Move Over English
Though I was at a conference, then deathly sick (note the use of hyperbole), when David Sifry came out with his State of the Blogosphere Part 2 — On Language and Tagging, think there is still important data here to get reported for the record. David’s ability to cut through information on the index of 37.3 million blogs to bring coherent thought to the table is a gift he shares several times a year and we should take advantage of it to get the big picture of how our lives are changing.
For this post, I choose to focus on the analysis of the language data.
David Speaks
He begins by offering a few disclaimers about the data set he’s about to offer. Three important caveats he reminds us to keep in the foreground when studying his data.
- First that the automated language software they use may not be perfect and my over- or undercount a particular language or group of languages, due to bugs wthin the software. He follows that comment with a statement that Technorati, however, still feels fairly confident in its reliability across the millions of blogs and posts they index each day.
- One part of the blogosphere, Mr. Sifry is certain that is being under-reported is posts and blogs written in Korean. This is due to the fact that the main services are not indexed by Technorati at this time. A second that is being undercounted to a lesser degree is French language blogs and posts, because Technorati has not yet got a good system for indexing skyblog.
- This third caveat is that Japanese bloggers write shorter posts. This could be due to their predilection to posting from mobile telephone. This fact could be skewing the results of the data that follows making the numbers higher, as the data tracks quantity of posts not length.
Within these caveats, Dave Sifry aso offers this invitation,
if anyone at these (or other) blogging services is interested in being indexed, please drop me a line.
David’s Analysis
Immediately following in the original State of the Blogosphere Post 2, you will find David’s usual visuals. Click on this one to take you there. I found these most compelling. They tell the big-picture story in one glance. Click on any one to get to the original post.
David’s Summary
- The blogosphere is multilingual, and deeply international
- English, the language of early bloggers, has fallen to less than a third of all blog posts in April 2006.
- Japanese and Chinese language blogging has grown significantly.
- Chinese language blogging, while continuing to grow on an absolute basis, has begun to decline as an overall percentage of the posts that Technorati tracks over the last 6 months
- Japanese, Chinese, English, Spanish, Italian, Russian, French, Portuguese, Dutch, and German are the languages with the greatest number of posts tracked by Technorati. The Korean language is underrepresented in this analysis.
Language breakdown does not necessarily imply a particular country or regional breakdown.
Technorati now tracks more than 100 Million author-created tags and categories on blog posts.
My Thoughts
Less than 1/3 of the blogosphere is in English. What does this mean? It means that Americans and other English speakers need to realize that English isn’t the only language on the planet, and businesses that are English dependent need to focus their efforts toward ensuring that our customer base will continue to be broad enough to serve customers well for the long run.
As the world gets smaller and more niche marketed, this does not seem a major problem for us. But it does pose a problem for our children, particularly as more businesses move onto the Internet.
I have experienced time in more than one culture in which I could not read; even the experience of choosing Successful and Outstanding Bloggers has made me work to find translations to ensure that the blogs I’m choosing aren’t saying things that, were they in English, I might find hurtful or embarrassing. Being unable to understand what the majority of people around you are saying is a frightening experience, especially when you have an urgent need.
To have no language with to communicate personally or in business is a scary problem. It’s also one that most English speakers have not had to consider to be real. It’s time we gave it some thought . . . if not for us, for our children.
We live in interesting times. Let us hope they don’t become too interesting. How does this information change the way you see the future for you brand, for your business . . . for your family?
–ME “Liz” Strauss
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I thought this was fascinating information, whether for business, or just to know. Thanks for sharing with us. I know that blogging hasn’t really caught on in Germany, but I expected there to be more than showed up with Germany, Austria and Switzerland combined.
Hi Indie,
Yeah I think it’s pretty fascinating too. It fascinates me even more so when I recall learning in junior high that my the mid-2100s the world would primarily Asian not Caucasian. The blogosphere seems to be that way already. hmmmm.
I would say any child with Chinese-Japanese parents who grew up with both languages, and picked up English in school, would have wonderful opportunities.
Yes, you bet that child does. 🙂 Funny though many countries don’t like Americans. American English is still what is preferred teaching in the Pacific Rim countries. I wonder if that is a left-over dislike of British Imperialism. Folks in Singapore speak finer American English than most Americans do.
It’s telling that Russian is so meagerly represented. Of course back before the iron curtain fell, the Russian language was forced on everyone in school / at university. But they universally hated it. When Russia’s influence collapsed, that was the end of Russian.
I was actually in Bulgaria once, 1989, visiting a Bulgarian family, and we were out once. I wanted to say the Russian toast, Nostrovia, and they became really alarmed, because that might have caused trouble. THey taught me how to say it in Bulgarian.
Gosh, isn’t it interesting how bad actions travel by “viral marketing” to last for way longer than any nice actions probably would.
I wanted to add:
In the German schools they teach British English, though some teachers let the students decide which they want to use. I think this comes from a slight resentment because of WWII, and us having to liberate them. It’s just too humiliating to take over the language of the main liberators.
I think I would feel the same way were I in their shoes. Look at us and the choice about how we handle silverware. 🙂
Thisis probably drifting way off topic, but in books translated from English, they distinguish which English it was translated from:
Englisch (British English)
Amerikanisch (American English)
We speak American!
That’s realy interesting. And I don’t think it’s too far off subject. After all the subject is language and how we view it.
There’s also the thing called Denglish, when German marketers start to use English in their advertsiements, but in ways we may not understand:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denglisch
e.g.
handy = cell phone
oldtimer = vintage cars
steptanz = tap dance
Oh I kind of get that. I recently did a book for MIT that had four authors. Two of them had English as their first language — an American and a Brit. One was from Denmark and one was from Sweden. They told me when I started I would be working in English, British, Swedish, and Danglish. Some of the words were really interesting, like your examples.
It’s topical to mention that I’m Norwegian, right?
This blog has been so topical this week???? Of course is ADLIb. Of course it is.
Liz,
I had a msn-arabia search for working at home and the ip went through Urguay. which language should I use for that??? LOL
Joe
Liz,
Here’s another one for ya, I just got an e-mail from a reader from Nigeria wanting advice on working at home…
At least it was in English or is that American?
J.
Joe,
I think they both count as English. I don’t whch kind of English though. I get an amazing range of countries who read Successful Blog. I wish I could read all of theirs. We need a better Internet translator.
I remember a while back trying to trace my family tree that I found a translator program that was good for European (east and west) but nothing for Chinese or any of the Asian languages.
Someone could make a mint if they could write a translator program for them.
(German,French btw)
Joe
Believe me, Joe,
I’ve looked. I think the reason that it hasn’t been done is because it takes a human.
I plan on writing about this post and Davids tomorrow, with more of a “where do people who read your blog come from” flavor.
And don’t ask, there will be a link to this post, you already knew that. 🙂
Joe
That sounds like fun, Joe. Will you be using your stats as data? Want info from mine?
Sure, e-mail to me for a comparison between our readers.
That would be fun.
J.
I’ll give you the percents per country now and if you remind me later I’ll give them to you then too. The readership by country changes drastically depending on time of day here. 🙂
Here’s what I just sent you:
Stats at 2pm Chicago time’
48% Sweden
32% US
9% UK
7% Germany
2% Bulgaria
!% italy
Mine too, and it seems to change from day to day and week to week.
“It’s an ever changing world which we live in”(Live and Let Die)
Paul McCartney
J.
What I meant was that my stats change within the times of a given day, but they actually stay pretty consistent from day to day.
Num Perc. Country Name
62 67.39% United States
5 5.43% Norway
5 5.43% United Kingdom
4 4.35% Philippines
4 4.35% Canada
4 4.35% Malaysia
3 3.26% Australia
2 2.17% Indonesia
2 2.17% India
1 1.09% South Africa
This is mind as of now… only get 100 PV’s then it changes.
Joe
Thanks, we’ll see what they look like later.
J.
It’s definitely the wrong time of day for some readers to be visiting.
I just heard some Fire Engines a little while ago, now I hear a helicopter hovering.
Going to check it out.
J.
I’d like to recommend http://neocounter.net which I’ve been using at my blog – it tells which countries are currently visiting your blog, and it can show either the top ten countries or all the countries with a visitor count for each one. There’s a free version, but it’s only a few dollars a year for the full service. It’s the one add-on I actually decided to pay. Plus the service is good, and they’re friendly.
Hi Indie,
Yes I know the service that you’re talking about. I’ve wondered who provided it. Thanks for leaving the link. Hopefully readers will click through on your name to see your beautiful blog, read one of your flash fiction stories, and to see how it works. 🙂
Liz