Sunday 3 July 2011

Most Spoken Languages

Which are the most spoken languages in the world, is one of the most interesting questions to answer. There are plenty of surveys carried out worldwide just to find out how many languages are spoken commonly worldwide. Every country has its own language and every language has its own sub-languages and each sub language has its own dialect that is native to a particular region or community.

Language is the most primary function of every human that helps us get across our feelings, thoughts and needs. Language helps build most of our common hobbies, such as, love of literature and poems, music, movies and even talking for some! There are over 5 to 6 thousand languages spoken in the world today. Over 200 languages are spoken by a million or more native speakers. This makes some of them a part of the most spoken languages in the world. With migration and the world turning into a global village, people learn more than one language to be able to communicate with fellow humans around the world. In this article we will learn about the most spoken languages worldwide. Read on to know more on the top 10 most spoken languages in the world.

Top 10 Most Spoken Languages Worldwide

Let us begin with countdown for the top 10 most spoken languages worldwide. And the winning contenders are as follows:

Mandarin Chinese
It is no surprise that Mandarin Chinese is one of the most spoken languages in the world. With the most number of Chinese in the world, the language is bound to be the most spoken language. You may say there are more English speakers, but Mandarin Chinese beat English by a 2:1 ratio. Mandarin Chinese also takes the title of the hardest language to learn. Wow, more than a billion people in China can speak one of the most difficult languages. That's truly remarkable, I say. You can read more on Chinese language.

Tip: You can say Good Morning in Mandarin Chinese as Zǎoshang hǎo and Good Bye as Zàijiàn.

English
Moving on to the second most spoken language and you may have got the cue in the above paragraph, is English. English has become a global language that helps people from different continents, countries and even states communicate with ease. With many countries including the Queen's language as one of the official languages, English has taken up the second position as the most spoken language in the world. A recent study has proven that there are more English language speakers in India than in all of Western Europe with the exception of the United Kingdom. It was seen that English was the primary language for 2.3 lac Indians, second language for 86 lac Indians and 39 million Indians speak English as their third language. The multilingual Indians have found the key to stay connected with the world by becoming fluent with the most spoken language worldwide.

Tip: If you can read this it means you know what Good Morning and Good Bye means. However, you can read more on how to say goodbye in different languages.

Hindi
The second most populous country in the world, India's national language Hindi takes the third place as the most spoken language in the world. Hindi is the primary language in the multilingual Indian continent. And India has been predicted to soon surpass China as the most populous country, so Hindi is bound to be spoken by more number of people. Hindi has many dialects that are spoken in different states of India. You can have a look at the Bollywood movies of India to understand and learn a bit of Hindi with a lot of drama, dance and a dash of Indian 'masala'.

Tip: You can say Good Morning in Hindi as Suprabhāta and Good Bye as Alavida

Spanish
The land of fiestas, traditions and bullfight, Spain has its national language Spanish bagging the fourth place as the most spoken language worldwide. The animated cartoon character Speedy Gonzales has made the Spanish sentence, '¡Ándale! ¡Ándale! ¡Arriba! ¡Arriba!' (Hurry Up, Get Up) famous worldwide. Similarly, Spanish is one of the top 10 most spoken languages as it is spoken in every Central and South American country, Cuba, Spain and also in the United States. In fact, the Spanish language has been a forerunner in contributing some of the words like tornado, taco grande supreme and patio, etc. to the English diction.

Tip: You can say Good Morning in Spanish as Buenos días and Adiós means good bye. You can learn to say Merry Christmas in different languages.

Arabic
One of the oldest languages of the world, Arabic is spoken in the Middle East. This is the 5th most spoken language in the world with speakers living in countries that include Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon. Many Muslims all over the world can read, write and speak Arabic even though Arabic is not their mother tongue. This is because Arabic is the language of the Muslim holy book, the Koran. Arabic has been made the 6th official language of the UN in 1974.

Tip: You can say Good Morning in Arabic as Shabba Khair and Good Bye is Ma'a Salama.

Portuguese
Say Portuguese and it reminds you of the greatest explorer of the world, Vasco Da Gama. With all the explorers from this country who went on in search of new, exotic places, Portuguese became a language that was established in many other parts of the world. The counties other than Portugal where Portuguese is spoken include Brazil, Venezuela, Macau, Angola, Mozambique.

Tip: You can say Good Morning in Portuguese as Bom Dia and Good Bye as Adeus. You can learn more on how to say hello in different languages.

Bengali
With over 120 million people as the population of the country, Bangladesh can pride itself as the country with the 6th most spoken language, that is, Bengali. This one language is spoken by one and all in Bangladesh. Also, there are significant number of speakers of Bengali in the neighboring country, India. Although, Bengali may be a new discovery for you, there is a significant population in the world that speaks Bengali.

Tip: You can say Good Morning in Bengali as Suprobhat and Good Bye, see you soon as Bidaye, aabaar dyakha hobe.

Russian
Russian is one of the most spoken languages in the world that is also spoken in Belarus, Kazakistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan even America and many other countries apart from Russia. Russian is also one of the six languages in the UN. Thus, Russian takes the 8th position in the list of top 10 most spoken languages.

Tip: You can say Good Morning in Russian as Dobroe Utro and Good Bye as Do Svidaniya.

French
The French language takes the 9th slot in the top 10 most spoken languages worldwide. French is the language of romance and is spoken in Belgium, Canada, Cameroon, Rwanda, Haiti. France is famous not only for its Eiffel Tower and Haute Couture, but also for French one of the most popular languages in the world.

Tip: You can say Good Morning in French as Bonjour and Good Bye is spoken as Au Revoir. You can read more on how to say I love you in different languages.

German
The first language of Germany that is spoken by more than 95% of the population comes 10th in the race of most spoken languages. Germany also has speakers in Luxembourg, Liechtenstein and some German speaking communities of Northern Italy, East Cantons of Belgium, French Alsace region South Jutland county of Denmark and many more parts of Europe.

Tip: You can say Good Morning in German as Guten Morgen and Good Bye as Auf Wiedersehen.

These were some of the most spoken languages in the world. Other honorable mentions that did not make it up to the top 10 most spoken languages in the world are Malay-Indonesian, Japanese language, Urdu, Punjabi, Korean, Telugu, Tamil, Marathi, Cantonese, Wu, Vietnamese, Javanese, Italian, Turkish, Tagalog, and Thai. I hope this article has helped you find if your language is one of the most spoken languages in worldwide and helped you develop an interest in learning different languages.

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