1477: Language and Class: Wikipedia Dec 28, 2018

Language use has been a signal for class and other groupings for as long as those notions have existed, but these linguistic differences are not always just signalling. Even in private settings these trends appear, such as how the majority of Wikipedia results for Bolivia, Namibia and Uruguay are in German. It is true that the former two counties on that list have German as an official language in some capacity, but in all of those the groups are a minority compared to, say, Spanish speakers in Bolivia and Uruguay. It is, even privately, more of an indication of which speakers have access to the internet, and perhaps which articles are better.
To support Word Facts on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/wordfacts
Previous
Previous

1478: Semaphore Dec 29, 2019

Next
Next

1476: The Most Official Languages Dec 27, 2018