2006-09-15 03:43:40 · 7 answers · asked by beaned2004 2 in Arts & Humanities ➔ Other - Arts & Humanities
1. Mandarin Chinese
2. English
3. Hindustani
4. Spanish
5. Russian
2006-09-15 04:00:47 · answer #1 · answered by stj 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The following is the list, in terms of secondary speaker populations to the primary speaker populations, you get the following (and I believe more accurate) list:
(number of speakers in parentheses)
1. Chinese (Mandarin) 1,075,000,000
2. English 514,000,000
3. Hindustani(combined total of variants in HIndi) 496,000,000
4. Spanish 425,000,000
5. Russian 275,000,000
6. Arabic 256,000,000
7. Bengali 215,000,000
8. Portuguese 194,000,000
9. Malay-Indonesian 176,000,000
10. French 129,000,000
The following is a list of these languages in terms of the number of countries where each is spoken. The number that follows is the total number of countries that use that language (from Weber, 1997):
English (115)
French (35)
Arabic (24)
Spanish (20)
Russian (16)
German (9)
Mandarin (5)
Portuguese (5)
Hindi/Urdu (2)
Bengali (1)
Japanese (1)
After weighing six factors (number of primary speakers, number of secondary speakers, number and population of countries where used, number of major fields using the language internationally, economic power of countries using the languages, and socio-literary prestige), Weber compiled the following list of the world's ten most influential languages:
(number of points given in parentheses)
English (37)
French (23)
Spanish (20)
Russian (16)
Arabic (14)
Chinese (13)
German (12)
Japanese (10)
Portuguese (10)
Hindi/Urdu (9)
2006-09-15 04:03:37 · answer #2 · answered by radiance 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Language Approx. number of speakers
1. Chinese (Mandarin) - 1,075,000,000
2. English - 514,000,000
3. Hindustani - 496,000,000
4. Spanish - 425,000,000
5. Russian - 275,000,000
6. Arabic - 256,000,000
7. Bengali - 215,000,000
8. Portuguese - 194,000,000
9. Malay-Indonesian - 176,000,000
10. French - 129,000,000
2006-09-15 04:01:11 · answer #3 · answered by etang 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
As a guess? I'll say English, Spanish, French, Russian and Japanese?
2006-09-15 03:46:17 · answer #4 · answered by Shelley L 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
English
Chinese
Hindu
Japanese
Spanish
2006-09-15 03:49:43 · answer #5 · answered by nora22000 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
English
Chinese
Spanish
French
Russian
2006-09-15 03:45:44 · answer #6 · answered by hithere11757 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I guess it would be...
English
Chinese
Spanish
French
Japanese
2006-09-15 03:52:14 · answer #7 · answered by Utsuki 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋