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<body class='hmmessage'><div dir='ltr'>Thanks Enrique!<br>That's why we usually share informations above all informations from press. Giving opportunity to internet actors to be informed or to see and respond to wrong statements included in those articles!<br><br>Mamadou!<br><br><div>> Date: Tue, 30 Sep 2014 14:16:49 -0300<br>> From: echaparro@VIALIBRE.ORG.AR<br>> Subject: Re: "INTERNET WORLD USERS BY LANGUAGE"<br>> To: NCSG-DISCUSS@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU<br>> <br>> Thankyou, Mamadou!<br>> <br>> Despite the effort, the information is not very useful:<br>> * Uneven criteria for calculating number of speakers. E.g. while the number of<br>> Spanish speakers has been calculated on the basis of the population of the<br>> the countries where Spanish is the official language, the number of English<br>> speakers has been calculated on other (unknown) basis.<br>> * That leads to a gross understatement of the number of Spanish speakers<br>> (perhaps others too, but I have no reliable figures), by excluding<br>> e.g. the 40+<br>> million people in the US that have Spanish as their mother tongue.[1]<br>> * But even if those figures were correct (or based on the same assumptions),<br>> they are of little use. When trying to analyze linguistic diversity<br>> in the Internet,<br>> we should take into account two factors:<br>> (a) The number of people proficient enough in a language to clearly understand<br>> contents written in that language, and<br>> (b) The volume of contents available for each language.<br>> * There is another, seemingly unsurmountable problem: while Internet penetration<br>> rates are calculated on country basis, such distribution is often<br>> uneven across<br>> language borders. E.g., Internet access for primarily Quechua-speaking<br>> communities in Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia, where Spanish is the<br>> majority language, is well below the related national averages.[2]<br>> <br>> Regards,<br>> <br>> Enrique<br>> <br>> [1] The total number of people having Spanish as their first language or usual<br>> communication language beyond their family/community group could be<br>> estimated around 487 million, give or take 1 %.<br>> <br>> [2] And I won't even tuch the issue of contents, which are less than minimal<br>> for a language spoken by about 9 million people.<br></div> </div></body>
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