Learn more about the languages in OCLC Language Sets

There are approximately 5,000 languages used throughout the world today, of which some 130 are spoken by more than one million people and 70 by more than five million.

OCLC Language Sets reflect changing demographic and immigration patterns in North America. The languages available represent some of the fastest-growing populations that your library may need to serve. These languages are: Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Gujarati, Hindi, Japanese, Korean, Malayalam, Marathi, Panjabi, Russian, Spanish, Tagalog, Telugu, Urdu and Vietnamese.

Languages

The languages available in the sets cover languages spoken and originating in three continents: Asia, Europe, and the Americas. Asia includes four regions: the Middle East, East Asia, Southeast Asia, and South Asia.

To learn more about the languages available in the sets, select a region or language from the table below by clicking the link. Each region, or language, includes a brief summary, a brief introduction about the language origin, the number of speakers of the language, the area(s) where the language is spoken, and a link to general information about the linguistic lineage of the language.

Regions

Languages available in Language Sets

The Americas

Spanish

Asia

East Asia: Chinese, Japanese, Korean

Southeast Asia: Tagalog, Vietnamese

South Asia: Gujarati, Hindi, Malayalam, Marathi, Panjabi, Telegu, Urdu

Middle East: Arabic

Europe

French, German, Russian, Spanish (see Languages of the Americas)

Resources