How many languages are there in the world? How many languages are there in the world? Which language is the most widespread in terms of number of speakers?
Language is usually called a system of signs, words, phonetic, lexical and grammatical means that serve to identify thoughts, motives, and actions for a certain group of people. Among scientists, researchers and linguists, attempts have been made more than once to calculate how many languages there are in the world.
According to various studies, the total number of languages on Earth varies from 3,000 to 6,000 thousand. Such a huge difference can be explained quite simply; different cultural and scientific traditions have their own concepts of what exactly is called a language and what refers to dialects and adverbs.
How many languages are there in the modern world?
When taking into account and identifying the number of all world languages, researchers have to take into account the fact that many less common ones are gradually becoming dead, that is, no one speaks them anymore. This happens for several reasons, including due to replacement by other languages, or the extinction and mixing of the native people. This trend is observed everywhere:
- in North America, many indigenous Indian languages are on the verge of extinction;
- on the African continent there are tribal languages spoken by only a few hundred, sometimes even dozens of people;
- In Russia, several languages have disappeared in the last 100 years alone, including Ke-rek in Kamchatka, as well as Sym in the Yenisei.
Scientists linguists claim that, according to their estimates, by the end of the 21st century, up to 50% of today's little-used languages will disappear from the category of living ones. Today, about 1,400 languages are considered endangered.
French researchers tried to answer the question of how many languages there are in the world at the end of the last century. In the review of the world's languages, published by A. Meillet and M. Cohen, 2796 languages are described. Scientists classify more than 3,000 thousand languages as dialects already described. According to various sources, there are about 6,000 languages and dialects in the world; only 500 languages are well studied. Two thirds of all languages do not have their own written language.
How many foreign languages are there in the world?
It is quite difficult to say exactly how many languages there are in the modern world. If we talk about learning foreign languages, it should be noted that every widely spoken language has many dialects and dialects. For example, Spanish, which is the official language in 58 countries around the world, has several large groups that differ greatly from each other. A dialect of Spanish, the Castilian language is partially distributed in Spain, in Latin America - Chile, Argentina, Cuba.
According to census data, there are more than 700 languages and dialects in India alone. The number of languages that are official in individual states is 14 and each of these languages is spoken by at least 10 million people.
The Chinese language, which belongs to the category of quite difficult languages to learn, is fragmented into dozens of dialects. Moreover, the difference between them is such that residents of different areas sometimes have difficulty understanding each other.
How many official languages are there in the world?
If we consider the distribution of various languages at the state level, the following picture emerges:
In general, 95 languages are considered official state languages on our planet. It's funny that Latin, which has long been considered dead, is also on this list, since it is the official language of the Vatican.
I remember how my mother forced me to study foreign languages. She justified her opinion by the fact that polyglots receive high salaries and are valued as employees. But it was very difficult for me to learn several languages, because I had difficulty learning English. I didn’t want to go to another tutor. You understand - school years, falling in love and childish naivety (that I will succeed). And my mother was right, because my profession involves moving and communicating with people. It would not hurt to know several foreign languages. But in other way, it's impossible to know everything. Imagine how many dictionaries you will have to buy.
How many languages are there in the world?
In order to reassure my mother, I found information that there are more than six thousand different foreign languages. She laughed, but did not cancel her least favorite lessons. Then I looked at the official statistics and was surprised: on earth there are seven thousand living languages. Not counting the dialects that exist in different regions.
With the development of information technology, new ways of communication, some foreign languages disappear. Scientists attribute this to another factor - the extinction of carriers. Dead languages appear (which people do not speak in real life). This is Old Russian Ancient Greek, Latin, Church Slavonic languages.
Difficult language to learn
It's difficult for me to learn a foreign language. I am a proponent of the idea that you need to constantly hear speech in order to learn it. For example, if you want to know Italian, you need to live in Italy for several months and don't stop studying tutor.
I’m not the only one who finds it difficult to master a foreign language. There is a ranking of the most difficult languages in the world. Rating:
- Amharic;
- Thai;
- Chinese;
- Japanese;
- Arab;
- French;
- give;
- Burmese.
Linguists compiled this rating for a reason. The most complex languages spoken in our world have complex grammar, calligraphy and pronunciation. If you consider yourself a person of high intelligence, try writing at least one hieroglyph. Who knows what hidden talents live inside.
Telling about how many languages humanity has accumulated in the world over the period of its existence. This information still worries many people.
Today there are about six thousand different dialects on the planet. The most widely spoken language is Chinese, which is spoken by more than a billion people. And three decades later, according to experts, this language will be native to almost one and a half billion people in the world.
It is worth noting that the language of the people of this country has dozens of dialects, among which there are many dialects. The seven main ones are so different from each other that even experienced linguists do not consider them close. Residents of different provinces almost do not understand other people's speech or have little understanding of what they heard.
The amazing world of Africa
There are also those on the planet that in the near future will disappear forever. These include the language of the Bikia tribe. Only one native can speak it now. In general, there are also thousands of languages on the African continent. There is a Berber tribe that lives in Africa, which does not even have a written form of speech.
The Berbers call themselves amahag, which means human. This is what the Europeans called this people. Among the numerous tribes of this people, four main ones stand out.
A Russian example is the Kerek language, which is used by only two people.
In the Caucasus, the inhabitants of the mountains speak forty languages, but the inhabitants of Papua communicate in seven hundred dialects. If we take the whole ratio, then this is about fifteen percent of all languages that fill the intelligent world.
Language stock of the Amazonian aborigines
In the Amazon jungle there are Pirahã tribes whose language stock consists of only three words. These sounds represent the meanings of numbers.The tribe uses the Pirahã language, which is known to have no common concepts and no pronouns.
But the Indian nation is considered the most multilingual population in the world. There are two hundred and three languages in this state. There are only fourteen officially recognized ones. Each dialect is spoken by at least ten million people.
Of the total number of recognized languages, five hundred have been studied - this is approximately two-thirds of the total number, so it is impossible to accurately calculate exactly how many languages there will be in the world.
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.
In contact with
Classmates
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 native language of approximately 78 million people, is the official language of South Korea and the DPRK, and is partially spoken in China, Japan, the United States 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, but the German language is considered much more complex 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, regular and irregular verbs conjugated differently, the presence of a definite and indefinite article, and genders of nouns that do not always match. 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, the height of a 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 it is their 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 is of great importance in the political and economic spheres, in the fields of energy and security. This is a very popular language and people who know it will always be able to find a good job. 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. There are 260 million people who speak Hindi as their mother tongue, and the total number of Hindi speakers is approximately 400 million. 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 almost from primary school as a foreign language.
2. Spanish
In second place is a 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 difficult language to learn, 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.
In contact with
How many languages are there in the world?
Linguists just can’t come to a consensus: some believe that there are about 3,000 languages in the world, others that there are more than 6,000. It’s all about the very definition of language and the unclear boundary between language and dialect.
For example, if we take such a well-known and familiar language as Spanish, it turns out that even it can be considered in different ways.
The simplest option is Spanish alone, and it is used as a state language in many countries around the world.
A more complicated option: there is another common language - Castilian, it is spoken in part of Spain. It’s even worse: residents of Cuba, Argentina, Chile and some other countries consider their language Castilian.
If that's not enough, there are several dozen more regional dialects of the Spanish language. To consider them as independent or not to consider them, that is the question! And how many languages we get in the world will depend on how we answer this question.
In this regard, you and I are lucky: the Russian language, great and powerful, is one. Of course, the dialect of the south and north of Russia may differ somewhat, but not so much as to consider them different dialects or different languages.
But what about languages that don’t even have a written language and the number of speakers is limited to one or two hundred people, or even less? For example, the indigenous population of North America had about 700 languages, all without writing. To count or not to count? And how many languages will there be in the world?
How many official languages are there in the world?
It is easier to answer this question, because the official language is a language recognized at the state level. Today there are 95 official languages in the world. At the same time, surprisingly, the Latin language, a seemingly dead language, is also one of the official languages of the world. This is the official language of the Vatican.
