27 May 2013

PEOPLE - The 30 Most Spoken Languages of the World

















Pos
Language
Family
Script(s) Used
Speakers
(Millions)
Where Spoken (Major)
1
Mandarin
Sino-Tibetan
Chinese Characters
1151
China, Malaysia, Taiwan
2
English
Indo-European
Latin
1000
USA, UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand
3
Spanish
Indo-European
Latin
500
Mexico, Central and South America, Spain
4
Hindi
Indo-European
Devanagari
490
North and Central India
5
Russian
Indo-European
Cyrillic
277
Russia, Central Asia
6
Arabic
Afro-Asiatic
Arabic
255
Middle East, Arabia, North Africa
7
Portuguese
Indo-European
Latin
240
Brazil, Portugal, Southern Africa
8
Bengali
Indo-European
Bengali
215
Bangladesh, Eastern India
9
French
Indo-European
Latin
200
France, Canada, West Africa, Central Africa
10
Malay, Indonesian
Malayo-Polynesian
Latin
175
Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore
11
German
Indo-European
Latin
166
Germany, Austria, Central Europe
12
Japanese
Altaic
Chinese Characters and 2 Japanese Alphabets
132
Japan
13
Farsi (Persian)
Indo-European
Nastaliq
110
Iran, Afghanistan, Central Asia
14
Urdu
Indo-European
Nastaliq
104
Pakistan, India
15
Punjabi
Indo-European
Gurumukhi
103
Pakistan, India
16
Wu
Sino-Tibetan
Chinese Characters
90
China
17
Vietnamese
Austroasiatic
Based on Latin
86
Vietnam, China
18
Javanese
Malayo-Polynesian
Javanese
85
Indonesia
19
Tamil
Dravidian
Tamil
78
Southern India, Sri Lanka, Malyasia
20
Korean
Altaic
Hangul
78
Korean Peninsula
21
Turkish
Altaic
Latin
75
Turkey, Central Asia
22
Telugu
Dravidian
Telugu
74
Southern India
23
Marathi
Indo-European
Devanagari
72
Western India
24
Italian
Indo-European
Latin
62
Italy, Central Europe
25
Thai
Sino-Tibetan
Thai
60
Thailand, Laos
26
Burmese
Sino-Tibetan
Burmese
56
Myanmar
27
Cantonese
Sino-Tibetan
Chinese Characters
55
Southern China
28
Kannada
Dravidian
Kannada
47
Southern India
29
Gujarati
Indo-European
Gujarati
46
Western India, Kenya
30
Polish
Indo-European
Latin
46
Poland, Central Europe