10. German
Speakers: 90,300,000
Speakers: 90,300,000
German is a member of the western group of Germanic languages and is one of the world's major languages. It is the language with the most native speakers in the European Union. It is spoken primarily in Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein, the major part of Switzerland, Luxembourg, the South Tyrol region of Italy, the East Cantons of Belgium, parts of Romania, Poland, Alsaceand parts of the Lorraine region of France.
9. Japanese
Speakers: 122,000,000
Speakers: 122,000,000
Language spoken by about 122 million people on the islands of Japan, including the Ryukyus. Japanese is not closely related to any other language, though a distant genetic kinship to Korean is now thought probable by some scholars, and an even more remote relationship to the Altaic languages is possible. Japanese is first attested in the 8th century AD, when Middle Chinese characters were utilized solely for their phonetic value to write native Japanese words. Japanese retains a huge stock of loanwords from Middle Chinese, long adapted to native phonetics.
8. Russian
Speakers: 144,000,000
Speakers: 144,000,000
Great Russian language is a name given in the 19th century to the Russian language as opposed to the Ukrainian and Belarusian languages.
By the 19th-century standards, most scholars didn't distinguish between Eastern Slavic languages, as all three tongues of that group were spoken within the borders of the Russian Empire and were considered mutually intelligible. It was accepted that within the Russian language there are three main dialects - Great Russian, Little Russian (i.e., Ukrainian), and White Russian (e.g., Belarusian). For political reasons, the literary Russian language evolved under the significant influence of the Moscow dialect.
7. Portuguese
Speakers: 178,000,000
Speakers: 178,000,000
Portuguese is a Romance language that originated in what is now Galicia and northern Portugal. It is derived from the Latin spoken by the romanized Pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula around 2000 years ago. It spread worldwide in the 15th and 16th centuries as Portugal established a colonial and commercial empire which spanned from Brazil in the Americas to Goa and other parts of India and Macau in China. It was used as the exclusive lingua franca on the island of Sri Lanka for almost 350 years. During that time, many creole languages based on Portuguese also appeared around the world, especially in Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean.
6. Bengali
Speakers: 181,000,000
Speakers: 181,000,000
Bengali language is spoken principally in Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal. There are also significant Bengali-speaking communities in Assam (another Indian state also neighboring West Bengal and Bangladesh), over 70% of Tripura, a neighboring Indian state, population speaks bengali and in immigrant populations in the West and the Middle East. Bengali is the second most commonly spoken language in India after Hindi.
5. Arabic
Speakers: 221,000,000
Speakers: 221,000,000
Arabic is a Semitic language, closely related to Hebrew and Aramaic. It is spoken throughout the Arab world and is widely known throughout the Islamic world. Arabic has been a literary language for over 1500 years, and is the liturgical language of Islam. Arabic script is written in phonetic symbols similar to Hebrew letters in that each symbol represents a letter and words are written and read from right to left. A feature of Arabic script is its use as an Islamic art form, since there is a religious pronouncement against rendering figures in art. Such calligraphy decorates books, buildings, banners, and jewelry; most words are so stylized that they cannot be read, but as they are often taken from the Qur?an, their sources are recognized by most Muslims.
4. Hindi/Urdu
182,000,000 Hindi,
182,000,000 Hindi,
Speakers: 60,600,000 Urdu
Hindi-Urdu is an Indo-Aryan language and the lingua franca of North India and Pakistan. It is also known as Hindi, Urdu, Hindustani. It derives primarily from the Khariboli dialect of Delhi, and incorporates a large vocabulary from Persian, Arabic, Turkic, and Sanskrit. It is a pluricentric language, with two official forms, Standard Hindi and Standard Urdu. Hindustani or Hindi-Urdu developed over hundreds of years throughout India (which formerly included what is now Pakistan). In the same way that the core vocabulary of English evolved from Old English but includes a large number of words borrowed from French and other languages.
3. English
Speakers: 328,000,000
Speakers: 328,000,000
The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. English language is the primary language of several countries (including Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States) and a second language in a number of multilingual countries (including India, Singapore, and the Philippines). Where possible, virtually all students in higher education worldwide are required to learn some English, and knowledge of English is virtually a prerequisite for working in many fields and occupations. Most higher academic institutions, for example, require a working command of English.
2. Spanish
Speakers: 329,000,000
Speakers: 329,000,000
The official language of Spain and 19 Latin American nations, Spanish is spoken as a first language by about 329 million persons and as a second language by perhaps another 50 million. It is the mother tongue of about 40 million people in Spain, where the language originated and whence it was later brought by Spanish explorers, colonists, and empire-builders to the Western Hemisphere and other parts of the world during the last five centuries. It is the native language of over 17 million people in the United States, and is one of the official languages of the United Nations.
1. Mandarin
Speakers: 845,234,000
Speakers: 845,234,000
