We have talked often about languages. It is our passion. We have talked about what languages are best for translators. What translation students need to know. And more. However, a common question, and a hotly debated one at that. What are the 10 most spoken languages in the world?
This is not as simple as it seems. Different sources say different things. There is also the question of “What do you mean by speakers?” Native speakers? Or all the speakers, native and non-native? These two approaches can deliver far different results as to the most spoken languages…
Then, there’s a question of the boundary of language and dialect? When do you consider a dialect, a completely different language? This is not as cut and dry as it may seem. People have different opinions. Even experts have widely differing opinions. The answer to this can yield far different results to the question “What are the most spoken languages?.
Despite this, it is still possible to come up with an estimate. This is our estimate based on United Nations reports. This list is based on at the time of writing. The most spoken languages based on number of total speakers. Not just natives.
1. Mandarin Chinese (1.1 billion speakers)
Number of native speakers: 897 million (estimated)
Number of non-native speakers: 193 million (estimated)
Total speakers: 1.09 billion (estimated)
Name in the language itself: 普通话(pronunciation: Putonghua)
Language family: Sino-Tibetan
Related to: Cantonese, Tibetan, Burmese
People may talk about “Chinese” as a single language. However, this is wrong. Chinese is actually a group of languages. Including: Mandarin, Cantonese, Hakka and more. Mandarin is by far the biggest, and most well known. It’s an official language in the People’s Republic of China, Republic of China (Taiwan) and Singapore.
Mandarin is a tonal language. Meaning two words can be the same to a non-speaker. However, to a speaker, these two words are completely different. Mandarin is written using Chinese characters, which is sometimes referred to as Han characters. This is an ancient form of writing. It’s a pictorial system, meaning each character represents a word.
There are two main types of characters. “Traditional” characters, used in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau. “Simplified” characters, used in China, Singapore and Malaysia. It’s estimated that you’d need to know 2,000 to 3,000 characters just to read a newspaper. A learned Chinese person would need to know around 8,000!
2. English (983 million speakers)
Number of native speakers: 371 million (estimated)
Number of non-native speakers: 611 million (estimated)
Total number of speakers: 983 million
Language-family: Germanic, a sub-family of Indo-European. However, closely related to the Romance Language family.
Related to: German, Dutch, Frisian, Latin and French
Name in the language itself: English. But you already know that.
English has spread across the world thanks to Anglophonic empires. The British Empire. And the American Empire. English has established itself as the Lingua Francareplacing French. English is the second most spoken language.
The word “English” derives from the Angles. A Germanic tribe who settled England from the 5th to the 9th Century AD. Their name derives from Anglen, a region in Northern Germany.
Fun Fact: In German, England is “England”. A compound word. “Eng” means “narrow”. “Land” means “Land or country”.
At its core, English is a Germanic language. Its sentence structure is quite similar to German or Dutch. However, after the Norman conquest. More French (and Romance language) vocabulary came into the language. Much of English has Latin-derived vocabulary as a result.
3.Hindustani (544 million speakers)
Number of native speakers: 329 million (estimated)
Number of non-natives: 215 million (estimated)
Total number of speakers: 544 million (estimated)
Language family: Indo-Aryan, a sub-family of Indo-European.
Related to: Bengali, Punjabi, Marathi, Kashmiri, Nepali
Name in the language itself: हिन्दुस्तानीor ہندوستانی
Hindustani is actually two languages. Or rather dialects using different writing scripts. Hindi and Urdu. The name Hindustani comes from the historical name of a north-western part of the Indian subcontinent.
Hindi is spoken throughout northern and central India. It is also the official language of the Indian Government. Urdu is spoken widely throughout Pakistan. Whilst Hindi and Urdu have minor differences in pronunciation and vocabulary. Hindi and Urdu are highly mutually-intelligible.
The main difference between Hindi and Urdu is their writing systems. Hindi is written in the Devanagari script. Or “देवनागरी” in the script itself. Urdu is written right to left, in a script that is close to the Arabic alphabet. The name “Urdu” itself is written “اُردُو”.
4. Spanish (527 million speakers)
Number of native speakers: 436 million (estimated)
Number of non-native speakers: 91 million (estimated)
Total number of speakers: 527 million (estimated)
Language family: Romance, a sub-family of Indo-European.
Related to: French, Portuguese, Italian, Romanian
Name in the language itself: español or castellano (Latin America)
The language we call Spanish is just one variant. Coming from the Castile region of Spain. For this reason, some people refer to it as ‘Castillano’ or Castilian. Since the Spanish conquistadores conquered South America, they spread their language. Spanish is spoken across Southern and Central America as well as the Caribbean. There are also pockets of speakers across Europe, Asia and Africa.
Spanish is the second most common language in the United States. Thanks to the Spanish Empire conquering the South of the US. And the immigration from South America into the US. The US is home to 40 million native Spanish speakers. This makes the US the second largest Spanish speaking country. Only behind Mexico. Although linguists estimate that in the next 50 years, the US will become home to the most Spanish speakers in the world.
5. Arabic (422 million speakers)
Number of native speakers: 290 million (estimated)
Number of non-natives: 132 million (estimated)
Total number of speakers: 422 million (estimated)
Language family: Semitic, a sub-family of Afro-Asiatic.
Related to: Hebrew, Amharic, and Aramaic.
Name in the language itself: العَرَبِيَّة (al-ʻarabiyyah)
Arabic is the official language of 26 countries and 1 major world religion. Some linguists have argued that Arabic is not one language. But several.
Arabic is the language of Arabic. Although, most Muslims are not native Arabic speakers. However, most Muslims can speak, or at least understand Arabic. Arabic also holds special significance in Islam. Allah is said to have spoken Arabic to Mohammed when he gave the Koran.
Even though that was 1400 years ago. Modern Arabic has changed vastly from Classic Arabic. As well as the many local dialects, many Arabs also speak Modern Standard Arabic. An academic dialect that’s based on Classical Arabic.
What are the most spoken languages per continent?
Every continent except Antarctica is inhabited. So each continent has many languages spoken. Some more than others. Which means each continent has a most spoken language. So which is the most spoken language on each continent?
Africa- Swahili
Asia- Mandarin
Europe- Russian
North America- English
Oceania (Australasia)- English
South America- Spanish