e north), Krio (English-based Creole,
spoken by the descendants of freed Jamaican slaves who were settled
in the Freetown area, a lingua franca and a first language for 10%
of the population but understood by 95%)

Singapore
Chinese (official), Malay (official and national), Tamil
(official), English (official)

Slovakia
Slovak (official), Hungarian

Slovenia
Slovenian 92%, Serbo-Croatian 6.2%, other 1.8%

Solomon Islands
Melanesian pidgin in much of the country is lingua
franca; English is official but spoken by only 1%-2% of the
population
note: 120 indigenous languages

Somalia
Somali (official), Arabic, Italian, English

South Africa
11 official languages, including Afrikaans, English,
Ndebele, Pedi, Sotho, Swazi, Tsonga, Tswana, Venda, Xhosa, Zulu

Spain
Castilian Spanish 74%, Catalan 17%, Galician 7%, Basque 2%
note: Castilian is the official language nationwide; the other
languages are official regionally

Sri Lanka
Sinhala (official and national language) 74%, Tamil
(national language) 18%, other 8%
note: English is commonly used in government and is spoken
competently by about 10% of the population

Sudan
Arabic (official), Nubian, Ta Bedawie, diverse dialects of
Nilotic, Nilo-Hamitic, Sudanic languages, English
note: program of "Arabization" in process

Suriname
Dutch (official), English (widely spoken), Sranang Tongo
(Surinamese, sometimes called Taki-Taki, is native language of
Creoles and much of the younger population and is lingua franca
among others), Hindustani (a dialect of Hindi), Javanese

Svalbard
Norwegian, Russian

Swaziland
English (official, government business conducted in
English), siSwati (official)

Sweden
Swedish
note: small Sami- and Finnish-speaking minorities

Switzerland
German (official) 63.7%, French (official) 19.2%,
Italian (official) 7.6%, Romansch (official) 0.6%, other 8.9%

Syria
Arabic (official); Kurdish, Armenian, Aramaic, Circassian
widely understood; French, English somewhat understood

Taiwan
Mandarin Chinese (official), Taiwanese (Min), Hakka dialects

Tajikistan
Tajik (official), Russian widely used in government and
business

Tanzania
Kiswahili or Swahili (official), Kiunguju (name for Swahili
in Zanzibar), English (official, primary language of commerce,
administration, and higher education), Arabic (widely spoken in
Zanzibar), many local l