Most Widely Spoken Languages Of The World

Approximately there are 6900 languages currently spoken around the world, but the majority of which have only a small number of speakers. About 4 billion of the earth’s 6.5 billion people of the earth’s total population speak one of the following 10 languages. Languages are ordered below by number of speakers. List of top ten most widely spoken languages of the world.

1. Mandarin (Chinese)

Mandarin is spoken by over 1 billion people, making is the most widely spoken language on the Earth. This language is fairly polished language because it can be spoken in China, Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia, Philippines, Singapore, South, Africa, Taiwan and in Thailand. The varieties of this language cover a huge area containing nearly a billion people. As a result, there are pronounced regional variation in pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar.

1. English

English is the second most widely spoken language in the world. English is also universal language with 600 million speakers worldwide. The language is officially spoken in over 50 countries till 2010. It is spoken in the countries like U.K., U.S.A, Australia, Brunei, Cameroon, Canada, Fiji, New Zealand, South Africa etc. It is the most studied global language as well as the major source of communication among different cultures and civilizations.

1. Spanish

Spanish is the third most widely spoken language in the world with around 350 to 400 million speakers. The official language is spoken in  just over 20 nations including Mexico, Spain, U.S, Colombia, Cuba, Andorra and Venezuela. Mexico contains the largest population of Spanish speakers. It is also one of the six official languages of the United Nations.

1. Hindi / Urdu

Basically, Hindi and Urdu are two languages with almost same background. In Pakistan, Hindi is modified and written in Arabic script which is known as Urdu, whereas in India, it is written in the Devangari script therefore named as Hindi. There are almost 340 million human beings who speak Hindi. Hindustani is the primary language of India’s crowded population, and it compasses as huge number of dialects. In Pakistan 7.57%  Pakistanis speak Urdu and 160 million people worldwide speak this language.

1. Russian

Russian’s vast geographic reach and populous nation makes it sit at number 5 with 275 million speakers in the world. Mikhali Gorbachev, Boris Yeltsin and Yakov Smirnoff are among the millions of Russian speakers out there. But given the low life expectancy among men there and Arabic’s accelerated growth, Russian may slip in ranking over the next decade.

1. Arabic

The official language in roughly 25 nations, over 260 million people speak Arabic, from Iraq to Morocco. Both Persian and Urdu use the Arabic script but differ from Arabic. Arabic is a Semitic language. It is one of the world’s oldest languages which is mainly spoken in the Middle East. It is also one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Arabic is the language of Quran so it is often associated with Islam.

1. Bengali

There are over 210 people worldwide who use Bengali as their mode of communication, so it is the seventh most widely spoken language in the world after Arabic. This language is spoken in Bangladesh India and Singapore. In fact, Bangladesh is a country of over 120 million, most of whom speak Bengali. Its history dates back to Aryan era about 2000 years ago.

1. Portuguese

Portuguese is the 8th most widely spoken language with 175 million speakers in the world. After winning its independence from Spain in the 12th century, Portugal’s influence expanded rapidly. Now, this language is spoken in Angola, Brazil, Cape, Verde, France, Portugal and Guinea-Bissau because these nations were under Portuguese colonial power. It can be spoken in three to four regional tones.

1. Malay -Indonesian

Malaysia and Indonesia share lots in common, one of the main attributes is language. There are many dialects, but the most popular is Indonesian. It is spoken by over 170 million people, and sit in the ninth number in the world. Indonesia is a fascinating place, a nation made up of over 13000 islands and the sixth most populated country in the world. Malay is spoken is two different accents.

1. French

Over 130 million human being of this planet speak French, which makes it the 10th most widely spoken language in the world.It is also one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Its speakers mainly found in France, but French’s reach extends to Africa, North America as well as in parts of Asia and South America. Up to the French revolution, France’s imperialistic nature led to the expansion of “la language Francaise” and its presence is worldwide to this day.