Language Statistics.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 480, 14 June 1890, Page 6

Language Statistics.

The following calculations aro taken from the * Chicago Times The language in which Shakspere and Milton wrote was the language of less than 6,000,000 human beings, and when Washington was President less than 16,000,000 of people used the English tongue. Ac the same time (time of our first President)'French was the mother tongue of at least 30,000,000 of people, and by some writers it is said that 50,000,000 of French speaking people were living at the time of the Revolution of 1789. Between 40 and 50 years ago the English language equalled the German in the number of those who spoke it, and now the latter is left far behind in the race. German is now spoken by 10,000,000 persons in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, by 46,000,000 in the German Empire. by 40,000 in Belgium, and by about 2,000,000 in the little Alpine country of Switzerland. Besides the countries mentioned, in which German is usually classed as the native tongue, it is spoken by about 2,000,000 persons in the United States and Canada, giving a total of about 60,000,000 who use the German language. With French the case is much the same. That language is now spoken by 38,000,000 inhabitants of France, by 2,250,000 people in Belgium, by 200,000 in Alsace-Lorraine, by 600,000 in Switzerland, by 1,500.000 in the United States and Canada, by 600,000 in Hayti.andby 1,500,000 in Algiers, India, the West Indies, and Africa ; in all 45,000,000. English is spoken by all butless than 1,000,000 of the 38,000,000 in the British Isles, by probably 57,000,000 of the 60,000,OOOinhabitants now believed to be in America, by 4,000,000 persons in Canada, by 3,000,000 in Australia, by 3,700,000 West Indians, and perhaps by 1,000,000 in India and other British colonies, bringing the total to over 100,000,000.