Country | Official and national Languages | Other spoken Languages |
Afghanistan | Pashto (Pashtu, Pushtu) an Eastern Iranian language, it is the native language of the Pashtun people. Dari Persian (Fārsī-ye Darī) also known as Afghan Persian. |
Other Turkic and minor languages. |
Armenia |
Armenian (Hayeren) is an independent, one-language subgroup within the Indo-European language family. The unique Armenian alphabet, which consists of 39 characters, was created in 405 AD by a monk named Mesrop Mashtots. |
Russian widely used |
Azerbaijan | Azerbaijani (Azeri; a Turkic language of the Altaic family) 89% | Russian 3%, Armenian 2%, other 6% |
Bahrain | Arabic (Arabiyya) | English, Farsi, Urdu |
Bangladesh | Bengali (Bangla) | English |
Bhutan | Bhutanese (Dzongkha) | The Bhotes (the principal ethnic majority 50%) speak various Tibetan dialects like Tshanglakha and Khenkha, Nepalese speak various Nepalese dialects like Lhotsamkha. |
Brunei Darussalam | Malay, English | Chinese |
Cambodia | Khmer is spoken by more than 95% of the population (the Khmer language is influenced by spoken and written Thai) | Some French is still spoken, and English is increasingly popular as a second language. |
China | Standard Chinese is also called Putonghua (普通话) or Mandarin. | Wu 吴语 - spoken in Shanghai and in Zhejiang province and Jiangsu province. Yue 粤 - Cantonese, the official in Hong Kong and Macau. Uyghur (Xinjiang) English (Hong Kong), Portuguese (Macau), Tibetan (Tibet), Mongolian (Inner Mongolia). Other Chinese dialects like Min, Hakka (Kejia), Gan and Xiang. |
Cyprus | Greek, Turkish | English |
Georgia | Georgian | Russian, Armenian, Azeri, and other. Abkhaz is the official language in Abkhazia. |
India |
Hindi, Urdu, and English (the most important language for national, political, and commercial communication). |
Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Kashmiri, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Panjabi, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Tamil, and Telugu. |
Indonesia | Bahasa Indonesia (official, modified form of Malay) | English, Dutch, and local dialects, the most widely spoken of which is Javanese. |
Iran | Persian and Persian dialects 58% (Farsi) | Turkic dialects 26%, Kurdish 9%, Luri 2%, Balochi 1%, Arabic |
Iraq | Arabic (Arabiyya), Kurdish (official since 8 March 2004) | Assyrian (Syriac-Aramaic), Armenian, Turcoman |
Israel | Hebrew (Ivrit), Arabic | Yiddish, Ladino, Judeo-Arabic, Judeo-Tat, and Judeo-Berber, English is the major foreign language. |
Japan | Japanese (Nihongo) | Ryukyuan languages |
Jordan | Arabic (Arabiyya) | English is widely understood among the upper and middle classes. |
Kazakhstan | Kazakh (Qazaq, state language) 64.4%, Russian (official, used in everyday business, designated the "language of interethnic communication") 95% | |
Korea (North) | Korean (Choso'nmal or Choson'o) | |
Korea (South) | Korean (Hangungmal); Korean is written in Hangeul, the Korean alphabet. | English is widely taught in junior high and high school. |
Kuwait | Arabic (Arabiyya) | English is widely spoken. |
Kyrgyzstan | Kyrgyz, Russian | In December 2001, the Kyrgyzstani legislature made Russian an official language, equal in status to Kyrgyz. |
Laos | Lao | Thai, French, English, and various ethnic languages |
Lebanon | Arabic (Arabiyya) | French, English, Armenian |
Macau | Putonghua (Mandarin), Portuguese | Everyone speaks Yue Chinese (Cantonese), and English is used as a "working language". |
Malaysia | Bahasa Melayu | English, Chinese dialects, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Panjabi, and Thai. In addition, in East Malaysia several indigenous languages are spoken, the largest are Iban and Kadazan. |
Maldives | Maldivian Dhivehi (a dialect of Sinhala, script derived from Arabic) | English is spoken by most government officials. |
Mongolia | Khalkha Mongol (a branch of the Altaic family) | Turkic, Russian |
Myanmar (Burma) | Burmese | 135 minority ethnic groups have their own languages. Some English is spoken in tourist destinations. |
Nepal | Nepali (official and lingua franca of the country) 90% |
Sixty ethnic groups, speak seventy different dialects and eleven major languages like Tibeto-Burman, Lhotsamkha, Nepalbhasa, Tamang languages; minorities Bhutanese (Dzongkha), Tibetan languages, and possibly Chinese dialects. |
Oman | Arabic (Arabiyya) | English, Baluchi, Urdu, and Indian dialects. |
Palestine | Arabic (Arabiyya), Hebrew (Ivrit, spoken by Israeli settlers and many Palestinians) | English is widely understood. |
Pakistan | Urdu, English (official and "lingua franca" of Pakistani elite and most government ministries) | Punjabi 48%, Sindhi 12%, Siraiki (a Punjabi variant) 10%, Pashtu 8%, Balochi 3%, Hindko 2%, Brahui 1%, Burushaski, and other 8% |
Philippines | Filipino (based on Tagalog) and English. Filipino is the national language. |
English is widely used and is the medium of instruction in higher education. |
Qatar | Arabic (Arabiyya) | English is commonly used as a second language. |
Saudi Arabia | Arabic (Arabiyya) | |
Singapore | Chinese, Malay, Tamil, English | |
Sri Lanka | Sinhala (official and national language) 74%, Tamil (national language) 18% | English is commonly used in government and is spoken competently by about 10% of the population. |
Syria | Arabic (Arabiyya) | Kurdish, Armenian, Aramaic, Circassian are widely understood; French, English somewhat understood. |
Taiwan | Chinese Mandarin (PuTongHua) | Taiwanese (Min), Hakka dialects. |
Tajikistan | Tajik | Russian is widely used in government and business. |
Thailand | Thai | English (secondary language of the elite), ethnic and regional dialects. |
Timor-Leste | Tetum, Portuguese | Indonesian, English. In addition, there are 16 indigenous languages; Tetum, Galole, Mambae, and Kemak spoken by significant numbers of people. |
Turkey | Turkish (türkçe) | Kurdish, Arabic, Armenian, Greek |
Turkmenistan | Turkmen 72% | Russian 12%, Uzbek 9%, other 7% |
United Arab Emirates | Arabic (Arabiyya) | Persian, English, Hindi, Urdu |
Uzbekistan | Uzbek 74.3% | Russian 14.2%, Tajik 4.4%, other 7.1% |
Viet Nam | Vietnamese | English (increasingly favored as a second language), some French, Chinese, and Khmer; mountain area languages (Mon-Khmer and Malayo-Polynesian) |
Yemen | Arabic (Arabiyya) |