2007-02-27 18:17:34 · 14 answers · asked by TODD H 1 in Society & Culture ➔ Languages
The most widely spoken language by a great margin is Mandarin Chinese, with Spanish second, and English third (although note the huge number of people worldwide that have SOME knowledge of English. )
Mandarin Sino-Tibetan 885 million (1999) -- 873 million native, 178 million second language = 1051 million total
Spanish Indo-European, Italic, Romance, Iberian 332 million (1999) 322.2 million 380 million native, 100 million second language = 480 million total
English Indo-European, Germanic, West, Anglic 322 million (1999) 341 million 380 million native, 600 million second language= 980 millon total, (and 2000-2500 million total with significant knowledge of the language )
2007-02-27 20:03:46 · answer #1 · answered by JOHN B 6 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Depends how you judge the standard of language spoken. English has more speakers to a passable degree than any other language. Outside of the Americas Spanish is spoken by relatively few people bar Spain.
2007-02-27 20:03:18 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
about number of speakers is Chinese mandarin.
About language spoken as a mother tongue or a second language is English with a close follow of Spanish.
2007-02-27 23:13:17 · answer #3 · answered by alex 3 · 0⤊ 2⤋
Mandarin Chinese as far as number of people are concerned, English as far as number of countries (most "advanced" countries require English as the foreign language taught in school).
2007-02-27 18:21:46 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
English, with Spanish being second
2007-02-27 18:23:11 · answer #5 · answered by Dakota Lynn Takes Gun 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It's been Mandarin Chinese for awhile now, but apparently English has just recently taken over again.
2007-02-27 18:22:09 · answer #6 · answered by ? 3 · 1⤊ 1⤋
english
2007-02-27 18:24:21 · answer #7 · answered by ? 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
got to be english
2007-02-27 18:27:21 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Swearing, obviously!
2007-02-27 18:20:49 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
I think it's chinese....
then english...
then spanish...
2007-02-27 18:22:12 · answer #10 · answered by Fer 3 · 1⤊ 1⤋