JW.ORG: 1090 languages and growing!

[Raven]

"JW.org has passed the milestone of being translated into 1000 languages, and is still rapidly growing! We will surely continue to see many more languages added in a short amount of time.
So I thought I'd share some interesting language stats that I hope you all find encouraging (disclaimer: these stats may not be 100% correct, but if not then would be very close)...

 

Today there are 7,099 living languages (This number includes sign languages, creoles, pidgins, mixed languages, constructs, and unclassified languages). It is predicted by some that in 100 years from now only 10% of these will still be alive ~ that is roughly 700. 
~ In 2016 the entire Bible had been translated into 636 languages, and the complete New Testament into 1,442 languages, and is currently in the process of being translated into many more languages. The Watchtower magazine is translated into over 300 languages, and has a circulation of over 62 million copies bimonthly, making it the most circulated and most translated magazine on the planet. The Brochure Listen to God and Live Forever is in well over 640 languages (figure from mid 2016) and counting...

Of those 7,000+ languages, just 397 languages have one million or more native speakers, only about 90 languages have ten million or more native speakers (23 of these account for more than half the world's population), just 10 languages have one hundred million or more native speakers, and only 1 language has close to one billion native speakers (Mandarin Chinese ~ worth learning!).

These are the names of those top 10 languages, in order of population (according to Wikipedia):
Mandarin Chinese
Spanish
English (2nd place if including all speakers)
Hindustani
Arabic
Portuguese
Bengali
Russian
Japanese
Punjabi

 

"World Languages":
World languages are international languages with a huge number of both native speakers and non-native speakers. The three most agreed upon world languages are (in order):
English (By far the most international)
French
Spanish
Less strict sources include the following in this category...
Mandarin Chinese
Arabic
Portuguese
Russian
German

 

"Endangered Languages":
On the other side of the list, 1,955 languages have less than 1,000 native speakers. About 692 of those languages have less than 100 native speakers, and 363 of that number have less than 10 native speakers left. About 219 of those languages exist solely as an auxiliary language and has no native speakers left at all, or exist as a constructed language that a mere handful of people, and in some cases just a single person, can speak it to varying degrees of fluency. 199 languages have unknown statistics.
Apparently the least spoken native language in the world is Taushiro (Pinche), a Peruvian language spoken fluently by only one elderly man.

 

Language distribution:
Africa: 2,144
Americas: 1,061
Asia: 2,294
Europe: 287
Pacific: 1,313

 

Constructed languages:
According to another source, there may be over 300 constructed languages in total.
Eperanto is by far the most successful of all constructed languages, having close to two million speakers around the world, and now even has a small population of native speakers (children taught Esperanto as one of their first languages by their parents). It is said to be one of the easiest spoken languages to learn, and along with Latin and Koine Greek, is even taught in some Universities (as well as in one primary school in Brazil). The complete Bible has been translated into Esperanto.

Klingon (from Star Trek) is an actual constructed language that has up to 30 speakers. Apparently parts of the Bible have been translated into Klingon too. @Qapla

 

Sign language stats:
Out of the 137 sign languages, the most used is Chinese Sign Language, while the most international is American Sign Language (part of the French Sign Language family). Some sign languages have a written form, tho few people can read them.

 

Oldest living language:
Hebrew.
Since Jehovah God blessed Shem, it's reasonable to assume that Shem's language was not affected when God confused the language of the disapproved people at Babel. Abram the Hebrew was a direct decendent of Shem (see the lineage: Genesis 11:10-26), and would have spoken the same language as his direct ancestor. Therefore, altho the original Hebrew has changed dramatically over time into its modern decendent language, the oldest living language would probably be Hebrew ~ as well as most likely being the oldest language of humankind.
In Paradise will we all return to speaking the original language, Hebrew? Or will God create a brand new language for us? We will have to wait an see...

 

 

Sources:
https://www.ethnologue.com/statistics/size
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_number_of_native_speakers
http://www2.cmp.uea.ac.uk/~jrk/conlang.html
https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/1200001953

https://www.jw.org/en/

Edited March 21 by Dages
number update

[Hope]

WOW!!  May I share this on my Facebook page??

[Raven]

19 minutes ago, Hope said:

WOW!!  May I share this on my Facebook page??

Of course, please do! 

[James the Less]

This is fascinating! Thanks so much for sharing. And what an awesome milestone to have reached!

[Woodland]

This is really interesting.  You can certainly see how hard Jehovahs organisation is working to reach as many as it can with the good news.

[Dustparticle]

 it shows Jehovah's backing and I'm waiting for the 1,000 mark.

[Cushi]

How did you find out that jw.org has reached 900 languages. I didn't see a source for this. 

[Tortuga]

1 hour ago, Brother Jack said:

How did you find out that jw.org has reached 900 languages. I didn't see a source for this. 

[Cushi]

2 hours ago, Tortuga said:

Thanks. I tried that but didn't see it at first. It showed it at the bottoms on my phone.

Edited July 11, 2017 by Brother Jack

[Raven]

3 hours ago, Brother Jack said:

Thanks. I tried that but didn't see it at first. It showed it at the bottoms on my phone.

 

We're over 900 already? Very nice.

[BibleSteve]

love this, thanks for pointing it out

[Skye]

901 already! The Chariot is at full speed! To all languages and nations and peoples and tongues.....

 

Edited July 12, 2017 by Skye

[Whitley M]

I shared as well!!! Amazing! Thanks for your hard work and research! 

[And_Ray]

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/14whlCCJP48UMmeQ-G9RSJo6yi2Dy3T7TRVqe4baUf1s/edit?usp=sharing

 

Here's a list of languages on the webpage over time, starting with January this year.

I had shared the link in another thread, but it's a good time to repost it.

[Raven]

16 hours ago, And_Ray said:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/14whlCCJP48UMmeQ-G9RSJo6yi2Dy3T7TRVqe4baUf1s/edit?usp=sharing

 

Here's a list of languages on the webpage over time, starting with January this year.

I had shared the link in another thread, but it's a good time to repost it.

Thank you for sharing this. 

[JPWRana]

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/14whlCCJP48UMmeQ-G9RSJo6yi2Dy3T7TRVqe4baUf1s/edit?usp=sharing
 
Here's a list of languages on the webpage over time, starting with January this year.
I had shared the link in another thread, but it's a good time to repost it.

I am opening the file from my phone, and it doesn't let me zoom in. It says protected file.

Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk

[Raven]

902 now.

[And_Ray]

15 hours ago, JPWRana said:

 

I am opening the file from my phone, and it doesn't let me zoom in. It says protected file.

Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk
 

 

It doesn't matter that it's protected file. It's that way because i've restricted editing functionality. On the other hand, you need "google sheets" app on your phone to see the file properly. Do you have it? I tried opening the file yesterday on my phone and it showed perfectly. 
Let me know if you experience any other difficulties. 

[Tia]

Love viewing the languages -

[Brandon]

When it went from 897 to 901, the four languages added were

1. Mamasa (completely new addition!)
2. efate - north
3. kazakh [arabic]
4. korean [china]

I made a similar spreadsheet to the other brother (just a bit more detail): https://www.icloud.com/numbers/0JuoFwYSKGEXpvggef0ZK9hoQ#jw

 

This URL shows all the languages in a single webpage: https://www.jw.org/en/choose-language

I added it to my page monitoring account, but it hasn't updated yet so I'm still trying to figure out what the 902nd language is. 

[Raven]

11 hours ago, Brandon said:

When it went from 897 to 901, the four languages added were

1. Mamasa (completely new addition!)
2. efate - north
3. kazakh [arabic]
4. korean [china]

I made a similar spreadsheet to the other brother (just a bit more detail): https://www.icloud.com/numbers/0JuoFwYSKGEXpvggef0ZK9hoQ#jw

 

This URL shows all the languages in a single webpage: https://www.jw.org/en/choose-language

I added it to my page monitoring account, but it hasn't updated yet so I'm still trying to figure out what the 902nd language is. 

Cool! I was wondering which languages they were...Thank you for sharing. 

[Brandon]

16 hours ago, Bjern said:

Cool! I was wondering which languages they were.

 

Oh and looks like my page monitor is working:  the text Hano was added to the webpage's text. 

[Raven]

903 today.

[Thesauron]

 
Oh and looks like my page monitor is working:  the text Hano was added to the webpage's text. 

Hano (also, Raga) is the language of northern Pentecost island in Vanuatu.


Johan

[Raven]

2 hours ago, Thesauron said:

Hano (also, Raga) is the language of northern Pentecost island in Vanuatu.


Johan

Very cool!