File talk:IE countries.png

Nice contribution. However, I will note that Iraq is colored as being predominantly Indo-European, and, as the dominant language there is Arabic, it isn't.

Well maybe the map shows all countries with an official language that is Indo-European, which Iraq has, Kurdish.

That wouldn't really make sense -- if it were showing countries that had an official language that is Indo-European, most of Africa would be colored in too, as most African countries have English or French as one of their official languages. And Finland has Swedish as an official language.

indeed. countries with >50% native speakers of an IE language should be coloured. Or, ideally, countries could be shaded, depending on percentage of native IE-speakers. As it is, Iraq should definitely not be yellow. dab (ᛏ) 11:54, 7 Mar 2005 (UTC)

I uploaded a modified version. Countries with IE majority are orange, those with an IE official language yellow. I hope I got it right (I can still fix mistakes). dab (ᛏ) 17:54, 7 Mar 2005 (UTC)

AFAIK Indo-European languages are not speaken by majority in South-Africa at least not as their mother tongue.--Kulkuri 21:21, 19 Mar 2005 (UTC)

I don't know, maybe not as first language of the majority of the black population, but usually people could get by in English or Afrikaans, even if it is not their mother tongue... The white and the indian minorites speaks an indo-european language, basically exceptionless...

English is an official language of Israel, so it should be colored yellow. Zarxos 22:50, May 9, 2005 (UTC)

And isn't English still official in Kenya? --Angr/_{tɔk tə mi} 00:11, 25 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

There are over 15 millon in eastern Turkey (20% of population), plus 2 million in northeastern Syria (10% of population) IE-speakers which has not been colored on the map. This large population speak Kurdish language. D iyako Talk + 16:33, 8 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Yes but Kurdish is not an official language in Turkey. See Indo-European languages to review the caption for this image.

Suugestion

I Suggest to show countries (or at least part of them) which have IE-speakers. Wheither those languages are unofficial or banned. D iyako Talk + 16:46, 8 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Edits to map

Added Crete and the Aegean Islands
Added Cyprus as orange (official language Greek); previously absent altogether.
Added yellow for Malta, Israel, Singapore, Kenya (official language English)
Added yellow for East Timor (Portuguese), Comoros (French), and Lebanon (French).
Added Canary Islands and Azores (in Orange, Spanish and Portuguese, respectively).
Added Carribean islands

--Briangotts (Talk) (Contrib)

I recommend that you change Paraguay into a "light orange" country. The vast majority of its inhabitants speak Guarani, not Spanish. Caesarion 14:11, 1 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The vast majority of its inhabitants speak both Spanish and Guarani. Spanish is an official language. Briangotts (Talk) (Contrib) 18:12, 1 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, but I thought the theme of this map was how many native speakers the IE languages have. It might be true that Spanish is spoken and understood by many as a kind of "classical" language, in a way all Javans speak Indonesian, but that doesn't make them native speakers. Caesarion 09:43, 8 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

More edits to map

Changed entire map to Image:BlankMap-World.png. I feel the old map was stretched too much vertically.
Bhutan coloured yellow (English is now an official language).
European side of Turkey now grey (was red).
Western Sahara now yellow (Spanish is official).

Things to check:

Sources that confirm English is an official language of Israel. The article on Israel does not say English is official and the CIA World Factbook claims that English is widely used, but not an official language. Israel is currently grey.
The article on Bahrain says English is an official language.
Whether Cyprus should be orange or yellow. I was under the impression roughly 70-80% of Cyprus speaks Greek.

*Numerous Pacific islands. Done.

--3345345335534 03:55, 31 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

What about Eritrea? As far as I know, the languages of administration are tigrinya and arabic - both semitic and not IE. --83.76.137.87 00:59, 22 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Official languages include Italian and English. Briangotts (Talk) (Contrib) 12:44, 22 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Israel has English as an "officially recognized language" (along with Russian). They do not have the exact same status as Hebrew and Arabic which are "official languages" but I believe the distinction is without true difference. English appears on Israeli currency and postage stamps.[1] It also appears on virtually all street signs. Moreover, it is mandatory to take it in the schools.[2] I believe that Israel should be re-colored yellow. Briangotts (Talk) (Contrib) 20:12, 12 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Montenegro

===>Graphic designers help! Could someone edit the map to make a separate Montenegro from the former Serbia and Montenegro? Thanks. -Justin (koavf), talk, mail 20:00, 25 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Done. --334 21:20, 25 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Angola

Angola should be orange, portuguese is the mainly language there. And in Cape Verde is a portuguese crioulo. Thanks.

Israel

English is not an official language of Israel. The only official languages are Hebrew and Arabic which are both Semitic. Please remove the coloring from Israel.

Briangotts explained that in a previous edit (scroll up). --334 01:56, 27 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Algeria and Morocco

I know that French isn't part of the official languages of these countries, but it plays a fairly dominant role in the culture (alongside Arabic), much more so than the average effect of English on the world, especially in literature and education. John Riemann Soong 19:47, 1 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I agree. Just change the criteria. Meursault2004 07:09, 25 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The philippines

english is NOT a minority language in the philippines it is a majority, but the only difference is that it is usually a 3rd or 2nd language to filipinos, most if not all the adult population of the philippines speaks english and just a few spanish.

Section moved from image page

Why are Finland and Greenland yellow?

Each has a predominantly non-IE speaking population but an IE language as one of their official languages (Danish in Greenland, Swedish in Finland.) Briangotts (Talk) (Contrib) 21:07, 22 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Kazakhstan

A majority of people in Kazakhstan speak Russian as their primary luangage, a situation like paraguay.--J intela (talk) 06:40, 8 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Uzbeckistan has a large Tajik minority, Azerbijan has an Armenian minority, and Estonia has a Russian minority.--J intela (talk) 07:37, 8 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]