NationStates Jolt Archive

I was idly perusing the wiki and I found the figures for the most spoken languages.

9 languages have more than 100 millions native speakers:
Mandarin, Spanish, English, Arabic, Bengali, Hindi, Portuguese, Russian, Japanese

(note: between 30 an 100 millions native speakers are:
German, Punjabi, Wu, French, Javanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Telugu, Cantonese, Marathi, Tamil, Italian, Min, Turkish, Urdu, Polish, Gujarati, Ukrainian, Persian, Malayalam, Kannada, Azerbaijani, Oriya, Hakka, Burmese, Thai )

Ok, now, time for a poll. How many of you fellow NSGers speak one of the 9 major languages as native speakers?

I fall into the 30-100 millions area.

I speak english natively. I also know a little french and spanish.

I has a gud english.

*awaits poll*

Me English is the bestest.

I'm not sure how accurate it is describe Hindi as native tongue for a lot of people (that it is described as being)... I say this because pretty much every Indian I have spoken to say that their native tongue is regional to their part of India, and that Hindi is a superimposed national language.

*shrugs*

I speak in a series of randomly selected syllables and pauses that, on most occasions, fall into a pattern closely resembling the vocalizations of an English speaker. However, sometimes it just wooplegifflefutzishit.

I'm not sure how accurate it is describe Hindi as native tongue for a lot of people (that it is described as being)... I say this because pretty much every Indian I have spoken to say that their native tongue is regional to their part of India, and that Hindi is a superimposed national language.

Then by that, I'm a native English speaker.

English with little bits of German.

I'm not sure how accurate it is describe Hindi as native tongue for a lot of people (that it is described as being)... I say this because pretty much every Indian I have spoken to say that their native tongue is regional to their part of India, and that Hindi is a superimposed national language.


Actually, in the wiki I quoted it looks like taking into account this fact. (Also, see the OP for languages under 100M native speakers, I'm sure that some indian languages other than hindi appear there).

My native language is Croatian and also the language I speak at home. Swedish is my second language and English my third.

Then by that, I'm a native English speaker.The UK is not a part of India, no matter how the much the Daily Mail complains that the country is being 'over run' by immigrants.

I have no idea if you're from the UK or not, or where.

What language did your parents speak to you in? That's what I'm basing my 'native' definition on.

Actually, in the wiki I quoted it looks like taking into account this fact. (Also, see the OP for languages under 100M native speakers, I'm sure that some indian languages other than hindi appear there).I saw that, but I remember this woman telling me about how the dialects within Hindi can vary so much that some people consider the dialects different lanuages.

I speak what appears to be English.

German

Mine spoke the English goodly.

English is my native tongue. I speak bits of other a fair few other languages, but French is the only one I'd say I can speak with any true level of proficiency.

Portuguese here.

But its not something impressive, since Brazil itself has 190 million people. Besides that, Portugal and some countries in Africa.

I was idly perusing the wiki and I found the figures for the most spoken languages.

9 languages have more than 100 millions native speakers:
Mandarin, Spanish, English, Arabic, Bengali, Hindi, Portuguese, Russian, Japanese

(note: between 30 an 100 millions native speakers are:
German, Punjabi, Wu, French, Javanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Telugu, Cantonese, Marathi, Tamil, Italian, Min, Turkish, Urdu, Polish, Gujarati, Ukrainian, Persian, Malayalam, Kannada, Azerbaijani, Oriya, Hakka, Burmese, Thai)
German, so not in the top 9.

And, um, wow. I feel utterly ignorant, esp. looking at the 30-100 million ones... How can we (I'm totally going to include the vast majority of people on here) not even have heard of Wu, Telugu, Marathi, Min, Kannada, Oriya or Hakka? I'll have to google those to see where they're even spoken... :(

Bem se alguém desse lado entende a grandiosa língua de camões, esteja á vontade de responder;)

Bem se alguém desse lado entende a grandiosa língua de camões, esteja á vontade de responder;)

O outro lado da rua: Casa de areia!

^ totally speaks Portuguese. :p

Bem se alguém desse lado entende a grandiosa língua de camões, esteja á vontade de responder;)

I understand it pretty well, but I find it harder to speak it, due to its similarity to spanish. I still remember my first time in Brazil, when someone told me "obrigado", and I thought he was forced to do me a favor. ("Obrigado" means "thanks", for those who doesn't know, but in spanish "obligado", means "forced to").

Por supuesto, sé que soy la única persona aquí que tiene como idioma nativo la lengua de Cervantes.

I am pretty fluent in english, but I also understand portuguese, italian and I can hold my own with french and japanese, if at least for a bit. I hope to perfect both my french and japanese, but both proved to be harder than I expected.

Dutch...

We're not even close :(

I saw that, but I remember this woman telling me about how the dialects within Hindi can vary so much that some people consider the dialects different lanuages.

I see, just like in Italy.

A friend of mine told me of a small car crash she witnessed here in Milan some days ago. The driver of one of the cars asked to the other's his data for the insurance - in plain italian, albeit with a milanese accent. The driver of the other car replied something unintelligible. Well, it took them half an hour. A bystander then offered himself as translator. Guess what: the driver of the other car was a Calabrese (southern Italy) who could speak Calabrese only.

Gosh. I would have thought that in the XXI century any italian could speak and understand some italian.

German, so not in the top 9.

And, um, wow. I feel utterly ignorant, esp. looking at the 30-100 million ones... How can we (I'm totally going to include the vast majority of people on here) not even have heard of Wu, Telugu, Marathi, Min, Kannada, Oriya or Hakka? I'll have to google those to see where they're even spoken... :(

Wu I believe is a Chinese dialect. You're on your own for the others.

I've been wanting to improve my Mandarin (you know, to actually being able to speak it), but real life keeps getting in the way.

I see, just like in Italy.

A friend of mine told me of a small car crash she witnessed here in Milan some days ago. The driver of one of the cars asked to the other's his data for the insurance - in plain italian, albeit with a milanese accent. The driver of the other car replied something unintelligible. Well, it took them half an hour. A bystander then offered himself as translator. Guess what: the driver of the other car was a Calabrese (southern Italy) who could speak Calabrese only.

Gosh. I would have thought that in the XXI century any italian could speak and understand some italian.

An Andaluz and a basque would had the same problem in Spain. Several times in both the Basque country and Catalunya I have met people who doesn't speak spanish but their own dialects (as a matter of fact, another languages). You'd guess that in the XXI century any spanish could speak and understand some spanish.

Wu I believe is a Chinese dialect. You're on your own for the others.

You're right about Wu, and it's a homerun for China and India for the others, too:

Telugu: India
Marathi: India
Min: China
Kannada: India
Oriya: India
Hakka: China


I actually feel a bit better now about not knowing the names. I was afraid that somewhere there'd be these 7 big countries with 90 million people each, with national languages I'd never heard of...

i have an embarassing lack of language skills.

Sa aking palagay, dalawa ang aking katutubong wika. Ako ay isang taal na Tagalog, at marunong din akong mag-Inggles, sapagkat ang dalawang wikang ito ay sabay kong natutunan simula sa pagkabata.

Am I the only one speaking an Austronesian language here??

I speak English as my first language, with some french, a smattering of welsh and a tiny bit of swahili. But for some reason certain french words have replaced English ones in my head. Mainly Ou est rather than where is.:confused:

I am happily german. Basically, it´s a weird mix of different dialects, mainly north german ones, as I purley HATE most of the south german dialects (especially the bavarian dialects). But "Kasselänerisch" is the most dominant one.

in 2 of the top over 100 millions.

English is my native language. Now I don't feel so bad for taking a year of college Japanese, since it's spoken by a nine-figure population, albeit crammed into a handful of islands. That I'd love to visit someday.

my native language is Dutch, i speak some English, French and German too.

Me English is the bestest.

As my Languages & Cultures professor put it(As well as having it on the test, just to give those students who attended class regularly a few extra points):

English is horrible.

That being said, I speak English.

I speak 0.004 languages, but I can fool people into believing that I speak Spanish, English and a little bit of French.

J'énonce mes idées le plus clairement en français,
followed closely by english,
ma parlo anche un po' Italiano,
y un pequeño de español.

I speak english mostly but my parents are Punjabi and I know that too....So I guess what do you mean by native tongue? What I speak or what my family has been speaking for generations? :confused:

Ok, now, time for a poll. How many of you fellow NSGers speak one of the 9 major languages as native speakers?


I can't answer the poll. I have two native languages, and you haven't enabled multiple options.

English is my native languages, and I don't speak any others fluently, but I do know bits and pieces of Spanish and French.

I can either speak fluently, am studying, or can speak but not fluently the following languages:

English, German, Spanish, Dutch


.....I can also read Hebrew some what, but not translate.:rolleyes:

English is my first language. I can understand Redneck American English and some Cajun ramblings. I used to be able to speak Spanish fairly well but I haven't used it much lately so it's going bye-bye. Between myself and my husband who knows some Latin, we can generally decrypt written romance languages if we need to based on where we figure the words originated, etc. I want to learn Japanese and Okinawan so that my husband and I can go visit his relatives on the island and actually understand what the heck they're saying.

I understand it pretty well, but I find it harder to speak it, due to its similarity to spanish. I still remember my first time in Brazil, when someone told me "obrigado", and I thought he was forced to do me a favor. ("Obrigado" means "thanks", for those who doesn't know, but in spanish "obligado", means "forced to").

Por supuesto, sé que soy la única persona aquí que tiene como idioma nativo la lengua de Cervantes.

I am pretty fluent in english, but I also understand portuguese, italian and I can hold my own with french and japanese, if at least for a bit. I hope to perfect both my french and japanese, but both proved to be harder than I expected.

No eres la unica. Hay unos cuantos aqui que hablan y entienden la lengua de Mafalda y Condorito. Soy demasiado ordinario para leer Cervantes...

What about those of us who have more than one native language?

Mówię tylko i wyłącznie po polsku, nie znam języka chinskiego, hiszpańskiego, angielskiego, arabskiego, bengalskiego, hinduskiego, portugalskiego, rosyjskiego, lub japońskiego.

Okay, I do speak English.

I have the English winner.

Oh, am I the first to say "English?" :p

Hm.. maybe not.

Dutch is my native tongue. English is my second language though...

And German my third ;) And French my fourth :D

J'énonce mes idées le plus clairement en français,
followed closely by english,
ma parlo anche un po' Italiano,
y un pequeño de español.

"Un poco de español" ;)

I speak welsh does that count?! ;)

No eres la unica. Hay unos cuantos aqui que hablan y entienden la lengua de Mafalda y Condorito. Soy demasiado ordinario para leer Cervantes...

What about those of us who have more than one native language?

Qué bueno, pero...¿El español es tu lengua nativa?

I speak welsh does that count?! ;)

Welsh isn't a language.

Welsh isn't a language.

WTF are you waffling on about?

dont they teach you anything in school?!:rolleyes:

WTF are you waffling on about?

dont they teach you anything in school?!:rolleyes:

Welsh is just the noise that the Welsh make while they're getting busy with sheep.

dwi'n siarad cymraig arddechog diolch twpsyn :rolleyes:

Welsh is just the noise that the Welsh make while they're getting busy with sheep.

What? you mean you're relating the welsh to sheep shagging?

I havn't heard that one before :D

Welsh isn't a language.

As much as I despise the Welsh and everything they stand for, I do believe that it technically qualifies as a language. I think.

dwi'n siarad cymraig arddechog diolch twpsyn :rolleyes:

Step away from that sheep!
What? you mean you're relating the welsh to sheep shagging?

I havn't heard that one before :D

I'm nothing if not original.

As much as I despise the Welsh and everything they stand for

I'm sure we despise you alot more :D

other then a few words about trains, in nihongo, deutchie, and francois, and a few yiddisisms from my mother who grew up on the lower east side of new york in the 1920s, (and a few pityisms in chicano, from when i worked for the railroad myself) amerenglish is the only language i've ever spoken.

watashi wa futsu kidosha gasuki des, and schmallspur und klienbahn triebvagons, yah. are about the limits of my 'multilingual ism'.

not that i haven't wanted to learn other languages, but growing up in selfimposedly insular america, and they way the tried to teach them in schools, no such luck for me.

i think though there's a major bias built in to asking only internet users, that is likely to be greatly at odds with the world as a whole, as the majority of internet accessability, other then japan and western europe, is english speaking.

whereas, i think the largest numbers of people in total, speaking a particular language or family of languages, would probably put chinese in some form or variety of forms first, with english perhapse second or third, and even french still has a large fallowing in its former colonies throughout africa and the south pacific, and spanish and portugese varients throughout central and south america.

then of course there's all that wonderful diversity of languages almost never seen or heard on the net.

arabic and farsi are probably pretty widely spoken too, especialy in the republics that were formerly sothern states of the former soviet union, as well as throughout many parts of the middle east.

=^^=
.../\...

I'm sure we despise you alot more :D

Don't count on it! :p

Irish is my native language, though I speak English with more frequency.

Don't count on it! :p

oh come on thumby...its abit of a rash sweeping statement to say you despise the welsh...there are lots of cool welsh people...you get idiots in every nation...shit...look at the english abroad! I lived in tenerife DJing for two years...and some of the things I saw over there...

*cringes*

oh come on thumby...its abit of a rash sweeping statement to say you despise the welsh...there are lots of cool welsh people...you get idiots in every nation...shit...look at the english abroad! I lived in tenerife DJing for two years...and some of the things I saw over there...

*cringes*

Sorry, but I'm afraid there can be no compromise. Mel Gibson Himself appeared before me in a waking dream and prophesized that the world will see no peace until the Welsh as a race are destroyed. :(

Irish is my native language, though I speak English with more frequency.

:eek:
Bah, hardly anyone speaks Irish natively.

Sorry, but I'm afraid there can be no compromise. Mel Gibson Himself appeared before me in a waking dream and prophesized that the world will see no peace until the Welsh as a race are destroyed. :(

mel gibson is an australian...his grandad stole bread from the english and was sent away...he's bound to be bitter...probably had a welsh prison warden in Australia ;)

Polish power!

Unfortunately, the three languages I speak/understand other than English and French all have fewer than a million speakers each (and are probably all in the half a million and below category), so don't get me any extra points in this poll.

My wife's a native Russian speaker, though. Can we claim languages through osmosis?

mel gibson is an australian...his grandad stole bread from the english and was sent away...he's bound to be bitter...probably had a welsh prison warden in Australia ;)

Ah, yes. Mel foresaw that my faith in Him would be tested. But it can be no other way. :)

Polish power!

Hey, that makes two of you now! Nice. :p

(note: between 30 an 100 millions native speakers are:
German, Punjabi, Wu, French, Javanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Telugu, Cantonese, Marathi, Tamil, Italian, Min, Turkish, Urdu, Polish, Gujarati, Ukrainian, Persian, Malayalam, Kannada, Azerbaijani, Oriya, Hakka, Burmese, Thai )

Ok, now, time for a poll. How many of you fellow NSGers speak one of the 9 major languages as native speakers?

I fall into the 30-100 millions area.

Yay Tamil !!!

me bad at english? that's unpossible!

Native English speaker, 2 years of french, and 1 of latin...

English is my native tongue. I understand Hindi and can speak basic Spanish.

English is my native tongue. I understand Hindi and can speak basic Spanish.

Basic "translator" spanish?

My father speaks french and my mother dutch, which one is my native language, then?

Espanol? No, es Ingles.

I speak in a series of randomly selected syllables and pauses that, on most occasions, fall into a pattern closely resembling the vocalizations of an English speaker. However, sometimes it just wooplegifflefutzishit.

Oh my God! A Geordie! :D ;)

My father speaks french and my mother dutch, which one is my native language, then?


Nederfrans.

Qué bueno, pero...¿El español es tu lengua nativa?

Si. Empeze a hablar español cuando naci en America Latina, pero me fui al pais de los gringos cuando era todavia chiquito. Termine aprendiendo español y ingles al mismo tiempo, entonces tengo dos lenguas nativas.

Here in Montreal we have many people who speak three native languages. French, english, and whatever language was spoken in the home. The common ones in my city are Hebrew, Italian, Spanish, Korean, many Indian languages, and Greek.

Multiple option poll would have been nice.