Template talk:English official language clickable map

Singapore

Singapore should be listed as english as its main language

Bhutan, Maldives

Bhutan and the Maldives should probably not be listed. --dab (𒁳) 09:54, 26 November 2007 (UTC)

Quebec

English is not an official language in Quebec, although it is an official language nationwide in Canada. Turns out, the only bilingual province in Canada is New Brunswick. KriZe ♠♦♣♥ 16:25, 13 June 2008 (UTC)

Solomon Is

Can someone who knows how change the clickable area over the Solomon Islands to not point to New Guinea, as it is a separate country! Thankyou Graeme Bartlett (talk) 02:38, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

US English

As United States English redirects to American English, I've changed the link to American English. – Marco79 14:15, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

Anglosphere / Anglophone World

This template gives a helpful and useful visual representation of the Anglosphere, but perhaps it's description presents the Angloshere in terms which are too linguistically based - ie the Anglosphere seems to be more a matter of socio-cultural values, and politico-legal ideas than language. It does not seem that the Anglosphere is the same thing as the Anglophone world, although there is a lot of overlap. Arcan (talk) 11:07, 9 August 2008 (UTC)

South Africa?

Shouldn't South Africa be light blue? While it certainly has a higher percentage of its population as native English speakers than, say, India, that percentage is still minority by a substantial amount. --Jfruh (talk) 20:15, 11 August 2008 (UTC)

Languages_of_South_Africa agrees with this: only a sixth are native English. --BozMo talk 21:42, 2 February 2009 (UTC)

Here's my reasoning for keeping SA dark blue... If there were only one language above English that was spoken by 32.5 million people, then we could call the 8.2% English speakers (2001 census) "insignificant". Yet there are not one, but five different languages listed that sport more speakers than English. There are:

• Zulu– 23.8%
• Xhosa– 17.6%
• Afrikaans– 13.3%
• Northern Sotho– 9.4%
• Tswana– 8.2%

So the 8.2% of the total population who speak English is also 34.5% of the number of people who speak the most widely spread tongue, Zulu, and...

• 46.6% of Xhosa speakers
• 61.7% of Afrikaans speakers
• 87.2% of Northern Sotho speakers
• 99.9% of Tswana speakers

And when one remembers that there are also five other main languages that are spoken by fewer people than those who speak English, this makes English much more significant than it would appear at first glance, doesn't it?

 —  ^{.`</sup>^) Paine Ellsworth<sup>diss`cuss} (^^`.  02:07, 8 October 2009 (UTC)

English language in Quebec

There is an error in this template. English language is not an official language at all of Quebec. It is spoken by some people (most of the time in Montreal) but is not official (see Charter of the French Language).

“ French language is the only official language of Quebec. ”

— Jimmy Lavoie × Vive le Québec! ^talk 18:25, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

Canada is officially bilingual, with English one of the official languages of the country. Why should the provincial level be considered more significant than the federal one? 67.150.253.17 (talk) 00:11, 12 December 2008 (UTC)

In very short - French is the only official language of Quebec. But it is not the only official language in Quebec. WilyD 05:09, 12 December 2008 (UTC)

It doesn't ask whether it is an official language, it asks whether "English is spoken natively by a significant population", which it is in Quebec (even though not by the majority or government). ----Arctic Gnome (talk • contribs) 04:55, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

Link

Is there a reason there is no link to Scottish English while the template links to Mid-Ulster English? The political status of both areas are practically identical, and British English is the written variety in both while being the spoken variety in neither. Deacon of Pndapetzim (Talk) 11:27, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

Working on it, DoP; thank you for noting this!

 —  ^{.`</sup>^) Paine Ellsworth<sup>diss`cuss} (^^`.  10:56, 8 October 2009 (UTC)

Asian links not good

The link over Malaysia seems to be to "languages of Uganda"? Singaporean English should be listed? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.32.103.197 (talk) 23:15, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

Hiya 78! Thank you for noting this. The Uganda link has been fixed and is now over Uganda. Malaysia and Singapore have been added with their own links. Some of the islands in Oceania still need work, and they will hopefully be up and running in a few days.

 —  ^{.`</sup>^) Paine Ellsworth<sup>diss`cuss} (^^`.  10:36, 8 October 2009 (UTC)

Singapore

Singapore has a "predominantly English-speaking society". its main language is english [1] 129.100.195.138 (talk) 22:43, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

Singapore is working and "in the blue".

 —  ^{.`</sup>^) Paine Ellsworth<sup>diss`cuss} (^^`.  10:38, 8 October 2009 (UTC)

Denmark, and maybe others

Denmark, and most likely other nations, English is the predominant second language spoken by a majority of people. It should be added to the map, and in fact the map should be updated. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.236.180.8 (talk) 22:12, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

Denmark is linked by mouseover to the English as lingua franca section of the "English language in Europe" article. English is not a "native" tongue of the Danes, and the only official language of Denmark is Danish, so its gray color on the map appears to be correct.

 —  ^{.`</sup>^) Paine Ellsworth<sup>diss`cuss} (^^`.  10:53, 8 October 2009 (UTC)

Citations for all included countries please

Note. This request was brought over from the archived talk page.
 —  ^{.`</sup>^) Paine Ellsworth<sup>diss`cuss} (^^`.  12:55, 10 October 2009 (UTC)

Hi, please provide citations for any included countries and not make assumptions which is very misleading and unencyclopedic. --Bardcom (talk) 20:10, 4 July 2008 (UTC)

Since this is a template, it does not list reference citations, and instead it relies upon the verifications utilized in each of the articles to which it links. Happy editing!

 —  ^{.`</sup>^) Paine Ellsworth<sup>diss`cuss} (^^`.  12:55, 10 October 2009 (UTC)

Hong Kong?(2)

It would be a stretch to have it in dark blue, IMO Nicholas.tan (talk) 21:09, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

Yes, noted. I've changed the maplink to Hong Kong English, which gives a better idea of the standing of English in this fascinating city. Over time, the consensus appears to be that English is spoken there by a significant number of people, and this verifiable item (as cited in the article above) keeps Hong Kong in the dark blue. If you can find a verifiable source to the contrary, then please do produce it.

 —  ^{.`</sup>^) Paine Ellsworth<sup>diss`cuss} (^^`.  04:56, 1 November 2009 (UTC)

This template is flirting with NPOV violation and can be accused of bias if it does not clearly state its rationale and show that the definitions it is using aren't arbitrary. The article List of countries by English-speaking population seems to give a basis for comparison. If a better one can be found please provide.

Please also list some articles where "|titlestyle = padding-right: 7%;" is detrimental to the overall layout so I can understand the problem. Thank you. Lambanog (talk) 13:16, 3 November 2009 (UTC)

To be honest, I agree that the Philippines should be dark blue. And I will study the list you gave more closely to see if there are other countries, like perhaps Nigeria, that should also be dark blue. As for the titlestyle, you should use a sandbox to see how your changes work across skins and compared with other Navbars. The padding change you made uncentered the title and placed the [Show]/[Hide] link on this template far to the left of all those on other Navbars in my IE7 browser. What are you hoping to accomplish by nonstandardizing the titlestyle?

 —  ^{.`</sup>^) Paine Ellsworth<sup>diss`cuss} (^^`.  08:08, 5 November 2009 (UTC)

The only thing that would make me hesitate with Nigeria is that Pidgin English has been counted as English in the counting and since I have not visited the country I am unqualified to judge how material that is.

I have my suspicions that some unofficial English speaking nations might have more and better English speakers than some of the blue colored nations including the Philippines but my main issue is that relative comparisons be accurate and that misconceptions not be created or perpetuated. The same standards should be applied to all the same way. I'm guessing the map is derived from a map on the English Commonwealth and that's why some former members of the British Empire seem more likely to pass as dark blue.

I think I see the problem with the the center alignment I've been trying to solve. By browser automatically disables some javascript from running and that apparently affects the layout of navboxes so that the titles do not appear centered. I'll try to keep that in mind and test using both scenarios before making changes in the future. Thank you. Lambanog (talk) 12:23, 5 November 2009 (UTC)

Yes, the Nigerian English may be a bit iffy. It's going to take some time to sort things out. Any help's appreciated greatly! Don't be too concerned with making mistakes around here, Lambanog. Heaven knows I've made my share. With the widespread usage of most templates, it's almost always best to test before "going live". I like your ideas about clearly stating the Navbar's rationale and showing that the definitions it is using aren't arbitrary. We should probably consider using a /doc for this. Verifiability, always of the utmost importance, would be much easier to show that way and would not clutter the template itself. I'll start one, and then editors can go from there.

 —  ^{.`</sup>^) Paine Ellsworth<sup>diss`cuss} (^^`.  02:30, 6 November 2009 (UTC)

(out). Okay, that's done, along with a new sandbox and a new testcases page. The sky's the limit?
 —  ^{.`</sup>^) Paine Ellsworth<sup>diss`cuss} (^^`.  04:02, 6 November 2009 (UTC)

The basic "definitions" that this map is based on have serious errors of logic

These two statements are not logically mutually exclusive: "Dark blue: Countries and territories where English is spoken natively by a significant population." "Light blue: Countries where English is an official language but not widely spoken."

South Africa is an excellent example of a country where both statements can be argued to be true depending on how one defines some of the key phrases.

The phrase "a significant population" needs a proper numeric definition. I think practically everyone would agree that 50% is "significant", but how many would accept 25% as the cut-off, or how about 10% or even 5%? Deciding on a number will instantly solve many disagreements.

The phrase "widely spoken" is similarly problematic. Does it apply to first language speakers only? If it is taken to include second language speakers the "not mutually exclusive" problem comes up. How many countries even have statistics for second language use? South Africa does not.

There are countries where English is official but have practically zero native speakers. Depending on the numeric definition of "significant" there could also be countries where "English is spoken natively by a significant population" but it is not an official language.

Returning to the example of South Africa - the following statements are all true: English is an official language. English is the native language of only a small minority (under 10%). English is widely understood and used as a second language. So what colour should SA be on the map?

Roger (talk) 14:04, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

Yeah, agree with Roger. So problematic. FYI, English is not the official language in Malaysia, except in the states of Sabah and Sarawak. But English is certainly spoken by big number of people. There are a small percentage of native english speakers but also a high percentage of English as second language speakers. It is not a foreign language but not a native either. Also English is the lingua franca in most businesses. To sum it all: Malaysia is a country where English is not (or partly) the official language but widely spoken. There is no link in the country box at the bottom either. Tikar aurum (talk) 18:26, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

I've changed the definitions to match what's on the map more closely. Whether it's best to include English Creoles is debatable, but it's clearly what the map does.

My opinion is that South Africa has a significant native English-speaking population, both in relative (7%) and absolute (2 million) terms. 82.124.227.214 (talk) 15:23, 18 April 2010 (UTC)