Global language system

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According to Dutch sociologist Abram de Swaan, a sociological classification of languages according to their large scale social role for its speakers:

• Central languages: widely spoken languages
• Supercentral languages: very widely spoken languages that serve as connector between speakers of central languages; according to de Swaan, there are twelve of these: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Hindi, Japanese, Malay, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Swahili;
• Hypercentral languages: also connects supercentral languages; de Swaan erects English to be the sole hypercentral language;
• Peripheral languages: the rest – languages that no one consider being worth learning for the sole purpose of improving one's own communication facilities.

[edit] External links

• DŃGHŪ: Modern Indo-European Language Grammar last retrieved at 11 Jun 2007.