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I ran into the following statistics and I think that they might be useful

to individuals as well as film lists in which "foreign" (i.e. non-English

language films) are being discussed.

 

 

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The full list follows (minus the 1980 figures)

 

 

Language        Total speakers  Percentage Change

used at home    over age 5      between 1980 and 1990

                in 1990

 

Spanish        17,339,000       UP 50.1 %  SUPER-CHAMPION IN SHEER NUMBERS

French          1,703,000       UP 8.3 %     SEE ALSO FRENCH CREOLE

German          1,547,000       down 3.7 %

Italian         1,309,000       down 19.9 %

Chinese         1,249,000       UP 97.7 %

Tagalog           843,000       UP 86.6 %

Polish            723,000       down 12.4 %

Korean            626,000       UP 172.2 %

Vietnamese        507,000       UP 127.2 %

Portuguese        430,000       UP 19.0 %

Japanese          428,000       UP 25.o %

Greek             388,000       down 5.4 %

Arabic            355,000       UP 57.4 %

Hindi,Urdu

and related       331.000       UP 155.1 %

Russian           242,000       UP 38.5 %

Yiddish           213,000       down 33.5 %  CHAMPION LOSER;BUT SEE HEBREW

Thai              206,00       UP 131.6 %

Persian           202,000       UP 84.7 %

French Creole     188,000       UP 654.1 %  THE RUNNER-UP;SEE ALSO FRENCH

Armenian          150,000       UP 46.3 %

Navajo            149,000       UP 20.6 %

Hungarian         148,000       down 17.9 %

Hebrew            144,000       UP 45.5%    SEE YIDDISH

Dutch             143,000       down 2.6 %

Mon-Khmer         127,000       UP 676.3 %  THE CHAMP IN GAINS

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TOTAL             31,845,000 (from 23,446,000 in 1980) UP almost 38 %

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