NCSG-DISCUSS Archives

NCSG-Discuss

NCSG-DISCUSS@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU

Options: Use Forum View

Use Monospaced Font
Show Text Part by Default
Show All Mail Headers

Message: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Topic: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Author: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]

Print Reply
Subject:
From:
Enrique Chaparro <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Enrique Chaparro <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Tue, 30 Sep 2014 14:16:49 -0300
Content-Type:
text/plain
Parts/Attachments:
text/plain (36 lines)
Thankyou, Mamadou!

Despite the effort, the information is not very useful:
* Uneven criteria for calculating number of speakers. E.g. while the number of
  Spanish speakers has been calculated on the basis of the population of the
  the countries where Spanish is the official language, the number of English
  speakers has been calculated on other (unknown) basis.
* That leads to a gross understatement of the number of Spanish speakers
  (perhaps others too, but I have no reliable figures), by excluding
e.g. the 40+
  million people in the US that have Spanish as their mother tongue.[1]
* But even if those figures were correct (or based on the same assumptions),
  they are of little use. When trying to analyze linguistic diversity
in the Internet,
  we should take into account two factors:
  (a) The number of people proficient enough in a language to clearly understand
      contents written in that language, and
  (b) The volume of contents available for each language.
* There is another, seemingly unsurmountable problem: while Internet penetration
  rates are calculated on country basis, such distribution is often
uneven across
  language borders. E.g., Internet access for primarily Quechua-speaking
  communities in Bolivia, Peru,  Ecuador and Colombia, where Spanish is the
  majority language,  is well below the related national averages.[2]

Regards,

Enrique

[1] The total number of people having Spanish as their first language or usual
    communication language beyond their family/community group could be
    estimated around 487 million, give or take 1 %.

[2] And I won't even tuch the issue of contents, which are less than minimal
for a language spoken by about 9 million people.

ATOM RSS1 RSS2