There are about 7,469 languages in the world in 2015. But which one is the most common among them? According to the well-known reference book Ethnologue, which is developed and published in print and electronic form by the international non-profit organization SIL International, the list of the most widely spoken languages in the world (by the number of speakers) is as follows.
Malay
Malay (including Indonesian) is a language that includes several related languages spoken on the island of Sumatra, the Malay Peninsula, in the coastal regions of the island of Borneo, Indonesia and Thailand. He speaks on it 210 million human. It is the official language of Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia and one of the four official languages of Singapore, as well as a working language in the Philippines and East Timor.
Bengali is the ninth most spoken language in the world. It is the official language of the People's Republic of Bangladesh and the Indian states of West Bengal, Assam and Tripura. It is spoken in parts of the Indian states of Jharkhand, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh, as well as in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. It is the second most spoken language in India. The total number of speakers in the world - 210 million human.
French is the official language of France and 28 other countries (Belgium, Burundi, Guinea, Switzerland, Luxembourg, the Republic of the Congo, Vanuatu, Senegal, etc.), which is spoken by about 220 million human. It is the official and administrative language of many communities and international organizations such as the European Union (one of the six official languages), the International Olympic Committee, the United Nations and others.
Portuguese is the language spoken more than 250 million people living in Portugal and former Portuguese colonies: Brazil, Mozambique, Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Sao Tome, Principe, East Timor and Macau. In all these countries, it is the official language. Also common in the United States of America, France, South Africa, Bermuda, the Netherlands, Barbados and Ireland. It is one of the official languages of the European Union and other international organizations.
Russian is the official language of Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Widely distributed in Ukraine, Latvia and Estonia. To a lesser extent in the countries that were part of the Soviet Union. It is one of the six official languages of the United Nations and the most widely spoken language in Europe. All over the world speaks Russian 290 million human.
Hindi is the official language of India and Fiji and is spoken 380 million people, predominantly in the central and northern regions of India. In the Indian states of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan and the capital Delhi, Hindi is the official language of government and the main language of instruction in schools. It is also found in Nepal, Pakistan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Suriname, the Republic of Mauritius and the Caribbean.
Arabic is the fourth most popular language in the world. It is the official language of all Arab countries, as well as Israel, Chad, Eritrea, Djibouti, Somalia, Comoros and the unrecognized state of Somaliland. It is spoken all over the world 490 million human. Classical Arabic (the language of the Quran) is the liturgical language of 1.6 billion Muslims and one of the official languages of the United Nations.
Spanish or Castilian is a language that originated in the medieval kingdom of Castile on the territory of modern Spain and spread during the Age of Discovery primarily in North and South America, as well as in parts of Africa and Asia. It is the official language of Spain and 20 other countries (Mexico, Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Chile, Cuba, Panama, Peru, etc.). The only people in the world who speak Spanish 517 million people. It is also used as an official and working language by many international organizations, including the European Union, the UN, the Union of South American Nations, etc.
English is the official language of Great Britain, the USA, Ireland, Canada, Malta, Australia, New Zealand, as well as some Asian countries. It is widely distributed in parts of the Caribbean, Africa and South Asia. In total, English is the official language of almost 60 sovereign states and many global and regional international organizations. The total number of speakers in the world is 840 million human.
The most widely spoken language in the world is Mandarin Chinese, known as Putonghua or Mandarin, a speech that combines Chinese dialects and is spoken in the north and southwest of China. It is the official language of the People's Republic of China, Taiwan and Singapore. In addition, it is common in places where the Chinese diaspora lives: in Malaysia, Mozambique, Mongolia, the Asian part of Russia, Singapore, the USA, Taiwan and Thailand. According to the Ethnologue guide, this language is spoken 1.030 million people.
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Did you know that the world's most popular language is spoken by 1/7 of the world's population? And it's not English at all! There are more than 7,000 languages in the world, but 10 of them are the most popular. Is there a Russian language in this top ten? Answer under the cut...
No. 10 French - 150 million native speakers
French is spoken in 53 countries of the world, the main one being France. About 150 million speakers in the world. French is the official language of many international organizations: the European Union, the International Olympic Committee, the UN, etc.
No. 9. Indonesian - 200 million native speakers
Indonesian is spoken in 16 countries, including Indonesia, and has the status of a working language in East Timor. Indonesia is an island state with more than 13 thousand islands.
The Indonesian language evolved from Malay in the 20th century and is the most widely spoken dialect of the Malay language.
No. 8. Portuguese - 240 million speakers
Portuguese is spoken in 12 countries around the world. Portuguese is the official language of Brazil.
In the 12th century, Portugal became independent from Spain and spread its possessions around the world thanks to navigators. Having founded colonies in Brazil, Angola, Macau, Mozambique, Venezuela and other countries, the Portuguese made their language one of the most widely spoken languages in the world. Portuguese is one of the official languages of the European Union and other international organizations.
No. 7. Bengali language - 250 million speakers
Bengali is spoken in Bangladesh and some states of India. For Bangladesh, Bengali is the official language and for India it is the second most spoken language.
No. 6. Russian - 260 million speakers
Russian is spoken in 17 countries of the world. Russian is the official language of Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Widely distributed in Ukraine, Latvia and Estonia. To a lesser extent in the countries that were part of the Soviet Union.
Russian is one of the six official languages of the UN, the most widely spoken language in Europe and the most widely spoken Slavic language in the world.
No. 5. Arabic - 267 million native speakers
Arabic is spoken in 58 countries around the world. The largest number of Arabic speakers is concentrated in Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt.
The Arabic language is also spreading around the world thanks to the main book of Muslims - the Koran. Arabic became the sixth official language of the UN in 1974.
No. 4. Spanish - 427 million native speakers
Spanish is spoken in 31 countries around the world. Spanish originated in Spain in the Middle Ages and spread throughout the world during the Great Geographical Discoveries. Spanish is the official language of international organizations: the UN, the European Union, the Union of South American Nations, etc.
Number 3. Hindi - 490 million speakers
Hindi is spoken in India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan.
Many predict that Hindi will soon become the most spoken language in the world and overtake China, but when and if this will happen remains unknown.
No. 2. English - 600 million native speakers
English is the most widely spoken language in the world in terms of the number of countries it covers - 106 countries. English is the official and primary language in the UK. In countries such as India, Ireland, New Zealand, Canada and the Philippines, English is used as an official language, but in addition to it, there are also their official languages.
No. 1. Chinese - 1.3 billion native speakers
Chinese is the official language of the People's Republic of China, Taiwan and Singapore. It is spoken by more than 1.3 billion people all over the world, and therefore it ranks first in the list of the most widely spoken languages in the world.
Chinese is considered the most difficult language in the world. Chinese is one of the six official languages of the United Nations.
And also about her legend. It was she who said that before all people understood each other, and the language was the same for everyone. However, this continued exactly until the moment when humanity angered God, who demarcated the understanding of the linguistic speech of former comrades, forcing them to settle all over the world, founding their peoples with unique traditions and culture.
Like it or not, there are over 7,000 languages in the world today. Of course, this figure is rather abstract, because specific dialects and many different conventions of difference between languages cannot be ruled out. The most widespread language in the world always differs in time periods: at different times Latin, French, Spanish, Arabic, Greek and other languages occupied "linguistic" dominance. As time goes by, established traditions change. English is now firmly rooted in the world, but can it live long? Let's not talk about it now. The most spoken languages in the world in 2013 are English and Chinese, due to the economic and political dominance of the United States and China, as well as due to historical events.
world languages
Mankind has always strived for new discoveries and the development of unknown lands, which prompted brave men like Francis Drake to make long-distance travels. paved the way for the English, Portuguese and Spanish languages to the remote corners of our planet, raising their overall rating and recognition. At the moment, there are 8 languages that are "world" - these are English, Chinese, Spanish, Russian, Arabic, French, Portuguese and German. It is they who have the largest number of carriers, the number of which is equal to 4.3 billion people, which is about 60% of the total population of the Earth.
The most widely spoken language in the world is English, which has 1.4 billion native speakers and is also universal for international communication. Along with these "giants" in the linguistic environment, there is another side of the coin, which contains those doomed to complete disappearance. For example, these are the languages of Udege, Itonama, Kaguila, Goundo and others, each of which is native to less than 100 people around the world. As a rule, these are the languages of tribes in remote areas of Africa or South America.
The hardest languages in the world
Now we will try to compile the TOP-5, that is, the rating of languages that are not only the hardest to learn, but even learn to communicate at least a little with its native speakers. Of course, it is impossible to accurately name the most difficult language to learn, because for most people the kinship of languages will play a huge role. For example, it will be easier for a Russian to learn Ukrainian or Belarusian than French, and for a Japanese it will not be too difficult to learn Chinese, but it will be difficult to understand Spanish and the like. However, it is possible to single out an objective point of view on the most complex languages, which will be based on a set of rules and generally accepted traditions. So, let's begin.
Chinese
For several reasons, this particular language took first place in our TOP. First, significant difficulties arise with the hieroglyphs used in writing. It is often difficult even for the Chinese to understand this or that symbol, not to mention foreigners. Each of the words is indicated by its own hieroglyph, and even not phonetic, which makes it impossible to know in advance the pronunciation of a particular word. Adds fuel to the fire and the tonal system, which has 4 tones in the language. Finally, in Chinese extremely a large number of homophones, which greatly complicates language acquisition. Finally, let's say that Chinese is the most widely spoken language in the world in terms of the number of speakers who consider it their mother tongue.
Arab
And another language where there are significant difficulties with writing. The fact is that some letters have 4 different spelling forms, which depends on their position in a particular word. Plus, vowels are not used in the letter. Sounds are not easy to learn, and words are even more difficult. Verbs in Arabic usually come before predicates and objects. The verb also has 3 numbers, so nouns and verbs must be studied in singular, dual and plural. There are 13 different forms in the present tense. The noun has 3 cases and 2 genders. Adding to the list of Arabic problems are dialects, which are just as different in Arabic-speaking countries as, for example, French and Spanish.
Tuyuka
This language belongs to one of the many spoken in the Eastern Amazon. The sound system should not cause any particular difficulties, but agglutination may shock some. For example, the word hóabãsiriga means "I don't know how to write." There are about 50-140 classes of nouns (genders) in the language, but the most surprising thing about it is that the speaker needs to use specific verb endings that can make it clear how he knows what he is talking about. Let's take a small example. Diga ape-wi translates as "the boy played football", but the speaker can only say this if he himself saw it . But Diga ape-hiyi - let it be translated into Russian in the same way, however, in the Tuyuka language, the speaker will say so if he assumes or is definitely not sure about the reliability of the information. Such endings are obligatory in this language. Well, if you suddenly want to learn the Tuyuk language, then always first think about where you learned this or that information from.
Hungarian
The most difficult languages are replenished with the first European language - Hungarian. There are several reasons for this. Firstly, it has 35 cases, which automatically puts the language on the list of the most difficult. In addition, Hungarian is quite difficult to pronounce, and learning the words will make even the most erudite ones strain themselves.
Japanese
The last one in our TOP. Firstly, difficulties arise in writing, because it differs from pronunciation. Plus, there are 3 forms of writing. The "kanji" system uses Chinese characters, and two native Japanese syllabaries are used for (katakana) and for writing suffixes, as well as various grammatical particles (hiragana).
and statuses in other states
What is the most widely spoken language? If we talk about the territorial superiority of the carrier countries, then the impeccable leadership is occupied by English (Great Britain + dependent territories, Australia, USA, New Zealand, Canada, India, Pakistan, Iceland, Ireland, most of the states of Oceania and Africa) and Spanish (Spain, Mexico, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Dominican Republic, Cuba and all South American countries except Brazil).
Judging by the number of speakers (who consider the language native), the most common languages are Chinese (848 million people), Spanish (406 million people) and English (335 million people). Perhaps it will not be a secret to anyone that English is mandatory for learning in many countries of the world, including Russian speakers. However, such a globalization of English could not but affect the language itself, which is why the world (except for states where it is considered official) is more common "incorrect" English with distorted words, erroneous use of tenses, and the like. The most spoken language on earth (English) also ranks first in terms of websites (approx. 56%) and the percentage of native speakers contributing to GDP (approx. 29%). When it comes to individual language learning, people often strive to learn a "beautiful" and sweet-sounding language, as can be seen from the results of many online surveys. These include Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Chinese. As you can see, most of the leaders belong to the Romanesque group. The most common language in the world, English, has been in the TOP 10 most beautiful more than once due to its harmonious literary and mass popularization in music and cinema.
Language is the main way people communicate, and this article presents the most popular, widespread and popular languages of the peoples of the world.
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14. French
Although this language is not among the ten most common languages in the world, in our small presentation it takes an honorable 14th place, opening our rating. The French language, in addition to being one of the most common, is also one of the most beautiful languages of the world, which is often called the language of love, just like the capital of France, the city of Paris, is called the city of love. This language is included in the Romance group of languages, has the status of an official language in 29 countries of the world, in particular in Canada, Switzerland, Belgium, Monaco and, of course, France. It is one of the six official languages of the UN and is spoken in a number of African countries, former French colonies. According to some reports, about 250 million people around the world speak French, but it is native to 75 million.
Many people learn French because of its beauty, others learn it because it is a fairly popular language in Europe and knowledge of such a language will be useful for work and travel. This language is not very difficult to learn as a foreign language. Of course, French will be easier for someone, more difficult for someone, but many agree that, in terms of learning difficulty, it is somewhere between German and Spanish.
13. Korean
Korean is the native language of about 78 million people, is the official language of South Korea and North Korea, and is partly spoken in China, Japan, the United States, and Russia. This language is not very popular and not many people study it in other countries. Nevertheless, in terms of the number of native speakers, it takes an honorable 13th place in our ranking of the most widely spoken languages on earth. Most researchers consider it to be isolated languages, that is, languages that do not belong to any known language family. However, some believe that Korean may be part of a hypothetical Altaic family. According to some linguists, Korean may have some degree of relationship with Japanese.
Some people find Korean easier to learn than Japanese and Chinese, but Korean grammar is still harder in their opinion. Chinese and Japanese are studied mainly for romantic reasons, because of the desire to get closer to the culture of the East and learn the centuries-old history of the region. The Korean language is taught mainly for earnings.
12. German
German is the most popular and demanded language in Europe after English, and many learn it not for cultural reasons or for travel, but for doing business and business negotiations. German is the official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein and Belgium. This language is native to 100 million people, and there are more than 120 million native speakers. The German language is part of the Germanic group, like English, but German is considered much more difficult than English, like some other languages.
Beginners to learn a language are frightened by words that are 2-3 times longer than their counterparts in other languages, a lot of tenses, regular and irregular verbs conjugated in different ways, the presence of a definite and indefinite article, and not always the same gender of nouns. Nevertheless, the German language cannot be called one of the most difficult languages of the peoples of the world, since with the proper approach it is studied without any problems, like any other European language.
11. Javanese
There are so many languages in the world, but not many of our citizens, in principle, know about the existence of this language, not to mention the fact that the Javanese language is one of the most common. This language is spoken by about 105 million people and is spoken mainly on the Indonesian island of Java and a few neighboring islands. It is the largest Austronesian language in terms of the number of speakers. This is a fairly developed language that has a rich literary tradition with different genres of poetry and prose, many varieties of theatrical genres. Despite the fact that almost half of the population of Indonesia actively uses Javanese in everyday life, it, like all other existing languages in the country, does not have an official status.
10 Punjabi
This language belongs to the Indo-Aryan languages of the Indo-European language family and is one of the official languages of India. Punjabi is the language of the Punjabis and the Jats, an ethnic group in India. The language is spoken in the eastern part of Pakistan, as well as in some parts of India. There are about 112 million Punjabi speakers in the world. About 105 million native speakers live in Pakistan and India. While the rest lives in countries such as the UK, Canada, the United Arab Emirates, the USA, etc. Among the features of the language, one can single out that it is a tonal language. In tonal languages, the height of a stressed syllable changes its meaning. In Punjabi, a stressed syllable can have three different pitches. This is very unusual for Indo-European languages.
9. Japanese
Ninth place in our list of the most common and popular languages in the world is another language from Asia. The native speakers of this language are 130 million people. The Japanese language is studied mainly for two reasons. Firstly, the language is studied for doing business, since Japan is one of the strongest economies in the world. Secondly, Japan has a rich and interesting culture that attracts thousands of people and sooner or later makes them interested in the language of the country. Japanese is by no means an easy language. One of the main difficulties in learning this language is the hieroglyphs, which came from Chinese, but have changed a little over time in the development of the language.
In Japanese, almost all characters have not one, but two or more sounds, depending on which words they are used in. Today in Japan, the most commonly used are about two and a half thousand hieroglyphs, while in China, at least 3,500 hieroglyphs are used. The Japanese language is simpler when compared to Korean and Chinese, but Japanese grammar is very complex. There are no tones in Japanese, but there are two alphabets. The Hiragana alphabet is the main one used for pure Japanese words, grammatical marking, and sentence endings. Katakana is another Japanese alphabet and is used for foreign words and names.
8. Russian
Russia is one of the most important countries in the world, occupying a vast territory inhabited by many peoples. The rich, vibrant and rich culture and the most beautiful cities of the country attract many foreigners who are also interested in the “mighty” Russian language. There are about 160 million people for whom Russian is their native language. In total, there are about 260 million Russian speakers. Russian is the official language in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. It is the most widely spoken Slavic language in the world and the most widely spoken language in Europe in terms of the number of native speakers. Russian is one of the working languages of the UN. It is quite difficult to learn, its grammar is complex but logical. Russian can be called one of the simple “complex” languages.
Many foreigners choose French or German because they are common in Europe. Russian is chosen when they want to get to know Russian culture, when there are Russian friends with whom you want to speak their language, when you move to live or work in Russia. Basically, they study the Russian language because they like it, like, in general, any other language. You cannot learn a language through force, it must be interesting and attractive, there must be a desire to learn it.
7. Bengali
The Bengali language is one of the languages of the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family. It is widely spoken and is the official language in Bangladesh and India. There are about 190 million people for whom it is their mother tongue and about 260 million people who speak it. Some aspects of the language are often different in India and Bangladesh. The letter in most cases fully corresponds to the pronunciation. The writing of the language is based on Sanskrit and does not always take into account the changes and mergers of sounds that have occurred in the language over time. The history of the Bengali language dates back at least a millennium, as evidenced by both the dating of the first literary monuments and the data of linguistic reconstruction.
6. Portuguese
Portuguese is the native language of approximately 230 million people, with a total of approximately 260 million speakers. It is the official language in Portugal, Brazil, Angola and some other countries. Most of the native speakers live in Brazil. The Portuguese language is comparable in complexity to Spanish, French and Italian, as it is in the same group of Romance languages with them. There are two main variants of the language, European Portuguese and Brazilian, as well as a number of varieties in Africa and Asia, differing from each other at the level of phonetics, vocabulary, spelling and grammar. In African countries, the European version of the Portuguese language is used with a large number of lexical borrowings from African languages.
5. Arabic
Arabic is spoken in 60 countries of the world, such as Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt and Libya, and in 26 of them it is official. One of the working languages of the UN and belongs to the Semitic branch of the Afroasian family of languages. The number of native speakers exceeds 245 million people, and the total number of people who speak it is more than 350 million. Arabic is of great importance in the political and economic spheres, in the field of energy and security. This is a very popular language and people who know it will always be able to find a good job. Arabic is one of the five most difficult languages in the world, there are many dialects of Arabic that differ significantly from each other.
4. Hindi
This language is one of the 23 official languages of India, and is also spoken in Pakistan and Fiji. The mother tongue is spoken by 260 million people, and the total number of Hindi speakers is approximately 400 million people. At a colloquial level, the Hindi language is almost indistinguishable from the other official language of India, Urdu. The latter is distinguished by a large number of Arabic and Persian loanwords, as well as the fact that it uses the Arabic alphabet, while the traditional Hindi script is the Devanagari syllabary. English is one of the official languages of India, but, nevertheless, according to some reports, Hindi is quite a promising language and it may become one of the most popular languages by 2050.
3. English
The top three of our list of the most popular and common languages opens English, which is the most common language to learn as a foreign language. This language is native to 350 million people, and the total number of speakers of it is about 1.4 billion people. English is one of the working languages of the UN, the official language of Australia, New Zealand, the USA, England, Canada and some other countries. English in the modern world plays a huge role in many areas of life from politics and business to culture and travel. This is due to the colonial policy of the British Empire in the 19th century and the global influence of the United States of America at the present time.
English is also considered one of the easiest languages to learn, if not the easiest. However, this language also has its difficulties. In many countries of the world, English is taught in schools almost from the primary grades as a foreign language.
2. Spanish
In second place is a very beautiful language, which is official in Spain, Mexico, Costa Rica, Cuba and most countries in South America. Spanish is very similar to Italian and Portuguese, as it is in the same Romance group with them. Approximately 420 million people consider Spanish as their mother tongue, and about 500 million people speak it all over the world. It is the most widely spoken Romance language, with 9/10 of its speakers living predominantly in the Western Hemisphere. It is a fairly easy language to learn, which, in addition to the Spanish culture and beauty of the language, adds to the desire of foreigners to learn Spanish.
There are several dialects of the Spanish language, but Castilian is considered to be the real, original Spanish language. Spain has Castilian, Catalan, Basque and Galician dialects, while South America has five main dialect groups. The first group is used primarily in Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Panama, Colombia, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Mexico. The second in Peru, Chile and Ecuador. Third in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama. The fourth group is the Argentine-Uruguayan-Paraguayan variant, which includes Eastern Bolivia. The fifth group is conditionally called Highland Latin American Spanish. This language is spoken by the inhabitants of Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, belonging to the Andes of Colombia and Venezuela, Quito (located at an altitude of 2800 m, the capital of Ecuador), the Peruvian mountain range and Bolivia.
1. Chinese
The Chinese language is a collection of very different dialects, and therefore is considered by most linguists as an independent language branch, consisting of separate, albeit related, language and dialect groups. In fact, the Chinese language is made up of many other languages. But at the same time, the hieroglyphs are one. Since the middle of the 20th century, after the reform in China, the writing of basic hieroglyphs has become much more simplified. The unified Chinese language is called Mandarin or simply Mandarin, which is called Putonghua in China. The Chinese language has 10 dialect groups and seven main traditional dialects.
Many consider Chinese the most difficult language to learn, more difficult than Japanese and Arabic. Mainly because it uses more than 3,000 characters, which are noticeably more difficult to write than Japanese or Korean. The use of tones in the language also makes it difficult to learn. Despite all the difficulties of learning, Chinese remains one of the most promising and sought-after languages in the world. It is native to 1.3 billion people and has over 1.5 billion speakers. China is one of the strongest countries in many areas, one of the largest in terms of territory and the largest in terms of population. Nowadays, the Chinese language is very popular and interesting, both for doing business and for understanding the most ancient culture on the planet.
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