what languages are spoken in asia

^{Major Languages Spoken In Asia}

• Chinese. The most spoken language in Asia is Chinese due to China's position as the world's most populated country with a population of about 1.4 billion people.
• Hindi. Hindi is an Indo-European language spoken by about 550 million people in Asia. It is used in official capacityin North and Central India.
• English. About 300 million in Asia speaks the English language. It is used in official capacity in India, Hong Kong, Mauritius, Seychelles, and Singapore.
• Russian. The Russian language is spoken by about 260 million people in Asia. It is used in official capacity in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Belarus.

What are the most common languages in Asia?

Which language is the least spoken?

• Taushiro (Peru) Taushiro, also known as Pinche or Pinchi, is a very nearly extinct language from the Peruvian Amazon near Ecuador.
• Tanema (Solomon Islands)
• Lemerig (Vanuatu)
• Njerep (Nigeria)
• Ongota (Ethiopia)
• Experienced, Efficient And Free For Students.

What is the most popular language in Asia?

What Are The Most Spoken Languages In The World?

1. English - 1.13 billion speakers. The earliest forms of English were introduced to Britain by a succession of invaders. ...
2. Mandarin - 1.12 billion speakers. Mandarin Chinese is the second most popular spoken language in the world with a total of 1.12 billion speakers.
3. Hindi - 615 million speakers. ...
4. Spanish - 534 million speakers. ...

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How many languages do they speak in Asia?

In Asia alone, there are 2,294 languages spoken, in Africa 2,144, Americas 1,061, the Pacific 1,313, and Europe with 287 languages. (Source: Ethnologue ) The exact number of languages spoken has always been surrounded by uncertainty.

What are the top 20 languages?

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How many languages are spoken in Asia?

2,300 languagesThe largest continent in the world and home to nearly five billion people, Asia has around 2,300 languages that can be grouped in language families like Altaic, Austroasiatic, Austronesian, Caucasian, Dravidian, Indo-European, Afro-Asiatic, Siberian, Sino-Tibetan and Kra–Dai.

What language is commonly spoken in Asia?

ChineseChinese. That's right, Chinese is the most spoken language in Asia! But, it's actually not just one language, but a family of language dialects. Mandarin Chinese is the most popular version of the language, and the official language of China – Mandarin is spoken by about 51 percent of Asia's total population!

Is Spanish spoken in Asia?

Asia. The region with the least Spanish speakers, Asia has hosted the Spanish language since the sixteenth century, when Spanish explorers colonized the Philippines and set about imposing their rule and spreading Christianity.

Is Mandarin and Chinese same?

This is one of the most common questions we get. Here's the short answer: Mandarin is a form of the Chinese language. Some call it a dialect. Chinese is an umbrella language term that encompasses multiple dialects/languages, including Mandarin, Cantonese, Hakka, and more.

What are the major languages spoken in Asia?

The major language families include Austroasiatic, Austronesian, Caucasian, Dravidian, Indo-European, Afroasiatic, Turkic, Sino-Tibetan and Kra–Dai. Most, but not all, have a long history as a written language.

What languages are spoken in Sri Lanka?

The Dravidian languages of southern Asia (India) and parts of Sri Lanka include Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, and Malayalam, while smaller languages such as Gondi and Brahui are spoken in central India and Pakistan respectively.

What is the most spoken creole in the world?

Of the many creoles to have developed, the most spoken today are Chavacano, a Spanish-based creole of the Philippines, and various Malay-based creoles such as Manado Malay influenced by Portuguese. A very well-known Portuguese-based creole is the Kristang, which is spoken in Malacca, a city-state in Malaysia .

What are the small families of South Asia?

From west to east, these include: small language families and isolates of the Indian subcontinent: Burushaski, Kusunda, and Nihali.

What are the Altaic languages?

These are the Turkic, Mongolic, Tungusic (including Manchu ), Koreanic, and Japonic languages.

What are the Indo-European languages?

The family includes both Indic languages ( Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Odia, Assamese, Punjabi, Sindhi, Kashmiri, Marathi, Gujarati, Sinhala and other languages spoken primarily in South Asia) and Iranian ( Persian, Kurdish, Pashto, Balochi and other languages spoken primarily in Iran, Anatolia, Mesopotamia, Central Asia, the Caucasus and parts of South Asia). In addition, other branches of Indo-European spoken in Asia include the Slavic branch, which includes Russian in Siberia; Greek around the Black Sea; and Armenian; as well as extinct languages such as Hittite of Anatolia and Tocharian of (Chinese) Turkestan.

Where are sign languages spoken?

Sign languages. A number of sign languages are spoken throughout Asia. These include the Japanese Sign Language family, Chinese Sign Language, Indo-Pakistani Sign Language, as well as a number of small indigenous sign languages of countries such as Nepal, Thailand, and Vietnam.

What language family is Chinese?

Who’s in the language family: Chinese is a Sino-Tibetan language, making it a relative of Burmese, Tibetan and several other languages in the Himalayas and Southeast Asia. The Chinese language has also had notable influence on Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese.

What is the official language of China?

The first step in Chinese studies is to decide which variation you’ll learn. The most popular options are typically Mandarin, which is spoken in Beijing and is the official language of China, or Cantonese, which is spoken in southeastern China and Hong Kong.

Why did the government choose Tagalog as the national language?

Since more than 100 regional languages are spoken in the Philippines, in the 1930s the government chose Tagalog—a language spoken widely in Manila and surrounding areas—as the foundation for a national language. The effort was to try to establish a common language.

How many languages are spoken in Indonesia?

Indonesian. Where it’s spoken: There are over 700 languages spoken in Indonesia, but Indonesian is the only language with official status. This is where it gets a little tricky. Indonesian is a standardized language based on Malay. As “Indonesian,” the language is spoken in Indonesia.

What languages did polyglots learn?

Due to the influence of Arabic culture on Europe during the Middle Ages, there are a lot of Arabic words that made their way into European languages like Spanish, Portuguese, French and English.

What are the terrains of Asia?

Asia is home to mountains, islands, deserts, vast plains and jungles. All of these terrains can isolate communities. When communities are in close contact with one another, some languages will die out as more common ones take over. However, geographic isolation can help more distinct languages endure.

Where is Bengali spoken?

Where it’s spoken: Bengali, sometimes called Bangla, is spoken in Bangladesh and some of eastern India, close to Bangladesh. Who’s in the language family: Bengali is an Indo-Aryan language, making it a close relative of Hindustani and Punjabi. This also makes it a distant relative of European languages, including Slavic, ...

What is the language spoken in Southeast Asia?

One of the languages spoken in southeast Asia is Urdu. Along with Hindi, Urdu is the official and national language in several Indian states. It is also a lingua franca in Pakistan.

Is Korean a language?

Spoken in North and South Korea, and in the parts of China along with the Korean border, the language is considered to be a language isolate, although many believe that it belongs to the Dravidian language family, while others claim that it belongs to the Altaic language family, with Turkish and Mongolian as language siblings.

What is the most widely spoken language in the world?

English, Dutch, local dialects, the most widely spoken of which is Javanese. English is the major foreign language. English widely understood among upper and middle classes. Korean (Hangungmal); Korean is written in Hangeul, the Korean alphabet.

What are the languages spoken in Afghanistan?

Other spoken Languages. Afghanistan. Pashto (Pashtu, Pushtu) an Eastern Iranian language, it is the native language of the Pashtun people. Dari Persian (Fārsī-ye Darī) also known as Afghan Persian. other Turkic and minor languages. Armenia.

What languages do most government officials speak?

Maldivian Dhivehi (dialect of Sinhala, script derived from Arabic) English spoken by most government officials. Mongolia. Khalkha Mongol (a branch of the Altaic family) Turkic, Russian. Myanmar (Burma) Burmese. Some English is spoken in tourist destinations, 135 minority ethnic groups have their own languages.

How many characters are in Armenian alphabet?

The unique Armenian alphabet, which consists of 39 characters, was created in 405 AD by a monk named Mesrop Mashtots. Russian widely used. Azerbaijan. Azerbaijani (Azeri; a Turkic language of the Altaic family) 89%. Russian 3%, Armenian 2%, other 6%. Bahrain.

Is Khmer a second language?

Khmer spoken by more than 95% of the population (Khmer language is influenced by spoken and written Thai) some French still spoken, English increasingly popular as a second language. China. Standard Chinese called also Putonghua (普通话) or Mandarin.

What are the languages of Asia?

The vast majority of the people of continental Asia speak a language in one of three large language families. The first, Altaic, consists of the Turkic, Mongolian, and Manchu-Tungus (Tungusic) subfamilies. The second, Sino-Tibetan, includes the Chinese and Tibeto-Burman languages.

What languages do people of peninsular Asia speak?

The peoples of peninsular and insular Asia, however, speak numerous other languages, including those in the Austroasiatic, Tai, Hmong-Mien ( Miao-Yao ), and Dravidian families , as well as Japanese, Korean, a vast number of Austronesian languages, and the unrelated languages lumped together within the Paleo-Siberian areal category.

What is the official language of Indonesia?

Indonesia ’s official national language is Bahasa Indonesia, but hundreds of local languages and dialects remain in use across the vast archipelago.

What is the national language of the Philippines?

The Philippines, which also has hundreds of local languages and dialects, has adopted Pilipino (or Filipino, a standardized form of Tagalog) as a national language, although it is the first language of only about one-fourth of the population.

What languages are in the Indo-European family?

Finally, the Indo-European family consists of the Indo-Aryan, Iranian, and Slavic languages, as well as Armenian. Approximate locations of Indo-European languages in contemporary Eurasia.

What is the most spoken language in Siberia?

Among the dominant languages that have gained speakers is Russian, which remains the primary public language in Siberia and is still important in the Central Asian republics, having been taught to large numbers of non-Slavic inhabitants.

What factors are affecting the language patterns in many parts of Asia?

Factors such as ethnic migration, extended commerce, and political flux continue to complicate language patterns in many parts of Asia. Around the old Central Asian oases and in southern Siberia, migrants from Russia and exiled ethnic groups have created ethnically and linguistically mixed regional populations.

How many languages are spoken in Asia?

Asia is the largest continent in the world and home to nearly five billion people and roughly 2,300 languages. As a result, the region has many language families, including Altaic, Austroasiatic, Austronesian, ...

What is the most spoken language in China?

Mandarin is the official language of China, and it's actually the most natively spoken language in the world, with 1.3 billion speakers. Speakers use four tones to speak Mandarin, and the written language uses over 100,000 special characters called "logograms.".

How many people speak Malay?

It's spoken by more than 33 million people as a first language, as well as widely used as a second language.

Is Thai the first language spoken in Thailand?

Thai. Yes, it's the national language of Thailand and the the first language for most Thai people, but you'll hear people speak Thai in Laos, Myanmar, Malaysia and Cambodia. The language is spoken by 60 million people, or 2% of Asia's total population.

Is Filipino the same as English?

Filipino, a standardized version of Tagalog, is the national language of the Philippines, while English follows as an official language of the country. While Filipino and Tagalog share the same grammar and conjugations and are nearly the same, Filipino is spoken nationwide while Tagalog is spoken mainly in Central Luzon.

Is Indonesian a language?

The Indonesian language, also called Bahasa Indonesia, is very similar to Malay — a standardized version if you will — though natives can definitely distinguish between the two. Indonesian uses the Latin script, making it one of the easiest Asian languages for foreigners to learn.

Is English a secondary language?

And in some countries, English is spoken fluently as a secondary language. Since The Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community is mainly comprised of East Asians, South Asians, Southeast Asians, Central Asians, West Asians and Pacific Islanders (such as Samoans, Tahitians and Polynesians), in this post, ...

1. Mandarin

This is the most popular version of the language of Chinese and is also the lingua franca of China. 51% of Asia’s total population amounting to 1 billion people speaks Chinese. It is popularly spoken in Hong Kong, Malaysia and Macau.

2. Hindi

Yes, Hindi is not Arabic. It has roughly 550 million speakers and Hindi has Indian origins. This makes it also one of the official languages spoken in Asia. If you enjoy Pryanka Chopra on TV and in Bollywood series, then you most likely have heard Hindi many more times than you think.

3. English

What were you expecting? Asides from being the lingua franca of many countries, English is also one of the top spoken languages in Asia with about 17 percent of its population speaking in English, that is about 300 million people speaking English in Asia.

4. Arabic

Yes, Arabic is one of the languages you would call beautiful and it is spoken not only by the Muslim population of Asia but also by some non-Islamic parts of the population, totaling to about 26 countries. Arabic speaking tour guides are popular in UAE, Saudi Arabia, Israel and around the Middle East.

5. Malay

As its name implies, it is the official language of Malaysia. Malay and Indonesia are yin yang languages just as American and British English are. It may also come as a surprise to you but Malay is one of the top languages to learn in Asia and is spoken in the Philippines with Singapore and Brunei having it as an official language.

6. Persian

An age-old language that colors history books, Persian is a fairly spoken language in the continent of Asia with most speakers as members of royal lineages.

7. Bangla

Bangla also averages the same as Hindi with its India origins. Bangla t is among the commercially spoken languages in Asia. The area associated with speaking Bangla is Bangladesh and in most cases, Assam, Tripura, West Bengal and several East Indian states.

What are the two major languages spoken in South Asia?

In South Asia, there are two language major languages families. The Indo-Iranian languages predominate in northern and western India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nepal and southern and western Sri Lanka. Assamese Bal uchi.

Where are Dravidian languages spoken?

The Dravidian languages are most common in southern India and northern and eastern Sri Lanka. Other languages found in South Asia include those of the Tibeto-Burman family and tribal languages of central and southern India.

Is there a book in South Asia?

There are also many books in South Asian languages every year. South Asia also publishes more English language books than another other part of the world outside North America and the United Kingdom. Newspapers and magazines in South Asian languages may now be found on the internet, as computer fonts are developed for the many different scripts ...