Which language has more speakers: Mandarin or English?
It’s true that English has more total speakers than Mandarin Chinese. However, when you compare the number of native speakers from each language, you’ll see that there are more than half a million more native Mandarin Chinese speakers than native English speakers. Many more people around the world learn English as a second language.
Which language is more localized?
Tamil. These languages are more localized than the top 10 languages. Compare the number of total speakers versus native speakers. You’ll find that many of these languages are primarily composed of native speakers with a small population of second or third-language speakers.
How many Japanese speakers are there in the world?
For example, there are roughly 126,400,000 Japanese speakers in the world. Of that group, there are only 200,000 non-native speakers. Languages like Yue Chinese and Turkish are similarly represented by large groups of native speakers in China and Turkey.
How many languages are spoken in the world?
How many languages do you know? If the answer is one, two, or even three, you’ve got some work ahead of you: there are over 6,500 languages spoken all over the world. Keep reading to see the 30 most common languages spoken, as well as how many native speakers each language has.
Is Arabic a second language?
Another interesting fact about these languages is that there are no listed native speakers of Modern Standard Arabic. While there are millions of speakers of different Arabic dialects around the world, Modern Standard Arabic is primarily taught in schools as a second language.
What is the most spoken language in the world?
When tallied according to number of native speakers only, these are the most spoken languages in the world. 1. Chinese — 1.3 Billion Native Speakers. Numbers vary widely — Ethnologue puts the number of native speakers at 1.3 billion native speakers, roughly 1.1 billion of whom speak Mandarin — but there’s no doubt it’s the most spoken language in ...
How many people speak English as a second language?
If you’re reading this article, you may be one of the 370 million-odd native English speakers, or one of the 978 million people who speak it as a second language. This indicates the remarkable success of English as the lingua franca of business, travel and international relations. The relative ease with which English can be picked up (especially compared with Chinese) and the pervasive soft power of US culture means that English will continue to dominate the world stage for the foreseeable future. For some, English is still synonymous with opportunity and a better quality of life.
How many Portuguese speakers are there in the world?
The spread of Portuguese may have initially been tied to European colonization, but the colonized countries developed their own vibrant cultures that transformed the language forever. Today, Portuguese is spoken by 232 million native speakers in countries like Brazil, Goa, Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bisseau, São Tomé and Príncipe and Macau. It’s also the language of Machado de Assis, Bossa Nova, Mia Couto, Fernando Pessoa and Agualusa.
How many languages are spoken in India?
India has 23 official languages, with Hindi/Urdu chief among them. Whether this is one language — Hindustani — or two dialects is still fiercely debated. Spoken mainly in northern India and parts of Pakistan, Hindi uses devnagri script, while Urdu uses Persian notation. At the time of writing, the debate about its role in Indian education and society has once again flared up: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a Hindu nationalist, is seeking to have Hindi displace English in the southern Indian states as the primary language of official communication and education, a strategy that has been met with resistance. If you ever travel in the Indian subcontinent, a little Hindi will get you a long way. Plus, this is the language that gave us shampoo, jungle, jodhpurs and bungalow — what’s not to love?
Top 10 Languages by Number of Native Speakers
When tallied according to number of native speakers only, these are the most spoken languages in the world.
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Chinese — 1.3 Billion Native Speakers
Numbers vary widely — Ethnologue puts the number of native speakers at 1.3 billion native speakers, roughly 1.1 billion of whom speak Mandarin — but there’s no doubt it’s the most spoken language in the world. If you wish to learn a language that one in six people in the world speak, this is the one for you. Seeing as Chinese is a tonal languagethat uses thousands of logograms, …
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Spanish — 471 Million Native Speakers
If we were only to look at native speakers, Spanish has its nose in front of English with about 471 million speakers. If you want a language that will open up whole continents to you, Spanish is your best bet. As with all the languages on this list, the politics of language and associated identity are highly disputed: ask Catalan or Quechua speaker...
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English — 370 Million Native Speakers
If you’re reading this article, you may be one of the 370 million-odd native English speakers, or one of the 978 million people who speak it as a second language. This indicates the remarkable success of English as the lingua francaof business, travel and international relations. The relative ease with which English can be picked up (especially compared with Chinese) and the pervasiv…
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Hindi — 342 Million Native Speakers
India has 23 official languages, with Hindi/Urdu chief among them. Whether this is one language — Hindustani — or two dialects is still fiercely debated. Spoken mainly in northern India and parts of Pakistan, Hindi uses devnagri script, while Urdu uses Persian notation. If you ever travel in the Indian subcontinent, a little Hindi will get you a long way. Plus, this is the language that gave us …
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Arabic — 315 Million Native Speakers
Recent numbers put Arabic at around 315 million native speakers. But this is another instance of numbers not telling the full tale: Arabic, like Chinese, is so vastly different in its respective dialects as to be effectively a number of languages, grouped as one for the sake of convenience. Modern Standard Arabic is a primarily written form, closely related to the Classical Arabic of the Quran. …
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Portuguese — 232 Million Native Speakers
This is another language whose reach owes much to its colonial past. Starting in the 15th century, avid Portuguese traders and conquerors brought their language to Africa, Asia and the Americas. The spread of Portuguese may have initially been tied to European colonization, but the colonized countries developed their own vibrant cultures that transformed the language forever. Today, Po…
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Bengali — 229 Million Native Speakers
Admit it: you didn’t expect Bengali to be on the list of most spoken languages. The Partition of Bengal by the British in 1947 divided (mainly Hindu) West Bengal, now part of India, from its (mainly Muslim) counterpart East Bengal, now Bangladesh. It is the language of Kolkata, the Andaman Islands, fabulous sweets, and 130-odd million Bangladeshis — many of whom are extr…
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Russian — 154 Million Native Speakers
With roughly 154 million native speakers, Russian is the eighth most spoken language in the world. Famed for its inscrutable grammar and quite lovely Cyrillic script, it remains one of the six languages spoken in the United Nations, and produced the literary likes of Dostoyevsky, Nabokov, Chekhov, Gogol, Tolstoy and Pushkin.
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Japanese — 126 Million Native Speakers
Almost all of the 126 million native Japanese speakers live in Japan — certainly the most highly geographically concentrated of all the languages on this list. Japanese boasts two distinct writing systems, hiragana and katakana, as well making extensive use of Chinese Kanjicharacters. The largest groups of Japanese speakers living outside Japan can be found in the United States, the …
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