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The 8 most spoken languages in the world
Hearing world, unlimited fantasty. Welcome to the radio station of XXMU. We are a team, yes we can. This is《Be In English》. I’m Crystal. Today, let’s talk about languages around the world.
Determining which languages are spoken most in the world is a difficult task. We can say with some confidence that Chinese, English, Spanish and Arabic will make an appearance. But would you have guessed that Bengali is in the top eight?
Number 1 Chinese
Numbers vary widely-- Ethnologue puts the number of native speakers at almost 1.2 billion native speakers, roughly a billion of whom speak Mandarin-- but there is no doubt of its clout. If you wish to learn a language that one in six people in the world speak, this is the one for you.
Number 2 Spanish
If we are only to look at native speakers, Spanish has its nose in front of English with about 400 million speakers. If you want a language that will open up whole continents to you, Spanish is your best bet. Spanish is certainly the primary language of most of south and central America, Spain, and large swathes of the US.
Number 3 English
If yo are reading this article, yo maybe one of the 360 million-odd native English speakers, or one of the half a billion people who speak it as a second language. This indicates the remarkable success of English as the lingua franca of business, travel and international relations. The relative ease with which English can be picked up and the pervasive soft power of US culture mean that English will continue to dominate the world stage. For many who live in abject poverty, it’s the ticket to, and symbol of a better life.
Number 4 Hindi
India has 23 official languages, with Hindi Chief among them. Whether this is one language still fiercely contested. At the time of writing, the debate about its role in Indian education and society has once again flared up: prime minister Narendra Modi is seeking primary language of official communication and education, a strategy that has met with resistance. If you ever travel in the Indian subcontinent, a little Hindi will get you a long way. Plus, this is the language that gave us shampoo, jungle, jodhpurs and bungalow--what’s not to love?
Number 5 Arabic
Recent numbers put Arabic at around 250 million native speakers. But this is another instance of numbers not telling the full tale: Arabic, like Chinese, is so vastly different in its respective dialects as to be effectively a number of languages, grouped as one for the sake of convenience.
Number 6 Portuguese
This is another language whose reach owes much to its colonial past. Avid portuguese traders and conquerors brought their language to 215 million native speakers. They also brought the ability to do wonderful things with a soccer ball.
Number 7 Bengali
Admit it: you didn’t expect Bengali to be on this list. The partition of Bengal by the British in 1947 divided West Bengal now part of India, for its counterpart East Bengal, now Bengladesh. It’s the language of Kolkata of the Andaman Islands, and of 170-odd million Bengladeshes, many of whom are extremely vulnerable to climate change. By the next century, the population is projected to double while 15% of the land area is expected to disappear below rising seas.
Number 8 Russian
With roughly 170 million native speakers, Russian is the eighth most spoken language in the world. Famed for its inscrutable grammar and quite lovely cyrillic script, it remains one of the six languages spoken in the UN, and produced the likes of Dostoyevsky, Chekhov and Pushkin.
That’s all for today’s program. If you have any ideas, you can share with us in the comment below. See you next Tuesday on Wechat. Bye
