The most popular languages ​​in the world are used for communications in the field of trade, political relations, and the study of history. English prevails due to its geographical distribution in the world. In Asia, many communications take place in Arabic and Chinese. The CIS countries have a huge number of Slavic peoples who have common roots of the Russian dialect.

Why you need to study alien speech

The most popular foreign language in the world, as already mentioned, is English. No type of international negotiations goes unnoticed Western countries. Therefore, documents and agreements between participants are filled in this language. Leading companies also try to maintain common ones. After all, it will be easier to establish contacts in business, culture, political relations using common speech.

English is the most popular language in the world and continues to be studied by millions of people. It is easy to understand and quickly mastered. The choice of the direction of studying a dialect occurs depending on the following conditions:

• Territorial neighborhood with countries. So, those living in Vladivostok or Chita most often study Japanese or Chinese. By the way, after increasing your level of knowledge of the language, you can grow in position.
• Own preferences. They learn languages ​​because they like them. French is often chosen to increase erudition.
• Travel requires a universal way of communication. After all, it is impossible to immediately master several languages ​​when there is a desire to visit several places at the same time. So, difficulties arise without English, if you first go to Brazil and then finish the adventure in Hong Kong.

What to choose for communication

No one is left in doubt as to why English is the most popular language in the world. Almost all continents are familiar with it, in most countries it is included in the basic curriculum.

And for your own direction, just choose one of the 10 most popular languages ​​in the world:

• For America and Europe: English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese.
• For territory former USSR and CIS: Russian.
• In a separate group we single out oriental languages: Japanese, Chinese.
• For Hindi, Arabic.

The process of learning a foreign language should take place based on the personal motivation of a person. It will be impossible to force yourself, everything will turn into torment. Therefore, you should choose the direction in which positive emotions open. It is more familiar and interesting for someone to get to know European countries, and someone will choose a rare Bengali dialect spoken in Bangladesh, or Javanese - from Indonesian

Europe

The most popular languages ​​in the world come from regions with developed economies. English or modified American already permeates the life of everything the globe. Russia is no exception - a third of its population has already learned and communicates freely in the named language.

German is required for technical specialists. Germany belongs to the advanced countries with developed engineering. Career advancement is guaranteed to employees who are fluent in this language. Its popularity, however, is gradually declining - there is a replacement by English.

French is a beautiful language. It is preferred by aristocrats, musicians, artists. Politicians choose him to establish contacts in the numerous colonies of the country. Not the most widespread.

The Russian language is used everywhere both in Asia and in Europe. Official data on the number of native speakers is much less. In reality, the dialect is used by the countries of the CIS and formerly part of the USSR.

East

What is the most spoken language in the world, in countries with a billion people? China is the most populated territory in the world. Its economy is still growing, given that it is already ahead of the leading countries. Perhaps in the future, Mandarin (the official language of China) will begin to dominate the entire continent.

In terms of the number of speakers, Chinese surpasses the rest of the world's languages. A billion people officially communicate in Mandarin. Second place is occupied by English - 500 million people, but it is in the lead mainly due to dispersal around the globe.

Japanese and Korean are not the most common, but they are often chosen by businessmen because of the close ties between the countries in economic terms. Languages ​​are difficult to learn, the semantic load varies depending on or sound tonality.

Asia

The most popular languages ​​in the world southern directions is Arabic and Indian (Hindi). The first has been known for a thousand years from the well-known book of the Koran. The second sign is from Bollywood films. An offshoot of Hindi is officially recognized, the rest of the dialects are used throughout Hindustan.

Arabic is required because of the ongoing conflicts in the Middle East, and also serves as a tool for studying the peoples of the East. Egypt, Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Kuwait speak this language. In Asian countries, the total number of which reaches 60, Arabic-speaking people predominate in terms of population.

North America

The most popular languages ​​in the world have undergone changes due to the migration of the indigenous population of England, Spain. The American analogue of the language is very similar to the native dialect and is widely spoken. Most people prefer to use the Western version of the dialect due to the US military presence on many continents.

In Canada, the local population actively uses French. You can even often meet random passers-by responding to the well-known greeting "bonjour". The United States of America actively participates in the United Nations, which officially uses the following languages ​​in its work:

• English;
• Chinese;
• French;
• Russian;
• Arab;
• Spanish.

Latin America

Spanish and Portuguese are interesting as the world's most popular languages ​​to learn. They are widely distributed in the Southern and Northern continents.

Spanish speakers number about 700 million people. It is the official language in many South American countries, and the North is home to a huge number of Hispanic emigrants. Native Americans have to communicate with them almost every day. Therefore, the dialect takes second place after English.

Portuguese dominates in Brazil. The role of the country as a raw materials and economic partner is growing in the world. The prevalence of the language is also gaining momentum - now there are more than 200 million speakers of this dialect.

English is still the undisputed leader among all the languages ​​of the world.

Gradually, everyone who wants to develop and take a more significant place in life comes to an understanding of the need to learn a foreign language.

Few people know that in modern world there are from 3 to 7 thousand languages. Many of them are considered endangered, as the number of native speakers of these languages ​​is getting smaller every day. Other languages ​​are spoken by hundreds of millions of people and millions more are learning them as foreign languages. Language is the main way people communicate, and this article presents the most popular, widespread and popular languages ​​of the peoples of the world.

14 French

Although this language is not among the ten most common languages ​​in the world, in our small presentation it takes an honorable 14th place, opening our rating. French, in addition to being one of the most common, is also one of the most beautiful languages ​​​​of the world, which is often called the language of love, just like the capital of France is called the city of love. This language is included in the Romance group of languages, has the status of an official language in 29 countries of the world, in particular in Canada, Switzerland, Belgium, Monaco and, of course, France. Is one of six official languages UN and distributed in a number of African countries, former French colonies. According to some reports, about 250 million people around the world speak French, but it is native to 75 million.

Many people learn French because of its beauty, others learn it because it is a fairly popular language in Europe and knowledge of such a language will be useful for work and travel. This language is not very difficult to learn as a foreign language. Of course, French will be easier for someone, more difficult for someone, but many agree that, in terms of learning difficulty, it is somewhere between German and Spanish.

13 Korean

Korean is the mother tongue of approximately 78 million people and is the official language South Korea and North Korea, partly distributed in China, Japan, the USA and Russia. This language is not very popular and not many people study it in other countries. Nevertheless, in terms of the number of native speakers, it takes an honorable 13th place in our ranking of the most widely spoken languages ​​on earth. Most researchers consider it to be isolated languages, that is, languages ​​that are not included in any known language family. However, some believe that Korean may be part of a hypothetical Altaic family. According to some linguists, Korean may have some degree of relationship with Japanese.

Some people find Korean easier to learn than Japanese and Chinese, but Korean grammar is still harder in their opinion. Chinese and Japanese are studied mainly for romantic reasons, because of the desire to get closer to the culture of the East and learn the centuries-old history of the region. The Korean language is taught mainly for earnings.

12 German

German is the most popular and demanded language in Europe after English, and many learn it not for cultural reasons or for travel, but for doing business and business negotiations. German is the official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein and Belgium. This language is native to 100 million people, and there are more than 120 million native speakers. The German language is part of the Germanic group, like English, but German is considered much more difficult than English, like some other languages.

Beginners to learn a language are frightened by words that are 2-3 times longer than their counterparts in other languages, many tenses, conjugated in different ways, correct and Irregular Verbs, the presence of a definite and indefinite article, not always the same gender of nouns. Nevertheless, the German language cannot be called one of the most difficult languages ​​​​of the peoples of the world, since with the proper approach it is studied without any problems, like any other European language.

11 Javanese

There are so many languages ​​in the world, but not many of our citizens, in principle, know about the existence of this language, not to mention the fact that the Javanese language is one of the most common. This language is spoken by about 105 million people and is spoken mainly on the Indonesian island of Java and a few neighboring islands. It is the largest Austronesian language in terms of the number of speakers. This is a fairly developed language that has a rich literary tradition with different genres of poetry and prose, many varieties of theatrical genres. Despite the fact that almost half of the population of Indonesia actively uses the Javanese language in everyday life, it, like everyone else existing languages in the country, has no official status.

10 Punjabi

This language belongs to the Indo-Aryan languages ​​of the Indo-European language family and is one of the official languages ​​of India. Punjabi is the language of the Punjabis and Jats, ethnic groups in India. The language is spoken in the eastern part of Pakistan, as well as in some parts of India. There are about 112 million Punjabi speakers in the world. About 105 million native speakers live in Pakistan and India. While the rest lives in countries such as the UK, Canada, the United Arab Emirates, the USA, etc. Among the features of the language, one can single out that it is a tonal language. In tonal languages, the height of a stressed syllable changes its meaning. In Punjabi, a stressed syllable can have three different pitches. This is very unusual for Indo-European languages.

9 Japanese

Ninth place in our list of the most common and popular languages ​​in the world is another language from Asia. The native speakers of this language are 130 million people. The Japanese language is studied mainly for two reasons. Firstly, the language is studied for doing business, since Japan is one of the strongest economies in the world. Secondly, Japan has a rich and interesting culture that attracts thousands of people and sooner or later makes them interested in the language of the country. Japanese is by no means an easy language. One of the main difficulties in learning this language is the hieroglyphs, which came from Chinese, but have changed a little over time in the development of the language.

In Japanese, almost all characters have not one, but two or more sounds, depending on which words they are used in. Today in Japan, the most commonly used are about two and a half thousand hieroglyphs, while in China, at least 3,500 hieroglyphs are used. The Japanese language is simpler when compared to Korean and Chinese, but Japanese grammar is very complex. There are no tones in Japanese, but there are two alphabets. The Hiragana alphabet is the main one used for pure Japanese words, grammatical marking, and sentence endings. Katakana is another Japanese alphabet and is used for foreign words and names.

8 Russian

Russia is one of the most important countries in the world, occupying a vast territory inhabited by many peoples. The rich, vibrant and saturated culture and country attracts many foreigners who are also interested in the “mighty” Russian language. There are about 160 million people for whom Russian is their native language. In total, there are about 260 million Russian speakers. Russian is the official language in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. It is the most widely spoken Slavic language in the world and the most widely spoken language in Europe in terms of the number of native speakers. Russian is one of the working languages ​​of the UN. It is quite difficult to learn, its grammar is complex but logical. Russian can be called one of the simple “complex” languages.

Many foreigners choose French or German because they are common in Europe. Russian is chosen when they want to get to know Russian culture, when there are Russian friends with whom you want to speak their language, when you move to live or work in Russia. Basically, they study the Russian language because they like it, like, in general, any other language. You cannot learn a language through force, it must be interesting and attractive, there must be a desire to learn it.

7 Bengali

The Bengali language is one of the languages ​​of the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family. It is widely spoken and is the official language in Bangladesh and India. There are about 190 million people for whom this native language and about 260 million people who speak it. Some aspects of the language are often different in India and Bangladesh. The letter in most cases fully corresponds to the pronunciation. The writing of the language is based on Sanskrit and does not always take into account the changes and mergers of sounds that have occurred in the language over time. The history of the Bengali language dates back at least a millennium, as evidenced by both the dating of the first literary monuments and the data of linguistic reconstruction.

6 Portuguese

Portuguese is the native language of approximately 230 million people, with a total of approximately 260 million speakers. It is the official language in Portugal, Brazil, Angola and some other countries. Most of the native speakers live in Brazil. The Portuguese language is comparable in complexity to Spanish, French and Italian, as it is in the same group of Romance languages ​​with them. There are two main variants of the language, European Portuguese and Brazilian, as well as a number of varieties in Africa and Asia, differing from each other at the level of phonetics, vocabulary, spelling and grammar. IN African countries European version of Portuguese is used with big amount lexical borrowings from African languages.

5 Arabic

Arabic distributed in 60 countries of the world, such as Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt and Libya, and in 26 of them it is official. One of the working languages ​​of the UN and belongs to the Semitic branch of the Afroasian family of languages. The number of native speakers exceeds 245 million people, and the total number of people who speak it is more than 350 million. Arabic plays great importance in political and economic spheres, in energy and security. This is a very popular language and people who know it will always be able to find Good work. Arabic is one of the five most difficult languages ​​in the world, there are many dialects of Arabic that differ significantly from each other.

4 Hindi

This language is one of the 23 official languages ​​of India, and is also spoken in Pakistan and Fiji. The mother tongue is spoken by 260 million people, and total number Hindi speakers is approximately 400 million people. At a colloquial level, the Hindi language is almost indistinguishable from the other official language of India, Urdu. The last one is different a large number Arabic and Persian borrowings, as well as those that use the Arabic alphabet, while the traditional Hindi script is the Devanagari syllabary. English is one of the official languages ​​of India, but, nevertheless, according to some reports, Hindi is quite a promising language and it may become one of the most popular languages ​​by 2050.

3 English

The top three of our list of the most popular and common languages ​​​​opens English, which is the most common language to learn as a foreign language. This language is native to 350 million people, and the total number of speakers of it is about 1.4 billion people. English is one of the working languages ​​of the UN, the official language of Australia, New Zealand, the USA, England, Canada and some other countries. English in the modern world plays a huge role in many areas of life from politics and business to culture and travel. This is due to the colonial policy of the British Empire in the 19th century and the global influence of the United States of America at the present time.

English is also considered one of the easiest languages ​​to learn, if not the easiest. However, this language also has its difficulties. In many countries around the world, English has been taught in schools for almost primary school like a foreign one.

2 Spanish

In second place is a very beautiful language, which is official in Spain, Mexico, Costa Rica, Cuba and most countries in South America. Spanish is very similar to Italian and Portuguese, as it is in the same Romance group with them. relatives Spanish is considered by approximately 420 million people, and there are about 500 million people who speak it all over the world. It is the most widely spoken Romance language, with 9/10 of its speakers living predominantly in the Western Hemisphere. It's pretty easy language to study, which in addition to the Spanish culture and the beauty of the language adds to the desire of foreigners to learn Spanish.

There are several dialects of the Spanish language, but Castilian is considered to be the real, original Spanish language. Castilian, Catalan, Basque and Galician are spoken in Spain, while in South America There are five main groups of dialects. The first group is used primarily in Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Panama, Colombia, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Mexico. The second in Peru, Chile and Ecuador. Third in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama. The fourth group is the Argentine-Uruguayan-Paraguayan variant, which includes Eastern Bolivia. The fifth group is conditionally called Highland Latin American Spanish. This language is spoken by the inhabitants of Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, belonging to the Andes of Colombia and Venezuela, Quito (located at an altitude of 2800 m, the capital of Ecuador), the Peruvian mountain range and Bolivia.

1 Chinese

Chinese is a collection of very different dialects, and therefore is considered by most linguists as an independent language branch, consisting of separate, albeit related to each other, language and dialect groups. In fact, the Chinese language is made up of many other languages. But at the same time, the hieroglyphs are one. Since the middle of the 20th century, after the reform in China, the writing of basic hieroglyphs has become much more simplified. The unified Chinese language is called Mandarin or simply Mandarin, which is called Putonghua in China. The Chinese language has 10 dialect groups and seven main traditional dialects.

Many consider Chinese the most difficult language to learn, more difficult than Japanese and Arabic. Mainly because it uses more than 3,000 characters, which are noticeably more difficult to write than Japanese or Korean. The use of tones in the language also makes it difficult to learn. Despite all the difficulties of learning, Chinese remains one of the most promising and sought-after languages ​​in the world. It is native to 1.3 billion people and has over 1.5 billion speakers. China is one of the strongest countries in many areas, one of the largest in terms of population. Nowadays, the Chinese language is very popular and interesting, both for doing business and for understanding the most ancient culture on the planet.

culture

The development of oral speech skills can probably be considered one of the most significant achievements in the field of human relationships on our planet. Moreover, since humanity first began to develop the language of communication, many variations and varieties of different languages ​​have appeared, while the process of modifying this instrument of communication continues today. Information about the number of languages ​​on our planet is extremely contradictory, but according to some sources, their number exceeds six thousand. However, the following ten languages ​​are used by the largest number of people on our planet (in brackets is the number of people for whom a particular language is native).

10. German (90 million people)

The German language belongs to the so-called Indo-European family of languages, the Germanic branch (in fact, like English). The German language is used mainly in Germany, where it has the status of an official language. However, German is also an official language in Austria, Liechtenstein and Luxembourg; also he is one of the official languages ​​of Belgium(along with Dutch and French); one of the four official languages ​​of Switzerland (along with French, Italian and the so-called Swiss Romansh); as well as the official language of part of the population of the Italian city of Bolzano. In addition, it is known that German small groups of citizens living in countries such as Poland, Denmark, Hungary and the Czech Republic also communicate.

9. Japanese (132 million people)

The Japanese language belongs to the category of the so-called Japanese-Ryukyu languages ​​(including also the Ryukyu language itself, which is spoken on the island of Okinawa as part of the group of islands of the same name). Most people whose native language is Japanese live in Japan. However, people for whom Japanese is also their native language can be found in Korea, the United States of America, Europe ... Japanese is the official language in Japan, but it also has official status in one of the states in the Republic of Palau - an island nation in the western Pacific ocean.

8. Russian language (144 million people)

Russian belongs to the East Slavic subgroup of languages ​​in the Slavic group, which also includes Belarusian and Ukrainian languages. The overwhelming majority of Russian-speaking people for whom Russian is their native language live, of course, in Russian Federation, where Russian, in fact, has the status of an official language. Besides, is a well-known fact that a large number of the Russian-speaking population lives in Belarus, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and other republics of the former Soviet Union(and not only). It is noteworthy that in this ten most widely used languages, Russian is the only one using the Cyrillic alphabet.

7. Portuguese (178 million people)

The Portuguese language belongs to the Romance group of languages. As in the case of other languages ​​of this group, one of the predecessors of the Portuguese language is considered Latin language. Portuguese is considered the official language in Portugal and Brazil, where the vast majority of the world's population speaking it. In addition, Portuguese is considered official in Angola, Cape Verde, East Timor, Guinea-Bissau, Uruguay and Argentina. Today, Portuguese is one of the four most commonly studied languages ​​(according to some estimates, it is studied by about 30 million people).

6. Bengali language (181 million people)

The Bengali language (or Bengali language) belongs to the so-called Indo-Aryan branch, along with languages ​​such as Hindi, Punjabi and Urdu. Most people who speak this language live in the Republic of Bangladesh, where Bengali is the official language. In addition, people speak it who live in the Indian states of West Bengal, Tripura and Assam. This language is also spoken by some people living in Europe, the United States of America and even Saudi Arabia. The Bengali language is characterized by a rich literary tradition. In addition, such a concept as Bengali nationalism is widely known in the world. The basis of the written language of Bengali is related to the basis of writing in Sanskrit and Hindi.

5. Arabic (221 million people)

Arabic belongs to the so-called Semitic family of languages, which includes the languages ​​of the Arabian subgroup, such as Syriac and Chaldean (now a dead language). Arabic is spoken most in the Middle East and North Africa. It is official in 26 countries of the world. It is also spoken in Israel. In addition, in Europe, as well as in North America, there are a lot of people who speak Arabic. As you know, this language is written and holy book all Muslims of the world, Koran. The Arabic alphabet is used to write in Arabic.

4. Hindi language (242 million people)

Hindi is a member of the Indo-European family of languages ​​and belongs to the Indo-Aryan group (like Urdu). This language has many dialects, but its official forms are the so-called Standard Hindi and Standard Urdu. However, these two forms are sometimes quite difficult to distinguish from each other. Hindi is known is the official language in India, while Urdu is the official language in Pakistan. Hindi and Urdu are spoken in parts of Europe and North America, where there are now fairly large numbers of people from India and Pakistan. For writing in these languages, the Hindi alphabet and the Arabic alphabet are used ( given fact talks about the influence that Islam had on Urdu).

3. English (328 million people)

English, like German, belongs to the West Germanic group of languages. Rooted given language considered to be Anglo-Saxon (so-called Old English). Much of English was borrowed from Latin and French, to which the Norman conquerors are the cause. Despite the fact that the British Isles are the birthplace of this language, the majority of people who speak English currently resides in the United States of America(more than 309 million English-speaking citizens). English is spoken in 53 countries of the world, where it is one of the official languages. These countries include Canada, South Africa, Jamaica, New Zealand, Australia and, of course, the UK. English is also spoken in many countries in the Pacific region, and in India it is considered almost another official language.

2. Spanish (329 million people)

Spanish is a member of the Indo-European family of languages ​​and belongs to the Romance group. This language has a lot in common with Portuguese. Spanish is one of the most widely spoken languages ​​on our planet; it has been given the status of an official language in more than 20 countries of the world; while Spanish is considered official in almost every state Latin America, except Brazil, Belize and so on. It is also known that a huge number of people for whom Spanish is their native language moved to the United States of America. That is why Spanish is one of the most widely spoken languages ​​in the American Southwest. In addition, Spanish is one of the six official languages ​​of the United Nations (along with English, Arabic, Chinese, Russian and French).

1. Mandarin (845 million people)

In fact, we are talking about Mandarin Chinese, although many people who do not know the nuances call this dialect Chinese. In fact, it is just one of many Chinese dialects that also include Cantonese and other dialects belonging to the so-called Sino-Tibetan family. Mandarin is the most spoken language in China while being the official language of Chinese People's Republic and Taiwan. It is also one of the four official languages ​​of Singapore (other than English, Malay and Tamil). The large influx of immigrants from China and Taiwan has resulted in Mandarin Chinese being spoken by a large number of people in the United States and Europe. At the same time, the Mandarin dialect uses two writing systems - traditional Chinese and the so-called simplified Chinese.

We are all used to the second foreign language must be English. The entire IT industry, all areas of science, as well as most foreign forums are held in English. At present, knowing English, great opportunities are opening up for a person for his development. We are used to what exactly English is international language.

But few people know that in addition to English, Arabic, Spanish, Chinese, Russian and French are also international languages ​​- these languages ​​are the official languages ​​of the UN.

But what is the most widely spoken language in the world? This question was answered by "Ethnologue" - the most famous guide to the world's languages, published annually since 1951. According to the results of research by specialists from Ethnologue and the supplement released in 2016, the site has prepared the twenty most common languages ​​in the world.

1. First place Chinese. This language is spoken by 1.284 billion people. The language is used by 37 countries of the world, the main country is of course China.

2. In second place, as it is not surprising, Spanish. Thanks to the active colonial activity of Spain in the Middle Ages, Spanish is the official language in almost all countries of South and Central America. Spanish is the mother tongue of 437 million people in 31 countries.

3. English language takes only third place. 372 million people speak this language in 106 countries of the world.

4. Arabic occupies the fourth position. 295 million people speak this language in 57 countries around the world. Most major countries, these are Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Egypt, Syria.

5. Top five Hindi, from India. Despite the fact that almost 1.3 billion people live in India, there are 447 different languages ​​spoken there, 2 thousand dialects. The most common of them is Hindi, which is spoken by only 260 million people.

Hindi.

6. bengali, 242 million people in 4 countries, the main carrier state is Bangladesh.

7. Portuguese, 219 million people in 13 countries, the main carrier state is Portugal.

8. Russian, 154 million people in 19 countries, the main carrier state is Russia.

9. Japanese, 128 million people in 2 countries, the main carrier state is Japan.

10. Punjabi(languages ​​of the Indian West Punjab and adjacent areas of Pakistan), 119 million people in 6 countries, the main carrier state is Pakistan.

11. Javanese, 84.4 million people in 3 countries, the main carrier state is Indonesia.

12. Korean, 77.2 million people in 7 countries, the main carrier state is South Korea.

13. German, 76.8 million people in 27 countries, the main carrier state is Germany.

14. French, 76.1 million people in 53 countries, the main carrier state is France.

15. Telugu, 74.2 million people in 2 countries, the main carrier state is India.

16. Marathi, 71.8 million people, distributed mainly in India.

17. Turkish, 71.1 million people in 8 countries, the main carrier state is Turkey.

18. Urdu, 69.1 million people in 6 countries, the main carrier state is Pakistan.

19. Vietnamese, 68.1 million people in 3 countries, the main carrier state is Vietnam.

20. Tamil, 68.0 million people in 7 countries, the main carrier state is India.

Thus, in order for every third inhabitant of the earth to understand you, it is enough to know Chinese, Spanish and English languages. Despite everything, English still occupies a leading position among highly developed countries, but Chinese is already "sneaking on the heels."

1.3 billion people

This unique language, listed in the Guinness Book of Records as one of the most difficult, has become the official state language in China, Singapore and Taiwan. It is the working language of the UN. In total, there are more than 1.3 billion of its speakers, living mainly in South-East Asia. It is this popularity that the historical language of the Han people, which is the main one in China, has achieved over the millennia. The Chinese language is one of the most ancient on the planet. The first information about its existence appeared in the 4th-11th centuries BC. in divinatory inscriptions made on the bones of animals for sacrifice.

Interestingly, you can say hello in Chinese by saying "nihao" and say goodbye by saying "zaizen"

Spanish language 450 million people

It is considered the second most spoken language in the world. Today there is no exact information about how many people on the planet speak Spanish. According to the most rough estimates, the number of speakers of it has already exceeded 450 million people. They inhabit almost all countries, including the USA, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, the territory of Gibraltar. This language has a second name - Castilian, derived from the name of the kingdom of Castile, where this language group, which belongs to the Romance, originated. Chronologically, Spanish began to take shape as early as the 3rd century BC. and received its mass distribution in the era of navigation, the development of trade and external relations. Today it is the official language of the UN.

Curiously, the greeting in Spanish would sound like this: "Hola!", but farewell - how "Adyos!"

400 million people

It is an international language of communication and is recognized as the official state language in many countries of the world - the USA, Canada, Great Britain, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Malta. There are more than 400 million native speakers, and even more people speak English - about one billion. English belongs to the Germanic language group. And for many centuries, he has kept the brand of the most demanded on the planet. This is partly due to the colonial policy of Great Britain, during which many continents came under the control of the country.

And now in any corner of the planet such words as "Hello"(hello) and "Good Bye"(Goodbye).

260 million people

Without exaggeration, this is the most musical language on the planet, since the words in it are distinguished by duration and vocalism. Hindi ranks among the most ancient languages. However, it is not known exactly when it arose. Approximate data also exist regarding the number of native speakers - there are more than 260 million of them in the world. At the same time, Hindi is recognized state language in India, partly in Fiji, Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Hindi has absorbed both local dialects and has Arabic and Persian roots.

By the way, in Hindi, farewell and greeting can sound the same - "Namaste!", which literally means an abstract wish of all the best.

240 million people

This language is now spoken by more than 240 million people in the world. In addition, it was Arabic that became one of the official languages ​​of the UN General Assembly in Israel, Chad, Djibouti, Eritrea, Somaliland, Somalia, and the Comoros. It is recognized as a state language in absolutely all Arab countries, because it is in classical Arabic that the Holy Quran is written. By its origin, Arabic is considered to be practically the most archaic representative of the Semitic language branch and the Afroasian language family.

Like many centuries ago, the Arabs greet each other with the phrase "Assailam alaikum" and say goodbye - "Mea assailam".

Portuguese language 203 million people

In terms of its popularity and distribution in the countries of the world, it is not inferior to Spanish. Now this state-recognized language of Angola, Portugal, Brazil, East Timor, Macau, Princili, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Sao Tome, Mozambique. The number of native speakers of Portuguese has exceeded 203 million people, there are now more than 300 million people speaking it on the planet. Despite its progressiveness, Portuguese, in comparison with the closely related Spanish, is much more archaic and conservative, because the language was supposedly born before the 8th century BC. And it was imprinted by many linguistic cultures, including Arabic.

The Portuguese greet like this - "Bon Dia!", and when they want to say "Goodbye" they say - "A te avista!".

193 million people

Bengali has received official status in West Bengal and Bangladesh. It belongs to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European family of languages. The history of the emergence of the Bengali language extends to the 10th-12th centuries and is associated primarily with the division of Bengal. This left its mark on the language vocabulary, most of which are words in Sanskrit.

Interestingly, Bengalis greet and say goodbye in the same way, uttering just one word - "nomoshkar".

Russian language 137 million people

The most widely used language in terms of geography, which is the eighth in the world in terms of the number of speakers and the fifth in terms of the number of people who speak it. In pure numbers, this is about 260 million people. Russian belongs to the eastern group Slavic languages. And today it is among the workers at UN meetings, as it is recognized as a global world language. Now Russian has also become the second most popular on the Internet. In Russia, it is the Russian language that is recognized as the state language, and in other countries - Belarus, Moldova and partly in South Ossetia it is considered official. The modern Russian language is the result of the influence of some East Slavic languages ​​and dialects, multiplied by the Old Church Slavonic and Church Slavonic languages.

Japanese language 125 million people

The most mysterious language, because it genetic roots has not yet been established by scientists. His main feature contained in the original writing. This language is native to 125 million people. According to one of the most famous versions, the Japanese language has Altaic roots and took root at a time when the Altaians subjugated the Japanese islands. This is approximately 3rd century BC.

The sound of words in Japanese is unique. So, the greeting looks like "oh" or "cannitiva", but the Japanese say goodbye like this - "Sayonara".

Javanese 100 million people

Closes the list of the most common languages ​​- Javanese. A paradoxical story happened to this language. Despite being spoken by more than 100 million people and most of the inhabitants of Indonesia, it has never received its official state status. In addition, it is also considered the most widespread Austronesian language. It is used by the Javanese living on the island of Java. It is studied in schools in the classroom by primary school students, newspapers, magazines are published on it, and television and radio programs are conducted.