2/19/08

Spanish, third most spoken language


Spanish is the third most spoken tongue in the world, after Chinese and English, with 399 million of Spanish-speaking people and an increasing influence, according to a study published today in this capital.
The above was informed during the presentation of the Spanish-Speaking Atlas of the World and Economy of Spanish, two projects carried out by the Cervantes Institute and other institutions.
These studies deal with the period 2000-2005 and sustain that native Spanish are added to those who use Spanish randomly (foreigners, persons who have Spanish as second tongue and those who are studying the language, for a total of 438 million.
Over the last eight years also the number of natives of Spanish-speaking countries rose by 9.8 per cent, the highest rate after Arabic, among the six official UN languages.
The investigation predicts that by 2050, Spanish will continue to rank among the five most spoken tongues in the world.
The Atlas includes 150 texts, maps and tables reflecting geographic distribution of the language and the main social and economic trends of the Spanish-speaking community.
Meanwhile, the project titled "Economic value of Spanish: a Multinational Enterprise" consisting in 10 books and 14 documents which analyze the contribution of Spanish to the Gross Domestic Product through productive activities.
This deals on the analysis and quantification of that tongue as means of international communication in trade operations, investment flows and migratory trends, according to its authors.
The aim of both books is to deepen in the study of the social and economic dimension of the tongue and contribute to an integrating value and international importance of Spanish.

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