Whether we like it or not language - in whatever form - is an integral part of daily life. Let's take transport as an example, knowing what times the buses come, reading the instruction manual for your car or the directions that show up on your smartphone to direct you to work are all things we use language for that we take for granted. Even though a lot of communication from person to person is NOT verbal, society as a whole still relies on it heavily.
One of the amazing things about language is how we use it, adapt to its intricacies and even get a grasp of it in the first place! Our ability to learn language actually decreases with age and it's fascinating how we pick up accents, slang and trends almost subconsciously. Read on to get a grasp of which languages have come out on top in the popularity stakes around the world.
Let's commence with the most popular - Chinese Mandarin. Over eight hundred and fifty million people speak this language predominantly across Northern and South Western China. It is due to the population density in China that Mandarin is so widely spoken and even more so as Mandarin constitutes the preferred, or standard language of the country. There are a number of other dialects spoken in China each with their own history and journey through time, these variants are; Wu, Hakka, Min, Xiang, Yue and Gan Chinese.
In second place we have the beautiful and seductive Spanish language. What's staggering about Spanish is the fact that despite being the second most spoken language in the world, it does not even have half the amount of speakers that first placed Chinese Mandarin has - an estimated four hundred million speak it worldwide. Important to note about Spanish is it's popularity to learn as a second language, figures indicate that it is immensely popular with students and adults alike who wish to study a second language for whatever reason.
Well, for all us native English speakers we lie in a very respectable third position! Over three hundred million individuals around the world speak English, a figure helped greatly by the fact that a number of large and powerful nations also speak it including the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Ireland. One useful point to note about the English language is that although it doesn't have the highest number of speakers in the world, it is arguably the most powerful language, widely regarded as THE international language with a huge spread and constantly in great demand by translation services from all parts of the globe.
Up for a challenge? Is the traditional a, b, c alphabet a little boring and tedious for you? Try Arabic. It's incredibly complex, has a number of variants and uses a completely different alphabet to form the spoken words and sounds. It has one quarter of a billion native speakers on the planet though and is incredibly popular in the Middle East and Asia where the population is dense and numerous countries around that area use it.
Last but certainly not least we have the native tongue for the people of India, Hindi. It's the official language of this country and the extremely dense Indian population certainly helps it claim its mark as the fifth most widely spoken language in the world. It would be spoken by even more than it's current one hundred and eighty million if understanding was a factor as there are a number of languages relatively similar to Hindi that mean huge amounts of people can't speak it, but can understand and communicate with it.
So, English places a very respectable third and a language that doesn't use the traditional alphabet also makes it into the top five. The way and methods by which language as a whole has adapted since it was first spoken is, at the very least impressive. Considering it all comes from the same source the variation from one language to another is massive - and it's still evolving now.
One of the amazing things about language is how we use it, adapt to its intricacies and even get a grasp of it in the first place! Our ability to learn language actually decreases with age and it's fascinating how we pick up accents, slang and trends almost subconsciously. Read on to get a grasp of which languages have come out on top in the popularity stakes around the world.
Let's commence with the most popular - Chinese Mandarin. Over eight hundred and fifty million people speak this language predominantly across Northern and South Western China. It is due to the population density in China that Mandarin is so widely spoken and even more so as Mandarin constitutes the preferred, or standard language of the country. There are a number of other dialects spoken in China each with their own history and journey through time, these variants are; Wu, Hakka, Min, Xiang, Yue and Gan Chinese.
In second place we have the beautiful and seductive Spanish language. What's staggering about Spanish is the fact that despite being the second most spoken language in the world, it does not even have half the amount of speakers that first placed Chinese Mandarin has - an estimated four hundred million speak it worldwide. Important to note about Spanish is it's popularity to learn as a second language, figures indicate that it is immensely popular with students and adults alike who wish to study a second language for whatever reason.
Well, for all us native English speakers we lie in a very respectable third position! Over three hundred million individuals around the world speak English, a figure helped greatly by the fact that a number of large and powerful nations also speak it including the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Ireland. One useful point to note about the English language is that although it doesn't have the highest number of speakers in the world, it is arguably the most powerful language, widely regarded as THE international language with a huge spread and constantly in great demand by translation services from all parts of the globe.
Up for a challenge? Is the traditional a, b, c alphabet a little boring and tedious for you? Try Arabic. It's incredibly complex, has a number of variants and uses a completely different alphabet to form the spoken words and sounds. It has one quarter of a billion native speakers on the planet though and is incredibly popular in the Middle East and Asia where the population is dense and numerous countries around that area use it.
Last but certainly not least we have the native tongue for the people of India, Hindi. It's the official language of this country and the extremely dense Indian population certainly helps it claim its mark as the fifth most widely spoken language in the world. It would be spoken by even more than it's current one hundred and eighty million if understanding was a factor as there are a number of languages relatively similar to Hindi that mean huge amounts of people can't speak it, but can understand and communicate with it.
So, English places a very respectable third and a language that doesn't use the traditional alphabet also makes it into the top five. The way and methods by which language as a whole has adapted since it was first spoken is, at the very least impressive. Considering it all comes from the same source the variation from one language to another is massive - and it's still evolving now.
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For effective, accurate and timely translation from or to any of the aforementioned languages you can click through for professional translation services. There are a number of useful and informative blogs on the site too if you'd like to learn more.
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