Who's In Charge of a Language?

The recent story of Wikipedia editor Bryan Henderson who corrected 47,000 instances of a grammatical error got our attention this week. While it's great that there are people out there willing to improve Wikipedia in their free time, deciding what constitutes a grammatical error, especially in English, is sometimes hard to do.

Henderson corrected instances of the phrase "comprised of", instead preferring "consist of", "comprise", or a rewording of the sentence. If you take a prescriptive approach to the English language, you will certainly agree that "comprised of" is incorrect and should have been changed. If you take a more liberal stance on language usage, you will probably accept that languages evolve over time and certain "errors" become so commonplace that they then become the norm. Who has the final say in what is correct and what isn't?

The Real Academia Española in 1872.

Many languages have a regulatory body that standardises aspects of the language, whether the users of that language agree with them or not. Spanish answers to the Real Academia Española (RAE) in Spain. Along with 21 other Spanish language academies, the RAE is a member of the Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (ASALE), a regulatory body that supposedly governs the usage and conventions of the Spanish language as a whole.

The Central Hindi Directorate, केन्द्रीय हिन्दी निदेशालय, or Kendriya Hindi Nideshalaya, primarily deals with the use of Devanagari script and the spelling of Hindi words in India. Arabic, whether you consider it to be a language, a macrolanguage, or a dialect continuum, also has a multitude of organisations that consider themselves to be the authority on its correct usage. The majority refer to themselves as the Academy of the Arabic Language or مجمع اللغة العربية.

Users of the French language can refer to the Académie française in France and the Office québécois de la langue française in Quebec, Canada. Meanwhile, the Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Classe de Letras in Portugal or the Academia Brasileira de Letras in Brazil should have answers to most of your questions about Portuguese.

These few examples are just a small selection of the many regulatory bodies that consider themselves to be the highest authorities on their particular language or regional variety. The odd thing is that whether or not they prescribe certain rules or attempt to coin and standardise certain terms (take the seldom-used mot-dièse in French, for example), languages seem to evolve and change regardless of what they do.

The English language has no such regulatory bodies other than grammar sticklers and those who go out of their way to correct you mid-sentence. There isn't really anybody to give a final decision on whether Bryan Henderson's actions were valid or not. You could argue that if all those Wikipedia articles were understood despite the use of "comprised of", does it really matter that much? Couldn't we just accept that it is now an accepted way to write and speak?

Is Bryan Henderson a modern-day knight, protecting the sacred grammatical structure? Or is he just a pedant with far too much time on his hands? Can a single entity really control a language? Tell us what you think the comments below.

United Nations Day: The Languages of the UN

Today, October 24, marks the date that the Charter of the United Nations came into effect. While it hardly makes for a riveting read (you can read it here if you must), what it does in practice is far more astounding, since it acts as the treaty that founded the UN.

The flag of the UN

The treaty itself was signed on 26 June 1945 at the San Francisco War Memorial and Performing Arts Center. When it was signed, Poland was the only of the 51 founding nations not present,  eventually signing the treaty a couple of months later.

The five permanent members of the Security Council (P5) at the time, the Republic of China, France, the UK, the US, and the USSR, ratified the charter alongside a number of other nations. While it may seem odd to mention the P5, their importance will become evident as we look at the official languages of the UN.

When the charter was made, it was written in five languages: Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish. It wasn't until the first General Assembly that the five official languages and working languages of the UN were decided. Initially, English and French were decided upon as the working languages.

Spanish was added as a working language in 1948, making the three languages the status quo for the General Assembly until 1968, when Russian was added as the fourth working language. By this point, four of the five official languages were in use as working languages. Chinese was then made a working language in 1973, making all five original official languages also working languages.

Arabic was added as both an official and a working language in 1973. The official language status of Arabic only extended to the General Assembly and its "main committees", as opposed to the five other languages, which held official status throughout all committees. For the first three years after Arabic became an official language, the Arab nations of the UN were expected to fund the procedures required enact this change.

After seven years as an official language for the General Assembly and its main committees, Arabic's official status was extended to all subcommittees in 1980. Three years later, all six languages were adopted as the official languages of the Security Council.

Currently, there are a number of additional languages vying for official language status. In 2009, the president of Bangladesh suggested that Bengali be an official language of the UN. Esperanto has also been suggested, despite its relatively small number of speakers.

Hindi and Portuguese have also been suggested since they are both widely-spoken languages. The Secretary-General of the UN and the Turkish Prime Minister have also suggested that Turkish become one of the official languages.

Do you think the UN uses the right languages? Which languages do you think should become official languages of the UN? Tell us in the comments below.

Celebrating the Linguistic Life of Richard Francis Burton

On this day in 1890, Richard Francis Burton's fascinating life came to an end. Today we've decided to honour the man with a post about his life and his work as both a linguist and translator. While the stories of linguists and translators are often fascinating to us, few have led a more interesting and exciting life than Richard Francis Burton.

The hyperpolyglot himself in his later years.

Burton was born on 19 March 1821 in Torquay, England. However, a relatively small amount of his time was spent in his hometown since his family travelled often when he was a child. He spent a good number of his very early years in Tours, France after his family moved there in 1825. Burton later returned to England to attend a prep school in Surrey.

As his family travelled across Europe, generally between the United Kingdom, France, and Italy, Burton's love for languages led to him learning a considerable number of them. Starting with primarily Romance languages, he learnt French, Italian, Latin, and Neapolitan. He also learnt some Romani following a supposed affair with a gypsy woman, as well as learning Arabic during his time at school.

Having enlisted in the East India Company's army, Burton shipped out to India where he mastered a number of the local languages, including Hindustani, Gujarati, Punjabi, Sindhi, Saraiki and Marathi, not to mention improving upon his Arabic and adding Persian to his rapidly-growing list of languages. He also owned a group of monkeys which he attempted to communicate with, earning him much ridicule from his fellow soldiers.

Eventually, a sense of adventure compelled Burton to undertake a pilgrimage to Mecca, earning him widespread fame. However, Burton was undercover during the pilgrimage. While he had extensively researched and improved upon his Arabic, he pretended to be Pashtun in order to help explain why he spoke the way he did.

Burton was an active participant in the Crimean War after he rejoined the army. After an alleged mutiny in which Burton was mentioned during the subsequent enquiry, he spent time exploring Africa.

After several stints exploring Africa, Burton's later years were spent in diplomatic and academic roles. He spent time in Brazil, Damascus, and Trieste, to name a few places. He also continued to travel and write before undertaking the translations that earned him significant recognition.

Sir Richard Francis Burton translated the Kama Sutra, which generated considerable controversy at the time. He also translated The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, which is often known as Arabian Nights. By the time Burton died, he had mastered somewhere between 25 and 40 languages, depending on how you count them, making him more than worthy of our respect.

World Population Day: The Demographics of Languages

Today is another obscure holiday, World Population Day. July 11, which marks World Population Day, was selected by the United Nations Development Program to raise awareness of population issues and, supposedly, work towards fixing them through global action.

In honour of this day, we thought we'd look at the populations of languages, and, as I love charts, figures, and graphs, attempt to show you a few facts and figures about world languages in a colourful, visual, and interesting way.

Please be patient while the infographic loads.

Demographics of Languages | Create Infographics

Independence Day: The Languages of Djibouti

Today the nation of Djibouti celebrates its independence from France, so we thought we'd take a look at the linguistic makeup of the country. Djibouti can be found on the Horn of Africa and, like many African nations, was once colonised by France. However, on this day in 1977, Djibouti gained its independence from France. Although there are certainly remnants of France's influence on Djibouti, the country speaks much more than just the French language.

While French does hold official language status in Djibouti and the country's motto, "Unité, Égalité, Paix" ("Unity, Equality, Peace") is in French, it also grants official language status to Arabic. Having French and Arabic as official languages is hardly surprising given Djibouti's colonial past and the dominance of Islam within the nation, with Muslims accounting for 94% of the population.

Lake Assal, a crater lake in Djibouti

Linguistically speaking, the makeup of Djibouti is much more diverse. Neither French nor Arabic are the majority language in terms of native speakers, as the most-spoken language is actually Somali. Nearly 300,000 people in Djibouti speak the Afro-Asiatic language of Somali. As the total population of Djibouti is just 800,000, this means that nearly 4 in 10 people in this country speak Somali. The Somali language is also considered to be native to Djibouti.

Another of Djibouti's native languages is also the second largest in terms of native speakers in the nation. Afar, which is spoken by just under 100,000 people in Djibouti, is also an Afro-Asiatic language. Even though there are 1.4 million speakers of Afar in the world, Eritrea is the only nation to have granted it any sort of official language status, and recognises it as an official minority language.

The standardised form of Arabic is often used for official matters whilst the local variant of Arabic, known as Ta'izzi-Ideni Arabic (or Djibouti Arabic), is spoken by 36,000 people in Djibouti. In fact, the Omani Arabic dialect, which originated in the Oman mountains, is spoken by 38,000 people, making it more popular than the local variant.

Much like Arabic, the French language is used for official matters and for tuition. Outside of its official capacity, the French language is only spoken natively by around 10,000 people in Djibouti. 

A number of languages other than French and Omani Arabic have also made their way into use in Djibouti. Amharic, Greek, and Hindi are also spoken in this linguistically-diverse African nation.

The Best Multilingual Cities In Asia

Recently we've been looking at the best multilingual cities across various places in the world, from Europe to Canada and the USA, and from Mexico and the Caribbean onto South America. In a similar fashion, today we'll be looking at the best cities in Asia for linguaphiles.

Darjeeling in 1880.

Darjeeling, India - Darjeeling isn't just a type of tea, it's also a place in India where the tea comes from. Millions of kilos of Darjeeling tea are made here every year and the city is also a popular destination for tourists and Bollywood film crews.

As you will know from our language profiles, India is a multilingual haven and Darjeeling is no exception. Aside from the beautiful scenery and perfect climate, you can find speakers of Nepali, English, Hindi and Bengali.

Delhi, India - India's capital New Delhi, which is part of the administrative region of Delhi, is home to literally hundreds of languages. English, Hindi, Urdu, and Punjabi are the most commonly spoken, though thanks to cultural diversity, many other languages are spoken here, making it a perfect destination for those who love languages.

Mumbai, India - Mumbai, formerly known as Bombay, is another prime example of India's linguistic variety. The city boasts speakers of English, Hindi, Marathi, Urdu, Gujarati, and over one hundred other languages.

As well as being a multilingual city, Mumbai is also rich in history and culture and well worth a visit for those who can bear with India's climate.

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam - The former French colony of Ho Chi Minh, originally known as Saigon and colloquially as the Paris of the East, is home to several languages, including Vietnamese, Cantonese, English, and French. English and French are spoken mainly due to colonisation and the Vietnam War.

Ho Chi Minh City is the largest city in Vietnam, and District 1 is a popular tourist destination which bears a huge French influence. It's a must-see for those travelling through Vietnam.

The Bank of China building in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong - The former British colony of Hong Kong has speakers of Cantonese, English, and Mandarin. As one of the most densely populated areas in the world, Hong Kong is not recommended for those who like their getaways to be tranquil and quiet, but if you like the hustle and bustle it should be top of your list of places to go.

Macau - Cantonese, Mandarin, Portuguese, and English are the languages on almost everybody's tongue when you get to Macau. As one of China's two special administrative regions (the other being Hong Kong), Macau was formerly a Portuguese colony, hence the lasting fluency in the language.

Much like Hong Kong, Macau is a popular tourist destination and the tourist industry accounts for a large portion of the economy. Again, this is a bustling destination and comes highly recommended for those who like a different kind of holiday.

Which Is The Best Language To Learn?

So you're probably as hungover as we are... and you probably promised that you'd do so many things this year. What are they? Lose weight, quit smoking, see your family more? Learn a language is one of the most common resolutions... and we hope you picked that one! But which language should you learn?

Following a study by George Weber in 1995, languages were evaluated based on six factors, ranging from number of speakers to how influential the countries where they're spoken are.

If you're learning a language to find love, then perhaps you should be playing the numbers game and picking one with the most speakers. Or one that would find you the best jobs. Without further ado, here they are:

English

We all knew English would probably be in this list. It is our mother tongue here at The Lingua File, and its influence across the globe in terms of film, literature and television helps it top this list. It's also used as a lingua franca in many places and tends to be learnt by most people in the tourism industry, probably because its native speakers tend to be terrible at learning other languages.

It's hard to find a nicer place than Nice!

French

French is a beautiful language and France is a beautiful country. If you needed more reasons to learn the language you can also consider that it is spoken in Canada, principally in Quebec, as well as many nations in Africa thanks to France's imperial past. France and Canada are both first-world countries and French also features heavily as an official language for organisations such as the United Nations, the European Union, the International Olympic Committee, FIFA and many others.

Spanish

Spanish would be pretty good. The language is rich with pretty sexy nations. Spain and the majority of South American countries speak Spanish. The language comes with a rich culture, great films and great party music. 

Russia has also given us matryoshka dolls.

Russian

The language of the world's largest country is not only incredibly interesting, but also incredibly useful. Russia has a decent economy and is still considered one of the world's major powers. Plus you can watch spy films where the bad guys are Americans!

Arabic

With so many oil-rich nations in the Middle East and Arabic being the main language, having a good grasp of Arabic will help you along. If money isn't your thing then you should consider that Arabic is a macro-language spoken from North Africa to the Middle East and is awash with history and culture.

We also have the Chinese to thank for fireworks.

Mandarin Chinese

Chinese has plenty of native speakers and would be a good place to start. With China becoming stronger and stronger economically, it's always going to be a useful language to speak. Although in the past Chinese businesses have had to speak English, things are starting to turn around.

German

As one of the strongest economies in Europe, Germany is a good place to be, and as a result, German is a good language to learn. Knowing the language of Europe's economic powerhouse can't possibly hurt when it comes to finding jobs or generally planning your career.

Japanese

Aside from Japan being one of the coolest countries we can think of, Japanese is useful due to a large number of native speakers and Japan's economy. Plus you can always watch loads of cool animé films without dubbing or subtitles!

Brazil also has beautiful beaches full
of lovely people.

Portuguese

With Brazil having one of the world's largest economies, Portuguese has found itself as one of the most important languages in the modern world. If you already know any other Romance languages you should take the plunge and invest your time in Portuguese.

Hindi

India is going from strength to strength economically and the most-spoken language in the sub-continent is always considered a good one to learn. The culture in Hindi is massive so you'll never be short of materials to help you learn.

If after all this you can't decide or are still not sure, why not pick a language from the easiest languages to learn?