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Southeast Asia

Southeast Asian languages and their Wikipedias

Wiki code	Language	Primary country	Number of speakers (Millions)	Potential users (Millions)	Number of articles (7-09)	# of articles >1500 bytes (7-09)	Articles, 1 year growth rate (5/08-5/09)	# of 5+ editors (5-09)	5+ editors, 1 year growth rate (5/08-5/09)	5+ editors, 2 year growth rate (5/07-5/09)	Article-to-editor ratio
id	Indonesian	Indonesia	*163	17.95	108,309	22,745	27%	229	12%	10%	473
tl	Tagalog/ Filipino	Philippines	*90	5.4	22,669	2,494	35%	49	17%	104%	463
vi	Vietnamese	Viet Nam	*68	14.41	93,236	28,903	110%	302	35%	82%	309
th	Thai	Thailand	*60	12.08	48,637	17,996	31%	343	30%	73%	142
ms	Malay	Malaysia	42	26.1	44,542	11,136	38%	92	11%	28%	484
my	Burmese	Myanmar	32	0.03	1,278	473	622%	22	267%	450%	58
km	Khmer	Cambodia	14	0.07	2,213	620	95%	15	7%	650%	148

• Includes second language speakers

Southeast Asian languages

• There are over 470 million speakers of the 7 major Southeast Asian languages (Indonesian Tagalog/ Filipino Vietnamese, Thai, Malay, Burmese and Khmer) comprising 80% of the population of Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Myanmar, Cambodia, Lao, Singapore and Timor Leste. See Further opportunities to extend reach in Europe, Southeast Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa
• All of the 7 languages listed are official languages of the primary country listed and are used extensively in the local print media.
• The length of the written history of these languages varies from country to country. Most of the languages have written material available in a wide variety of topics but may have limited resources for advanced technical topics
• There are many other languages spoken in Southeast Asia, these 7 were chosen due to their large number of speakers, importance as official languages, and as mediums of educational instruction.

Internet penetration in Southeast Asia

• Internet access varies dramatically from country to country.
  • Malaysia and Singapore both have high rates of Internet use of 63% and 69% of the population respectively.
  • Vietnam, Thailand, and Indonesia have moderate rates of Internet use of between 11-21% of the population.
  • Cambodia, Myanmar, Lao and Timor Leste all have Internet use rates of less than 2% of the population.

Southeast Asian languages and education

• All of the languages listed are used as mediums of instruction at the elementary and high school level in countries listed the primary country of the language
• Malaysia:
  • In Malaysia, primary and secondary education is either taught in Mandarin Chinese, Tamil, or Malay.
  • Currently, science and math classes at the secondary level are taught in English, but as of 2012 these classes will be taught in either Malay, Mandarin Chinese, or Tamil.
  • Most private universities use English as the medium for instruction, public universities use a combination of Malay and English.
• Philippines:
  • Education in the Philippines is bilingual in English and Filipino.
  • Higher education is largely done in English.
• Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia
  • Education at all levels, from primary to tertiary, is conducted in the national language.
  • Thailand and Indonesia have strong English as a second language programs in their school systems and as a result have high levels of English literacy, while few Vietnamese are literate in English.

Southeast Asian language Wikipedias

• Growth of Southeast Asian language Wikipedias has depended upon two factors, the number of language speakers with Internet access, and the degree of English language literacy.
  • Greater the number of potential users and lower levels of English literacy are correlated with larger wikipedias
  • Languages that have a very small numbers of potential users have experienced limited growth
  • There are eight other Wikipedias in South East Asian languages up more than 3 million speakers
  • Javanese - 33,960 articles, Cebuanu - 39,202 articles, Sunda - 14,791 articles, Buginese - 8,610 articles, Banyumasan-Javanese - 3.620 articles, Acehnese - 1,525 articles, Banjarese - 1,162 articles, Tetun - 616 articles

Barriers to the growth of Southeast Asian language Wikipedias

• Khmer and Burmese are severely limited by lack of Internet access amongst native language speakers
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