Anglosphere

Anglosphere is a neologism which refers to those nations with English as the most common language. The term can be used more specifically to refer to those nations which share certain characteristics within their cultures based on a linguistic heritage, through being former British colonies. In particular, this includes the United Kingdom, from where the language originates, Australia, Canada (except Quebec), New Zealand, Ireland and the United States.

Definition

Look up anglosphere in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary defines the Anglosphere as "the group of countries where English is the main native language".^[1] The Merriam-Webster dictionary uses the definition: "the countries of the world in which the English language and cultural values predominate".^[2]

Map of English-speaking world

English:  

  Countries where English is the national language or the native language of the majority.

  Countries or regions where English is an official language and language of science and high culture, but not the language of the majority .

List of English Speaking Countries

Countries where English is a de jure/official language

Country	Region	Population1
Antigua and Barbuda[3]	Caribbean	85,000
Bahamas, The[3]	Caribbean	331,000
Barbados[4]	Caribbean	294,000
Belize [5]	Central America / Caribbean	288,000
Botswana [5]	Africa	1,882,000
Cameroon[3]	Africa	18,549,000
Dominica[3]	Caribbean	73,000
Eritrea[3]	Africa	5,224,000
Ethiopia[3]	Africa	82,101,998
Fiji[3]	Oceania	827,900
The Gambia[3]	Africa	1,709,000
Ghana[3]	Africa	23,478,000
Grenada[3]	Caribbean	106,000
India [5][6]	Asia	1,143,540,000
Jamaica[7]	Caribbean	2,714,000
Kenya[3]	Africa	37,538,000
Kiribati[3]	Oceania	95,000
Lesotho[3]	Africa	2,008,000
Liberia[3]	Africa	3,750,000
Malawi[8]	Africa	13,925,000
Malta[3]	Europe	412,600
Marshall Islands[3]	Oceania	59,000
Mauritius[3]	Africa / Indian Ocean	1,262,000
Federated States of Micronesia[3]	Oceania	111,000
Namibia[3]	Africa	2,074,000
Nauru[9]	Oceania	10,000
Nigeria[3][10]	Africa	170,123,740
Pakistan[3]	Asia	165,449,000
Palau [5]	Oceania	20,000
Papua New Guinea[11][12]	Oceania	6,331,000
Philippines[3][13]	Asia	90,457,200
Rwanda[3]	Africa	9,725,000
Saint Kitts and Nevis[14]	Caribbean	50,000
Saint Lucia[3]	Caribbean	165,000
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines[15]	Caribbean	120,000
Samoa[16]	Oceania	188,359
Seychelles[3]	Africa / Indian Ocean	87,000
Sierra Leone[3]	Africa	5,866,000
Singapore[17]	Asia	4,839,400
Solomon Islands[3]	Oceania	506,992
South Africa[18]	Africa	47,850,700
South Sudan[19]	Africa	8,260,490
Sudan[3]	Africa	31,894,000
Swaziland[3]	Africa	1,141,000
Tanzania[3]	Africa	40,454,000
Tonga[20]	Oceania	100,000
Trinidad and Tobago[3]	Caribbean	1,333,000
Tuvalu[5]	Oceania	11,000
Uganda[3]	Africa	30,884,000
Vanuatu[21]	Oceania	226,000
Zambia[3]	Africa	11,922,000
Zimbabwe[3]	Africa	13,349,000

Countries where English is primary vernacular of the majority

Country	Region	Population1
Australia[22]	Australia	22,374,370
Canada[3]	North America	33,531,000
Guyana[23]	South America / Caribbean	738,000
Ireland[24]	Europe	4,581,269
New Zealand[3]	Oceania	4,294,350
United Kingdom	Europe	61,612,300
United States	North America	309,442,000
Total Population of Majority English-Speaking Countries	North America, Europe, Oceania, South America	436,574,289

See also

• ABCA Armies
• Anglicisation
• Anglo-African
• British Empire
• Commonwealth of Nations
• Echelon
• English in the Commonwealth of Nations
• English-speaking world
• History of the English language
• History of the English Speaking Peoples (Winston Churchill)
• Sinosphere
• UKUSA Agreement

Notes

References

• Bennett, James C. (2004). The anglosphere challenge: why the English-speaking nations will lead the way in the twenty-first century. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 0-7425-3332-8. 
• Brown, Andrew (15 February 2003). "Scourge and poet". The Guardian. http://books.guardian.co.uk/poetry/features/0,12887,902797,00.html. 
• Conquest, Robert; reply by Ignatieff, Michael (23 March 2000), The 'Anglosphere', the New York Review of Books, http://www.nybooks.com/articles/104, retrieved 2007-07-24 .
• Merriam-Webster Staff (2010). "anglosphere.". Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/anglosphere. Retrieved August 5, 2010. 
• Reynolds, Glenn (28 October 2004). "Explaining the 'Anglosphere'". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2004/oct/28/uselections2004.usa4. 
• Roberts, Andrew (2006). A History of the English-Speaking Peoples Since 1900. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. ISBN 0-297-85076-8. 
• Luca Bellocchio, L'eterna alleanza? La special relationship angloamericana tra continuità e mutamento, Franco Angeli, Milano, 2006 francoangeli.it
• Luca Bellocchio, Anglosfera. Forma e forza del nuovo Pan-Anglismo, Il Nuovo Melangolo, Genova, 2006.