Language is the most vital part of a human’s life. It is what makes us human. We all can communicate with each other only because of a language, so; one can notice the importance of language. With an increase in the population and the diversity within, the number of languages and the popularity of these languages keep changing over the years. Today, approximately 66,000 languages are being spoken in the world. However, there are some languages that are widely spoken, while some languages are only restricted to a certain population. We are going to talk about the TOP 10 most spoken languages in the world, that are known to almost everyone and are widely used.
English is the topmost widely spoken language in the world. Almost every country has English as a second/third language in this modern world due to its importance. English is commonly used in meetings, schools, businesses, and different sectors of society. The total number of people who speak English is 1,132 Million. Most of these populations belong to countries like the United States of America (USA), the United Kingdom (UK), and Australia, etc. With the knowledge of the English language, one can easily communicate while traveling and for educational purposes. Most of the famous scientists and writers used the English language in their work as a mode of communication. During the pandemic, when everything went online, the importance of the English language increased a lot, and in the coming years, it will grow more! The language family on English is West Germanic language, an Indo-European language.
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Mandarin Chinese is the second most widely spoken language in the world. The total number of people who speak Mandarin is 1,117 Million. “More than one billion of the world’s population are Chinese speakers. The Chinese population is already one-fifth of the world’s population and is rapidly expanding its presence everywhere. Modern Standard Chinese is the official language of the United Nations. Learning Mandarin is more than learning a language.; It enables you to explore one of the most ancient cultures of the world”. People who know more than one language and if that language is Mandarin, then the company you’re working for will see you as a valuable person. The language family of Mandarin is Sino-Tibetan. Moreover, one of the fun facts about the Mandarin language is that it is the most challenging language to learn in the whole world.
With a population of approximately 1.4 Million people, India’s national and official language is Hindi. The language family of Hindi is Indo-Ayran, a sub-family of Indo-European. The total number of people who speak Hindi is 615 million. “The Hindi language is ancient and has a direct line of evolution to Sanskrit. As such, it is part of one of the oldest religious and literary traditions in the world – traditions that have influenced other religions and works of art, whether we realize it or not”. Even if you are not Indian, you must still have heard the words, for example, yoga, jungle, etc.
Spanish is the fourth most widely spoken language in the world. The total number of people who speak Spanish is 534 Million. The language family of Spanish is Indo, a sub-family of Indo-European, and the writing style for it is Italian. Many people might know the app Duolingo which became really famous for becoming the reason for learning Spanish efficiently. According to some research, it is well known, as well, that a person can learn Spanish in roughly 23-25 weeks. One of the interesting facts about the Spanish language is that it is also known as a romance language.
French is the fifth most widely spoken language in the world. The total population of people who speak French is 280 Million. The language family of French is the Romance language of the Indo-European family. One of the most famous romantic cities, Paris, use french language for their mode of communication. “Out of all the countries in the world, France is the most visited, boasting over 75 million tourists every year”.
Arabic is the sixth most widely spoken language in the world. The total number of people who speak Arabic is 247 Million. The language family of Arabic is Semitic, a sub-family of Afro-Asiatic. The Arabic language resembles Hebrew a lot. One of the most exciting things about Arabic is that there are more than ten words for “love” in this language. Some of the Arabic language sounds cannot be found in other languages, and many English words have been derived from Arabic origin.
Bengali is the seventh most widely spoken language in the world. The total number of people who speak Bengali is 268 Million. The language family of Bengali is Indo-Aryan, a sub-family of Indo-European. Due to its history, It resembles Punjabi and Hindi a lot. The language is also known as Bangla. One of the interesting facts of the Bengali language is that it is gender-free. Even the national anthem of India was first composed in Bengali instead of Hindi. One of the most famous and influential writers is even a Bengali that is Rabindranath Tagore.
With 258 Million speakers worldwide, Russian stands at being the eight most widely spoken language in the world. The language family of Russian is the East Slavic language of the wider Indo-European family. One of the interesting facts about the Russian language is that it is one of the hardest languages to learn. Moreover, another fascinating fact about the Russian language is that it is the language of space as many astronauts learn russian language.
Portuguese, being the communicative language of a whopping 234 million people on the globe, is the ninth most spoken language in the world. Portuguese is the official language of Brazil; however, it also acquires the status of an official language in Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, East Timor, Equatorial Guinea, Macau, Cape Verde, and Sao Tome and Principe. As the name suggests, it is the official language of Portugal. However, this native language is rooted in areas all around Portugal and Spain. Largely based in and rooted from the region of Medieval Galicia, which had its parts in the north of Portugal and in the northwest of Spain. Surprisingly, only five percent of the total 215 million native Portuguese speakers dwell in Portugal. This native language is related to other widely spoken languages like Spanish, Italian, French, and Romania. Portuguese is also influenced by other languages, like Arabic. Despite it being a native and old language, many variations have taken place in its linguistic structure, pronunciation, and the Portuguese alphabet. For instance, the letters “k”, “w”, and “y” were recently added to the Portuguese alphabet after the signing of an agreement to standardize the spelling forms for different variations of the language. Already being the language of many, Portuguese remains to be one of the fastest growing European languages in the world. Portuguese belongs to the Romance family of languages, which is a sub-division of Indo-European languages, making it a member of the group with other Italic languages.
The tenth most widely spoken language is Indonesian, also known as Bahasa Indonesia. It is spoken by 199 million speakers, making it one of the most spoken languages. Indonesian is the language spoken across Indonesia with a number of dialects and variations across the country, making it Indonesia’s official language. This language is largely influenced by many languages including Javanese, Sundranese, and Madurese. However, Malay is the most closely related to Indonesian language. It is often called a standardized version of Malay. Like Malay, Indonesian also belongs to the Austronesian family of languages. Indonesian is one of the easy to learn languages because of its simple alphabet structure, easy pronunciation, and a flexibility amongst dialects. However, Indonesian language is many a times presented as a difficult language in the Western connotations. Malay and Indonesian are one of the politest languages in the Eastern region. Indonesian language is taught in a number of institutions globally. Around 45 countries offer courses on Indonesian language for foreigners. The growing interest in Indonesian language, along with the country’s culture, is also due to the immigrants moving towards the global west. In Australia, Indonesian is a widely taught languages along with Japanese and French.
References:
Chan, Trina. “The Importance Of Mandarin”. Mylanguageexchange.Com, https://www.mylanguageexchange.com/teachers/rte/rte/LessonView.asp?Type=91&Id=594.
“Interesting Facts About The French Language”. Lingualinx.Com, 2018, https://www.lingualinx.com/blog/interesting-facts-about-the-french-language.
Postan, Liraz. “The Importance Of Hindi – Language Of 1.3 Billion People | BLEND”. Localization Services By BLEND, 2021.
