On the Internet we find articles and content in all kinds of languages. Many different languages are also used on Wikipedia. And a question, related to the understanding of international culture, is:
What does the language distribution on Wikipedia say about culture?
The language distribution on Wikipedia can be derived directly from the language ranking of the number of articles published by language. This shows the following list (April 9, 2009, (1)):
– English 2,826,000+ articles
– German 888,000+
– French 786,000+
– Polish 593,000+
– Italian 556,000+
– Japanese 576,000+
– Dutch 528,000+
– Portuguese 470,000+
– Spanish 460,000+
– Russian 376,000+
Obviously this is a snapshot, which will change over time. But that the deductions. First of all, it seems logical that the highest entries are in English. English can be described as the language of modernization. English is for many countries – and cultures – the second language or the first to study alongside the native language, as it is in many European countries. Universities offer material in English, etc. etc.
But what about the difference in number between the Wikipedia entries in Spanish (440,000) and in Dutch (525,000)?
There are about 430 million (of which not only native speakers) of Spanish-speaking people in the world and “only”
45 million Dutch speakers.
Spanish-speaking citizens outnumber the Dutch by roughly a factor of 10. However, the number of articles published on Wikipedia is 5.2 versus 4.6. How is this possible? And what does this say about culture?
Wikipedia is a fairly new phenomenon and one conclusion could be that the Dutch-speaking world has mastered this trick (of posting content) more quickly.
Another argument may be the penetration of the Internet in any speaking world. Penetration in Europe is higher than in South America where many Spanish-speaking people live (of the 430 million, since Spain only has about 45 million inhabitants).
A third argument may be that many Spanish-speaking citizens do not see / understand the use of a collaborative knowledge base. That could be an indication of the level of collaboration. The culture of collaboration is not perceived the same in different countries. As this distribution on Wikipedia shows.
(1) – en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_language