Karshi state university foreign languages faculty

The big languages: English, French.

Regional languages (languages of the United Nations are marked with asterisk): Arabic*, Mandarin*, English*, French*, German, Russian*, Spanish* and Portuguese.

National languages: around 80 languages serving over 180 nation states.

Official languages within nation states (and other "safe" languages): around 600 languages worldwide (e.g. Marathi).

Local vernacular languages: the remainder of the world's 6,000+ languages.

Translation systems

The global language system is also seen in the international translation process as explained by Johan Heilbron, a historical sociologist: "translations and the manifold activities these imply are embedded in and dependent on a world system of translation, including both the source and the target cultures".⁵

The hierarchical relationship between global languages is reflected in the global system for translations. The more "central" a language, the greater is its capability to function as a bridge or vehicular language to facilitate communication between peripheral and semi-central languages.⁵

Heilbron's version of the global system of language in translations has four levels:

Level 1: Hypercentral position — English currently holds the largest market share of the global market for translations; 55–60% of all book translations are from English. It strongly dominates the hierarchical nature of book translation system.

Level 2: Central position — German and French each hold 10% of the global translation market.

Level 3: Semi-central position — There are 7 or 8 languages "neither very central on a global level nor very peripheral",⁵ each making up 1 to 3% of the world market (like Spanish, Italian and Russian).

Level 4: Peripheral position — Languages from which "less than 1% of the book translations worldwide are made", including Chinese, Hindi, Japanese, Malay, Swahili, Turkish and Arabic. Despite having large populations of speakers, "their role in the translation economy is peripheral as compared to more central languages".⁵

Acceptance

According to the Google Scholar website, de Swaan's book, Words of the world: The global language system, has been cited by 546 other papers, as of 16 October 2014.⁶

However, there have also been several concerns regarding the global language system: