Country |
Official and national Languages |
Other spoken Languages
|
| Afghanistan | Pashtu (Pushtu), Dari 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 spoken by more than 95% of the population (Khmer language is influenced by spoken and written Thai) | some French still spoken, English increasingly popular as a second language. |
| China | Putonghua (Mandarin) | Wu (spoken in Shanghai), Yue (Cantonese) and other Chinese dialects like Min, Hakka (Kejia), Gan and Xiang. |
| Cyprus | Greek, Turkish | English |
| Georgia | Georgian | Russian, Armenian, Azeri and other. note: Abkhaz is the official language in Abkhazia. |
| India | Hindi, English (the most important language for national, political, and commercial communication) | Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Kashmiri, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Panjabi, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu |
| Indonesia | Bahasa Indonesia (official, modified form of Malay) | English, Dutch, 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, Judeo-Berber, English - is the major foreign language. |
| Japan | Japanese (Nihongo) | Ryukyuan Languages |
| Jordan | Arabic (Arabiyya) | English widely understood among 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 widely taught in junior high and high school. |
| Kuwait | Arabic (Arabiyya) | English widely spoken. |
| Kyrgyzstan | Kyrgyz, Russian | note: in December 2001, the Kyrgyzstani legislature made Russian an official language, equal in status to Kyrgyz. |
| Laos | Lao | French, English, and various ethnic languages |
| Lebanon | Arabic (Arabiyya) | French, English, Armenian |
| Macau | Putonghua (Mandarin), Portuguese | everyone speaks Yue Chinese (Cantonese), English is used as a "working language". |
| Malaysia | Bahasa Melayu | English, Chinese dialects, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Panjabi, Thai; note: in addition, in East Malaysia several indigenous languages are spoken, the largest are Iban and Kadazan. |
| Maldives | Maldivian Dhivehi (dialect of Sinhala, script derived from Arabic) | English 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. |
| Nepal | Nepali (official and lingua franca of the country) 90% | sixty ethnic groups, who speak seventy different dialects and eleven major languages like Tibeto-Burman, Lhotsamkha, Nepalbhasa, Tamang languages; minorities Bhutanese (Dzongkha), Tibetan languages, possibly Chinese dialects. note: many in government and business also speak English |
| Oman | Arabic (Arabiyya) | English, Baluchi, Urdu, Indian dialects. |
| Palestine | Arabic (Arabiyya), Hebrew (Ivrit, spoken by Israeli settlers and many Palestinians) | English (widely understood) |
| Pakistan | Urdu 8%, 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 also widely used and is the medium of instruction in higher education. | Major dialects: Tagalog, Cebuano, Ilocan, Hiligaynon or Ilonggo, Bicol, Waray, Pampango, and Pangasinense. |
| Qatar | Arabic (Arabiyya) | English 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% | other 8% note: English is commonly used in government and is spoken competently by about 10% of the population. |
| Syria | Arabic (Arabiyya) | Kurdish, Armenian, Aramaic, Circassian widely understood; French, English somewhat understood. |
| Taiwan | Chinese Mandarin (PuTongHua) | Taiwanese (Min), Hakka dialects. |
| Tajikistan | Tajik | Russian widely used in government and business. |
| Thailand | Thai | English (secondary language of the elite), ethnic and regional dialects |
| Timor-Leste | Tetum, Portuguese | Indonesian, English; note: there are about 16 indigenous languages; Tetum, Galole, Mambae, and Kemak are 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) | |
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