Talk:List of multilingual countries and regions

Number of French speakers in Canada
The article claims that approximately 25 % of the population of Canada can speak French. I was under the impression however that 23 % was the percentage of Canadians who speak French as first language. The percentage of Canadians who are fluent in French either as first or second language (i.e including bilingual Anglophones) is somewhat higher though (I believe, close to 30 %). Could anyone check the official figures from Statistics Canada ? 161.24.19.82 13:39, 21 June 2006 (UTC)


 * I found this on a StatsCan page (http://atlas.nrcan.gc.ca/site/english/maps/peopleandsociety/lang/officiallanguages/englishfrenchbilingualism): "In 1996, 67% of Canada’s population were able to conduct a conversation in English only, 14% in French only and 17% in both of these languages. Around 2% of people enumerated reported not knowing either of these two languages."

In the "List of multi..." article, I've changed the numbers and added the word 'another' so the text reads "...25% of Canadians speak French with another 18% speaking both English and French". DDD DDD 23:51, 21 June 2006 (UTC)

"Multilingual Cities" - Criteria for Inclusion
That list of cities is getting longer and longer. Fair enough. I'm wondering if we should make some sort of criteria or structure for that list. Maybe we could divide the list by geographical region/continents (africa, americas, asia, etc...). Or possibly by city population (for example: 2.5 million+, 1 million to 2.499,999 million, 250,000 to 999,999, 100,000 to 249,999, less than 100,000 - although we could end up with a VERY long list if we did it like this). Also, I believe the wiki article for that city should already indicate the city's liguistic features so we could go to the city article and verify/learn more. Anybody? Thoughts?DDD DDD 00:33, 31 August 2006 (UTC)


 * I think that the "multilingual cities" section, as it currently stands, urgently needs to be changed. If the vast majority of a city's population are monolingual and if there is no official bilingual/multilingual laws, then that city is not a "multilingual city", and I propose that all cities in this category be removed from the list. If noone objects to this within a reasonable time period, then I plan to do just that. At this stage and without researching each city on the list (which I would do before removing any city), so far I would only include Barcelona (where a clear majority speak both Spanish and Catalan, and classes as university, for instance, are taught in either Spanish or Catalan); Biel; Bilbao; Brussells; Cardiff; Durban; Fribourg (Switzerland); Gibraltar; Jerusalem; Helsinki; Los Angeles (possibly); Macau; Miami & Hialea in the US; Montreal; Nicosia (Cyprus); Ottawa; Pretoria (possibly); San Juan; Singapore; Strasbourg; Tel Aviv; Valencia; and Vigo. 123.3.95.88 (talk) 15:51, 12 December 2011 (UTC)

The multilingual cities section is ridiculous. Buenos Aires is NOT multilingual, neither is Rome, nor Mexico City, or Kuala Lumpur. Multilingual cities are cities where the majority of citizens speak 2 or more languages. Amsterdam: everyone speaks English and Dutch plus another language. Same with most large northern European Cities. El Paso, TX and Laredo, TX are very bilingual in English and Spanish, but San Diego not so much. Just because a city has SOME multilingual people does not make it a multilingual city. In a multilingual city, you should be able to conduct everyday life in multiple languages. Yes, New York has hundreds of different languages, but in what languages can you conduct business on a day to day basis in all of those? In Montreal, you can get around in both english and French, making it a multilingual city. Same with Hong Kong... you can traverse the majority of the territory and at least be able to conduct everyday business in both English, and Cantonese (and to a lesser but increasing extent, Mandarin) Let's reexamine what a multilingual city is. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 207.91.13.131 (talk) 20:59, 11 April 2012 (UTC)

French in Cape Verde?!?
French is a foreign language in Cape Verde. It is neither an official language, neither a national language. TenIslands 12:06, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

Lack of Logic
When listing cities where many languages are spoken, which logic should be followed? One could either list the languages in alphabetical order or list them according to size in the city - BUT there has to be consistency. At the moment, French is listed after English in Montreal, Hebrew is listed as the third language in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem; these are clearly cases of listing the languages in alphabetical order. In other cases, such as Gorizia, Williamsburg or Koper, the largest language is listed. Now, which solution should be taken. I find the latter one more informative but the most important thing here is consistency. JdeJ 17:53, 4 July 2007 (UTC)

whats the logic of listing Amman Beirut and Cairo as multilingual towns when they are not? in a multi lingual town or country the constitution states clearly the multilingualism of a country .. teaching foreign languages is a world-wide phenomenon not a feature of a certain country or town ... the official languge of Beirut Amman and Cairo is Arabic ... English French German Spanish and Italian probably even more languages are taught as foregn languages everywhere in the world. in Switzerland 4 languages are considered by the constitution as official and national languages .. logic to call the country multilingual but because foreign languages are taught in Germany that doesnt make Germany a multi-lingual country ! so whats the logic of stating cairo as multilingual town? —Preceding unsigned comment added by BerlinerOmar (talk • contribs) 12:27, 26 October 2007 (UTC)

Why is Germany not mentioned in the article and on the map?
1. There are communities in Germany where there is an additional official language: Upper Sorbian, Lower Sorbian or Danish. 2. Also there are signifficant immigrant communities in Germany who speak Turkish, Portugese, Spanish, Italian, Serbian, Croatian, Russian, Polish and Romanian. 3. Also, many Germans speak distinct German dialects as a first language. Some of these dialects are actually classified as separate languages and they are very difficult for a High German speaker to understand.

At the same time, the article and the map mention neigbouring Poland where very few people speak anything but Polish; this includes the official German minority whose knowledge of German is very limited. The inclusion of Poland into this list makes no sense at all. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.218.41.190 (talk) 17:22, 17 April 2009 (UTC)


 * I think the general problem is, that the article lacks a clear definition whether a multilingual country is a country/region with several official languages or a country/ region with several languages without official recognition. Johnny2323 (talk) 14:51, 27 March 2010 (UTC)

Netherlands
Shouldn't the Netherlands be pointed on the map as a country with only 1 official language? Frisian is official too but it's only official in Fryslan and not in the rest of the country. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.144.100.44 (talk) 17:32, 12 May 2010 (UTC)

Nigeria not included in the list of multilingual countries in West Africa
Nigeria is not only the most populous nation in Africa but has one of the largest number of languages, according to SIL's Ethnologue. It is therefore surprising that this list does not include Nigeria. I am currently working on a huge research comparing multilingualism in India and Nigeria, and it would be good to have this information updated. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Odugudes (talk • contribs) 21:16, 10 June 2010 (UTC)

Sweden has Swedish as official main language
See his:

http://www.thelocal.se/20404/20090701/ —Preceding unsigned comment added by Miklbabz (talk • contribs) 13:00, 17 June 2010 (UTC)

The USA does not have an official language
Yet the intro paragraph of this article says that it does. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.118.82.42 (talk) 03:21, 16 October 2016 (UTC)

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Reform or remove
This article is aimless, lacking leadership and direction. I suggest we either start again or have it removed. If we start again we will have to create some firm guidelines on what the article is about and clear rules on what can and cannot be added. I suggest we start by defining what this article is dealing with. I suggest we only use countries in which there are two languages each spoken as a first language at home by at no less than 10% of the population, and that must be confirmed by some sort of reference. Being official or not under any definition of that term should not be relevant. From there we can expand the article if necessary, but still under tight guidelines. Roger 8 Roger (talk) 01:07, 12 December 2022 (UTC)


 * https://www.coe.int/en/web/european-charter-regional-or-minority-languages/reports-and-recommendations#{%2228993157%22:[8]} has reports on the officially recognized languages of most European countries. The French article is
 * Liste des régions officiellement multilingues, which is not the only interwiki with this kind of title. Sarcelles (talk) 20:01, 17 February 2023 (UTC)