching from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean as a first language.

[Alien]

Originally Posted by cricket_dorshok
you know, how many languages the people of Singapore speak in, 15!!

Officially they got 3 to show their multiculturalism. Unofficially its one and only chinese.

[layperson]

Originally Posted by Alien
Officially they got 3 to show their multiculturalism. Unofficially its one and only chinese.

I think it should be Cantonese if I am not wrong. BUt I thought most people in Singapore speak English.

[cricket_dorshok]

Originally Posted by Alien
Officially they got 3 to show their multiculturalism. Unofficially its one and only chinese.

I calculated from the link that thread opener provided. afterall this link ranks Bangla as the fifth largest language.

[Tigers_eye]

Originally Posted by ammark
You left out an entire continent in which except one every country's national language is Spanish.

And they total less than Dhaka bibhag lol.

By the way, Bangla shouldn't be up there. I am here today to pick up a fight. Anyone up for one?

[Zunaid]

Originally Posted by Cricket Crazy
189 million people speak Bengali. Dats a lot. China is ranked 1 bcoz they got too much people in their country. English is 2nd because its an internatoinal laguage. Most people speak english. Spanish is 3rd bcoz its a cool language. many people in school and college learn it. Arabic is 4th coz everyo muslim wants to learn it and many do.

Bengali is 5th in the world. Now my Pakistani and Indian friends wants to learn it aswell.

No.

The rankings are based on the language being the mother tounge and or first language. It is pretty obvious why the ranking is the way it is. Knowing the language as a second language does not count.

the only surprise is the Bengali/Hindi one - I would have thought the Hindi belt in India held more people than Bangali speakers in WB/Bangladesh.

For Mandarin - you of course have mainland China plus some of the diaspora in South East Asia.

For English - The British Isles + USA + Canada + Aus + NZ shows why they are number 2.

Spanish - Heh look at South America minus Brazil, Suriname, Belize, nations of teh West Indies ...

Arabic - Look west from the border of Iran - all the way to Morocco/Western Sahara. Add that up. Nothing to do with the fact that some Abdul Quddus in Sirajganj went to some hujur to learn to read Arabic.

Bengali - numbers obvious
Hindi - numbers obvious

Russian - Russia + Belarus + Ukraine and some part of the populace in many ex-Soviet nations.

Portuguese - Thanks Brazil.

And so on....






The second column of the table shows where we have people who claim that language to be their mother tongue / first language. The reason Bangla shows up explicitly in Singapore is that the SIngaporeans explicitly first-language speakers in their census. I would bet there are more Bangali speakers in the US than most other countries except for BD/India/UK.

[Tigers_eye]

Originally Posted by Zunaid
...the only surprise is the Bengali/Hindi one - I would have thought the Hindi belt in India held more people than Bangali speakers in WB/Bangladesh...

Indians speak gujrati, panjabi, bengali etc. (there are 27 state languages) Not hindi, lol. So a billion hindi speakers are grouped in several pieces and a huge chunk went to Bengali group.

[Zunaid]

Originally Posted by Tigers_eye
Indians speak gujrati, panjabi, bengali etc. (there are 27 state languages) Not hindi, lol. So a billion hindi speakers are grouped in several pieces and a huge chunk went to Bengali group.

Now, don;t tell me there are no native Hindi speakers. Hindi is the dialect continuum that is bounded by the languages you mentioned to the west and east and by Marathi, Oriya to the south....

Here's an wiki entry for ya: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...total_speakers

[Tigers_eye]

I should have mentioned in my post #10 (except Doc).

Retreating to live another day.

[AsifTheManRahman]

Originally Posted by Tigers_eye
And they total less than Dhaka bibhag lol.

By the way, Bangla shouldn't be up there. I am here today to pick up a fight. Anyone up for one?

fight against over population?

[Tigers_eye]

Originally Posted by AsifTheManRahman
fight against over population?

Fight against dialects that I understand nothing.

[chinatown]

singapore...bangla

[Kana-Baba]

Originally Posted by Zunaid
No.

Arabic - Look west from the border of Iran - all the way to Morocco/Western Sahara. Add that up. Nothing to do with the fact that some Abdul Quddus in Sirajganj went to some hujur to learn to read Arabic.

cool response