Ethnologue list

Student   Mon Aug 24, 2009 8:31 am GMT
This list gives the most spoken languages in the world according to the Ethnologue, the most prestigious reference for languages around the World. It is based on the 16th edition (2009):

1. Chinese 850
2. Hindi 495
3. Spanish 460
4. English 340
5. Russian 255
6. Arabic 250
7. Portuguese 230
8. Bengali 215
9. French 172
10. Japanese 128

http://is.wikipedia.org/wiki/Listi_yfir_tungum%C3%A1l_eftir_fj%C3%B6lda_%C3%BEeirra_sem_tala_%C3%BEau
Guest   Mon Aug 24, 2009 9:28 am GMT
I think that it is very amazing that 3 Romance languages are in the top ten: Spanish, Portuguese (very similar) and French.

I see that these group of languages are the most spoken in the top ten: 862 million (460+230+172), even more than Chinese.

At the same time, English, a Germanic language, but very influenced by Latin, French and Spanish (half of the words are of Latin origin) can be considered "almost" a Romance language, at least in vocabulary.

They have Latin alphabet. All other languages in the top ten have a different alphabet.

That can be an important point to study English+Romance languages.

For example, an Arabic can study faster English+Spanish or French than Chinese. Also the opposite, a Chinese can study faster English+Spanish or French than Arabic. And if they want to study more languages Portuguese and Italian are a good choice, and very easy.
latinist   Mon Aug 24, 2009 9:54 am GMT
Portuguese and Italian are a good choice, and very easy

They are certainly harder than Spanish, I know the three langauges and Spanish is by far the easiest one!
Guest   Mon Aug 24, 2009 11:01 am GMT
Well, Portuguese and Italian can be harder than Spanish but easier than Arabic or Chinese. That's the point.
Reynard   Mon Aug 24, 2009 11:26 am GMT
This is NOT Ethnologue list. This list is based in a figures were manipulated by INSTITUTO CERVEZA report (1997). This list is completely wrong.

For example, Hindi and Aeabic hace more native speakers. There are more secondary speakers, only in Asia.

INSTITUTO CERVEZA consider for Spanishh all people that can say "Hasta la cista, baby". These data are completely inflated. I guess it's run by hispanics.

Non-hispnics considers that there are 330 million of Spanish speakers, including secondary ones (SIL-Ethnologue).


Chinese has over 1 billion of native speakers, only in China.

http://www2.ignatius.edu/faculty/turner/languages.htm
Zorro   Mon Aug 24, 2009 12:59 pm GMT
Reynard,

I don't know why you like the Saint Ignatius High School webpage. You must be more serious: all the data are old and some of them are wrong.

Obviously, the Ethnologue list of the first message is right. It can't be manipulated by Instituto Cervantes. This Institute is not so powerful.

Well, Spanish according to an updated report, Demografía de la lengua española, is spoken by 439 million people. The data are from 2005. So, I think that in 2009 can be spoken by 460 million.