[LINK] Arabic and the net

[Marghanita da Cruz]

Richard Archer wrote:
> At 9:45 AM +1100 15/12/09, Roger Clarke wrote:
> 
>> [I failed to quickly find a table of languages showing estimated
>> numbers of first-language speakers, largest first.]
> 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_number_of_native_speakers
> 
> 
> I notice Bahasa Indonesia is listed at 23.3 million whereas
> the page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indonesian_language
> states that "Of its large population the number of people who
> fluently speak Indonesian is fast approaching 100%".
> 
> So... the figures might be a little fuzzy.
<snip>
and Bahasa is also spoken in Malaysia 
and I would guess East Timor and Borneo 
- though as far as I know it is only 
written in the roman script 
(dutch/portuguese influence) - but I 
wouldn't be surprised if it was written 
in the Arabic (muslim influence) and 
maybe sanscrit (hindu influence) in the 
past.

> Bahasa literally means "spoken language". In many modern languages in Southeast Asia, bahasa and cognate words is now used to mean "language" in general. 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bahasa>

Marghanita
-- 
Marghanita da Cruz
http://ramin.com.au
Tel: 0414-869202