How many dialects has your country have?
By ronslove
@ronslove (481)
Philippines
February 17, 2007 9:40am CST
I was amazed by the fact that our country,Philippines,has a total of 171 dialects as reported by ethnologue. Tagalog is our national language and one of our official language. This variation could be the result of the forefathers of the Filipinos and the conquest that happened in our nation. The country's geography is also one of the factor of this variation. It's nice to discover how unique your country is.So,let's start to find out what's more about our country by knowing how many dialects or languages it has.
1 person likes this
4 responses
@Avichail (694)
• Indonesia
18 Feb 07
That's interesting, Ronslove, because I usually think that Indonesia would top many countries, except China, with over 300 dialects. Although people in the cities speak the official national language, Bahasa Indonesia, but the people from the remote areas often unaware of it. Let alone to speak in English. I think similar like you, this results from the geography (we have 13,677 islands) although not necessarily because of the conquest.
By the way, I've found the Taglish accent very nice. There is a sense of exoticness in it, maybe like Spanish accent mixed with something else. It's really beautiful, Ronslove!
@ronslove (481)
• Philippines
19 Feb 07
Thanks for the reply. I'm always proud of Philippines having 7,107 islands but Indonesia has more.Speaking of language,I've known from ethnologue that your country has 742 languages as reported but 737 are reported as a living language at present. Thus, in my opinion your country has a great number of dialects in Asia.I think, Philippine language has a touch of Indonesian language since Indonesian is one of our ancestors especially with pronouns.Thank you for appreciating Taglish, I like to mix up language too. It's unique!!
@Avichail (694)
• Indonesia
19 Feb 07
WOW...! You even have better statistics than I do, LOL...! It's no wonder that we have so many dialects, we have so many tribes too under our belt....=)
I have a friend from Philippine and she also told me about the similar vocabularies we have. We had a good laugh together when discussing about it. I should have got in touch with her again then I'll be conversating with you in Tagalog... =)
Thanks for starting this discussion and finding the facts so meticulously..
@twaambolee (260)
• Zambia
4 May 07
Last time i checked Zambia had 72,iam not sure if that has changed though.
@ronslove (481)
• Philippines
16 May 07
Thank you for the reply.
Ethnology on Zambia reported that it has 42 and more languages. However, checking on Zambian languages website, it has 78 dialects. Among the 78 languages, there are seven languages that are widely used namely Bemba, Nyanja, Kaonde, Lozi, Lunda, Luvale, and Tonga. By 1964, English has become the national language of the country as it become the medium of instruction in education.
Hope my contribution adds information about your knowledge on Zambian dialect.
@ronslove (481)
• Philippines
8 Jun 08
According to the Ethnologu , there are 33 languages of Italy that are listed.This includes Albanian, Arbëreshë, Bavarian, Catalan-Valencian-Balear, Cimbrian,Corsican, Croatian, Emiliano-Romagnolo, Franco-Provençal, French, Friulian,German, Greek, Italian, Judeo-Italian, Ladin, Ligurian, Lombard, Mócheno, Napoletano-Calabrese, Piemontese, Provençal,Romani, Balkan, Romani, Sinte, Romani, Vlax, Sardinian, Campidanese, Sardinian, Gallurese,Sardinian, Logudorese, Sardinian, Sassarese, Sicilian, Slovenian, Venetian, Walser,
@maildumpster (3815)
• United States
28 Apr 07
Being that America has so many different people here speaking so many different languages - I don't think I could possibly tell you how many different dialects are here.
