Languages
This page looks at languages in terms of need in target countries, and availability in Linux.
Core languages for OLPC
These are languages important for our firmware messages, Sugar messages, interface strings for core activities, key web pages, and the like:
- Tier 1: Spanish (es), English (en), Portuguese (pt)
- Tier 2: Arabic (ar), Amharic (am), French (fr), Hebrew (he), Hindi (hi), Russian (ru), Thai (th)
- Tier 3: Hausa (ha), Igbo (ig), Yoruba (yo), Kazakh (kk), Mongolian (mn), Nepali (ne), Marathi (mr), Romanian (ro), Turkish (tr), Urdu (ur)
- Tier 4: German (de), Italian (it), Korean (ko), Uzbek (uz), Chinese (zh), other languages with keyboards, other official languages of green countries
- other: Greek (el), Croatian (hr), Indonesian (id), Dutch (nl), Newari (new), other offiial languages of red countries
Partner country official languages
Data on official languages from both Wikipedia and Ethnologue.
These sources often do not agree. The view on this page is that the more inclusive definition should be used, combining languages on both lists. Even if a language listed here is not formally adopted as an official language in the country of use, it is important enough for our purposes.
List from map of launch countries, as of 16:53, 12 October 2007 (EDT): Argentina, Brazil, Ethiopia, India, Libya, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Thailand, Uruguay & USA.
| Country | Official | Other Language(s) | Region(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Argentina | Spanish | living languages: 25 | |
| Guarani | Corrientes, Misiones | ||
| Brazil | Portuguese | living languages: 188 | |
| China, People's Republic of |
Mandarin (aka Putonghua) |
living languages: 235 | |
| Cantonese | Hong Kong, Macau (de facto) | ||
| English | Hong Kong | ||
| Kazakh | Ili Kazakh | ||
| Korean | Changbai, Yanbian | ||
| Mongolian | Inner Mongolia | ||
| Portuguese | Macau | ||
| Tajik | Taxkorgan | ||
| Tibetan | Tibet | ||
| Uyghur | Xinjiang | ||
| Zhuang | Guangxi | ||
| Daur | - regional - | ||
| Kalmyk-Oirat | - regional - | ||
| Lu | - regional - | ||
| Peripheral Mongolian | - regional - | ||
| Central Tibetan | - regional - | ||
| Uyghur | - regional - | ||
| Xibe | - regional - | ||
| Northern Zhuang | - regional - | ||
| Egypt | (Egyptian) Arabic | living languages: 11 | |
| India | Hindi English |
living languages: 415 | |
| sheduled official | Assamese | Assam | |
| sheduled official | Bengali | Tripura, West Bengal | |
| sheduled official | Bodo | Assam | |
| sheduled official | Dogri | Jammu, Kashmir | |
| sheduled official | Gujarati | Dadra, Nagar Haveli, Daman, Diu, Gujarat | |
| sheduled official | Kannada | Karnataka | |
| sheduled official | Kashmiri | Jammu, Kashmir | |
| sheduled official | Konkani | Goa | |
| sheduled official | Maithili | Bihar | |
| sheduled official | Malayalam | Kerala, Pondicherry, Lakshadweep | |
| Meitei | Manipur | ||
| sheduled official | Marathi | Maharashtra | |
| sheduled official | Nepali | Sikkim | |
| sheduled official | Oriya | Orissa | |
| sheduled official | Punjabi | Punjab | |
| Sanskrit | classical learning language | ||
| sheduled official | Santali | Jharkhand | |
| sheduled official | Sindhi | Jammu, Kashmir | |
| sheduled official | Tamil | Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry | |
| sheduled official | Telugu | Andhra Pradesh, Pondicherry | |
| sheduled official | Urdu | Jammu, Kashmir | |
| French | Pondicherry Union Territory - only | ||
| Libya | Arabic (std) | living languages: 9 | |
| Nigeria | Hausa Igbo Yoruba English |
living languages: 510 | |
| widely used | Adamawa, Edo, Efik, Fulfulde, Idoma, (central) Kanuri | ||
| Rwanda | Kinyarwanda French English |
living languages: 3 Source: Ethnologue | |
| Thailand | Thai | living languages: 74 | |
| Uruguay | Spanish |
Languages in Target Countries
Lists of languages of countries in discussions with OLPC, with links to priorities and status of OLPC-related language work in each, where available. All of these languages except Mongolian in its traditional alphabet can be entered, viewed, and printed in most distributions of Linux. Language support from one distribution can be easily added to almost any other. There are local OLPC organizations in several other countries.
Hausa, Igbo, and Yoruba (the most important three of the eight official languages of Nigeria other than English) lack further support, including native keyboard layouts and locales. Mongolian is currently supported only in Cyrillic, not in its traditional alphabet.
Europe and America
(en) English
Primary source language for the Internet, and for high-tech in general. Easier to describe materials for which this is not true in this section.
Users and translators: See Category:User en
(fr) French
Users and translators: See Category:User fr
(de) German
Users and translators: See Category:User de
(pt) Portuguese
Main dialects: Brazilian and continental
Users and translators: See Category:User pt
(es) Spanish
Users and translators: See Category:User es
(ru) Russian
Users and translators: See Category:User ru
(uk) Ukrainian
Users and translators: See Category:User uk
East and Central Asia
(ru) Russian
Users and translators: See Category:User ru
(zh) Chinese
Main written dialects: simplified and traditional
Users and translators: See Category:User zh
(ja) Japanese
Users and translators: See Category:User ja
(ko) Korean
Users and translators: See Category:User ko
(mn) Mongolian
Users and translators: See Category:User mn
(bo) Tibetan
Users and translators: See Category:User bo
South Asia
(bn) Bengali
Users and translators: See Category:User bn
(gu) Gujarati
Users and translators: See Category:User gu
(hi) Hindi
Users and translators: See Category:User hi
(kn) Kannada
Users and translators: See Category:User kn
(ml) Malayalam
Users and translators: See Category:User ml
(mr) Marathi
Users and translators: See Category:User mr
(np) Nepali
Users and translators: See Category:User np
(or) Oriya
Users and translators: See Category:User or
(ps) Pashto
Users and translators: See Category:User ps
(pa) Punjabi
Users and translators: See Category:User pa
(ta) Tamil
Users and translators: See Category:User ta
(te) Telugu
Users and translators: See Category:User te
(th) Thai
Users and translators: See Category:User th
Sub-Saharan Africa
(ha) Hausa
Users and translators: See Category:User ha
(ig) Igbo
Users and translators: See Category:User ig
(yo) Yoruba
Users and translators: See Category:User yo
(rw) Kinyarwanda
Users and translators: See Category:User rw
Middle East and North Africa
(ar) Arabic
Users and translators: See Category:User ar
i18n & l10n
The following table is focused on the list of languages present in the currently 'green status' countries (Argentina, Brazil, Ethiopia, India, Libya, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Thailand, United States, Uruguay). Countries with other 'status' may benefit from efforts for the 'green languages', plus add their own set of languages. Each language must be fully supported for the Localization effort.
| Language | Green Countries | Red Countries | Orange |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arabic | Libya | Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq (+), Israel (+), Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon (+), Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Sudan (+), Syria (+), Tunisia, Yemen | |
| English | Nigeria, Rwanda, USA (+) |
Belize (+), Pakistan (+), Philippines (+) | Canada (+), Gambia, Guyana, India (+), Kenya (+), Mauritius (+), Namibia (+), Saint Kitts and Nevis, Sierra Leone, Singapore (+), South Africa (+), St. Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago, Uganda (+), Zimbabwe (+) |
| French | Rwanda | Haiti (+) | Benin, Cameroon (+), Democratic Republic of the Congo (+), Gabon, Mali, Niger, Senegal, St. Martin (+), Togo |
| Hausa | Nigeria | ||
| Igbo | Nigeria | ||
| Kinyarwanda | Rwanda | ||
| Portuguese | Brazil | Angola | Mozambique, Portugal, São Tomé and Príncipe |
| Spanish | Argentina, Peru (+), Uruguay, USA (+) |
Belize, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala (+), Honduras, México (+), Nicaragua, Panamá, Colombia | Bolivia (+), Chile, Cuba, Ecuador, Paraguay (+), Puerto Rico (+), Spain (+), Venezuela (+) |
| Thai | Thailand | ||
| Yoruba | Nigeria | ||
| Other non-green languages | Ethiopia, Indonesia, Philippines (+), Pakistan (+), Vietnam | Afghanistan, Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Bhutan (+), Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia, China (+), Croatia, Cyprus, Eritrea, Estonia, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, India (+), Iran, Italy, Japan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Malaysia, Moldova, Mongolia, Romania, Russia, Slovenia, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Turkey, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Vatican City | |
The following table presents on a per country base the target languages that must be considered for the Localization effort of the countries with 'green status' (Argentina, Brazil, Ethiopia, India, Libya, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Thailand, United States, Uruguay).
| Country | Target Languages | Mayor/important languages | Minor/relevant languages |
|---|---|---|---|
| Argentina EthnologueAR |
[spa] Spanish | [quh] Quechua (0.85M - 2.1%) | See OLPC Argentina/Languages |
| Brazil EthnologueBR |
[por] Portuguese | none reported by Ethnologue BR above 50,000 speakers. | |
| Ethiopia EthnologueET |
[amh] Amharic, [eng] English, [tir] Tigrigna language |
see ethnologue | see ethnologue |
| India EthnologueIN |
see ethnologue | see ethnologue | see ethnologue |
| Libya EthnologueLY |
[arb] Arabic, Standard | [ayl] Arabic, Libyan Spoken (4.2M - 75%), [jbn] Nafusi (0.14M - 2.5%) |
[rmt] Domari (0.03M - 0.6%) |
| Nepal EthnologueNP |
see ethnologue | see ethnologue | see ethnologue |
| Nigeria EthnologueNG |
[eng] English, [hau] Hausa —(18.5M - 13.5%), [yor] Yoruba —(18.9M - 13.8%) |
[bin] Edo (1.0M - 0.7%) official, [efi] Efik (0.4M - 0.3%) official, [fub] Fulfulde, Adamawa (7.6M - 5.6%) official, [fuv] Fulfulde, Nigerian (1.7M - 1.2%), [ibb] Ibibio (1.5M to 2.0M - 1.0-1.5%), [idu] Idoma (0.6M - 0.4%) official, [ibo] Igbo (18.0M - 13.1%) official, [knc] Kanuri, Central (3.0M - 2.2%) official, [tiv] Tiv (2.2M - 1.6%) |
See OLPC Nigeria/Languages |
| Pakistan EthnologuePK |
see ethnologue | see ethnologue | see ethnologue |
| Peru EthnologueNG |
[spa] Spanish | pending | See OLPC Peru/Languages |
| Romania EthnologueRO |
see ethnologue | see ethnologue | see ethnologue |
| Russia EthnologueRU |
see ethnologue | see ethnologue | see ethnologue |
| Rwanda EthnologueRW |
[kin] Kinyarwanda, [fra] French, [eng] English |
[swh] Swahili (0.01M - 1.3%) | |
| Thailand EthnologueTH |
Thai (dialects?) | [nan] Chinese, Min Nan (1.1M - 1.7%), [kxm] Khmer, Northern (1.1M - 1.8%), [mfa] Malay, Pattani (3.1M - 4.8%), [tha] Thai (20.2M - 32%), [tts] Thai, Northeastern (15.0M - 23%), [nod] Thai, Northern (6.0M - 9.2%), [sou] Thai, Southern (5.0M - 7.7%) |
[ksw] Karen, S'gaw (0.3M - 0.5%), [kdt] Kuy (0.3M - 0.5%) |
| Uruguay EthnologueUY |
[spa] Spanish | none other reported by Ethnologue UY | |
| USA EthnologueUS |
[eng] English | [spa] Spanish (22.4M - 7.5%), [___] Polish (3.4M - 1.1%), [deu] German, Standard (6.1M - 2.0%), [___] Arabic (3.0M - 1.0%) |
[___] Armenian (1.1M - 0.4%), [___] Chinese (1.6M - 0.5%), [___] Czech (1.5M - 0.5%), [___] Eastern Yiddish (1.3M - 0.4%), [___] French (1.1M - 0.4%), [frc] French, Cajun (1.0M - 0.3%), [hwc] Hawai'i Creole English (0.6M - 0.2%), [___] Italian (0.9M - 0.3%), [___] Japanese (0.8M - 0.3%), [___] Korean (1.8M - 0.6%), [___] Philippines (1.4M - 0.5%), [___] Portuguese (1.3M - 0.4%), [___] Swedish (0.6M - 0.2%), [___] Ukrainian (0.8M - 0.3%), [___] Vietnamese (0.9M - 0.3%), [___] Vlax Romani (0.7M - 0.2%), [___] Western Farsi (0.9M - 0.3%) |
External Links
- Ethnologue Data on all known human languages
- Omniglot database on languages
- ISO two-letter language codes