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Q: Is Chinese a 'world language'?
Given a recent post on the subject, I think it's a fair question.
Now, before anyone goes and flames me, or starts calling me a wu mao,or just general China bashing (again) I think we should acknowledge that there are so many Chinese emigrants all over the world, still speaking their native language (granted, not too much of that is Putonghua 
), that it should be pretty obvious that it's a 'world language'. Perhaps moreso that French these days (not denying the importance of French as a lingua franca in many parts of north and central Africa). Spanish (and Portuguese) is spoken by many millions in South America, and obviously in Central and parts of North America... and in some parts of Africa still....
So, given the emigration of Chinese, wouldn't it be obvious to include it as a world language???
Also, if people are going to start calling for Arabic to be a world language, something's really not right! (what?? just because they've got the oil....)
Nope.
For me a "World Language" must cross borders and be spoken outside of it's country of origin. Spanish, French, English, Arabic, Russian, Portuguese, etc.
While Chinese/Mandarin is indeed spoken by a very large portion of the world, it is concentrated in one geographic country.
Even in the US, the most common Chinese language is Cantonese....
GuilinRaf:
I add Arabic, because most Muslims worship in Arabic, so they learn that language, even when another language is their first one (Farsi, Pashto, Urdu, etc.).
Shining_brow:
You don't think that the large amount of Chinese emigrants in all parts of the world counts?? thus, it's outside of it's geographic area. (just question!!)
I'd also add that many on the Malay Peninsula speak Chinese as well.
tomcatflyer:
Apart from crossing borders I think a language has to cross races. It is true that Chinese is spoken around the world but it is spoken by Chinese around the world. I do not see many non-Chinese trying to learn it. As opposed to say French, English, Spanish and Protuguese there are many countries that have these languages as their first language, which is a different concept to having that language spoken 99% of the time by people, or descendants, of the home country.
no, it is only spoken by chinese people. french is spoken by various people in different regions of the world. chinese immigrants mainly deal in the lang of their new country (or should) just because it is spoken amongst chinese in other countries does not make it an international lang.
example. take a dialect spoken in kenya (i do not know the names)
kenyans from that region immigrate to many different parts of the world . they talk to each other using that dialect. does that make it an international lang?
I'll quote Wikipedia, because the only references I have are linguistic text books, and the Wikipedia article is fairly close to what the books say.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_language
"A world language is a language spoken internationally which is learned by many people as a second language. A world language is not only characterized by the number of its speakers (native or second language speakers), but also by its geographical distribution, international organizations and in diplomatic relations. In this respect, major world languages are dominated by languages of European origin. The historical reason for this is the period of expansionist European imperialism and colonialism."
Most linguists recognise only three languages as world languages: English, French and Spanish, as they are dominant languages in multiple countries on multiple continents. Arabic and Russian are also spoken in multiple countries on multiple continents, but in adjoining geographical regions.
Arabic is an official language of 27 countries, the third highest number of countries in the world, and dominant in countries on two continents. Russian also crosses two continents, and multiple countries. However, it is arguable whether Russian and Arabic are world languages, as they are confined to adjoining geographical regions.
Mandarin is not the dominant language of any country other than China, and is only an official language of China and Singapore (Singapore has four official languages, for political purposes). The only international institution it is an official language of is the UN (for political reasons). Therefore, it does not really classify as a world language in the linguistic sense, but more as a "courtesy" to China.
Also, the three or five languages that are recognised as world languages came about as a result of expansionism, imperialism and colonisation. And since China does none of these...
A world language needs to be spoken by a large number of people internationally. Most Chinatowns around the world (which China claims proves Chinese is an international language) do not speak Mandarin as their dominant language, but Cantonese. The Chinese claim is - SURPRISE!!! - a complete fallacy.
Additionally, Chinese, which China refers to for this purpose, is a collection of languages, many mutually unintelligible. Putonghua, the official language of China, is just one of these many languages.
