Top 5 Most Spoken Languages

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

5.  Arabic (221 million speakers)

Arabic is a member of the Semitic language family, which includes Hebrew Neo-Aramaic languages such as Syriac and Neo-Chaldean.  Arabic is most often identified with the Middle East and North Africa, and is the official language of 26 countries.  It sits alongside Hebrew as the official language of Israel, and has large populations of speakers in both Europe and North America.  Additional, its classical variant is the language of the Qu’ran.  Arabic is written in the Arabic script.
Common Arabic phrases include as-salaamu ‘alaikum (Peace be with you, a formal greeting), Na’am (yes), and ismaHli (excuse me).
4.  Hindi-Urdu (242 million speakers total)

Hindi-Urdu is a member of the Indo-Aryan family, alongside Bengali.  It is a pluricentric language and has two official forms, Standard Hindi and Standard Urdu, although the two forms are nearly indistinguishable
from each other.  Hindi is the official language of India, whilst Urdu is the official language of Pakistan.  Urdu and Hindi are also spoken in parts of Europe and North America with heavy Indian and Pakistani immigrant populations.  It is written in both the Hindi alphabet and the Arabic alphabet (for Urdu due to Islamic influence).
3.  English (328 Million speakers)

English is a member of the West Germanic language family.  It originally sprouted from the Anglo-Saxon language (Old English) and borrowed heavily from Latin and French due to the Norman conquest of England.  Though it developed in the British isles, the largest population of English speakers lives in the United States, with about 309 million speakers.  English is the official language of 53 countries, including Ireland, Canada, South Africa, Jamaica, and New Zealand, and is the de facto language of the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom.  It also has large speaking populations in several African and Oceanian countries, and is a “subsidiary official language” in India.
English is also an official language of several organizations, including the UN, NATO, and the European Union.
2.  Spanish (329 million speakers)

Spanish is a member of the West Iberian branch of the Romance languages, closely related to Portuguese.  Spanish is one of the most widely distributed languages in the world; it is the official language of over 20 countries, and is the official language of nearly every state in Latin America, excepting Brazil, Belize, etc.  Additionally, large populations of native speakers have immigrated to the United States, and Spanish is now one of the most common languages in the American southwest.  It is also one of the six official languages of the United Nations.
Common Spanish phrases include hola (hello), Que pase un buen día (Have a good day), and ¿Cómo te llamas? (What is your name?).
1.  Mandarin (over 845 million speakers)

Mandarin is often called Chinese by non-speakers, but it is in fact only one of many Chinese languages, which include Cantonese and Xiang, in the Sino-Tibetan language family.  Mandarin is the largest of the Chinese languages, and is the official language of the People’s Republic of China and Taiwan.  It is also one of four official languages of Singapore (the others being English, Malay and Tamil).  In addition, large scale immigration from both mainland China and Taiwan have brought large populations of Mandarin speakers to the United States and Europe.  Mandarin has two writing systems; Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese.
source

0 comments:

Post a Comment