The Arabic language has been ranked fifth on an index rating the worlds most powerful languages, Dubai-based Chinese researcher Kai Chan told the Business Breakfast radio show on Dubai Eye this week.
In a research paper, Chan created a Power Language Index that measures the influence of the worlds different languages through a 20-point indicator, evaluating the languages impact based on factors such as geography, economy, communication, knowledge, media and diplomacy. Read more here:
However, in his research, Chan noted that the low oil price could have a negative impact on the position of the Arabic language in the list in the future. One of the big factors about how important the language is, is the strength of the economies that underlay the countries where the language is spoken.
So in the past, we had a big rise in the GDP (gross domestic product) of the countries associated with the Arabic countries, now that we have had a drop there, you know, going forward, the economy behind the Arabic language is going to be a little bit diminished relative to the past, Chan said in an interview on Wednesday.
His comments come as oil prices continued their sharp decline this month, despite a recent agreement by members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to cut oil outputs, in efforts to boost the markets performance. Saudi Arabia is the worlds biggest exporter of oil. Read more here:
Out of 6,000 thousand international languages, only 15 accounted for half of the languages spoken in the world, Chans report said. English led the list of the most influential languages, followed by the Chinese Mandarian dialect. French and Spanish also came before Arabic, holding the third and fourth places respectively.
Arabic is spoken by 295 million native speakers, according to Power Language Index report. It held the fourth position on the languages importance for diplomacy and the ninth for the worlds economy. You can read the full report here
