NationStates Jolt Archive

i was doing some research and i found that the major languages of the world are(in order)
chinese
hindi
spanish
english
arabic
portuguese
bengali
russian
japanese
punjabi
german
javanese
vietnamese
korean
french

if one spoke all of those langauges, they would be able to communicate with about over half of the world's population.
i think that out of those, chinese hindi spanish english arabic russian and japanese are most important(widest range of influence)
if one spoke spanish they'd likely be able to understand portuguese, and same with hindi and punjabi(except those to langauges are more similiar than spanish and portuguese) and most of bengali is centered around bangledesh, so it's not a very wide range. javanese is spoken allot in indonesia, but those people typically also understand english/chinese/french/vietnamese also.

what do you people all think? i thought it was rather interesting. expecially that spanish was higher than english(in native speakers) and that bengali was so high, and that punjabi was higher than french.

It can be confusing looking at the stats, because some only count the speakers in countries with a language as the official language, and others include ALL speakers of a language, fluent or mostly fluent. Where did you get these particular stats?

It can be confusing looking at the stats, because some only count the speakers in countries with a language as the official language, and others include ALL speakers of a language, fluent or mostly fluent. Where did you get these particular stats?
it was only using total native speakers. the main site was wikipedia(List_of_languages_by_number_of_native_speakers ("http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_number_of_native_speakers)), but i pushed some of the languages up or down depending on other lists i'd seen.

The link doesn't seem to work...in any case, I think you can approach it in the ways you've mentioned: total number of speakers worldwide, and the spread of that language, or just in numbers according to nations with a language as it's official one. The spread is what interests me more...it seems that English is slowing down, and other languages are picking up in that regard.

if you speak german you can somewhat understand dutch and the scandanavian languages

and same with hindi and punjabi(except those to langauges are more similiar than spanish and portuguese)

True. Punjabi and Hindustani are very close cousins. If you know one, you can pick the other pretty fast and easy.

and most of bengali is centered around bangledesh, so it's not a very wide range.

False. There is an Indian state called West Bengal which has a huge population (not as much as Bangladesh of course) which speaks Bengali. Bengalis do get around, but not as much as the Punjabis.

if you speak german you can somewhat understand dutch and the scandanavian languages

Same with Afrikaans. If you speak Afrikaans, you can understand several other European languages, such as Flemish, Dutch, etc.

What do you mean by 'Chinese'? 'cause there isn't a Chinese language.
There's dozens of different dialects, which are quite different to each other.
The two main languages are Mandarin (called Putonghua in China) and Cantonese, though Cantonese is only spoken in Southern China and Hong Kong.

what do you people all think? i thought it was rather interesting. expecially that spanish was higher than english(in native speakers) and that bengali was so high, and that punjabi was higher than french.


IIRC the country with the highest number of English speakers is... India

what do you people all think? i thought it was rather interesting. expecially that spanish was higher than english(in native speakers) and that bengali was so high, and that punjabi was higher than french.
Why were you surprised that Spanish was higher than English? Consider this: a great many of the places listed for English speaking in the Wiki article (which, by the way, needs to be fixed....the link refers to http://"http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...", which of course won't go through both because of the double http code and the fact that the second code doesnt' even include the ://, just //. But I digress) probably aren't a majority of English speakers. The category states "Official status and where spoken natively, or as an immigrant language, by more than 1% of the population". Without that tidbit, yes, it looks mighty impressive that English has so many countries listed and Spanish so few....but realistically, it's completely predictable.

The link doesn't seem to work...in any case, I think you can approach it in the ways you've mentioned: total number of speakers worldwide, and the spread of that language, or just in numbers according to nations with a language as it's official one. The spread is what interests me more...it seems that English is slowing down, and other languages are picking up in that regard.

I'd disagree, (when it comes to learning a second language). English is the world language of sorts; it's spoken everywhere and is easily accessible by almost anyone. The only other language which has such a wide diaspora is Chinese (There are Chinese communities in almost every country; even as far away as South America), but because Chinese is a tonal language, it's notorious for being incredibly difficult for non-native speakers to pick up - that, and it's thousands of characters in the writing system. English is pretty simple to pick up a basic level of fluency in, by comparison.

If you're from a developing country and are looking for a simple way to increase your commercial prospects, and have access to an education, what do you do? Learn a language. What language to you learn? Most likely English. The other options aren't nearly as useful on a global scale.

EDIT- That said, that doesn't mean that languages besides English aren't useful. (I covered myself by studying Japanese and French - as a result of the Japanese, I can understand a little bit of Chinese. For example, I can probably tell from a quick glance at a sign if a building is a "Train Station" or "Bank"...so I could probably get around OK.) I'm just stating that English is the *most* useful.

pourquoi est français au fond? je vois la discrimination!

pourquoi est français au fond? je vois la discrimination!

Hmm...beaucoup d'africains parlent français...c'est bonne question.

Hablo el español. Pues, por lo menos me gustaría creer que hablo el español. Y no entiendo el portugés. No me suena bien. (...honestamente, no entiendo el español, tampoco; soy gringo:()

Olara']Hablo el español. Pues, por lo menos me gustaría creer que hablo el español. Y no entiendo el portugés. No me suena bien. (...honestamente, no entiendo el español, tampoco; soy gringo:()

Haha. I can sortof understand that with my French.

"I speak spanish...plus, speaking spanish..*something*. I don't understand portuguese. It isn't good. (Honestly, I don't understand spanish, i'm a gringo)"

More or less. I should take a Spanish course. I'd probably find it pretty easy.

Haha. I can sortof understand that with my French.

"I speak spanish...plus, speaking spanish..*something*. I don't understand portuguese. It isn't good. (Honestly, I don't understand spanish, i'm a gringo)"

More or less. I should take a Spanish course. I'd probably find it pretty easy.

i understood the word español :) I took spanish in highschool and nearly failed. didnt like it at all...

i understood the word español :) I took spanish in highschool and nearly failed. didnt like it at all...

Well, I knew what "Hablo" meant, and the grammar pattern is easy to figure out. Plus "no" makes a sentence sound negative so it's easy to figure out from there :p

Olara']Hablo el español. Pues, por lo menos me gustaría creer que hablo el español. Y no entiendo el portugés. No me suena bien. (...honestamente, no entiendo el español, tampoco; soy gringo:()

That's pretty good, but it should be 'Hablo español', not 'hablo el español'. The phrase 'no me suena bien' does not translate literally, but if you meant to say you don't like the way the language sounds,then you are using the phrase correctly.

Entendiste?

That's pretty good, but it should be 'Hablo español', not 'hablo el español'. The phrase 'no me suena bien' does not translate literally, but if you meant to say you don't like the way the language sounds,then you are using the phrase correctly.

Entendiste?
Yes, I don't like the way Portugese sounds to me. It's almost Spanish, but not quite. And I thought that when speaking of "Spanish" in the sense of "I speak Spanish" that you had to use the article. Such as "Hablar el español es fácil." Or something like that.

Olara']"Hablar el español es fácil."

"Speaking Spanish is easy"

I had no idea it was that similar to French. I'm definitely going to learn now. ('specially since i'll be visiting there next year)

"Speaking Spanish is easy"

I had no idea it was that similar to French. I'm definitely going to learn now. ('specially since i'll be visiting there next year)
I believe you'll find that the languages are similar enough but that Spanish is much easier to pronounce. Leastways that's what everyone I know who's studied them both says.

Olara']I believe you'll find that the languages are similar enough but that Spanish is much easier to pronounce. Leastways that's what everyone I know who's studied them both says.

Hmm, I wouldn't be so sure. I really can't do that rolling "r" sound (if you know the one I mean). It's in French too. I find it nigh on impossible.

Hmm, I wouldn't be so sure. I really can't do that rolling "r" sound (if you know the one I mean). It's in French too. I find it nigh on impossible.
Ooo! The "doble r." Me gusta mucho. That's why if I could, I'd name my first son "Rigoberto."

En realidad el Espanol es mas similar al Italiano que al Portugues.

Number of speakers to use a language as a "first" language isn't as important as the economic impact and world-wide spread of the language. Mandarin Chinese is spoken by lots of people in China, but not many outside of China. It is gaining as China is gaining economic power. Hindi is about the same. As India gains economic power it may be important, but most business Indians speak English as the language of economics. Spanish is confined to Spain, Philippines, and Latin America. The Philippines have had so much US influence as a colony for about 50 years then a protectorate, so English is very popular. Arabic (along with English and Spanish) is the third "international" language. (A language spoken in many nations) Like Spanish, it is confined to a distinct area of the world. Although some of those nations have great wealth, they don't use it internationally.

That leaves English as the language of economics world-wide. It is interesting that there are more people in China that speak English than there are people in the US that speak English. There are far more in India that speak English than there are in Great Britian and Australia combined that speak English. By far, most scientific papers are written in English (regardless of the native language of the writer). By far, the internet is in English. By far, business contracts are written in English (even when both parties speak other languages natively). Almost all international negotiations are conducted in English.

The question is: Will English break apart as Latin did when the influence of the US wains?

En realidad el Espanol es mas similar al Italiano que al Portugues.
Lo puedo creer. Casi puedo leer el italiano, y me parece que el portugés tiene muchos elementos del frances que el español no tiene.

freetranslation.com is great for narrow-minded English people.

freetranslation.com is great for narrow-minded English people.

Yeah definately I could understand everything that was said in Spanish withiout having to go through the trouble of learning Spanish.

I learn the Japanese and that is great, except only useful in Japan, but that's all right for me.

Simonist']Why were you surprised that Spanish was higher than English? Consider this: a great many of the places listed for English speaking in the Wiki article (which, by the way, needs to be fixed....the link refers to http://"http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...", which of course won't go through both because of the double http code and the fact that the second code doesnt' even include the ://, just //. But I digress) probably aren't a majority of English speakers. The category states "Official status and where spoken natively, or as an immigrant language, by more than 1% of the population". Without that tidbit, yes, it looks mighty impressive that English has so many countries listed and Spanish so few....but realistically, it's completely predictable.
ya, and most of those countries are really small(islands and such). and english has uk us and austrailia. though now that i think of it, your point makes much sense.

En realidad el Espanol es mas similar al Italiano que al Portugues.
solomente he estudiado espanol por cuatro anos, pero puedo entender portuguese si la leo, y no puedo entender italiano. lo siento, pero no puedo escirbir un "enyay".