I'm guessing it's Arabic, since so many people are Muslim and Muslims have to know Arabic to read the Koran correctly. My second guess is English since that's the international language.
2006-12-20 10:03:16 · 23 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Languages
Chinese
867,200,000 in mainland China (1999). 70% of the population, including 8,602,978 Hui (1990 census). Other estimates for Hui are 20,000,000 or more. 1,042,482,187 all Han in China (1990 census). Population total all countries: 873,014,298.
Covers all of mainland China north of the Changjiang River, a belt south of the Changjiang from Qiujiang (Jiangxi) to Zhenjiang (Jiangsu), Hubei except the southeastern corner, Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, the northwestern part of Guangxi, and the northwestern corner of Hunan. Also spoken in Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia (Java and Bali), Laos, Malaysia (Peninsular), Mauritius, Mongolia, Philippines, Russia (Asia), Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, United Kingdom, USA, Viet Nam.
2006-12-20 12:35:33 · answer #1 · answered by Ema 3 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Not even close. The first is Chinese since one fifth of the people in the world is Chinese. French is the official language of the UN.
For a good reason, a lot of people speak French. Then there is Spanish and English. If you know those two languages you can speak about anywhere in the world. Arabic is about 6 or 7 down on the list of population speaking that language. Google it.
Or ask on Encarta under languages. They are in the news lately and have groups all over the world but they are small groups and all over Africa where it is spoken so is other languages, the majority.
2006-12-20 10:10:15 · answer #2 · answered by Steven 6 · 2⤊ 2⤋
No, it's not Arabic and it's not Chinese. It is English because more people know it as a first, second or third language than any other language in the world, making it the most common language. I spent four weeks in Poland and Hungary last year. There were very, very few situations in either country where someone in the room didn't speak any English.
Whenever people quote numbers of speakers, the only people they are counting are native speakers. So if you only count everyone's first language, the leader is Mandarin (incorrectly called "Chinese"). But if you count people who speak it as a second or third language, English runs far ahead of the pack.
EDIT: PEOPLE READ THIS:
ENGLISH IS SPOKEN BY MORE PEOPLE when you count FIRST, SECOND, and THIRD language speakers. Mandarin has the most first language speakers, but nowhere near as many second and third language speakers.
2006-12-20 10:13:48 · answer #3 · answered by Taivo 7 · 1⤊ 2⤋
some of the other answer were telling you which is the most speak language in the world but the question is What is the most COMMON language in the world?
it's the English which is speak in
England
USA
Canada
Anguilla
Antigua and Barbuda
The Bahamas
Barbados
Belize
Bermuda
Cayman Islands
Grenada St. Georges
Jamaica Kingston English, Creole
Guyana
Falkland Islands
Botswana
South Africa
Namibia
Gibraltar
Scotland
Wales
2006-12-20 10:19:52 · answer #4 · answered by Kevin_Mart13 3 · 1⤊ 2⤋
If you say that all the dialects of Chinese count as one language, it would probably have the most native speakers in the world. However, if you're talking about non-native and native speakers, its probably english. Especially since a lot of Muslims, esp. ones in North America, do not know Arabic.
2006-12-20 10:06:27 · answer #5 · answered by Carp Face 4 · 0⤊ 2⤋
Mandarin Chinese is the most common language. It's the official language of China. It passed up English a couple years ago.
2006-12-20 10:06:55 · answer #6 · answered by anecdoteman1 2 · 2⤊ 2⤋
Language Approx. number
of speakers
1. Chinese (Mandarin) 1,075,000,000
2. English 514,000,000
3. Hindustani1 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
2006-12-20 10:05:07 · answer #7 · answered by Brite Tiger 6 · 6⤊ 2⤋
No, its Mandarin(Chinese)...
Unfortunately, lots of Muslims only know how to read Arabic...especially in India, Pakistan, and South East Asia.
They hardly understand anything...which is worrying.
2006-12-20 10:24:45 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 1⤋
It must be Latin if you regard its influence on any other language in this world.
It is Chinese if you take into account the number of ppl who speak it as their 1st language (6% of the earth Population)
It is English as it is the International Language of Communication, technology, Science etc
2006-12-20 10:08:21 · answer #9 · answered by tearaway_weft 2 · 1⤊ 2⤋
Mandarin
2006-12-20 16:52:40 · answer #10 · answered by warasouth 4 · 2⤊ 1⤋