- English. While only about 360 million people are native English speakers, 1.5 billion people worldwide can speak English. ...
- Mandarin Chinese. Over 1.1 billion people speak Mandarin, but Chinese is not a single language. ...
- Hindustani. ...
- Spanish.
What is the dominant language in India?
Over the centuries, Hindi was influenced by Dravidian, Turkic, Portuguese, Persian, Arabic, and English. With 615 million speakers worldwide, Hindi is the dominant language in India, and it is also spoken in Nepal, the US, South Africa, Yemen, and Mauritius. 4. Spanish - 534 million speakers.
What is the ninth most spoken language in the world?
Portuguese is the ninth most commonly spoken language in the world. Portuguese is a Romance language that developed in the western region of the Iberian Peninsula (now Portugal and Spain). It is the official language in Portugal as well as Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, East Timor, Mozambique, and Guinea-Bissau as a result of Portuguese colonization.
How did languages spread?
Languages have historically spread through trade, conquests, colonization, immigration, and cultural interactions. English is the most spoken language in the world, with nearly 1.13 billion speakers (of whom about 379 million speak it natively). That being said, English does not rank first in terms of the number of native speakers.
What is the official language of Russia?
It developed from the Polanian dialect, which was popular in Kyiv, the capital of the first East Slavic state 1,000 years ago, Kyivan Rus. Russian is the official language of Russia and is also spoken in Ukraine, Latvia, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Lithuania, countries of the former Soviet Union.
How many people speak English?
English is the most spoken language in the world, with nearly 1.13 billion speakers.
How did the English language originate?
The earliest forms of English were introduced to Britain by a succession of invaders. From Germanic tribes, Celts, and Vikings to Normans, English developed from several linguistic influences. From Britain, the language spread through colonizing conquests, trade, and interactions.
Where did Spanish come from?
Spanish emerged in the Iberian Peninsula (today, Spain and Portugal) from interactions between the Celtic-speaking Celtiberians and the Latin-speaking Romans. After the invasion of the North-African Arabs and Germanic tribes, the Castilian dialect emerged which brought about standardized Spanish. Spanish is the official language in Spain and numerous Latin-American countries such as Argentina, El Salvador, Chile, Mexico, Guatemala, and Costa Rica. In fact, countries like Mexico and Columbia, former Spanish colonies, have more native speakers of Spanish than Spain itself, where dialects like Catalan and Basque are also spoken.
What is the most common language in the world?
1) Mandarin . With 1,299 million speakers, Mandarin claims the top spot as the world’s most common language — and one that often requires professional translation services. One of the five major dialects of Chinese, Mandarin is the official language of China and Taiwan, as well as one of the four official dialects of Singapore.
Which language is the most influential?
3) English . English used to be the second-most common language, but Spanish-speakers have increased much more rapidly over the past 20 years. Still, scholars have named English the world’s “most influential language,” due to the number of speakers (378 million) and the number of countries in which it is spoken.
Why do languages fluctuate?
Fluctuations in estimates can be attributed to population growth, as well as how linguists choose to group dialects and microlanguages into larger groups. The most common languages can also vary depending on whether studies include only primary languages, or all languages spoken in a population. And then, of course, there’s the problem of what constitutes a dialect vs a language vs a creole.
How many Portuguese speakers are there in the world?
Out of the 223 million Portuguese speakers worldwide, nearly 150 million of them speak Brazilian Portuguese, the most common language variant. Portuguese is also the official language of other countries including Angola, Mozambique, and — of course — Portugal, among others.
What is the second most spoken language in India?
6) Bengali . With 243 million speakers, Bengali is also the second most widely spoken language in India, popular in the easternmost states. Bengali is an official language of both India and Bangladesh.
What are the three alphabets of Japanese?
Another interesting fact about the Japanese language is that it’s written form consists of three different alphabets: Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji. 10. Punjabi.
How many people speak Spanish?
Its prominence in the Americas as well as in Europe makes Spanish one of the most common languages, with an estimated 442 million speakers. The Castilian dialect in Spain is held as a national standard, although Andalusian and Catalan are also spoken.
Why are languages so popular?
One reason these languages are popular is that they are actively and consistently used. Unfortunately, nearly 3,000 (about 40%) of all languages are at risk of being lost, or are already in the process of dying out today.
Which language has the widest spread?
Indo-European languages have the widest spread worldwide. According to Ethnologue, the language family contains over 3 billion speakers in total. Interestingly, there are actually 1,526 Niger-Congo languages altogether, though only 12 are represented here.
How Do You Define A Language?
The data comes from the 22nd edition of Ethnologue, a database covering a majority of the world’s population, detailing approximately 7,111 living languages in existence today.
What About Second (L2) Languages?
Nearly 43% of the world’s population is bilingual, with the ability to switch between two languages with ease .
How many cognitive biases are there?
In total, there are over 180 cognitive biases that interfere with how we process data, think critically, and perceive reality.
What is the International Year of Indigenous Languages?
As a result, the United Nations declared 2019 the International Year of Indigenous Languages (IYoIL), with a resolution to continue fostering these languages and pass on their knowledge for future generations. Tweet.
How many people speak English?
It comes as no surprise that English reigns supreme, with over 1.1 billion total speakers—or roughly 15% of the global population. Mandarin Chinese, Hindi, Spanish, and French round out the top five.
How many dialects are there in Long Island?
Long Island University reference associate Robert Delaney created this map, which divides the country into 24 distinct dialects. That’s a lot of variation for a single language (and that doesn’t include the forms of English spoken in other parts of the world). In one corner of the country you may be “pahking the cah,” while in another “fixin’ to eat supper.” In a sense, the stark contrasts in grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation make each region its own separate world.
Where is the Spanish spoken in America?
Hispanic communities are located in every state, with particularly large concentrations of Spanish speakers in major cities like New York, Los Angeles and Miami. There are also large concentrations of speakers in the Southwest, sometimes still referred to as “El Norte” because California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas composed the northernmost region of Mexico until 1848).
Is Tagalog a language?
Despite being widely spoken across the United States, Tagalog has less name recognition than the other languages on this list of the most spoken languages in the United States. For those who’ve never heard of it, it’s widely spoken in the Philippines, and its standardized version — Filipino — is one of the country’s official languages.
Is Spanish a language?
While the number of native Spanish speakers in the United States is significantly less than that of English speakers, Spanish is one of the fastest growing languages in the country — it increased by 233 percent between 1980 and 2013, according to Pew Research Center. In fact, there are more Spanish speakers in the United States than in Spain, making it second only to Mexico in terms of the Spanish-speaking population.
Is English the official language of the United States?
While it should come as no surprise that English is the most spoken language in the United States, you may be surprised to learn it’s not the country’s official language. The United States doesn’t have an official language on the books, but the topic has sparked a fiery debate that goes back centuries. Proponents of making English the official language typically fall on the conservative side of the political scale, while opponents are usually more left-leaning and pro-immigrant. Despite the lack of an official language on a federal level, more than half of the 50 states have passed laws giving English official language status.
Is Louisiana Creole spoken in the US?
That’s when Louisiana Creole emerged, and it’s still spoken today in southern Louisiana ( especially New Orleans ). Today, more Americans speak standard French than Louisiana Creole (just over 10,000 people speak French Creole in the United States as opposed to 1.25 million who speak standard French). And French influence can be seen in numerous ...
English – 1,121 Million Speakers
- It is the most widely spoken language in the world because of the global impact of England and the United States in the last three centuries. It is not the mother tongue of most people, but it is the one that most people seek to learn. With English, there is no country or culture that cannot be accessed in a globalized world. This is the lingua fra...
Mandarin Chinese – 1,107 Million Speakers
- Mandarin Chinese is the language with the most native speakers. But in recent years, the number of people interested in learning it as a second or third language has increased. This is due to the importance of China for the economic development of the world’s companies, both as a country that generates raw materials and as a technology developer.
Hindi – 698 Million Speakers
- This is another language almost completely spoken by native speakers. But something similar to China is starting to happen: people want to do business with India, and speaking the language has become an important option. However, the difference from China is that in India, almost 350 million people are able to communicate in a basic way in English and 100 million speak it correc…
Spanish – 512 Million Speakers
- Spanish is spoken as the official language in Spain, in 19 countries in the Americas, and in one in Africa. But its impact goes much further because of migrations. For example, in the United States there are already more Spanish speakers than in Spain itself. Speaking in Spanish has become an opportunity for professionals from all kinds of careers. That is why it is one of the most studied l…
French – 284 Million Speakers
- For centuries, French was considered the language of art and culture. That is still a reality in some aspects, but the language goes much further. The francophone encompasses 29 countries in the world without counting the territories that are still French colonies.
Arabic – 273 Million Speakers
- The beauty of this language continues to amaze linguists around the world. As it has sounds in its pronunciation that are alien to the Western world, there has always been a fear of delving into its learning. However, the experience of learning it has surprised a growing number of enthusiasts initially attracted to trade with Middle Eastern countries.
Bengali – 265 Million Inhabitants
- This language cannot go unnoticed. It originated more than a thousand years ago and is part of the Eastern Indo-Aryan sub-branch. Today it is spoken in basically two places: Bagladesh and West Bengal.
Russian – 258 Million Speakers
- As extensive as the Russian territory is the use of its language. It is a mixture that resulted between several Slavic languages and classical Greek. From there comes its peculiar Cyrillic alphabet, which according to its practitioners is the easiest to learn of a simple, sonorous and interesting language.
Portuguese – 234 Million Speakers
- In the business world, Brazil is not spoken of as another market, but as another planet. It is a completely different world from what is known even in the rest of Latin America. That is why speaking Portuguese is opening the doors to a new world. In any case, this language also represents an opportunity beyond Brazil, as it is spoken in Portugal and in several African countr…
Indonesian – 200 Million Speakers
- Although the majority of the inhabitants of the Republic of Indonesia are currently bilingual, Indonesian is their mother tongue. It is also spoken in various parts of Malaysia and East Timor. Despite its millions of inhabitants, it is used more frequently in urban Indonesia than in rural areas.