Top 10 Most Spoken Languages In The World
Published on June 26, 2008 - 304 Comments
Language is perhaps the most important function of the human body - it allows us to get sustenance as a child, it allows us to get virtually anything we want as an adult, and it allows us many hours of entertainment through literature, radio, music, and films. This list (in order of least to most spoken) summarizes the most important languages in use today.
Number of speakers: 129 million
Often called the most romantic language in the world, French is spoken in tons of countries, including Belgium, Canada, Rwanda, Cameroon, and Haiti. Oh, and France too. We’re actually very lucky that French is so popular, because without it, we might have been stuck with Dutch Toast, Dutch Fries, and Dutch kissing (ew!).
To say “hello” in French, say “Bonjour” (bone-JOOR).
Number of speakers: 159 million
Malay-Indonesian is spoken - surprise - in Malaysia and Indonesia. Actually, we kinda fudged the numbers on this one because there are many dialects of Malay, the most popular of which is Indonesian. But they’re all pretty much based on the same root language, which makes it the ninth most-spoken in the world.
Indonesia is a fascinating place; a nation made up of over 13,000 islands it is the sixth most populated country in the world. Malaysia borders on two of the larger parts of Indonesia (including the island of Borneo), and is mostly known for its capital city of Kuala Lumpur.
To say “hello” in Indonesian, say “Selamat pagi” (se-LA-maht PA-gee).
Number of speakers: 191 million
Think of Portuguese as the little language that could. In the 12th Century, Portugal won its independence from Spain and expanded all over the world with the help of its famous explorers like Vasco da Gama and Prince Henry the Navigator. (Good thing Henry became a navigator . . . could you imagine if a guy named “Prince Henry the Navigator” became a florist?) Because Portugal got in so early on the exploring game, the language established itself all over the world, especially in Brazil (where it’s the national language), Macau, Angola, Venezuela, and Mozambique.
To say “hello” in Portuguese, say “Bom dia” (bohn DEE-ah).
Number of speakers: 211 million
In Bangladesh, a country of 120+ million people, just about everybody speaks Bengali. And because Bangladesh is virtually surrounded by India (where the population is growing so fast, just breathing the air can get you pregnant), the number of Bengali speakers in the world is much higher than most people would expect.
To say “hello” in Bengali, say “Ei Je” (EYE-jay).
Number of speakers: 246 million
Arabic, one of the world’s oldest languages, is spoken in the Middle East, with speakers found in countries such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, and Egypt. Furthermore, because Arabic is the language of the Koran, millions of Moslems in other countries speak Arabic as well. So many people have a working knowledge of Arabic, in fact, that in 1974 it was made the sixth official language of the United Nations.
To say “hello” in Arabic, say “Al salaam a’alaykum” (Ahl sah-LAHM ah ah-LAY-koom).
Number of speakers: 277 million
Mikhail Gorbachev, Boris Yeltsin, and Yakov Smirnoff are among the millions of Russian speakers out there. Sure, we used to think of them as our Commie enemies. Now we think of them as our Commie friends. One of the six languages in the UN, Russian is spoken not only in the Mother Country, but also in Belarus, Kazakhstan, and the U.S. (to name just a few places).
To say “hello” in Russian, say “Zdravstvuite” (ZDRAST-vet-yah).
Number of speakers: 392 million
Aside from all of those kids who take it in high school, Spanish is spoken in just about every South American and Central American country, not to mention Spain, Cuba, and the U.S. There is a particular interest in Spanish in the U.S., as many English words are borrowed from the language, including: tornado, bonanza, patio, quesadilla, enchilada, and taco grande supreme.
To say “hello” in Spanish, say “Hola” (OH-la).
Number of speakers: 497 million
Hindustani is the primary language of India’s crowded population, and it encompasses a huge number of dialects (of which the most commonly spoken is Hindi). While many predict that the population of India will soon surpass that of China, the prominence of English in India prevents Hindustani from surpassing the most popular language in the world. If you’re interested in learning a little Hindi, there’s a very easy way: rent an Indian movie. The film industry in India is the most prolific in the world, making thousands of action/romance/musicals every year.
To say “hello” in Hindustani, say “Namaste” (Nah-MAH-stay).
Number of speakers: 508 million
While English doesn’t have the most speakers, it is the official language of more countries than any other language. Its speakers hail from all around the world, including New Zealand, the U.S., Australia, England, Zimbabwe, the Caribbean, Hong Kong, South Africa, and Canada. We’d tell you more about English, but you probably feel pretty comfortable with the language already. Let’s just move on to the most popular language in the world.
To say “hello” in English, say “What’s up, freak?” (watz-UP-freek).
Number of speakers: 1 billion+
Surprise, surprise, the most widely spoken language on the planet is based in the most populated country on the planet. Beating second-place English by a 2 to 1 ratio, but don’t let that lull you into thinking that Mandarin is easy to learn. Speaking Mandarin can be really tough, because each word can be pronounced in four ways (or “tones”), and a beginner will invariably have trouble distinguishing one tone from another. But if over a billion people could do it, so could you. Try saying hello!
To say “hello” in Mandarin, say “Ni hao” (Nee HaOW). (”Hao” is pronounced as one syllable, but the tone requires that you let your voice drop midway, and then raise it again at the end.)
Contributor: flamiejamie
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1. Silly - June 26th, 2008 at 4:30 am
this is such an interesting list, thank you for posting. now i know my 3 years of mandarin learning will not go to waste!
2. jfrater - June 26th, 2008 at 4:31 am
Silly: I am envious - I would love to know Mandarin!
3. Navik - June 26th, 2008 at 4:34 am
suprised that spanish didn’t beat english
4. Raz - June 26th, 2008 at 4:35 am
Really good list here, keep it up.
5. jfrater - June 26th, 2008 at 4:35 am
Navik: that is because English is the most beautiful language in the world
6. Mongo - June 26th, 2008 at 4:38 am
Is it sad that I’ve never heard of Bengali? >_>;
Great list, sort of thought that Portugese would have been higher up on the list, though. o.O;
7. Tempyra - June 26th, 2008 at 4:39 am
No surprises on this list.
jfrater: why do you say English is the most beautiful? Surely you can’t mean the most beautiful to listen to?
8. stevenh - June 26th, 2008 at 4:39 am
News of the day: Portuguese > French.
Great List, flamiejamie!
9. srichards - June 26th, 2008 at 4:40 am
kool list
10. Iain - June 26th, 2008 at 4:40 am
Would the ranking for English move above Mandarin if we counted non-native speakers with fluency or at least competency in English as a second language? India alone would boost the numbers.
11. jfrater - June 26th, 2008 at 4:43 am
Tempyra: of course I do! We have two choices for almost all words (romance or germanic) and some of the most beautiful poetry in human history. I would say we are second to Latin for beauty in poetry - we only come second because Latin noun cases make it easy to make beautiful rhymes. How can you not say this is stunning:
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
By Wordsworth - stunning.
12. jfrater - June 26th, 2008 at 4:44 am
Iain: true indeed - but this is based on native speakers only I think (though flamiejamie may want to correct me if I am wrong).
13. Ray Bees - June 26th, 2008 at 4:45 am
Thought French was a dead language.
Great list, really liked it!
14. srichards - June 26th, 2008 at 4:46 am
I agree with Temprya, I love to listen to Hindi
15. Tempyra - June 26th, 2008 at 4:52 am
Hmmm. Yes, I agree that English is beautiful. Especially Wordsworth :-). I just think that other languages can sound more pleasing sometimes. English doesn’t seem to flow as well as Romantic languages sometimes. Mandarin and Cantonese are very pretty to listen to as well - I don’t understand either, I just like listening to them
16. Thomas - June 26th, 2008 at 4:57 am
funny thing: french fries ARE actually belgian (dutch) fries, and, whats wrong with dutch kissing?
17. Tempyra - June 26th, 2008 at 4:59 am
Oh dear… I was listening (it was on TV) to this song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pxo2-WpP50Q
while thinking about Wordsworth and now my stupid brain has transported the words of the poem jfrater quoted above into the song and IT’S STUCK IN MY HEAD. That’s just wrong isn’t it?!
18. R1CExTHUG - June 26th, 2008 at 5:14 am
“…millions of Moslems in other countries speak Arabic as well.”
Wouldnt it be Muslims?
19. Mom424 - June 26th, 2008 at 5:15 am
Great List! I am ashamed to admit that I didn’t know that folks from Bangladesh spoke Bengali. How I missed it, I have no idea. I thought they spoke Hindi, the same as India.
Tempyra; I agree, spoken English doesn’t have the nice cadence that some of the other spoken languages have. Ours is quite abrupt.
Oh, and other than some French and a wee bit of german and Spanish (from watching Sesame Street with my kids, I swear), I don’t understand any of it either.
20. Randall - June 26th, 2008 at 5:16 am
English is the best language (most beautiful is arguable, but it’s near the top in any case) AND the most versatile. The reason it’s the best? It has the largest vocabulary of any language on earth, and is highly adaptable and has been eminently successful. Although its spelling and grammar are sometimes complicated, its word forms and endings were simplified hundreds of years ago, giving it a vitality and extreme usefulness that no other language possesses.
AND, if we did add non-native speakers with fluency in English, English would beat out Mandarin by a knockout.
21. Tempyra - June 26th, 2008 at 5:22 am
I have been told (by native and non-native English speakers) that English is really quite hard to learn. Not the actual speaking of it, more the structure and rules. Is that just opinion or has it proven to be the most complicated to learn? Like, has someone counted its inconsistencies in comparison to other languages?
22. Randall - June 26th, 2008 at 5:29 am
Tempyra:
I have many friends who are non-native English speakers, and they’ve all said in one form or another that it was at times difficult, but HOW difficult varies from person to person. Nevertheless, they all do fantastically well with it.
The primary difference is that English does not use gender forms for words, and does not alter its word endings. But some people have told me this made it *easier* for them to learn–once they got used to it. So it’s a toss-up.
23. Catia - June 26th, 2008 at 5:34 am
In Portuguese hello is Olá (oh-la) kinda like spanish, but written diferently.
“Bom dia” means good morning.
Great list! For someone who is studying languages this is a very interisting and informative list
24. Ray Bees - June 26th, 2008 at 5:35 am
Sure I read somewhere that Hungarian is the most difficult language to learn.
25. astraya - June 26th, 2008 at 5:37 am
You can always try Australian kissing - that’s kissing “down under”! (Hmm, right!)
If you ever want to hate English, teach in it Korea for 2 years. Every pronunciation, every grammar, every shade of meaning, every idiom, every variety between versions of English etc etc etc will haunt you in every lesson. Easily not the simplest. Easily not the most beautiful. Probably the most versatile, as Randall pointed out. (Hey, we agree on something!)
Two of the difficulties in stating numbers are deciding what counts as a “speaker” (how capable?) and then counting. In countries as populous as China and India, they probably don’t know how many people there are, let alone what languages they speak.
26. Tempyra - June 26th, 2008 at 5:38 am
Randall: I forgot about that - English not using gender forms. I’m just wondering if anyone has try quantifying/rating the difficulty of each language… Might go try looking it up :-).
27. Meiz - June 26th, 2008 at 5:40 am
Hi Jamie, Im from Indonesia. To say “Hello” in Indonesia is simply “Halo” too. “Selamat pagi” means “Good morning”. They both are greetings but different meaning.. I also learn Mandarin, it is indeed difficult but since I have the root already as Im chinese speaking Hokkienish (another Chinese dialect) it becomes a lot easier.
28. V - June 26th, 2008 at 5:44 am
You think four tones in Mandarin is hard? Wait until you hear Cantonese, SIX tones. Lol, but I speak Cantonese more fluently than Mandarin. I’m from Hong Kong.
29. Iain - June 26th, 2008 at 5:47 am
Jamie - I’d agree the list is obviously based on native speakers - but it does make you think about how many Dutch/Scandinavians/Indians etc. are effectively bi-lingual.
Whether English is the most beautiful language is kind of subjective, but what is definite is that it is the dominant cultural language. If you learn English you have better access to a mainstream global culture - the biggest movies, the most popular music/artists, more countries to visit where you can be understood.
I tend to think that this explains why English speakers seem to do less keen on learning foreign languages. There’s a comparative lack of incentive.
30. Tempyra - June 26th, 2008 at 5:47 am
I thought Cantonese had 9 pitch levels? Is that different to tones?
31. Iain - June 26th, 2008 at 5:49 am
‘be less keen’ - I’m bi-lingual too Scottish and Gibberish
32. astraya - June 26th, 2008 at 5:52 am
The US State Department lists Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean, Japanese and Arabic as the hardest languages for English speakers to learn.
Hungarian is “a language isolate”, which means that it bears no relationship to the languages around it (compared to, say, Spanish and Portuguese, German and Danish etc). Generally, the more two languages have in common, the easier it will be to learn. I’m struggling badly with Korean. I can barely pick out any words from a tv broadcast. The other day I caught a bit of a German movie (subtitled in Korean, so I had no idea what it was about) and understood more words of that (and I have never studied German, though I have sung it) than I ever have Korean.
I was always sort-of interested in languages, though I’ve never learned one. Since I’ve been in Korea I’ve been doing a lot of reading about second language learning. Being married to a Korean woman, I’m aware every day just how fraught inter-language communication can be.
33. Sharki - June 26th, 2008 at 5:52 am
flamiejamie - I don’t think Boris Yeltsin is doing much talking these days.
34. Tempyra - June 26th, 2008 at 5:58 am
Btw, I only speak English. Although I can recognise bits of German, Italian (mostly music-related words), and Spanish. I’m learning to speak Australian too
35. Ray Bees - June 26th, 2008 at 6:01 am
Australians have 7,000 different words for ‘beer’
36. Tempyra - June 26th, 2008 at 6:03 am
Ray Bees: most of them start with ‘p’ and are pronounced with a rising inflection, right?
37. NN - June 26th, 2008 at 6:03 am
“What’s up, freak?”
LAWLZ.
To say “hi” in our language: say “Kamusta, pangit?”
38. Unkown - June 26th, 2008 at 6:12 am
I thought there were 130 million + Japanese people, is the list wrong? :O
39. jmankas - June 26th, 2008 at 6:21 am
in venezuela they speak spanish.. not portuguese! and in the other rest of the countries mentioned, their national language is also portuguese, not only in brazil.
btw, i’m portuguese
40. Rod - June 26th, 2008 at 6:26 am
Very interesting list.
Except that ‘bonjour’ in French is not bone-JOOR. Pretty much the same ‘on’ sound as in mONster. So… bON-joor… :p
41. Ghidoran - June 26th, 2008 at 6:27 am
Atually, ‘ei je’ means ‘hey’ in bengali, not hello, but since we dont have a real word for ‘hello’, except the Arabic ‘al salaam a’alaykum’, I suppose it’s okay.
Also, I’m surprised Hindustani is only 3rd. I’ve never come across the word ‘hindustani’ used as a language. If you mean all south asian languages like hindi, tamil, telegu, urdu etc., then the number should be much higher. However, if you mean just the basic hindi, then ‘hindustani’ is a bit misleading. I say it should be 2nd(not sure, just speculating) because India’s population is bordering on a billion, and I was surprised only 500 million people speak ‘hindustani’.
42. io - June 26th, 2008 at 6:33 am
i’m pretty sure they don’t speak Portuguese in Venezuela…
43. alf1369 - June 26th, 2008 at 6:40 am
Your aabic needs a touch up. Marhaba is “hello”, but the most common greeting is Al salaam a’alaykum (peace be upon you).
44. astraya - June 26th, 2008 at 6:40 am
I was just wondering about Japanese myself. The wikipedia list of native speakers (quoting Ethnologue) is
Mandarin 873 m
Hindi-Urdu 425 m
English 350 m
Spanish 320 m
Arabic 206 m
Portuguese 177.5 m
Bengali 171 m
Russian 170 m
Japanese 122 m
German 100 m
so it includes Japanese and German at the expense of Malay/Indonesian and French.
It also gives the total number of English speakers as 1.5 bn, more than Mandarin.
45. laddu - June 26th, 2008 at 6:41 am
I’m from Malaysia and it’s a surprise to see that Malay is at the ninth spot.
But anyway, ‘Selamat pagi’ actually means good morning. There isn’t really a term to say hello unless you’re a Muslim who is greeting another Muslim (Assalamualaikum). Or perhaps Selamat Sejahtera which is a pretty formal way to say good day.
46. Twinkle - June 26th, 2008 at 6:58 am
NN - in our dialect that would translate “Kumusta na man ka oi, batig nawng?”
47. dangorironhide - June 26th, 2008 at 6:58 am
Great list. Well written, amusing and interesting. Nice one flamiejamie.
48. Marcus - June 26th, 2008 at 7:07 am
Astraya I thought it was interesting that you mentioned teaching in Korea for two years. My step brother is on a flight this very moment to go to there.
49. Marcus - June 26th, 2008 at 7:08 am
and teach
50. Ana - June 26th, 2008 at 7:11 am
Hello!
In Venezuela, they speak Spanish, not Portuguese.
And ‘Bom Dia’ is actually ‘Good Morning’. Hello is more something like ‘Olá’ (Olah)
Besides, in French, Bon Jour also means Good Morning. But I dont know how to say ‘Hello’ in French, so…
51. stevenh - June 26th, 2008 at 7:13 am
re: #25 astraya,
You have made my day: “Australian kissing”
52. Val - June 26th, 2008 at 7:13 am
20- Randall: I don’t agree necessarily. English has a large vocabulary, yes, but A LOT of the words in English mean the exact same thing.
For example, I’m studying English into French translation. It often happens that in a list of adjectives in English, one French word will fit all of those together (important + significant, for example). Does that really make it better, having more words? I’d say a more concise language would be better/mroe efficient. That’s just me, though.
English is also highly popular because it’s the official language of the most powerful country right now. If that were to change, the popularity of English would also most likely change.
English has almost no grammar rules D: (compared to French, anyway!). When composing, there is almost nothing to remember rule-wise in English (which can be good or bad, depending on how you look at it)…
53. Val - June 26th, 2008 at 7:15 am
50- Ana:
No, “bonjour” doesn’t mean “good morning”. Directly translated, it means “good day”.
In Acadia, we say “allo” for “hello”.
54. Mel - June 26th, 2008 at 7:16 am
umm…mandarin is kind of unfair as a No. 1 position, because it’s only spoken in one country, unlike some of the others in the list which are far more widespread. in the caribbean alone (where im from) we have english, spanish, french and dutch spoken here. mandarin may be the ‘most spoken’ by your definition, but i believe it to be a very one-dimensional definition.
55. Cheeshygirl - June 26th, 2008 at 7:18 am
Great list, FlamieJamie. As far as lists go, this really could have been a boring one. Fortunately, your humor kept me interested and giggling the whole way through.
56. Val - June 26th, 2008 at 7:20 am
40- Rod: That’s not really the right pronunciation, either, though it IS closer to it… In French you don’t just have the “a, e, i, o, u” sounds, you have a TON more added to that, including “on, en, in” etc. which English does not have, so it’s kind of hard to sound out for anyone to pronounce. But there technically is no “n” sound, or “o” for that matter, because it’s its own sound altogether. If any of that makes sense. o.
57. Cheeshygirl - June 26th, 2008 at 7:22 am
Val - “English has almost no grammar rules D: (compared to French, anyway!). When composing, there is almost nothing to remember rule-wise in English (which can be good or bad, depending on how you look at it)…”
Oh my, so what was I learning in Composition 101 at college? And if there are no rules, how were people failing the class? My brain hurts.
58. cowboy - June 26th, 2008 at 7:23 am
I’m malay, and while “selamat pagi” is fine, and so are the other greetings, also acceptable is “Apa Khabar?” (how are you?)
of course, the proper response is always a polite, “Khabar Baik”, but you’re welcome to ask me for naughtier retorts.
59. Sukanya M - June 26th, 2008 at 7:24 am
Nomoskar would be the correct greeting in Bengali (a bit formal too). Ei jay would translate to you there…!!
60. Harsha - June 26th, 2008 at 7:27 am
Hey JF,
The term ‘Hindustani’ is wrong. It means an ‘Indian’. The name of the language is ‘Hindi’. It’s similar to the case of where people assume that ‘Chinese’ is a language.
61. Harsha - June 26th, 2008 at 7:30 am
Hey JF,
The term ‘Hindustani’ is wrong. It means an ‘Indian’. The name of the language is ‘Hindi’. It’s similar to the case of where people assume that ‘Chinese’ is a language. I think you need to change that.
62. Bob - June 26th, 2008 at 7:36 am
Great list. Good humor. Good information. An A+!
Does “Al salaam a’alaykum” translate literally as “the peace of God upon you” or something like that?
63. Harsha - June 26th, 2008 at 7:41 am
In Portuguese, “hello” is not “Bom dia”. That is “Good morning”. Hello is “olá”, pronounced “ohllah”
64. mond - June 26th, 2008 at 7:42 am
Interesting: for some reason I always thought spanish was much higher.
And I agree with Rod: “bone-JOOR” is not the correct pronounciations it is the way an american would incorectly pronounce it.
65. WarningDontReadThis - June 26th, 2008 at 7:45 am
I think italian is pretty nice to listen to.
66. WarningDontReadThis - June 26th, 2008 at 7:48 am
I agree, English is the most beautiful language in the world
67. JOE BLACKK - June 26th, 2008 at 7:52 am
I don’t know whats the best sounding language in the world but I happen to be lucky enough to know 2 on this list ( english & spanish) and understand a lil’ bit of another 2 ( portuguese & french). I use them both to my advantage, I speak English to the latin girls who don’t really speak it much but like to hear me say things to them in English, and whisper a lil’ spanish in the ears of these pretty lil’ american girls!! ;)….just for the record i’m only into women, I’m BI-LINGUAL, there’s a difference!! ..lol lol…..GOOD LIST!!
68. chershey - June 26th, 2008 at 7:58 am
Wow, I thought Hindi and Arabic beat out English; I didn’t realize English was all the way up at #2!
Ray Bees (#35): and Jeff has over 4,000 words for breasts!
69. Randall - June 26th, 2008 at 7:59 am
Val:
20- Randall: I don’t agree necessarily. English has a large vocabulary, yes, but A LOT of the words in English mean the exact same thing.
No, not so. This is a mistake that many non-English speakers make. Many of our so-called synonymous words actually have small nuances of meaning between them. It may not seem apparent at a quick, first glance, but a little thinking indicates how oftentimes there *are* slight differences. And you can see where that would be useful.
Take, for instance, three English words that seem totally synonymous: Kingly, Royal, and Regal.
Right off the bat they seem to mean exactly the same thing. But think about it. They don’t really. Or, rather, they each possess nuances of meaning that can make them seem similar or quite different depending on the context of their use. For instance, there are times when you would very comfortably and obviously use “regal,” but substituting “royal” would not work. We say someone is “regal,” in other words, when they are not “royal.”
See what I mean?
There are countless examples like this.
Moreoever, even when words are synonymous, it simply gives the language more muscle, more variety. This can be useful in many ways.
“For example, I’m studying English into French translation. It often happens that in a list of adjectives in English, one French word will fit all of those together (important + significant, for example).”
Again–if you think about it–”important” and “significant” have subtle nuances of meaning which place them slightly apart.
This kind of thing also gives English a versatility which other languages don’t have.
“Does that really make it better, having more words?”
Of course. I’ve pointed out to you why. It allows for far more subtle nuances of meaning, and therefore more precision in communicating a thought, and/or more versatility and power.
“I’d say a more concise language would be better/mroe efficient.”
Well, sorry, but clearly not. And if that were the case, then you’d have to answer WHY it is English is the world’s most popular language. And why a more “concise” language has not supplanted it for certain uses.
No, Val, sorry–but you’re thinking on this one is 180 degrees in the wrong direction.
“English is also highly popular because it’s the official language of the most powerful country right now. If that were to change, the popularity of English would also most likely change.”
Nope, also wrong. That’s a very common misconception. English, in fact, was rising in popularity LONG before the US became the economic power it is today. And this was not due, either, to the then-ascendancy of the British Empire. Though of course things like that do help a language to spread–but they do not really do much to popularize it, if it is not useful to begin with.
No, the reason English is popular today is because of its qualities AS a language, and this would not change if America vanished tomorrow. English is a highly adaptive, hugely versatile language. It offers subtleties of meaning that other languages do not possess. It freely adapts and borrows from languages and in turn they adapt and borrow from it and then add their adaptations back in. Its immense vocabulary offers a menu of terms and words that are far beyond any other language. And it long ago eschewed the complexity of gender forms and changed word endings.
THAT is why English is popular–not because of the might of the United States.
“English has almost no grammar rules D: (compared to French, anyway!). When composing, there is almost nothing to remember rule-wise in English (which can be good or bad, depending on how you look at it)…”
Well, think about it Val. That’s GOOD, in almost every instance. Again, it allows for versatility and deep subtlety of meaning. A sentence, rephrased, can mean many different things.
Sorry, but the fact is that English trumps all other languages for these reasons, and its popularity will continue regardless.
70. Val - June 26th, 2008 at 8:00 am
57- Cheesygirl: That’s why I said almost, haha. Well to me anyway, it didn’t seem like much since there are so many in French… I took English comp in university too (Canadian equivalent to american college), and people did fail the class, etc. I apologize if I sounded like an a-hole X_x.
71. Ro - June 26th, 2008 at 8:01 am
Oh cool, I can speak three of these. English,Bengali and French.
72. deadangst - June 26th, 2008 at 8:04 am
This is such a brilliant site. I came through to it by accident, and have been hooked ever since. Keep up the great work JFRATER!
And flamiejamie, this is a superb list.
73. Kreachure - June 26th, 2008 at 8:09 am
Nice list.
But seriously, you talk about English borrowing from Spanish as if your only source were a Mexican restaurant. I get the last one being a joke, but I don’t think anyone is cultured enough about the Spanish language to get the irony.
So just to be safe, look at this Wikipedia article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L.....ish_origin
There are hundreds of loan words in English from Spanish that are much more relevant and common that I’m sure you didn’t know are borrowed from Spanish.
74. Kreachure - June 26th, 2008 at 8:12 am
Dang, I didn’t mean anyone, I meant “not everyone”. Sorry.
75. Ro - June 26th, 2008 at 8:12 am
Which means that I can speak with roughly 848 million people in Earth according to this list. How wonderful.
76. Ro - June 26th, 2008 at 8:12 am
Which means that I can speak with roughly 848 million people on Earth according to this list. How wonderful.
77. Ro - June 26th, 2008 at 8:14 am
oh,sorry for that double post. That was an error.
78. sikamikanica - June 26th, 2008 at 8:14 am
This list made me giggle. Great!
I am going to learn a new language too, couldn’t decide between Japanese or Russian (I thought Japanese was going to make it here though) finally settled for Portuguese.
I’m lame, I speak Spanish!
79. copperdragon - June 26th, 2008 at 8:16 am
Where’s Japanese? gotta be more than French at least.
I have found that a strong basis in latin makes it easy to “translate” words from many other languages, just by recognizing the root word and/or a prefix/suffix. I’ve found this applies to Spanish, French, Italian, and German.
I also know a little Hawaiian.
How about the top 10 declining languages? Hawaiian and Native American Indian (ie. Apache, Eskimo, etc.) would definitely qualify.
80. Kreachure - June 26th, 2008 at 8:18 am
Also, “Namaste” is not simply “hello”. It’s more of a greeting with spiritual and sometimes religious connotations. In fact it’s common to use the expression while bowing and putting your hands together out of politeness and reverence.
I urge you to look at this article which explains the complexities of the word in India and elsewhere:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Namaste
Namaste, and good luck.
81. Randall - June 26th, 2008 at 8:21 am
copperdragon:
French is a colonial language that has speakers in both Eastern and Western hemispheres. Japanese is a language largely in isolation, because Japan itself remained in isolation until the 1850s (when the US more or less forced it to open itself up to the world). Japanese has not, therefore, spread far beyond Japan, as a consequence of this.
By sheer population numbers, Japan would be about at #11, with around 120 million native speakers.
As for declining languages, Scots Gaelic would be way up on this list, along with several near-eastern dialects.
82. Cheeshygirl - June 26th, 2008 at 8:22 am
Val - No apologies necessary. I think so many people fail english composition because of the lack of strict, structured rules. Every instructor comes in with their own notions. My freshman instructor refused to allow you to begin a sentence with and or but. I think its necessary sometimes. In one paper I wrote, I left it in the final copy even though she had marked it on my rough draft. I was willing to take a cut in my grade to write the way I felt was appropriate. Since then, I’ve noticed authors doing it all the time. Ok, what was my point? Oh yeah, my brain hurts.
83. peyton - June 26th, 2008 at 8:27 am
@ Mel: Mandarin is not spoken in just China alone. there’s chinese people all over the corners of the world, so definitely Mandarin will be spoken. there’re indonesian chinese, malaysian chinese, singaporean chinese, american chinese, canadian chinese…. i’m a malaysian chinese and i speak mandarin and cantonese. cantonese is not a language, it’s a chinese dialect, widely spoken in Hong Kong. i find that a lot of chinese people, when they’re educated, tend to forget their roots and stops speaking chinese. thus, a lot of younger generations of chinese in other parts of the world except china dont speak mandarin. for example, many urban city folks’ children do not know how to speak mandarin though being a chinese. what a shame. that’s what we chinese called “banana”-yellow outside, white inside. only knows how to speak english.
84. Kreachure - June 26th, 2008 at 8:35 am
Oh I just can’t help myself. Here are only a few RELEVANT words in English taken from Spanish:
Aficionado
Albino
Alfalfa
Armada
Booby (as in booby trap, but it certainly has been used for other things
Bravo
Bronco
Buckaroo
Cafeteria
Caldera
Canyon
Cargo
Chocolate
Guerrilla
Lasso
Machete
Margarita
Marijuana
Renegade
Rodeo
Salsa
Savannah
Savvy
Stampede
Tobacco
Tomato
Tuna
Vanilla
Vigilante
Some others are too obvious to put here. Please remember, Mexican culture is only a part of Latin American culture.
85. Mel - June 26th, 2008 at 8:41 am
Peyton: I was referring to countries in which the language is an official language, not all countries where it is spoken, otherwise I’m sure we can find English speakers all over the world too.
86. felipe - June 26th, 2008 at 8:56 am
Venezuelans speak spanish.
87. Blogball - June 26th, 2008 at 8:59 am
Nice list flamiejamie and your descriptions of each language made it much more fun and entertaining to read than a school text book or an encyclopedia. I am always envious of people that can speak many languages.
Copperdragon, I just looked up Japanese and it’s at 125,000,000 I guess that would come in at # 11
88. Blogball - June 26th, 2008 at 9:04 am
Sorry Randall I just now read your response to Copperdragon after I posted my commment.
89. ixora05 - June 26th, 2008 at 9:06 am
I’m not surprised to see that many Westerners believe that English is the most beautiful language in the world. For me, the beauty and intricacy of Chinese and Japanese characters wins out every time.
honestly, there is no such thing as a most beautiful language, to me. All languages have their own special beauty.
(by the way, the “hao” in “ni hao”, “你好”, is actually a third tone so your voice wouldn’t really come back up. The second tone is the one that goes down and comes back up gently.
90. DiscHuker - June 26th, 2008 at 9:07 am
and to think that the US was discussing adopting ebonics a few years ago. try teaching that as an english as a second language class.
91. Diamond_Dragon - June 26th, 2008 at 9:10 am
You guys forgot the most important language of all!!!!
Body Language! The language spoken by all people!
Otherwise than that it was a nice list!
92. Schiesl - June 26th, 2008 at 9:12 am
Well, I guess knowing the Second and Tenth biggest language in the world is very important!! Glad i know them both, WOOT
93. STLMO - June 26th, 2008 at 9:12 am
Had an inkling that Mandarin would be #1. All the more reason to learn it. Kind of shameful that I haven’t yet, considering I have a Chinese step-mom whose native language IS Mandarin, and she can speak fairly decent Japanese and passable English.
94. S_R - June 26th, 2008 at 9:19 am
I’m under the understanding that English and Spanish are the most widely spoken languages, correct?
I speak both fluently. I was born in Cuba and came to the US when I was 4 1/2. We spoke Spanish at home while I learned English in school.
95. Val - June 26th, 2008 at 9:22 am
82- Cheesygirl:
That’s exactly what I meant, haha. The rules aren’t strict. Some say you need to put a comma in one place, others say don’t, etc. Also, in French, you can’t seperate certain things and put them on another line, say like a date, the name of a person, etc. Like say you put “June 26″, and that ended up at the end of a line, and the next line started with “2008″, that is considered an error in French, so there a keyboard code to make the spaces so that it will all be connected. Complicated! Anyways, I’m obviously biased about the English rules because I see how many there are in French, haha.
96. goatmissile - June 26th, 2008 at 9:25 am
Wutz Up, Freeks? English and German are for science and business, Spanish, French, and Italian are for Dionysian activities. Too many glottals in the former.
I live in SF, so I hear Mandarin spoken all the time, and I hate to say it, because it sounds so xenophobic, but Chinese sounds like broken glass in mud.
I translated some poetry into Spanish from English, and it helped it immensely, I have to say.
I think chocolate is an Indian word.
97. goatmissile - June 26th, 2008 at 9:30 am
At the risk of being chauvinistic though–funny that, Chauvin was a Frencher–English smokes every other tongue. That’s because it is an indiscriminate thieving bastard, burgeoning under its glorious rapacious mass. Talk about redundancy, but so fucking nuanced.
98. Aaron - June 26th, 2008 at 9:31 am
I have to disagree that English is a particularly beautiful language, (though perhaps it is a bias that it is my native tongue) I agree that we have beautiful poetry, but that is not because of the beauty of the language itself, but of it’s meaning and rhyme often helps though is not always the case. Personally, I believe that French is one of the most beautiful languages I have ever heard.
99. Jaz - June 26th, 2008 at 9:44 am
Chocolate comes from nahualt, aztec’s language, as well as many other words normally use in México (aguacate, chapulin, maguey). Also, there many words that come from arabic, such as alberca (pool) or almohada (pillow). Just something I learned some where.
100. Zé de Olhão - June 26th, 2008 at 9:46 am
In portuguese “Bom dia” (bohn DEE-ah)means Good Morning.
Hello = Olá.
101. Val - June 26th, 2008 at 9:49 am
69- Randall:
No, I get the nuances in English perfectly. My first language is not English, you guessed that correctly, but I’ve been speaking it since I was 10 and we study it a lot in my classes, so that we can translate it correctly.
Many writers don’t get the nuances, however, and when writing use a lot of the same words which seem to mean the same thing but don’t exactly. It’s the same with French.
Surely in more poetic writing, having many words certainly adds something. Unfortunately, when many people write, they try to be too “poetic”, adding words here and there which can tend to confuse the average reader. But this is from a translation student’s (and soon to be translator’s) viewpoint. I understand that Egnlish writers may not share this opinion. English doesn’t necessarily have more words or adjectives, people just tend to use them more. You may say, “Just look: English has way more words than any other language”, because English has also borrowed many, many words from other languages.
I simply used the United States as a modern example of why it is more popular. I do believe it is because of the British invasions and whatnot, because when they are forcing you to speak their language, and imposing it on you, you go ahead and speak it. Today it’s the sheer fact that so many people speak English, that when you’re not an English speaker, you’re almost forced to learn it just to be understood. I’m from New Brunswick. Northern New Brunswick is much more French because of the proximity of Québec, and southern New Brunswick is much more English because of the proximity of Nova Scotia and Maine. Technically, New Brunswick was French territory called “Acadia” (along with part of Nova Scotia), but because of British invasions etc., the English language was imposed. French New Brunswickers are therefore almost forced to learn English (unless they want to move to Québec) because most of New Brunswick speaks English anyways.
Any language can be just as versatile. The lack of English rules per se just make it much easier to add or change things. French is a lot more strict on changing the spelling or meaning of words. They have a department of neologisms where they try and invent new words as new realities come about and have criteria about which word they will allow or not allow. In so, making the language more concise and functional.
No rules means no one writes the same. I have to admit sometimes I have to re-read a sentence a few times before actually understanding the meaning because there SHOULD be a comma, for example, but the writer didn’t feel like putting it there. A good thing? Not necessarily.
“If there are not at least two exits or exit paths are blocked”
That was a sentence I had to translate the other day. Because of the absence of “if” on both sides of the “or”, I considered it the same idea and therefore the sentence made no sense whatsoever.
If there are no rules then people will just write however they want to write, making it sort of difficult to figure out what everyone means.
Again, this is from a translator’s viewpoint, so I scrutinize and examine every sentence, but I realize a lot of people don’t do that.
102. Sherri - June 26th, 2008 at 9:49 am
I agree about Hungarian being very hard to learn. I’ve been married to a first generation Hungarian for 17 years, and I’ve only been able to learn swears!
103. Albert - June 26th, 2008 at 9:51 am
Hi,
Indonesia has population about 222 million people (2006 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indonesia). And because Indonesian is the national language of Indonesia, so at least 222 million people speak in it. If you combine Indonesian with Malay, it will be much more people speak it, because Malaysians use Malay as their national language.
104. jake ryder - June 26th, 2008 at 9:53 am
What you mean Esperanto isn’t the top language. I have to take my learn while you drive CDs back.
105. Foxy - June 26th, 2008 at 9:57 am
I like the list (some of the jokes are not that funny, but they can be overlooked). In response to some of the comments, you are all right about the numbers of people speaking English as a second language being very high, but it is very hard to measure those people’s competence in it.
I’m training to be a translator, which is a job that’s sort of taken for granted here because everybody THINKS they can speak English. I think it’s safe to say that the most spoken language in the world is bad English.
106. Val - June 26th, 2008 at 10:00 am
105- Foxy:
High five! Future translators ftw!
“which is a job that’s sort of taken for granted here because everybody THINKS they can speak English”
Agreed 100%. DEFINITELY taken for granted. I’ve even been asked countless times what translation is! DUH, do you think it’s done magically?
107. deep717 - June 26th, 2008 at 10:02 am
Hindustani is not a language….Hindustani mean people who live in India.
Hindu-religion
Stan-Land
By the way the country is not called hindustan anymore, because not only Hindus live there. Christians, Muslims and Sikhs (i might be missing more) live there as well so the country name now is INDIA.
The language is called HINDI.
108. Kreachure - June 26th, 2008 at 10:08 am
Jaz: That’s correct. In fact, many words in Spanish are taken from many South/Central American indigenous languages, as well as from Arabic, thanks to their once significant presence in Spain. In turn, these derivative words in Spanish were taken up by English.
Words taken from Portuguese have a similar connotation.
109. Thomas - June 26th, 2008 at 10:10 am
The majority of the Belgian people speaks Dutch by the way, not French.
And we don’t speak with a silly accent like the people in the Netherlands do
110. S_R - June 26th, 2008 at 10:20 am
“I think it’s safe to say that the most spoken language in the world is bad English.”
&
“[B]ecause everybody THINKS they can speak English”
LOL!!
111. Val - June 26th, 2008 at 10:20 am
109. Thomas: “he majority of the Belgian people speaks Dutch by the way, not French.”
Really? I didn’t know that ^_^;; a few people at my university are Belgian and they speak French. Not that I figured it was their native tongue, but they do have a bit of their own terminology (like Canada) so I figured it was at least somewhat majority. X_x
112. S_R - June 26th, 2008 at 10:25 am
(Just got RoyVal’s email address as it popped up with the info. This really needs to be checked into.)
JUST found this as I was surfing:
How English Is Evolving Into a Language We May Not Even Understand
http://www.wired.com/culture/c.....7/st_essay
113. Jenna Boogie - June 26th, 2008 at 10:36 am
I learn Mandarin Chinese every day when I watch “Ni Hao Kailan” on Nickelodeon every day with my daughter lol. It’s way better than Dora the Explorer…. :o)
114. Randall - June 26th, 2008 at 10:38 am
Val:
“Many writers don’t get the nuances, however, and when writing use a lot of the same words which seem to mean the same thing but don’t exactly.”
Excuse me? What writers are you talking about? An English speaking writer had better use his words correctly and accurately, or he shouldn’t be writing professionally.
“English doesn’t necessarily have more words or adjectives, people just tend to use them more.”
No Val, I’m sorry, but you’re getting a lot of things wrong here. This statement is simply entirely wrong. English has more than twice the vocabulary of the largest languages. It has more words than Spanish and French combined. And they are not all merely “borrowed” words (but what difference would that make anyway? English DOES borrow many more words that other languages do. But once they’re in common use, they become English words as well, and many of them even become Anglicized, i.e., altered into English versions.
English has adapted, evolved, shamelessly borrowed AND developed its own huge bulk of words for centuries. The largest estimate of the vocabulary of English runs to about 400,000 words.
“I simply used the United States as a modern example of why it is more popular. I do believe it is because of the British invasions and whatnot, because when they are forcing you to speak their language, and imposing it on you, you go ahead and speak it.”
No Val, again… wrong. Now you’re simply ignoring what I told you and contradicting the facts. To begin with, English was NOT uniformly “forced” upon colonials the way the French, say, forced their language onto colonial speakers. But even if you argue this point, the whole thing is really moot. What you are saying explains, partly, the SPREAD of a language, but does NOT explain its sustained popularity. English is hugely popular today NOT because it was “forced” upon non-English speakers–this is absurd anyway, if you think about it for a moment–it’s possible, perhaps, to force a small, contained population to change languages–but the vast millions who took to using it over the years? Hardly. No. What explains the popularity of English is simply its versatility and strengths in regards to word form and simplicity. It adapts readily and changes constantly to fit the needs of the people speaking it. No other language is anywhere near as good at it as English.
“Any language can be just as versatile.”
Again, Val, I’m sorry, but WRONG. Explain how you believe this to be so.
Clearly you’ve got it riddled in your head that English only got where it is via conquest and might. That is not so. I counsel you to go and read some linguistic history and then to reconsider your opinions. This is one of my specialties, so trust me, I know what I’m talking about.
None of the European languages are anywhere NEAR as versatile. I don’t even know how you can make such a claim. Neither are the Slavic languages, or Asian languages. You are simply completely ignoring logic here, by thinking English only got where it is by being IMPOSED upon people. Amongst many other logical points, this simply cannot be so because we would today be witnessing an EROSION of the interest in English, if that were the case, since America is no longer alone at center stage in regards to economic influence. But this is not what’s happening. Instead English continues to grow.
“The lack of English rules per se just make it much easier to add or change things.”
YES, Val! Of course!
“French is a lot more strict on changing the spelling or meaning of words. They have a department of neologisms where they try and invent new words as new realities come about and have criteria about which word they will allow or not allow. In so, making the language more concise and functional.”
And this is silly in the extreme. Languages do not survive and grow by dictate and legislation. The freezing of a language in time ensures its death. French is and has been fighting a losing battle with English, trying to stop its encroachment. It will not work. Great, the French want to save their language and stop the encroachment of English by playing a protective game. More power to them, but it won’t work in the long run. People use languages not because they’re forced to or forced NOT to, but because the language WORKS better for them.
“No rules means no one writes the same. I have to admit sometimes I have to re-read a sentence a few times before actually understanding the meaning because there SHOULD be a comma, for example, but the writer didn’t feel like putting it there. A good thing? Not necessarily.”
Val, punctuation is not language, in the first place. But what you’re saying is off the mark anyway. Heavy and strict rules serve only to FREEZE a language and deaden it. English has survived and thrived, rising up from an obscure dialect spoken by a small number of people on a relatively small island to the number one language of the world–and not by strict rules that make it a thing of stone, but being adaptive and changeable, like a muscular, living organism. You want it to be more like French. Thank god it isn’t. French is and has been in decline for a long time now. English is ascendant because of its strengths, which you are, I’m sorry, failing to grasp.
If you’re going to be working as a translator, I strongly suggest you get yourself back to school and correct these misapprehensions and misconceptions. They will not serve you in the long run, but hamper your abilities.
I have been professionally involved with English for years–in teaching, writing, editing and in many other aspects. I understand your frustrations, but they are off-base nevertheless.
115. Ellen - June 26th, 2008 at 10:50 am
I can only speak two of the languages on this list (english and french), but then again my first language is one that is a little less popular, namely swedish.
Anyway, I think that English is probably “bigger” than Mandarin, even though a greater number of people speak the latter, seeing as English is so widespread, and probably more diverse. Now, I don’t know alot about different Chinese dialects, but I think (I’m not sure) that English has a wider range of dialects, each with it’s own slang and intonations. I’m aussie (well, aussie citizen anyway) and since I was little I’ve grown up with aussie slang. Now that I live in another country and speak english among American and British people, I realise just how much of my language is only understood in oz. E.g words like pash, pommy, arvo- I had no idea that these were australian!
Anyway, finally I’d just like to say that this little argument about which language is “better” (how exactly is one language better than another, anyway?) or more beautiful is ridiculous. All languages are beautiful in their own way, and saying that one kind of people speak an uglier language than others is petty and downright mean.
116. Tempyra - June 26th, 2008 at 10:54 am
Randall: I enjoy reading your comments very much :-).
Do you like it when people’s opinions disgree with your own? Or do you reply to them because the idea that someone might be spreading their ‘wrongness’ over the internet bothers you?
You might like this if you haven’t seen it already:
http://xkcd.com/386/
117. Yun - June 26th, 2008 at 11:01 am
#32 astraya: Hungarian is not a “language isolate” as that would imply that it is unrelated to any known language. Linguists have determined conclusively that it is a Uralic Language, distantly related to Finnish and Estonian, and theorize that Uralic is part of a larger family, Ural-Altaic, which includes Turkish and Mongolian among others. You are correct that Uralic languages are completely unrelated to their Indo-European neighbors, though. There is only one true language isolate in Europe: Basque, which is spoken by a minority group on the Franch/Spanish border, which some believe to be the last remnant of the languages family spoken before the Indo-Europeans (The Celts conquered the Proto-Basques then the Romans conquered the Celts.)
#41 Ghidoran: I can’t confirm this, but I believe Hindustani is being used as a collective term for Hindi, Urdu, and Nepali, all of which are close enough to be considered dialects. If this is not the case, then the list is in error, as Bengali, Hindi, and Panjabi are completely different Indo-Aryan languages, and Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, and Telugu aren’t even in the same language FAMILY as the other three. Indo-Aryan is a branch of Indo-European while the latter four are Dravidian languages, which means Hindi is more closely related to ENGLISH than to Tamil. Although this seems to have been covered already.
118. John - June 26th, 2008 at 11:04 am
Anyone know the number of Cantonese speakers compared to those of Mandarin? Isn’t Cantonese spoken in a large swath of China, especially in the southern cities such as Shanghai? I might be misinformed on this one. I’m not really sure.
119. Diamond_Dragon - June 26th, 2008 at 11:05 am
Seriously guys, how can it be, that I am the only one who have mentioned Body Language?
I dare to say 78% of all humans on this planet, and 90% of all the animals speak Body Language.
It’s such an important and wide spoken language I don’t understand how it could have been missed.
120. Val - June 26th, 2008 at 11:05 am
Randall: I understand what you’re saying. I am still at school, and starting September it will be my last year. I’ve been studying English comparatively to French. I have studied linguistics and I have studied English and I have studied French, believe me.
In saying “writers”, I meant any person who writes a text, whether it be professionally or within an office, etc. Sorry if that wasn’t clear. And that’s exactly what I’m saying, if they can’t grasp the language, they shouldn’t be writing, but they are anyway.
I’m not going to argue with you. I guess it depends what you believe is the criteria for a “good” language. In my opinion, no language is “good” or “bad” and I’m not going to say you are WRONG, as you seem to favour saying about me, because obviously we’re not agreeing on the criteria for a “good” language. In my opinion, by not installing rules, English will come to be so diluted that it won’t be English anymore. If that is WRONG, as you say, then I guess I am WRONG. We’re obviously both biased on our native languages.
121. Val - June 26th, 2008 at 11:07 am
That being said, I was simply trying to say that English is not BETTER than any other language, not trying to discredit it, if that wasn’t clear to anyone.
122. Randall - June 26th, 2008 at 11:16 am
Val:
Well, please also understand, I’m sorry if I’ve been hard on you, but I’ve been in the field, professionally, for years. So in a way, I’m just trying to help.
I DO know that French Canadians have a certain… issue… with English. I’d just ask you not to let that color your view of the language.
“In my opinion, by not installing rules, English will come to be so diluted that it won’t be English anymore. If that is WRONG, as you say, then I guess I am WRONG.”
Ha! Yes, Val, I’m truly sorry, but on the one hand you’re correct–English won’t become “diluted” (which is what French speakers are paranoid about, in regards to French) but yes, English WILL continue to evolve and will probably continue to diverge and change and may, in time, be partly unrecognizable to us today. (But this could take a great deal of time). But that is the STRENGTH of English, not its weakness. THAT is how English has made the journey its made. Not via imperialism, and not by unfair competition—but by being able to adapt, by its chameleonlike ability to change and borrow and mix itself around. So while you’re right that English will continue to change wildly and uncontrollably in the future (god willing) you’re also wrong in thinking that this is a bad thing, and in thinking that it’s a negative for English not to have stricter rules. These are the things that keep English ALIVE and VITAL. These are the things that ensure its popularity and success. Unlike prissy and pristine, unassailable French, English is a rough and tumble, let’s-get-down-and-dirty language. It’s a street rumbler. It grabs and steals and rolls around in the dirt and doesn’t care. And that’s what keeps it in shape, always moving and always evolving.
And if you know anything about linguistic history, then you should know that languages which fail to adapt, which keep isolated and pristine, begin to suffer hardening of the arteries and wither and die.
This will not happen to English, given its past proclivities. And that is what’s to be praised about English, not damned.
123. Christine - June 26th, 2008 at 11:18 am
peyton - my hubby is one that you would call a banana. He prefers twinkie personally LOL.. Actually I am too but I can actually speak and understand Mandarin and some Cantonese. English is definitely our primary language, but I would like our children (when we get around to having one/some) to learn it.
goatmissile - perhaps SF is not the best place for you! I find that the common mandarin spoken may not sound the best but if it’s used in poetry, or some other proper way, it is a very beautiful language.
124. Anaïs - June 26th, 2008 at 11:21 am
Allo!
My cégep french teacher (cégep is a school between high school and university in the province of Quebec) once told me that during the Mid-Ages, french was the language spoken by the monarchy everywhere in Europe, even in England. It was like a sign of higher education. English was left to the rest of the population because it was easier to learn. I’m not sure if its totally true, but I would believe it, because even today, complex english words are very similar to their french traduction, while the easiest words are very differents.
ex: scientific = scientifique
dog = chien
Oh, and about the Canadian accent, it sounds pretty similar to the French spoken many centuries ago. So, technically, canadian French is the ”true” French, by opposition to France French, wich changed a lot through the years.
By the way, sorry for my poor English
125. Val - June 26th, 2008 at 11:24 am
124. Anaïs:
Ouiiii. France is saying how bad our French is, haha >.>; France installed new rules which were unattainable to those in Canada at the time, so the Canadian French just kept speaking the “old” French while the new French “evolved”.
You’re actually the first person from Québec I see say something like that. All the people from Québec I know are so pro-France. congrats XD
126. Anaïs - June 26th, 2008 at 11:25 am
Oh sorry Randall, I just read your comment and I think I didn’t choose the good moment to post my comment. I don’t want it to sound offensive or anything like that!!
127. goatmissile - June 26th, 2008 at 11:25 am
Christine:
You said :
goatmissile - perhaps SF is not the best place for you! I find that the common mandarin spoken may not sound the best but if it’s used in poetry, or some other proper way, it is a very beautiful language.
Au contraire, it is the best place for me because of my bias. How else will I rid myself of it? It doesn’t always sound that way, just with some shrill, loud people.
128. Randall - June 26th, 2008 at 11:29 am
Tempyra:
Thank you.
And yes, I have seen that cartoon before. Kiwiboi shared that one with me once.
And we agreed… that’s him and me, to a “T.”
“Do you like it when people’s opinions disgree with your own? Or do you reply to them because the idea that someone might be spreading their ‘wrongness’ over the internet bothers you?”
It’s a little bit of both. I’ve been at this a long time. Way back in 1995-1996 and for a few years after, (when the ‘net was very young) I was a contributor/correspondent on a well-known science site along with my then-girlfriend at the time (she was a lovely brainiac of a woman, like Winona Ryder with the mind of Aristotle or Marie Curie) and it was the fun of the thing for us, back then, to encounter debate and disagreement–we thrived on it, and enjoyed the hell out of it. But also, it was our job to educate and inform, and we took that seriously. Naturally i still do. I’ve fought battles with creationists and conspiracy theorists online, and historical revisionists and political nincompoops, and I’ve also tried to help people who just wanted to know shit and get the right answers. (Cecil Adams is one of my heroes).
The debating and arguing is for fun though, for the most part. I can’t really care, after all these years, if people are that wrong on the internet… it’s too huge, it’d be like trying to police the desert. It’s mainly a way for me to entertain myself, else I’d be doing something else more interesting.
I DO have a problem when people toss wildly incorrect information around on the ‘net though–to me it’s already a problem in our society that there’s a lot of bad information and distortions and even lies floating around. Someone needs to speak up for truth and accuracy sometimes.
But mostly, I just love the polemics. Until it turns dull. Then I walk away.
129. FelixMG - June 26th, 2008 at 11:32 am
Whoa whoa. Nice list there, but as a TRUE frenchmen, and a damn proud one at that, the correct pronounciation is NOT Bone-JOOR, but rather, the N is silent, resulting in a trademark French inflexion i wouldn’t even begin to know how to describe. On in french is not Onne, but the O sound is rounded off with an N inflexion.
130. SMD - June 26th, 2008 at 11:36 am
The problem with this list is that it looks like it gets its data from where everyone else gets it, which always leaves out a very important factor: people who speak English as a second language (or French, or whatever). Nobody really knows how many people speak English, including non-native speakers, so it always seems like Mandarin is the most spoken language, except hundreds of millions of people in the world speak two languages, one of them English. Mandarin is generally only spoken by natives, and very rarely by people outside of countries where it is an official language, whereas English is very commonly spoken outside of countries where it is the official language.
So, someone needs to figure out the real figure for these languages…
131. Vera Lynn - June 26th, 2008 at 11:48 am
What’s the language I think it’s Asian, might be African where they speak using only clicks of their tongues? That would be hard to learn.
132. Vera Lynn - June 26th, 2008 at 11:51 am
What about that language where the people use only clicks of their tongues? That must be hard to learn. And understand.
133. Vera Lynn - June 26th, 2008 at 11:52 am
Azucar = sugar. That’s my fave!
134. Vera Lynn - June 26th, 2008 at 11:55 am
2 universally recognized words world-wide:Coca-Cola, and Okay
135. disco.x - June 26th, 2008 at 11:58 am
I swear that it is actually Britian that speaks it, not just england
DON’T FORGET ABOUT SCOTLAND, N.IRELAND AND WALES!
136. kerrick - June 26th, 2008 at 11:58 am
Growing up in Texas, it was natural for me to take Spanish in school. I’ve forgotten more than I ever knew, simply because it’s a “use it or lose it” sort of thing. But when I immerse myself in it, things come back to me. I’ve also read somewhere that English was one of the hardest languages to learn, because we have many words that sound the same but are spelled differently(it’s sad I can’t remember the word for that), many exceptions to the “rules”, and so on and so forth. Spanish was easy, in comparison. Once I got the conjugation of verbs down, that is. It also helps that Spanish is a phoenetic language.
137. trojan_man - June 26th, 2008 at 11:59 am
Diamond_Dragon: I think the list is specifically spoken languages. Saying people “speak” body language is not correct in this form. It would be akin to people “speaking” sign language. But, you are correct - if it did apply here -it would definitely be number one. I’m sure no one means any disrespect.
138. kerrick - June 26th, 2008 at 11:59 am
HOMONYMS!!! i think that’s what i was referring to in my previous post
139. Randall - June 26th, 2008 at 11:59 am
Anais:
Not at all, and I love your name. I had a friend from Belgium who named her daughter Anais. It’s a lovely name. Anais Nin is one of my biggest faves.
in 1066, Anais, the Normans invaded Britain. Up to that point, English was a primarily Germanic tongue, composed of a couple different Germanic dialects and Danish/Viking. When the Normans took over, they superimposed French onto the language, and French was, for a couple hundred years or so, the official language of court.
140. Big Ish - June 26th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
really good and interesting list
bt Indonesia has 17000 islands and is the fourth most populous country in the world
141. trojan_man - June 26th, 2008 at 12:06 pm
Randall: have you ever researched or studied Olde English (besides the 8-ball version)? Just asking because you mentioned Germanic influence.
142. kris - June 26th, 2008 at 12:07 pm
Hindi I think there r more than 500 million speakers though few ppl can’t read or write they speak vividly as mentioned there are so many dialects it seems… And oh English is not only a beautiful language but MOST WANTED everywhere and in India or most of the corporate companies and even small offices test people in English if they need to get the job…I have my cousins who speak amazing English and their accent is much better than mine and I speak in Northern way … and I am just done with my High school and my dad says that he won’t sent me back to UK for my higher studies but have to study in India… I have a tutor called Pavan whom I have to address as Pavan “ji” as respect ehehe!(wink wink) Well I do speak little hindi and still learning coz I have to stay here for another 3 years…
143. trojan_man - June 26th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
Hearing people who sign are considered bilingual. Sign is a language.
144. Vera Lynn - June 26th, 2008 at 12:12 pm
#143 was my comment but it posted under him. His info was in my “Name” line. Huh?
145. Randall - June 26th, 2008 at 12:12 pm
trojan_man:
I did indeed. I love the sound of it. I had a professor in college who could recite passages in old English with perfect accent and cadence. Amazing.
And Chaucer too (middle English, but still)… it was great fun just to sit and listen to the guy in class.
146. DiscHuker - June 26th, 2008 at 12:20 pm
vera: i didn’t realize that “asian” and “african” were languages.
147. trojan_man - June 26th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
Vera Lynn: They might be considered bilingual but they are not verbally communicating and I belive that is what the author of the list meant.
Randall: Those writings do not sound near as good when they are read in today’s English.
148. trojan_man - June 26th, 2008 at 12:29 pm
Vera Lynn: by the way, that happens from time to time (someone else’s name in your comment). I think you have to refresh again or leave the site and come back. It’s happened to me before.
149. JayArr - June 26th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
Not sure where these numbers came from, but I’ve seen a vastly different bunch of lists and counts based on censuses and collective estimates.
I guess my number one question is whether these numbers are for people’s ‘first language’ or if it’s just anyone who speaks it…
Interesting list, nonetheless.
150. jajdude - June 26th, 2008 at 12:34 pm
Yeah Indonesia is 4th in population. Assuming the list is about native speakers only. Some non-native speakers speak a language better than some native speakers. Over a billion people can function in English, since it is so widely studied. Fluency is hard to measure. I’ve heard China may soon have more English speakers than the US. Not sure how proficient.
151. trojan_man - June 26th, 2008 at 12:36 pm
jajdude: I second you statement about non-native speakers. The college in the town where I live has a good number of Hatian students who speak perfect English, Spanish, and French. It is truly amazing.
152. Vera Lynn - June 26th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
I’ve heard that the language one speaks affects the shape of the palette. Native German speakers have decidedly differently shaped palettes than that of French speakers. One is not born with the differense; it is created and developed by the stress of the language. Thought that was interesting.
153. scrumpy - June 26th, 2008 at 12:40 pm
I’ve enjoyed reading the discussion of the list more than the list itself.
154. Vera Lynn - June 26th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
#146 DiscHuker Haha. I know that. I meant the place where it originated. Either in Asia or Africa. You big silly
155. Kreachure - June 26th, 2008 at 12:57 pm
One of the most famous (of three) languages where you click your tongue is called the Xhosa language, from Africa. The actual ‘clicking’ sounds you can make are in fact several types of consonants called click consonants. Actually, you should use one of those tongue clicks to say ‘Xhosa’ correctly!
156. Taranis - June 26th, 2008 at 1:09 pm
VeraLynn: That’s pretty cool. I took 3 years of German in school and didn’t have a problem speaking it (at least without my retainer) but then last year I started Latin and find that a lot harder.
I think the most fun language is Gaelic. It’s so much fun to talk in a language no body else knows, you’d be suprised.haha
157. MikeO - June 26th, 2008 at 1:24 pm
I like how Mexico was omitted from the Spanish section even though it has more spanish-speakers than the rest of Latin America. And yes, it is located in North America.
158. MPW - June 26th, 2008 at 1:36 pm
Very interesting list, languages are so fascinating. Nice jokes too.:)
159.