This Homework is on a major religion or language.
Choose one of the major religions or languages presented in Chapter 8 of the textbook.
- Provide a summary of the origins and diffusion of that religion or language.
- Describe the geographic locations where that religion or language is prevalent today.
TABLE 8-1 The World’s Largest Languages Rank Language Number of First-Language Speakers in Millions Primary Country Countries Where Spoken 1 Chinese (all versions) 1,197 China 33 2 Spanish 406 Spain 31 3 English 335 United Kingdom 101 4 Hindi 260 India 4 5 Arabic (all versions) 223 Saudi Arabia 59 6 Portuguese 202 Portugal 11 7 Bengali 193 Bangladesh 4 8 Russian 162 Russian Federation 16 9 Japanese 122 Japan 3 10 Javanese 84.3 Indonesia 3 11 German, Standard 83.8 Germany 18 12 Lahnda (all versions) 82.7 Pakistan 7 13 Telugu 74 India 2 14 Marathi 71.8 India 1 15 Tamil 68.8 India 6 16 French 68.5 France 51 17 Vietnamese 67.8 Vietnam 3 18 Korean 66.4 South Korea 6 19 Urdu 63.4 Pakistan 6 20 Italian 61.1 Italy 10 21 Malay (all versions) 59.4 Malaysia 13 22 Persian (all versions) 56.6 Iran 29 23 Turkish 50.7 Turkey 8 24 Oriya (all versions) 50.1 India 3
