Home › Miscellaneous › Languages of the World

Languages of the World

It is estimated that over 100 millions of people now speak the English language, over 41 millions the French, 69 millions German, 30 millions Italian, 41 millions Spanish, 13 millions Portuguese, and 67 millions Russian. NEWSPAPERS.

The first newspaper, if it may be called such, was the "Acta Diurna" of Rome, posted publicly in the city from the time of Julius Cæsar to the fall of the empire, 476 A.D. The first printed was in China, 382 A. D. From 1447 small printed sheets were issued in Germany and Venice, in which last city the accounts of events of public interest, written and termed "Notizie Scritte," were shown for the price of a "gazetta," a small coin, from which the name gazette is derived. The first serial appeared in Antwerp (1605), the first daily at Frankfort (1615), which is still in existence, and the first English newspaper at London, in 1622. The first American paper was the Boston News Letter, 1704. The total number of newspapers published in the world is estimated at 47,000, of which 17,760 are printed in the United States and Canada (Canada, 812). The total yearly issue is 3,481,610,000. Papers, according to countries, are as follows:

Great Britain. 6,500 Russia 800 Germany 6,000 Australia. 800 ...

France. 4,200 Greece. 600 Japan. 2,000 Switzerland. 45° Italy 1,000 Holland.. 300 Austria-Hungary. 1,200 Belgium 300 Asia (exclusive of Japan) 1,000 All others. 1,000 Spain....... 850 The largest circulation is of the Petit Journal, at Paris, 950,0০০. That of the London Telegraph is 650,0co-and is the second in size.