Languages are the core of human life as they help with communication, sharing emotions, expressing feelings, developing understanding, globalizing, and representing nations. English, Spanish, German, French, and Chinese are some of the very famous languages. But the jaw-dropping fact is there are more than 7000 languages around the world. However, due to the ever-evolving number of speakers, the debate of which is the most spoken language in the world is never-ending. Also, considering the complexities of tracking speakers of each language is impossible. Therefore, we have prepared a list of the most spoken native languages worldwide based on approximate statistics according to Statista's June 2023 report. We will take a brief note of the 10 languages including their history, cultural impact, intellectual development, and global impact.
English
English is an Indo-European language with 372.9 million native speakers originating in early medieval England. Today, with more than 1.4 billion speakers, it is the lingua franca of the world. Moreover, as a global language, English is the language of a wide variety of fields including international trade, computer coding, higher education, and other international affairs. The easy structure and large audience are the main reasons behind the global success of the language. Over time, environmental change and the influence of different cultures and languages such as
Dutch,
Afrikaans, Latin, and French have affected this language. English emerged from the Germanic dialects – Angles, Saxons, and Jutes. These were the people who settled in Great Britain in the 5th century. There are different varieties of English including American, Australian, South African, British, Scottish, Canadian, Indian, and New Zealand English. At a base level, the structure of all these variations is the same. Notably, the thing that makes them different from each other is the cultural and regional impact on the language like the differences in spelling and pronunciation.
Mandarin Chinese
Next, we have Mandarin. With more than 929 million native and 1.1 billion speakers worldwide,
Mandarin Chinese is the second most-spoken native language in the world. Due to China’s significant population, Mandarin is the most spoken native language in the world. Unlike English, Mandarin Chinese doesn’t use letters but a pictorial method. Mandarin is not a language but a set of dialects of the Chinese language. It has four tones – rising, falling, level, and high-rising – to distinguish syllables and words having the same series of consonants and vowels. Mandarin is the native language of 70 percent of the population of China. Mandarin is divided into four subgroups: Northern Mandarin, Northwestern Mandarin, Southern Mandarin, and Southwestern Mandarin. With such a huge audience and number of speakers, the
Chinese language has the potential to become a global language.
Hindi
Hindi is one of 22 official languages in India – the second country in the world with the largest population. Moreover, it has 343.9 million native and more than 602 million speakers worldwide. With a huge population, India is the house of many national and international languages. English is also one of the national languages in India. South Africa, Uganda, Yemen, Mauritius, and Bangladesh are the significant Hindi speech communities. Directly influenced by
Sanskrit, it is the language of culture and has a strong background. There are many dialects of Hindi including Bagheli,
Magahi, Kumayuni, Awadhi, Haryanawi,
Chhattisgarhi, Magahi, Kumyuni, Garhwali, Marwari, and Kanauji.
Spanish
Spanish, a language of romance, also falls in the Indo-European family group. With more than 548 million speakers worldwide and 474.7 million native speakers, it is the second most spoken native language globally. It is the official language of 18 American countries including Panama, Colombia, Peru, Venezuela, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Bolivia, Argentina, Costa Rica, Cuba, Uruguay, Paraguay, Chile, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Ecuador, and Nicaragua. Castilian is the dialect of Spanish speakers and is also used in several American countries under the name Castellano. Modern Spanish is the new version of this dialect. It rose in the 9th century in North-Central Spain around the town of Burgos. When the kingdoms of Leon and Castile merged with Aragon in the late 15th century, Castilian became the official language of Spain.
French
French, an internationally significant romance language, is the official language of more than 25 countries. There are 280 million French speakers in total of which 79.9 million are natives. Like the English and Spanish, French is spoken in 29 countries and spread around the world with the French colonial empire. It is the language of culture and comes in third place with the largest number of non-native speakers. French is the first language of France and is one of the six official languages in the United Nations. Moreover, it is the second most taught language in the European Union. Along with English and German, all institutes in the European Union use French as an official language. French is an international language of scientific standards and literature. It is the second language of various international organizations including the UN, EU, NATO, and WTO. With such high gratitude, French is the 16th most natively spoken language globally and the 5th most spoken language by total number of speakers.
Arabic
Arabic is a Semitic language spoken in a large area including most of the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, and other parts of the Middle East. The language has 274 million total speakers worldwide and is the only language available with zero native speakers. For that reason, scholars don’t define Arabic as a language. They define it as an ideal archetype of the common Islamic expression. Arabic has two variations: Classic Arabic and Modern Arabic. Classic Arabic is the language in which pre-modern literary works are composed. It is closely relevant to the pure language. Modern Arabic has a minute difference from Classical in lexical and stylistic considerations. It is the language of recent publications such as newspapers, novels, broadcasts, and political speeches. These standard varieties differ from the spoken varieties of Arabic. The chief dialect groups of Modern Arabic are those of Arabia, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, and North Africa.
Bengali
Bengali is an Indo-European language from the Indo-Aryan group of the Indo-Iranian language. It is the first language of 233.7 million people and has 272.7 million speakers worldwide. Bengali is the official language of Bangladesh and is also spoken in some areas of Burma and India. There are two varieties of Bengali language: the Sadhu Bhasa (gentle and elegant speech) and the Chalti Bhasa (current and colloquial speech). There is a clear influence of other language families in South Asia including Dravidian, Tibeto-Burman, and Austroasiatic families on the vocabulary and structural form of Bengali.
Russian
Russian is an East Slavic language and the native language of the Russians. Used primarily as the language of the former Soviet Union, it has remained the official language in independent Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, and Kyrgyzstan, and still dominates as a second language in Central Asia, Ukraine, the Caucasus, Israel, and to a smaller level in the Baltic states. There are 258.2 million speakers of Russia worldwide of which 154 million are native speakers. Russian dialects have three groups: The Northern group, the Southern group, and the Central group. Modern Russian is based on the Central dialect of Moscow which is a combination of the Northern and Southern dialects.
Portuguese
Portuguese is the official language of Portugal, Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Mozambique, Sao Tome, Principe, and Guinea-Bissau. With a total of 257.7 million speakers globally Portuguese falls on the second last number on our list. There are two varieties of Portuguese: Brazilian Portuguese and European Portuguese. Brazil is the prominent country with the largest number of Portuguese speakers. Brazilian Portuguese is distinct from European Portuguese in various aspects including sound changes, differences in phonology, vocabulary, and grammar. There are four dialects of Portuguese: Central, Southern, Insular, and Standard.
Urdu
With 231.3 million speakers globally, it is the official language in Pakistan. According to The World Factbook, published by the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency),
Urdu is the 10th most spoken native language in the world. Hindi,
Latin, and Persian languages have a great influence on Urdu. Due to the close relevancy, Urdu and Hindi speakers can easily understand and communicate with each other. Urdu is also known as the Lashkari language. It means Urdu is a combination of many languages. It is a mutual language for people from multiple races and diverse backgrounds. Later on, with the addition of Persian loanwords Urdu became the complete language of a group of people in the sub-continent. Hindi, Hindustani, Dihlawi, Dahlvi, and Lashkari are some of the old names of Urdu.
简体中文