File talk:IE countries.svg

North Africa (Maghreb)
French is widely spoken in some countries in North Africa (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia). Maybe painting them light blue would be more correct? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 189.61.63.33 (talk) 23:22, 18 July 2013 (UTC)

African country classifications dubious
South Africa does not have a majority of speakers of IE languages. Seems not much research went into the current official status of the former IE Colonial languages in the rest of Africa either - just painted Sub-Saharan Africa with a light-green brush, eh?

Please correct. Alternatively, I offer to do it on behalf of the Article Admin and post a link to the updated map image. Just post permission here and I'll go ahead. 62.24.195.87 (talk) 14:12, 11 January 2008 (UTC)


 * As at 12/01/08 the mini-map shown on the main article page appears correctly (South Africa NOT with majority IE speakers) but this map http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:IE_countries.svg seems not to have been updated. 62.24.195.87 (talk) 13:24, 12 January 2008 (UTC)

Paraguay
I'm concerned about the classification of Paraguay. 80% of the populace there speaks the indigenous Guaraní language. Spanish may be the official language (maybe?) but that isn't the whole picture. There is also a population of German-speaking Anabaptists (Mennonites) who settled in the countryside in the 19th century. It is a stretch to consider this country a Spanish-speaking country in the sense of Colombia, etc. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.250.207.215 (talk) 16:54, 10 February 2008 (UTC)
 * I noticed this as well. Seems it should be light green. -Elmer Clark (talk) 17:33, 15 September 2008 (UTC)
 * According to Languages of Paraguay, "Spanish is spoken by about 87 percent of the population, while Guaraní is spoken by more than 90 percent, with about 4,650,000 speakers.", and dark green indicates that a "majority of speakers" can speak one or more Indo-European languages, so dark green seems correct. --Yair rand (talk) 06:26, 6 September 2011 (UTC)

Asia
Hong Kong, Macau and Singapore should be included. Malaysia should also be considered for inclusion. Meursault2004 (talk) 18:18, 15 April 2008 (UTC)

India
South India must not included in the IE. Because the Dravidian not in the IE. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.199.198.246 (talk) 07:06, 29 September 2008 (UTC)

China
What about China? Tajik is an official language, of Iranian origin. See Sarikoli language. 144.32.126.16 (talk) 19:44, 3 October 2008 (UTC)

Israel
Why is Israel light green? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.32.96.46 (talk) 22:17, 7 April 2009 (UTC)

I believe many people in Israel speak English because of the whole British Mandate of Palestine thing. Kostantino888Z (talk) 04:18, 12 July 2009 (UTC)

Yiddish is an Indo-European High German Language that uses a Hebrew alphabet. 66.56.11.222 (talk) 20:47, 5 October 2009 (UTC)


 * I don't see how either of those answers the question. For it to be light green on the map, an Indo-European minority language has to have *official status*.  As far as I know, only Hebrew and Arabic have official status in Israel, and neither of them is Indo-European. john k (talk) 15:43, 18 May 2010 (UTC)


 * Then make Israel blue at the very least, considering how significant portions of the Israeli population speak Yiddish (and Russian). 77.168.120.16 (talk) 14:47, 24 December 2012 (UTC)

Turkey
I'm a little concerned on the classification of Turkey. Zazaki is a Indo-European language and is used by more than 2 million people in East Turkey. Also, Armenian in Turkey is also spoken by large numbers. Should we consider that? Kanzler31 (talk) 22:48, 11 October 2010 (UTC)

Yeah that is correct. Also Syria. Kurdish and Zazaki are both Iranian languages (so I.E. languages). They are widely spoken in Turkey and Syria. Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and Saudi Arabia have also bigger Iranian language minorities. Also Azarbaijan and Georgie (Ossetian language = Iranian language). Uzbekistan the same! --88.77.212.52 (talk) 20:09, 23 January 2011 (UTC)

South Africa
South Africa should be dark green because many of its people speak Afrikaans. Anyone here agree? ~ Wimpy Fan boy my talksign! 16:21, 31 December 2010 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Wimpy Fanboy (talk • contribs)
 * Only 13.3% of the population speaks Afrikaans. Add English (8.2%) to that, and it's still nowhere near a majority. --Yair rand (talk) 06:26, 6 September 2011 (UTC)

Greenland
While Greenlandic (an Inuit language) is official, Danish is also widely known and is recognized as a minority language, with co-official status in schools and in government. Then again, with more independence provided to the Greenland local government, Danish's role is decreasing. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.198.79.51 (talk) 23:20, 25 October 2011 (UTC)

Finland
Why isn't Finland Dark Green? Jessaveryja (talk) 10:53, 10 December 2011 (UTC) Because there is a recognized swedish speaking minority, especially in Aland. 87.160.230.27 (talk) 12:23, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

State\Sub language regions boundaries.
I would propose that instead of countries as a whole, but being divided to show the Basque dudes and etc 92.53.7.110 (talk) 21:53, 17 March 2012 (UTC)

Western Sahara (under Morocco)
Western Sahara is a disputed territory, largely under Moroccan control.

The fact is that nobody speaks an Indo European language there as a mother tongue, and no Indo-European language has official status there.

Western Sahara needs to be changed into a gray area on the map (instead of green).

--82.169.11.208 (talk) 12:13, 11 July 2012 (UTC)

"Talk" or "could talk"?
In the criteria to choose between "dark green" and "light green" seems to be a bit of ambiguity if the majority of IE speakers refers to people who talk an IE language or to people that could talk an IE language (even if they don't use that language in their daily life).

For example, Paraguay is dark green, with the argument that most people could talk spanish. However, I suspect that at least some sub-saharan african countries (all in ligh green) will have a similar situation (I doubt that in countries like South Africa, Botswana, Madagascar, etc., a majority of the population will not have knowledge of English or French)--194.38.144.2 (talk) 11:19, 4 October 2012 (UTC)

Morocco
French is an official language of Morocco, and a lot of people speak it too. At the very least it should be light blue, but I think it qualifies for dark green. Thank you Red Slash 02:14, 26 February 2013 (UTC)

Kazakhstan
Russian is only a second language to most Kazakhs (in the same way that English and French is a second language in almost all countries). This does not qualify Kazakhstan to be a country "with a majority of speakers of one or more Indo-European languages", otherwise you would have to color the whole world probably (and perhaps this point had better be clarified). As far as I understand Russian does have an official status in Kazakhstan, though. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.108.212.141 (talk) 12:13, 13 March 2013 (UTC)

Guyana?
Why is Guyana only light green? English is the official language, and the most common non-English languages are Indic languages and English-based creoles. --Jfruh (talk) 16:47, 5 July 2013 (UTC)

Same goes for Haiti. Most of the population speaks a French-based creole, which is (along with French) one of the nation's two official languages. 74.71.129.126 (talk) 13:45, 14 August 2013 (UTC)