What are the commonly spoken language around the world?

Question

Please cite source.

Answer 1

1
Chinese (Mandarin)

1,000,000,000 +

2
English

508,000,000

3
Hindustani (Hindi and Urdu)

497,000,000

4
Spanish

392,000,000

5
Russian

277,000,000

6
Arabic

246,000,000

7
Bengali

211,000,000

8
Portugese

191,000,000

9
Malay - Indonesian

159,000,000

10
French

129,000,000

Answer 2

Here's a listing of the ten most popular languages spoken worldwide, along with the approximate number of primary or first language speakers for that language.

1. Mandarin Chinese - 882 million
2. Spanish - 325 million
3. English - 312-380 million
4. Arabic - 206-422 million
5. Hindi - 181 million
6. Portuguese - 178 million
7. Bengali - 173 million
8. Russian - 146 million
9. Japanese - 128 million
10. German - 96 million

Various sources were used to compile this listing of the most popular languages of the world but the primary source was the CIA World Factbook.

Answer 3

The top ten most widely spoken languages are:

Chinese
Hindi
English
Spanish
Arabic
Bengali
Portuguese
Russian
Japanese
German

If you research this question, you can get into fine points, such as how many distinct dialects of Chinese there are, and how all those who speak English as a second language should be counted. Most sources state that English is the most commonly spoken second language, and only Chinese and Hindi are more common as mother tongues.

I've also read that approximately one-half of the world's people speak an Indo-European language as their mother tongue. If that's true, it's incredible.

Answer 4

I will quote from Nicholas Ostler "Empires of the Word, A Language History of the World" (2005, Harper, pg. 379), as good a source as any (better than most):

"And when a population starts to move towards that irresistable attractor, the US economy, as the Mexican and central Caribbean populations now are, new speaker communities will begin to crowd in, even if this means encroaching on the heartland of the most dynamic, and widely spoken, language in the world, English."

When you count native speakers, second and third language speakers, nothing comes even close to English. This is a hard linguistic fact.

Mandarin (NOT "Chinese") has the most native speakers, but a relatively small number of second and third language speakers. Mandarin is NOT the most "commonly spoken language" in the world. In the airport in Kyiv, Ukraine, all the signs are in Ukrainian and ENGLISH. In the airport in Brasilia, Brazil, all the signs are in Portuguese and ENGLISH. In the airport in Beijing, all the signs are in Chinese and ENGLISH. Except in East Asia, you're not going to find a drop of Chinese anywhere, but you find English EVERYWHERE.

Look around the world--English is the second language of at least half of the country of India, most of Nigeria, the Philippines. Virtually every citizen of the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and Denmark speaks English fluently as a second language. In Ukraine, English is required as a second language for all school children. There's not a drop of Chinese anywhere to be seen or heard here in Ukraine, but every school child is learning English as a second or third language. I was watching the Ukrainian version of "Dancing with the Stars" where they use international judges. The Norwegian judge and the Austrian competitor spoke ENGLISH (which was translated into Ukrainian), not their native languages. No one used Mandarin.

LATER EDIT: Here's another quote from Nicholas Ostler (pg 456):
"...there is still a sense in which the story of English deserves a special position among world languages. True, it happens to be the language with the widest spread....And in this era the world has become a single community linked by instant communications, making English uniquely prevalent, and leaving us wondering whether there could be anywhere for a successor language to spring from."

Answer 5

English is the business language. It's English, and don't let anyone tell you different. When two people are from different countries, and speak a different language, they always seem to communicate through English, their second language. Other examples are events such as Miss Universe and the World Cup Draw. In Miss Universe they had to speak English even though for most of them, it was their secondary language.
And by the way, how many people speak Chinese around the world? Outside of China, not many. Yet there is more Chinese that know how to speak English in China (1 out of 4) than United States (Do the math).

Answer 6

Top five commonly spoken languages worldwide

1. English

2. Spanish

3. French

4. Italian

5. German

Answer 7

English is the "international language". Not necessarily because it is spoken by the most people, but because it is spoken by the most people of importance (by far).

English is the SECOND language of the world! Any one who is anyone, any where, aspires to learn English, or has learned it already.

It is a very difficult language, but if you want to say important things to important people, in education, business, or government, it is worth the work to learn it.

That being said, by volume of population, if you are just counting heads, Chinese might be the mother toungue of the most human beings alive on earth at this time.

Answer 8

Ermm no English is not the most common language spoken in the world by far. Asian languages are the most common, surf around on wikipedia and stuff that's what I do for info.

English maight be the most commonly learnt or something but there's languages that alot more people speak as their first than English.

(Sorry if it sounds like i'm being rude I'm, not trying to be) :)

Answer 9

Chinese, English, Hindi, Spanish, Arabic - see page 14 of the Nuffield Foundations report in the link. This was a very important piece of research into what languages English schoolchildren should learn in future..

Answer 10

1. Mandarin Chinese: 885 million
2. Spanish: 332 million
3. English: 322 million
4. Bengali: 189 million
5. Hindi: 182 million

Answer 11

English, Chinese, Spanish, Arabic, Hindi.