Languages of the World

[Tg. Thangno]

What language is spoken in... What is the Official Language of ... Need to know which language is spoken in which country? Find the answer in the pages below.

Language is the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of acoustic as well as kinesic signals to express thoughts and feelings and language is used for the exchange of knowledge and experiences. The problem on this planet is the language systems vary greatly from region to region. The variety may be so different that one individual does not understand the language of a member from another region or country.

	Geographic Distribution of Living Languages (2009)
		Total Living Languages	Percentage	Number of speakers
	Africa Countries in Africa	2,110	30.5 %	726,453,403
	The Americas Countries in the Americas and the Caribbean	993	14.4 %	50,496,321
	Asia Countries in Asia	2,322	33.6 %	3,622,771,264
	Australia/Pacific Countries in Australia/Pacific	1,250	18.1 %	6,429,788
	Europe Countries in Europe	234	3.4 %	1,553,360,941
	Total	6,909	100 %	5,959,511,717

	Top 20 of the most widely spoken languages by "First language" speakers (2009)
	Rank		Primary Country	Number of total countries where the language is spoken	Speakers (millions)
	1	Chinese	China	31	1,213
	2	Spanish	Spain	44	329
	3	English	United Kingdom	112	328
	4	Arabic	Saudi Arabia	57	221
	5	Hindi	India	20	182
	6	Bengali	Bangladesh	10	181
	7	Portuguese	Portugal	37	178
	8	Russian	Russian Federation	33	144
	9	Japanese	Japan	25	122
	10	German, Standard	Germany	43	90.3
	11	Javanese	Indonesia	5	84.6
	12	Lahnda	Pakistan	8	78.3
	13	Telugu	India	10	69.8
	14	Vietnamese	Vietnam	23	68.6
	15	Marathi	India	5	68.1
	16	French	rance	60	67.8
	17	Korean	Korea	33	66.3
	18	Tamil	India	17	65.7
	19	Italian	Italy	34	61.7
	20	Urdu	Pakistan	23	60.6
	Source: Ethnologue