Languages
The official language of Libya is Standard Arabic. The prevalent spoken language is Libyan Arabic, spoken by about 6 million Libyans, besides other Arabic dialects (partly spoken by immigrant workers, partly by native populations), viz. Egyptian Arabic, Moroccan Arabic, Sudanese Arabic, Tunisian Arabic, Ta'izzi-Adeni Arabic, South Levantine Arabic and Hassaniyya Arabic, amounting to a total number of first-language Arabic speakers of about 95% of total population.
SIL Ethnologue estimates for indigenous minority languages in Libya:
- Berber languages: ca. 305,000 speakers
- Nafusi: 184,000 (2006)
- Tamahaq: 47,000 (2006)
- Ghadamès: 30,000 (2006)
- Sawknah: 5,600 (2006)
- Awjilah: 3,000 (2000)
- Domari: ca. 33,000 speakers (2006)
- Tedaga: 2,000
Non-Arabic languages spoken by temporary foreign workers include (with more than 10,000 speakers each): Punjabi, Urdu, Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean, Sinhala, Bengali, Tamil, Tagalog, French, Italian, Ukrainian, Serbian, English.
Read more about this topic: Demographics Of Libya
Famous quotes containing the word languages:
“Science and technology multiply around us. To an increasing extent they dictate the languages in which we speak and think. Either we use those languages, or we remain mute.”
—J.G. (James Graham)
“The very natural tendency to use terms derived from traditional grammar like verb, noun, adjective, passive voice, in describing languages outside of Indo-European is fraught with grave possibilities of misunderstanding.”
—Benjamin Lee Whorf (1897–1934)
“No doubt, to a man of sense, travel offers advantages. As many languages as he has, as many friends, as many arts and trades, so many times is he a man. A foreign country is a point of comparison, wherefrom to judge his own.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)