Languages of Bahrain

State of Bahrain. Dawlat al-Bahrayn. National or official language: Standard Arabic. 595,000 (1998 UN). Literacy rate 49% to 75%. Also includes Western Farsi 48,000, Korean, Kurmanji, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu 18,500, people from the Philippines 22,000 (1995). Information mainly from T.M. Johnstone 1967; J.A. Fischer and O. Jastrow 1980; M. Al-Tajir 1982; C. Holes 1990. Shi'a Muslim, Sunni Muslim, Christian, Hindu. Blind population 62. Deaf population 35,529. Data accuracy estimate: B. The number of languages listed for Bahrain is 3. Of those, all are living languages. Diversity index 0.53.

Spoken living languages ARABIC, BAHARNA SPOKEN	[AFH] 300,000 (1995). Population total both countries 310,000. Alternate names: BAHRAINI SHI'ITE ARABIC, BAHARNAH, BAHARNA. Classification: Afro-Asiatic, Semitic, Central, South, Arabic.
ARABIC, GULF SPOKEN	[AFB] 100,000 in Bahrain (1995). Alternate names: KHALIJI, GULF ARABIC. Dialects: BAHRAINI GULF ARABIC. Classification: Afro-Asiatic, Semitic, Central, South, Arabic.
ARABIC, STANDARD	[ABV] Middle East, North Africa. Alternate names: MODERN LITERARY ARABIC, FASIH, HIGH ARABIC. Classification: Afro-Asiatic, Semitic, Central, South, Arabic.

Hosted by www.Geocities.ws