Multilingualism in the world

[rbhatt at uiuc.edu]

Dear List members,

Are there any statistics, or some raw numbers, to show that the world is (people in it are) indeed more multilingual than monolingual?  I am quite aware of the definitional isues surrounding the terms mono-/multi-lingualism, but I need a non-nuanced answer/data to fully answer a question raised by one of my freshman undergrad student in my language in globalization class.

Many thanks,
Rakesh
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Associate Professor of Linguistics and SLATE
Department of Linguistics
University of Illinois
4080 FLB, 707 S. Mathews Ave
Urbana, IL 61801
U.S.A.

Ph: 217-265-6308
Fax: 217-244-8430

http://www.linguistics.uiuc.edu/rbhatt/