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New Zealand Tablet, 16 May 1918, Page 23

AS PEOPLE TALK. The English language is estimated to be spoken by 160.000. people (says an exchange). Next in order is the German language, which is spoken by 130,000,000 people. The others in their order are: Russian, 100,000,000; French, 70,000,000; Italian and Spanish, 50.000. each, and Portuguese, 25,000,000. English is spoken by 27.3 per cent, of the whole, German 22.2, Russian 17.1, French 11.9, Italian and Spanish 8.6 each, and Portuguese 4.3. ' " In 1801 the English language ranked fifth, being spoken by 20,520,000. The Russian language then headed the list, being spoken by 30,770,000, with the German language second and spoken by 30,320,000 people.