What languages are there

Portuguese is another of the languages that expanded during the European colonial period. Today it is the official language of 9 countries divided between Europe, America, Africa, and Asia. The greatest exponent in terms of territorial extension and number of speakers is Brazil. It is also the most widely spoken language in the southern hemisphere.

It is the official language of Indonesia, the fourth most populous country in the world. It is unique in that it is not the native language of most of its speakers.

It is therefore a second language necessary for mutual understanding in a country where there are more than languages. Share this. Berlitz Uruguay. Click to call. Adults All adult courses In-person Online Study abroad. Business services All business services Language training Business communication Culture training Testing and assessment. Spanish English. Home Blog The most spoken languages in the world.

English 1. While Germanic at root, English has evolved into a hybrid with components from ancient Celtic languages such as a continous tense, or -ing verb tenses , considerable vocabulary borrowed from Latin and French, and lots of words stolen from Hindi, Arabic, and other languages of British colonies. This chart by Sabio Lantz is a clear, detailed chronology of that process.

By the same author as the above chart and using data from the Corpus of Historical American English at Brigham Young, this diagram delves deeper and shows the specific probability that a certain letter will follow a certain other letter in a word. But I was surprised by how much V relies on E, and by the lack of a clear winner when it comes to starting words. In another clever use of the Google Ngram search engine, Wikipedian Brett searched for semicolon usage throughout the centuries; he found a jagged upward trend that peaked around , followed by a long, smooth decline.

This chart of American dialects was put together by Rick Aschmann as a hobby, but the level of detail is extraordinary, and makes playing around with the larger, interactive version a must.

The map itself is just the tip of the iceberg. Aschmann has a detailed table outlining the distinctions between the various dialects represented here, over audio examples for them, and much, much more. Vowels sound different around the Great Lakes.

You knew this was coming. Perhaps the most famous map of language disparities within the US, this map by Joshua Katz now of the New York Times uses data from the Harvard Dialect Survey to show what people in different regions of the US use as a generic term for sugary, carbonated beverages.

At least nearly all Americans have a term for soda or coke or pop or whatever. Our mission has never been more vital than it is in this moment: to empower through understanding. Financial contributions from our readers are a critical part of supporting our resource-intensive work and help us keep our journalism free for all.

Please consider making a contribution to Vox today to help us keep our work free for all. Cookie banner We use cookies and other tracking technologies to improve your browsing experience on our site, show personalized content and targeted ads, analyze site traffic, and understand where our audiences come from.

By choosing I Accept , you consent to our use of cookies and other tracking technologies. The numbers below are taken compiled by Ethnologue , which is widely considered the most complete language data source currently in existence. When tallied according to number of native speakers only, these are the most spoken languages in the world. Numbers vary widely — Ethnologue puts the number of native speakers at 1. If you wish to learn a language that one in six people in the world speak, this is the one for you.

Seeing as Chinese is a tonal language that uses thousands of logograms, it will certainly keep you busy. If we were only to look at native speakers, Spanish has its nose in front of English with about million speakers. If you want a language that will open up whole continents to you, Spanish is your best bet. As with all the languages on this list, the politics of language and associated identity are highly disputed: ask Catalan or Quechua speakers if Spanish is their local tongue and you will get a very different answer.

But it is certainly the primary language of most of South and Central America, Spain, and, ahem , large swathes of the US. This indicates the remarkable success of English as the lingua franca of business, travel and international relations. The relative ease with which English can be picked up especially compared with Chinese and the pervasive soft power of US culture means that English will continue to dominate the world stage for the foreseeable future.

For some, English is still synonymous with opportunity and a better quality of life. Whether this is one language — Hindustani — or two dialects is still fiercely debated. As demand grows for a true equal-area map, it will be exciting to see what the next generation of map projections have to offer. Looking to learn more about maps and map projections? This fantastic tool , created by Florian Ledermann, allows users to take a vast selection of projection styles, and modify them in different ways.

This hands-on approach is a fun way to learn how the shape of landmasses shift as the projection changes. Connect with us. The definitions of languages are often dynamic, blurring the lines around a singular understanding of what makes a language: Linguistic: focused on lexical and grammatical differences, or on variations within speech communities Social: focused on cultural or political factors, as well as heritage and identity For the purposes of measurement, the researchers use the ISO set of criteria, which accounts for related varieties and dialects—ensuring that linguistics are not the only factor considered in this count of languages.

Here are the language origins of the most spoken languages: Indo-European languages have the widest spread worldwide. Which Languages Have the Most Speakers? What About Second L2 Languages? Keeping Language Traditions Alive Languages are fluid, and constantly evolving—altogether, the most spoken languages paint a unique picture across centuries of a changing world. Please enable JavaScript in your browser to complete this form.

Sign up. Related Topics: africa languages english chinese spanish native speakers world languages total speakers hindi mandarin swahili. Click for Comments. You may also like. All World Languages in One Visualization.

Which Country is the Cheapest for Starting a Business? Published 1 hour ago on November 12, By Anshool Deshmukh. Overall Distribution of Blood Types Of the 7.

Here is a breakdown of the most common blood types in the U. Europe The A blood group is common in Europe. Continue Reading. Misc The Problem With Our Maps Conventional cartographic techniques have caused many to have a skewed perception of the true size of countries. Published 1 day ago on November 11,