Languages spoken but not read, by market

Name: Languages spoken but not read, by market
Creator: Orbt
License: https://tryorbt.com/markets/licence

A language most of its speakers cannot read is a broadcast audience, not a packaging decision.

8 markets · 10 underlying records · verified September 9, 2026 · Unicode Consortium

No two of these 8 markets give the same answer. There is no common case to plan around here, so the table is a lookup rather than a rule: read the row for the market you are going into.

#	Market	Spoken, not read
1	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Bosnian
2	Gambia	Mandingo
3	Germany	Bavarian
4	Luxembourg	Luxembourgish
5	Netherlands	German
6	Serbia	Serbian
7	Switzerland	Swiss German
8	Thailand	Northeastern Thai

Where this comes from

Unicode Consortium: Unicode CLDR 48 supplemental data

Every row links to its own entry, which carries the evidence, the confidence and the date it was last checked. The method behind all of it is on how the index is made, and reuse terms are on the licence page. Take the table: surface-spoken-not-read.csv — every row with its market code, its record and the source, so it can be checked after it has been pasted somewhere else.

Published free, as reference, without warranty. This is not legal, regulatory, customs, tax or investment advice, and it is not a substitute for reading the primary document, which every record here names, dates and links, precisely so that you can.

We derive from public sources and we do not independently audit them. Where a source says its own records are unverified, that carries through to us. What we do promise is that every figure is recomputed from stored rows, every claim publishes the observation that would overturn it, and every correction goes on the public log. If something here is wrong, tell us and it changes in the open.

Orbt is not affiliated with, endorsed by or acting for Unicode Consortium. They are cited as sources. Go and read them directly — they are more complete than we are, and they are linked from every record that rests on them.

Other things we measured everywhere

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