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1. Spanish (That’s My Mum)
322 million first language speakers of whom 28 million are in Spain, over 22 million are in the USA and the remaining 275 million approx are mainly in the Americas, where it is the national language in most states other than Brazil.  60 million second language speakers.

2. Chinese/Mandarin (Tigress)
867 million in Mainland China, plus 178 million who speak it as a second language.  It is the official language of China.  A large number of dialects are used.  Unusual in that the written script uses characters and not an alphabet.  Also spoken in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand.

3. Vietnamese (Mary Wata and the Monster)
67 million speakers almost all of whom are in Vietnam where it is the national language.  Unusual for Asian languages in that it is written in Roman script. 

4. Turkish (Serdar’s Lessons)
50.5 million speakers, mainly in Turkey where it is the national language.  Also spoken in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, Macedonia, Romania, Uzbekistan

5. Arabic (Floppy the rabbit)
Over 200 million speakers from Mauritania/Morocco across North Africa to Egypt and down to Eritrea.  Across all Gulf States and Middle East (including Israel where it is an official language).  There are many different dialects and speakers cannot necessarily easily understand one another when speaking if they come from different areas, although written Arabic is standardised across the whole region.  However, standard Arabic based on the Egyptian dialect is used in Arabic TV and radio stations and can be understood by most Arabic dialect speakers.

6. Thai (The Giant and the Spring)
22 million speakers almost entirely in Thailand. 

Guess the Language – Answers Sept 2008

All of the books were borrowed from the children’s language section of Walthamstow Town Centre library.

All of the information cited is extracted from www.ethnologue.com

6 people got all six answers right and the overall winner picked out of a hat was Simon of E11. The runners up were Veronica of IG8, Glen of E11, Mark of E11 and Harriet of E17.

Congratulations to the winners and thank you all for participating !