In case you were wondering, here is a list of the 30 most spoken languages in the world and the areas in which they are spoken.
- Mandarin / China, Malaysia, Taiwan
- English / USA, UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand
- Hindi / North and Central India
- Spanish / The Americas, Spain
- Arabic / Middle East, Arabia, North Africa
- Russian / Russia, Central Asia
- Portuguese / Brazil, Portugal, Southern Africa
- Bengali / Bangladesh, Eastern India
- Malay, Indonesian / Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore
- French Indo-European / France, Canada, West Africa, Central Africa
- Japanese / Japan
- German / Germany, Austria, Central Europe
- Farsi (Persian) / Iran, Afghanistan, Central Asia
- Urdu / Pakistan, India
- Punjabi / Pakistan, India
- Vietnamese / Vietnam, China
- Tamil / Southern India, Sri Lanka, Malyasia
- Wu / China
- Javanese / Indonesia
- Turkish / Turkey, Central Asia
- Telugu / Southern India
- Korean / Korean Peninsula
- Marathi / Western India
- Italian / Italy, Central Europe
- Thai / Thailand, Laos
- Cantonese / Southern China
- Gujarati / Western India, Kenya
- Polish / Poland, Central Europe
- Kannada / Southern India
- Burmese / Myanmar
It would be interesting to compare this list with a list of land area covered by language. The list by population tells you how many people you can communicate with given a certain language and a list by area tells you where you can go (travel, move, etc.) with a certain language. Want to meet a lot of people, learn Mandarin; want to travel, learn Russian or Spanish (I would guess).
any mention in that list about common sense and good manners? or have those concepts been trash-canned in this age of flaming & trolling.
(*_*)
remora
Apparently at least 2000 millions people can communicate in English, which is de facto universal language in the world and used as the common language in many Asian and African countries such as in India, Philippine, Nigeria, etc. Even in continent Europe, English is mostly used as second language.
Mandarin can be understood only in China, Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia. At most, 1500 millions people can understand it.
In the third group, Spanish, Arabic, Russian, Portuguese, French and German are used in multiple countries. Other languages could be categorized as the local ones. I don’t know if it’s a good thing or not, that only 8 languages are dominating in the world.
Edward, where did you come across that rubbish website? It looks like some school kid’s homework.
The list is clearly wrong, as Tofu has already pointed out. There’s upwards of 100 million people in India who speak English. What about the people in Africa, Caribbean, Oceania apart from Australia and New Zealand?
The guy has simply stuck the largest English-speaking countries together, not taking into account people who speak a fair degree of English or indeed fluently as a second/third/etc language! What a load of rubbish.
By the way, thanks for the effort - I wasn’t having a go at you.
why does Indian English sound so ornate and Victorian ?..is this a legacy of colonialism come back to haunt us.
“why does Indian English sound so ornate and Victorian ?”
Err, what?
well let me explain.
Just as Japan has Engrish or Japlish..so India has something known as Indlish or Hindlish (?)
a strange mixture of local words wrapped up in what sounds like something out of The Importance of Being Earnest..or Peter Sellers Indian Doctor in the Millionairess
(They must getting it all from a bunch of Merchant Ivory period movies.)
*But to be fair, India has the third largest number of English speakers in the World (god bless ‘em)*
I’m just making an observation..that’s all.
remora
also, i should have remembered - Apu from the Simpsons.
(again - no offence intended)
rem.
I like Nigerian English - it is a throwback to the Victorian days. The paper boasts headlines that read “Assaults by Cutlass Wielding Brigands Plague the City” instead of the -er- modern, “City Terrorized by Gang with Machetes”