Apr 8, 2008

Starting Rundown...

Here is a little info you should know about languages. If you have the same multilingual ambitions as I do, this should help you decide which languages to learn. You will also find out how to greet people in nine different languages.

Number of living languages in the world: 6,912

Language with the most speakers worldwide: Mandarin Chinese (873 million)

Language with fewest speakers worldwide: It's a tossup. About 50 different languages have only one native speaker remaining.

Most widely spoken language: English (main or official language in 63 countries)

Top 10 languages with most native speakers (Source: The World Alamanac 2008)
Rank/Language/Hub Country/No. of speakers/Greeting
1. Mandarin Chinese/China/873 million/Ni hao (knee-how)
2. Spanish/Spain/322 million/Hola (oh-la)/
3. English/United Kingdom/309 million/Hello (duhh!)
4. Arabic*/Egypt/205 million/Assalam aleykum
5. Hindi/India/180 million/Namaste (nah-mah-stay)
6. Portuguese/Portugal/177 million/Ola (oh-la, same as Spanish)
7. Bengali/Bangladesh/171 million/Nomoskar (no-moh-scar)
8. Russian/Russia/145 million/Zdrastvuytye (zdrahst-vooy-tyeh)
9. Japanese/Japan/122 million/Kon-nichiwa (cohn nee-chee-wa)
10. German/Germany/95 million/Guten Tag (goo-tin tahg)

*Note: The World Almanac splits Arabic into sixteen dialects. The diiferent dialects can collectively claim to have around 205 million speakers worldwide.

No comments: