For people who like comparisons - Semitic language speakers

[bloom]

The Semitic family is a member of the larger Afro-Asiatic family, all the other five or more branches of which are based in Africa. Largely for this reason (on the basis of linguistic migration theory), Proto-Semitic is now widely believed to have first arrived in the Middle East from Africa around the 4th millennium BC<1><2>, although other linguists argue that, instead, Proto-Afro-Asiatic originated in the Middle East, and Semitic was the only branch to stay put<3>. In any event, once it appeared in the Middle East, Proto-Semitic spread outwards from its heartland in the Arabian Peninsula and the southern Levant. When written records begin in the mid 3rd millennium BC, the Semitic-speaking Akkadians and Amorites were entering Mesopotamia from the deserts to the west, and were probably already present in places such as Ebla in Syria.

Living Semitic languages by number of speakers

Arabic — 206,000,000
Amharic — 27,000,000
Hebrew — 7,500,000
Tigrinya — 6,750,000
Silt'e – 830,000
Tigre — 800,000
Neo-Aramaic — 605,000
Sebat Bet Gurage — 440,000
Maltese — 410,000
Syriac — 400,000
South Arabian languages — 360,000
Inor – 280,000
Soddo — 250,000
Harari-21 283

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semitic_languages

Speakers of the Semitic languages (Semites ! ) number around 250,000,000, close to the number of Americans. The vast majority are Arabs.

[DavidDvorkin]

1. Interesting

I didn't know that Maltese was a Semitic language.

[bloom]

2. .