Language is perhaps the most important function human body– it allows us to get food as a child, it allows us to get almost anything we want as adults, and it also gives us many hours of entertainment through literature, radio, music, and films. This list (in order from least common) summarizes the most important languages ​​in use today.

10. French

Number of carriers: 129 million

Often called the most romantic language in the world, French is spoken in many countries, including Belgium, Canada, Rwanda, Cameroon and Haiti. Oh yes, in France too. We're actually very lucky that French is so popular, because without it, we'd be stuck with Dutch Toast, Dutch Fries and Dutch Kissing (ugh!).

To say “hello” in French, you say “Bonjour.”

9. Malay-Indonesian language

Number of carriers: 159 million

Malay-Indonesian is spoken - surprise - in Malaysia and Indonesia. In fact, we will deviate from the quantity because there are many Malay dialects, the most popular of which is Indonesian. But they are all largely based on the same root language, making it the ninth most spoken language in the world.

Indonesia is a fascinating place; The nation is made up of more than 13,000 islands and is the sixth most populous country in the world. Malaysia borders two major regions of Indonesia (including the island of Borneo), and is mainly known for its capital, Kuala Lumpur.

To say “hello” in Indonesian, say “Selamat pagi” (se-LA-maht PA-gi).

8. Portuguese

Number of carriers: 191 million

Think of Portuguese as a small language. In the 12th century, Portugal gained independence from Spain and expanded throughout the world with the help of famous explorers such as Vasco da Gama and Prince Henry the Navigator. (Good thing Henry became a navigator... could you imagine if a guy named “Prince Henry the Navigator” became a florist?) Since Portugal got into this exploration game early enough, the language took hold around the world, especially in Brazil (where it is the national language), Macau, Angola, Venezuela, and Mozambique.

To say “hello” in Portuguese, say “Bom dia.”

7. Bengali language

Number of carriers: 211 million

In Bangladesh, a country of more than 120 million people, nearly everyone speaks Bengali. And because Bangladesh is virtually surrounded by India (where the population is growing so fast that it feels like breathing the air could get you pregnant), the number of Bengali speakers in the world is much higher than most people would expect.

To say “hello” in Bengali, say “Ei Je.”

6. Arabic

Number of carriers: 246 million

Arabic, one of the oldest languages ​​in the world, is spoken in the Middle East, with speakers found in countries such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt. Moreover, because Arabic is the language of the Quran, millions of Muslims in other countries also speak Arabic. So many people have a working knowledge of Arabic, in fact, that it became the sixth official language of the United Nations in 1974.

To say “hello” in Arabic, say “Al salaam a’alaykum” (Al sa-LAM a a-LEY-kum).

5. Russian language

Number of carriers: 277 million

Mikhail Gorbachev, Boris Yeltsin, and Yakov Smirnov are among the millions of Russian speakers. Of course, we are used to thinking of them as our communist enemies. Now we think of them as our communist friends. One of the six languages ​​of the UN, Russian is spoken not only in its homeland, but also in Belarus, Kazakhstan and the USA (we name a few places).

To say “hello” in Russian, you say “Zdravstvuyte” (Zdrav-stv-uite).

4. Spanish

Number of carriers: 392 million

Except for all those children who study it in high school, Spanish is spoken in nearly every South American and Central American country, not to mention Spain, Cuba and the United States. There is a special interest in the Spanish language in the USA, since many English words borrowed from their language, including: tornado, bonanza, patio, quesadilla, enchilada, and taco grande supreme.

To say “hello” in Spanish, say “Hola” (OH-LA).

3. Hindustani

Number of carriers: 497 million

Hindustani is the main language of populous India, and it includes a huge number of dialects (of which Hindi is the most common). While many predict that India's population will soon surpass China's, the recognition of English in India prevents Hindustani from being recognized as the world's most popular language. If you are interested in getting some Hindi, there is a very simple way: rent an Indian movie. The film industry in India is the most prosperous in the world, producing thousands of action films/romances/musicals every year.

To say “hello” in Hindustani, say “Namaste” (Na-MA-ste).

2. English language

Number of carriers: 508 million

While English does not have the most speakers, it is the official language of more countries than any other language. It is spoken all over the world, including New Zealand, USA, Australia, England, Zimbabwe, Caribbean, Hong Kong, South Africa and Canada. We would tell you more about English, but you probably already feel pretty comfortable in this language. Let us just talk further about the most popular languages ​​in the world.

Today there are a huge number of language schools offering English courses in Moscow. The courses are taught using the latest educational methods. You study in English, without using Russian. All new words and concepts are explained by already familiar words, gestures, pictures - this makes the learning process much more interesting and interactive, but if learning is interesting, then the results will be better! After studying, all new constructions and words are immediately reinforced in practice, when working in pairs and mini groups. Thus, learning English in courses is not just about learning grammar and memorizing new words: you are learning to communicate.

1. Mandarin Chinese

Number of carriers: more than 1 billion.

Surprise, surprise, the most widely spoken language on the planet is found in the most populous country on the planet. In second place, English has a 2 to 1 ratio of speakers, but that shouldn't make you think that Chinese is easy to learn. Spoken Mandarin can be very rigid because each word can be spoken in four directions (or “tones”), and beginners are bound to have trouble distinguishing one tone from another. But if over a billion people could do it, you could too. Try saying hi!

To say “hello” in Chinese, say “Ni hao.” ("Hao" is pronounced as one syllable, but the tone requires your voice to drop halfway and then rise again at the end.)

Dear reader, it is quite easy for you to guess how to answer this question.

It’s extremely difficult, because first you need to define what a language is. And there would be no difficulties if the whole world were clearly divided into languages ​​known to everyone: French , German , Japanese and so on. But the trouble is that there are countries where languages ​​exist only in the form of oral speech and do not have the status of an official language. Someone once remarked: “A language is a dialect with an army.” Indeed, in modern world only the sovereignty of the state can give oral speech official language status. So, language this is: “a form of speech that is very different from others (otherwise we are dealing with dialects), incomprehensible, or only partially understandable to other speakers without special study of it.” With this formulation, we avoid unnecessary political confusion.

“How many languages ​​are there in the world?? - you ask, reader. The answer may surprise you. According to various sources, the number of languages ​​in the world is from 4000 to 6000 . Even with a rough estimate, their number very large. However, one should not discount the fact that languages ​​differ in the number of speakers. If we look at the use of such languages: how English And Spanish, then we’ll see what they say hundreds of millions of people Worldwide. But there are also small languages ​​that are spoken only several thousand or even hundreds of people. And even this is not the “limit”: there are languages ​​that are spoken by only a couple of dozen people, and such languages ​​tend to fade away, disappearing forever along with the last speaker. Keep this data in your head while you read this article. Let's look at other numbers. exists from 1000 to 1900 languages. In Nigeria alone there are more than 400 of them. Both Americas, from the north of Canada to the edge of South America, contain about 900 languages. And among this number there are mainly Indian languages. Largest quantity Native American language speakers live in Central and South America. Mexico has about 240 languages, and Brazil has more than 200. If we look at other countries, we will see that, for example, in Papua New Guinea there are no less than 850 within national borders, in Indonesia - 670, in India - 380, in Australia 250. There are 13 more countries, each of which speaks 100 languages.

By the way, all 6000 languages ​​are not the “Worldwide Babylonian Pandemonium” where chaos reigns. Most of these languages ​​are related to each other. There are numerous classifications of the world's languages ​​according to several language families. So, for example, the Russian language refers to Indo-European family of languages. Establishing related connections between languages ​​is to some extent reminiscent of the biological classification of species into genera, families, and more broadly, classes, types, and so on.

Can you imagine this number of languages ​​in the world?! It should be noted that literally thousands of – mostly small – languages ​​around the world “survive” due to the fact that they exist in remote areas where there is practically no contact with the outside world, with the exception of the media and the education system. You have never heard of many of these languages.

State borders and boundaries of languages often they don't match at all. Let's take a final look at the astonishing numbers. In which countries are the most common languages ​​used as official languages? English language is the official language (but this does not mean the only one in the country) in no less than 45 countries, French in 30, Spanish in 20, Arabic in 20. Since There are officially 170 sovereign states in the world, it turns out that in more than two thirds of them these languages ​​are spoken.

The amazing variety of languages ​​in the world resembles the biological diversity of flora and fauna. But languages ​​are disappearing at a much more alarming rate than species. Wherever minor languages ​​remain without the support of the state and its media, education systems, they are “absorbed” by more common languages, most often for the simple reason that only the dominant language finds practical application in everyday life. This is the case with Gaelic in Ireland, which is heavily influenced by English, and with Breton in France, which was “absorbed” by French. In other words: these languages ​​developed due to their isolation.

Projections show that by the end of this century, 50% to 90% of living languages ​​may disappear from the face of the earth. To do this, just look at the atlas of endangered languages ​​of the world, prepared by UNESCO. We need to think seriously about the threat of declining linguistic diversity.

http://www.unesco.org/culture/languages-atlas/

Language is the main way of communication between people and this article presents the most popular, widespread and in demand languages ​​of the peoples of the world.

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14. French

Even though this language is not among the ten most widespread languages ​​in the world, in our short presentation it takes an honorable 14th place, opening our ranking. The French language, in addition to being one of the most widespread, is also one of the most beautiful languages ​​in the world, which is very often called the language of love, just as the capital of France, the city of Paris, is called the city of love. This language is part of the Romance group of languages ​​and has the status of an official language in 29 countries, in particular Canada, Switzerland, Belgium, Monaco and, of course, France. It is one of the six official languages ​​of the UN and is spoken in a number of African countries and former French colonies. According to some estimates, French is spoken by about 250 million people around the world, but 75 million speak it as a native language.
Many people learn French because of its beauty, others learn it because it is a fairly popular language in Europe and knowledge of such a language will be useful for work and travel. This language is not very difficult to learn as a foreign language. Of course, French will be easier for some, more difficult for others, but many agree that in terms of difficulty of learning it is somewhere between German and Spanish.

13. Korean

Korean is the mother tongue of approximately 78 million people and is the official language South Korea and North Korea, partially distributed in China, Japan, USA and Russia. This language is not very popular and not many people study it in other countries. However, in terms of the number of native speakers, it takes an honorable 13th place in our ranking of the most common languages ​​on earth. Most researchers classify it as an isolated language, that is, a language that is not included in any known language family. However, some believe that the Korean language may be part of a hypothetical Altaic family. According to some linguists, the Korean language may have some degree of relatedness to the Japanese language.
Some people think Korean is easier to learn than Japanese and Chinese, but the grammar in Korean is still more difficult, in their opinion. Chinese and Japanese languages ​​are studied mainly for romantic reasons, out of a desire to get closer to the culture of the East and learn about the centuries-old history of the region. Korean is taught mainly to earn money.

12. German

German is the most popular and in-demand language in Europe after English, and many people learn it not for cultural reasons or for travel, but for doing business and business negotiations. German is the official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein and Belgium. This language is native to 100 million people, and there are more than 120 million native speakers. The German language is part of the Germanic group, like English, however German It is considered much more difficult than English, like some other languages.
Beginners learning a language are frightened by words that are 2-3 times longer than their counterparts in other languages, many tenses, different conjugations of regular and Irregular Verbs, the presence of a definite and indefinite article, the genders of nouns not always matching. However, the German language cannot be called one of the most difficult languages ​​of the world, since with the right approach it can be studied without any problems, like any other European language.

11. Javanese

There are so many languages ​​in the world, but not many of our citizens even know about the existence of this language, not to mention the fact that the Javanese language is one of the most widespread. The language is spoken by about 105 million people and is spoken mainly on the Indonesian island of Java and several neighboring islands. It is the largest Austronesian language in terms of speakers. This is a fairly developed language that has a rich literary tradition with different genres of poetry and prose, and many varieties of theatrical genres. Despite the fact that almost half of the Indonesian population actively uses the Javanese language in everyday life, it, like all other existing languages ​​in the country, does not have official status.

10. Punjabi

This language belongs to the Indo-Aryan languages ​​of the Indo-European language family and is one of the official languages ​​of India. Punjabi is the language of the Punjabis and Jats, ethnic groups in India. The language is spoken in the eastern part of Pakistan, as well as in some parts of India. There are approximately 112 million Punjabi speakers in the world. There are approximately 105 million native speakers living in Pakistan and India. While the rest live in countries such as the UK, Canada, UAE, USA, etc. Among the features of the language, one can highlight the fact that it is a tonal language. In tonal languages, pitch stressed syllable changes its meaning. In Punjabi, a stressed syllable can have three different pitches. This is very unusual for Indo-European languages.

9. Japanese

Ninth place in our list of the most common and popular languages ​​in the world is occupied by another language from Asia. There are 130 million native speakers of this language. Japanese is studied mainly for two reasons. Firstly, the language is studied for doing business, since Japan is one of the strongest economies in the world. Secondly, Japan has a rich and interesting culture that attracts thousands of people and sooner or later makes them interested in the country's language. Japanese is by no means an easy language. One of the main difficulties in learning this language is the hieroglyphs, which came from Chinese, but have changed slightly over time as the language developed.
In Japanese, almost all hieroglyphs have not one, but two or more sounds, depending on the words in which they are used. Today in Japan, about two and a half thousand hieroglyphs are the most commonly used, while in China at least 3,500 hieroglyphs are used. Japanese is a simpler language compared to Korean and Chinese, but Japanese grammar is very complex. There are no tones in Japanese, but there are two alphabets. The Hiragana alphabet is the basic alphabet, used for purely Japanese words, grammatical markings, and sentence endings. Katakana is another Japanese alphabet and is used for words of foreign origin and names.

8. Russian

Russia is one of the most important countries in the world, occupying a vast territory where many people live. The country's rich, vibrant and vibrant culture and beautiful cities attract many foreigners who are also interested in the “mighty” Russian language. There are about 160 million people for whom Russian is their native language. In total, there are about 260 million Russian speakers. Russian is the official language in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. It is the most widespread Slavic language in the world and the most widespread language in Europe in terms of the number of native speakers. Russian is one of the working languages ​​of the UN. It is quite difficult to learn, its grammar is complex but logical. Russian can be called one of the simple “complex” languages.
Many foreigners choose French or German because they are common in Europe. People choose Russian when they want to experience Russian culture, when they have Russian friends with whom they want to speak their language, when they move to live or work in Russia. Basically, people study Russian because they like it, like, in general, any other language. You cannot learn a language through force, it must interest and attract, there must be a desire to learn it.

7. Bengali

The language of Bengalis, one of the languages ​​of the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family. It is widespread and is the official language in Bangladesh and India. There are about 190 million people for whom this native language and about 260 million people who speak it. Some aspects of the language are often different in India and Bangladesh. The letter in most cases fully matches the pronunciation. The written language is based on Sanskrit and does not always take into account the changes and mergers of sounds that have occurred in the language over time. The history of the Bengali language dates back at least a thousand years, as evidenced by both the dating of the first literary monuments and linguistic reconstruction data.

6. Portuguese

Portuguese is the mother tongue of approximately 230 million people, and the total number of speakers is approximately 260 million. It is the official language in Portugal, Brazil, Angola and some other countries. Most of the native speakers live in Brazil. The Portuguese language is comparable in difficulty to learning to Spanish, French and Italian, as it is in the same group of Romance languages. There are two main varieties of the language, European Portuguese and Brazilian, as well as a number of varieties in African and Asian countries, differing from each other at the level of phonetics, vocabulary, spelling and grammar. African countries use the European version of Portuguese with a large number of lexical borrowings from African languages.

5. Arabic

Arabic is spoken in 60 countries around the world, such as Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt and Libya, and is official in 26 of them. One of the working languages ​​of the UN and belongs to the Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic family of languages. The number of native speakers of the language exceeds 245 million people, and the total number of people speaking it is more than 350 million. Arabic plays great importance in the political and economic spheres, in the field of energy and security. This is a very popular language and people who know it will always be able to find themselves Good work. Arabic is one of the five most difficult languages ​​in the world; there are many dialects of Arabic that differ significantly from each other.

4. Hindi

The language is one of the 23 official languages ​​of India and is also spoken in Pakistan and Fiji. 260 million people speak their mother tongue, and total number Hindi speakers are approximately 400 million people. At the colloquial level, Hindi is virtually indistinguishable from India's other official language, Urdu. The latter is distinguished by a large number of Arabic and Persian borrowings, as well as the fact that it uses the Arabic alphabet, while the traditional Hindi script is the Devanagari syllabary. English is one of the official languages ​​of India, but, nevertheless, according to some sources, Hindi is quite a promising language and it can become one of the most popular languages ​​by 2050.

3. English

The top three of our list of the most popular and widespread languages ​​opens with English, which is the most common language for learning as a foreign language. This language is native to 350 million people, and the total number of speakers is about 1.4 billion. English is one of the working languages ​​of the UN, the official language of Australia, New Zealand, USA, England, Canada and some other countries. The English language in the modern world plays a huge role in many areas of life, from politics and business, to culture and travel. This is explained by the colonial policy of the British Empire in the 19th century and the global influence of the United States of America at the present time.

English is also considered one of the easiest languages ​​to learn, if not the easiest. However, this language also has its difficulties. In many countries around the world, English is taught in schools with almost no primary classes as a foreigner.

2. Spanish

In second place is very beautiful language, which is official in Spain, Mexico, Costa Rica, Cuba and most countries in South America. Spanish is very similar to Italian and Portuguese, as it is in the same Romance group with them. Approximately 420 million people speak Spanish as their native language, and there are about 500 million speakers around the world. It is the most widely spoken Romance language, with 9/10 of its speakers living primarily in the Western Hemisphere. It is a fairly easy language to learn, which, in addition to the Spanish culture and beauty of the language, adds to the desire of foreigners to learn Spanish.
There are several dialects of the Spanish language, but Castilian is considered the true, original Spanish language. Castilian, Catalan, Basque and Galician dialects are common in Spain, while in South America there are five main dialect groups. The first group is used primarily in Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Panama, Colombia, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Mexico. The second is in Peru, Chile and Ecuador. The third is in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama. The fourth group is the Argentine-Uruguayan-Paraguayan variant, which includes Eastern Bolivia. The fifth group is conventionally called Mountain Latin American Spanish. This language is spoken by the inhabitants of Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, the Andes of Colombia and Venezuela, Quito (the capital of Ecuador located at an altitude of 2800 m), the Peruvian mountain range and Bolivia.

1. Chinese

The Chinese language is a collection of very different dialects, and therefore is considered by most linguists as an independent language branch, consisting of separate, although related, language and dialect groups. In fact, Chinese is made up of many other languages. But at the same time, the hieroglyphs are the same. The writing of basic characters has become much simpler since the mid-20th century, after the reform in China. The unified Chinese language is called Mandarin or simply Mandarin, which is called Putonghua in China. The Chinese language has 10 dialect groups and seven main traditional dialects.

Many people consider Chinese to be the most complex language for learning, more difficult than Japanese and Arabic. Mainly because it uses over 3,000 characters, which are noticeably more difficult to write than Japanese or Korean. The use of tones in a language also makes it difficult to learn. Despite all the difficulties of learning, Chinese remains one of the most promising and popular languages ​​in the world. It is the mother tongue of 1.3 billion people and has more than 1.5 billion speakers. China is one of the strongest countries in many areas, one of the largest in terms of territory and the largest in population. Nowadays, the Chinese language is very popular and interesting, both for doing business and for understanding the most ancient culture on the planet.

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There are about 7,469 languages ​​in the world as of 2015. But which one is the most common among them? According to the well-known reference book Ethnologue, which is developed and published in print and in electronic format international non-profit organization SIL International's list of the most common languages ​​in the world (by number of speakers) is as follows.

Malay

Malay (including Indonesian) is a language that includes several related languages ​​spoken on the island of Sumatra, the Malay Peninsula, the coastal regions of Borneo, Indonesia and Thailand. Speaks it 210 million Human. It is the official language of Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia and one of the four official languages ​​of Singapore, as well as the working language of the Philippines and East Timor.

Bengali is in ninth place in the ranking of the most widely spoken languages ​​in the world. It is the official language of the People's Republic of Bangladesh and the Indian states of West Bengal, Assam and Tripura. It is spoken in parts of the Indian states of Jharkhand, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh, as well as the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. It is the second most spoken language in India. Total number of speakers in the world - 210 million Human.

French is the official language of France and 28 other countries (Belgium, Burundi, Guinea, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Republic of the Congo, Vanuatu, Senegal, etc.), spoken by about 220 million Human. It is the official and administrative language of many communities and international organizations, such as the European Union (one of the six official languages), the International Olympic Committee, the United Nations and others.

Portuguese is a language spoken by more than 250 million people living in Portugal and former Portuguese colonies: Brazil, Mozambique, Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Sao Tome, Principe, East Timor and Macau. In all these countries it is the official language. Also common in the United States of America, France, South Africa, Bermuda, the Netherlands, Barbados and Ireland. It is one of the official languages ​​of the European Union and other international organizations.

Russian is the official language of Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Widely distributed in Ukraine, Latvia and Estonia. To a lesser extent in countries that were part of Soviet Union. It is one of the six official languages ​​of the United Nations and the most widely spoken language in Europe. All people in the world speak Russian 290 million Human.

Hindi is the official language of India and Fiji spoken 380 million people, predominantly in the central and northern regions of India. In the Indian states of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan and the capital Delhi, Hindi is the official language government controlled and the main language of instruction in schools. It is also common in Nepal, Pakistan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Suriname, the Republic of Mauritius and the Caribbean islands.

The fourth place in the ranking of the most popular languages ​​in the world is Arabic. This is the official language of everyone Arab countries, as well as Israel, Chad, Eritrea, Djibouti, Somalia, Comoros and the unrecognized state of Somaliland. It is spoken all over the world 490 million Human. Classical Arabic (the language of the Quran) is the liturgical language of 1.6 billion Muslims and one of the official languages ​​of the United Nations.

Spanish or Castilian is a language that originated in the medieval kingdom of Castile in what is now Spain and spread during the Age of Discovery primarily to North and South America, as well as parts of Africa and Asia. It is the official language of Spain and 20 other countries (Mexico, Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Chile, Cuba, Panama, Peru, etc.). Total Spanish spoken in the world 517 million people. It is also used as an official and working language by many international organizations, including the European Union, the United Nations, the Union of South American Nations, etc.

English is the official language of Great Britain, the USA, Ireland, Canada, Malta, Australia, New Zealand, as well as some Asian countries. It is widespread in parts of the Caribbean, Africa and South Asia. In total, English is the official language of almost 60 sovereign states and many global and regional international organizations. The total number of speakers in the world is 840 million Human.

The most widely spoken language in the world is Mandarin, known as Putonghua or Mandarin, a group of Chinese dialects spoken in the north and southwest of China. It is the official language of the People's Republic of China, Taiwan and Singapore. In addition, it is common in places where the Chinese diaspora lives: Malaysia, Mozambique, Mongolia, the Asian part of Russia, Singapore, the USA, Taiwan and Thailand. According to the Ethnologue reference book on given language They say 1.030 million people.