Most Common Spoken Languages in Inḍian States

Most Common Spoken Languages in Inḍian States

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‘There are almost no native speakers of English (0.02%). Everyone speaks it as a second or third language

I would caution you from making a connection between mother tongue and first language. In big cities like Bangalore and Chennai, the rich and upper middle class usually send their children to English-medium schools, so their children often end up better at English than their mother tongue(they can speak both well, but reading and writing in their mother tongue is often poor since they don’t take it in school or only as a second language). However, even if they speak English fluently and are not as proficient in their mother tongue, they would never say English is their mother tongue’

Laos ethno-linguistic map

Laos ethno-linguistic map

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‘One of my favorite places on this Earth. I’ve always read there are 3 types of Lao people. The ones that live at sea level, ones that live at mid-range elevation and ones that live on the mountain tops. Sticky rice is the common denominator’

‘My wife and I have spent several months in Laos. It’s easily one of our favourite places. We bought motorbikes and drove from Luang Prabang down to 4,000 islands, best trip we’ve ever done’

1881 language [Gaelic] map of the British Isles

1881 language [Gaelic] map of the British Isles

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How about today? How’re the celtic languages doing? How effective are the efforts to revive them? …. Welsh is doing well, it’s taught in most [if not all] Welsh schools aswell as some English schools. If you go to Northern Wales you hear spoken Welsh pretty commonly and all Welsh roadsigns are Bilingual by law.

Manx is also having a successful revival, with widespread education and recognition. Despite the Isle of Man’s relatively small size there are Manx radio stations and a school which teaches mostly in Manx. Considering the language was nearly dead 50 years ago this is brilliant to see.

Cornish is less successful, it is taught in clubs and societies but all Government funding has been dropped for it. There are a few hundred fluent speakers but it’s very rare to hear spoken in public. Cornish is the only living Celtic language still spoken in Mainland England, and has been after Cumbric died in the 13th century.

Scottish Gaelic (not to be confused with Scots) is also on the up, it is taught in a lot of Scottish schools and spoken natively in the Western Isles. Recently it has gained a lot of recognition and popularity.

Overall its very heartwarming to see such successful revival efforts. Cornish is the only one at risk of being lost, which is a great shame since Cornish is one of only 3 Brithonic languages still alive (The others being Welsh and Breton), Brithonic languages were the Original languages spoken in Great Britain before the Germanic conquests. The other Celtic languages spoken in Great Britain (Manx and Scots Gaelic) are Gaelic, and originated in Ireland’

The Latvian Russian Language Referendum 2012 - asking whether the Russian Language should be given official language status ; and the use of the Russian language at home in Latvia (2011)

The Latvian Russian Language Referendum 2012 - asking whether the Russian Language should be given official language status ; and the use of the Russian language at home in Latvia (2011)

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‘The Russian language in Latvia is not only the language of ethnic Russians, but also of ¾ of Belorussians, 2/3 of Ukrainians, 4/5 of Jews, more than ½ of Poles’–mahendrabirbikram

1910 Languages of Central Europe (without borders)

1910 Languages of Central Europe (without borders)

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‘Reddish hues are Germanic languages, bluish ones are Romance, green Slavic.

The big light pink blob in the center is High German. To the north of it, darker pink, Low German and, further north and darker, Danish. The reddish hue on the border between Danish and Low German, and also in the Netherlands, is Frisian. Continuing counterclockwise you have Dutch, French, Italian; then purple is probably Friulian, which here is counted as a separate language while things like Lombardian are grouped as dialects of Italian.

Next comes Yugoslavian, including Slovenian and Bosnio-Croat-Montenegro-Serbian. Brown is Hungarian, light green is Slovakian, the green almost entirely surrounded by German is Czech, the green entirely surrounded by German is Sorbian, the green with lots of small German enclaves is Polish. The yellowish tone in the northeast is likely Lithuanian’–eukubernetes

Ethnolinguistic structure of eastern territories of the Kingdom of Prussia in years 1816-1831

Ethnolinguistic structure of eastern territories of the Kingdom of Prussia in years 1816-1831

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‘As for West Slavs in Pommerania, those would be Slovincians or other Pommeranian groups that hadn’t been assimilated by the 1830s.

Lithuanian minority in East Prussia was quite huge, they were the majority in the countryside around Tilsit, and Tilsit itself acted as a big Lithuanian cultural centre at the time. Lithuanian was banned in Imperial Russia, so they printed the books in Tilsit and smuggled it across the border.

And it isn’t that different than the situation just before WW1 or WW2 even, as even up to 1945, Lithuanians formed a big minority in eastern East Prussia while Polish speaking Mazurians were a large minority along the Polish border (southern East Prussia)‘–Vitaalis

How long the Irish (Gaeilge) language survived in Irish counties

How long the Irish (Gaeilge) language survived in Irish counties

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‘Save this language … I’m trying, Duolingo has Irish I was doing quite well. But it’s tough due to the way the language is structured it’s not intuitive to a native English speaker. Like anything it takes practice and if you stop you lose your momentum … Learning the language online does not save any language. It’s a nice thing to tell yourself, but in reality if one would want to help, one would have to take a lot of money anc create economic and cultural resource in Ireland - that basically means create job opportunities etc. And that’s nearly impossible for individuals to casually support’