How Many Languages Are Spoken In The World Today?

by | Last updated on January 24, 2024

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Over 7000

are spoken across the world today. Chinese, the language with the most native speakers, has 13 variations, whilst Similarly, Arabic has 20 variations, reflecting the wide range of countries and cultures it is spoken in.

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How many languages are there in the world 2020?

Well,

roughly 6,500 languages

are spoken in the world today. Each and every one of them make the world a diverse and beautiful place. Sadly, some of these languages are less widely spoken than others. Take Busuu, for example – we're named after a language spoken by only eight people.

How many languages are there 2021?

Wondering how many languages there are in the world today as we approach 2021? There are currently

7,117 known languages

spoken by people around the world, according to Ethnologue, widely considered to be the most extensive catalogue of the languages of the world.

What is the most spoken language in the world 2020?

According to Ethnologue,

Chinese (and all of its varieties such as Mandarin and Wu)

is by far the most spoken language across the world with 1.31 billion speakers. That's approximately 16 percent of the world's population.

How many language exist in the world?

A whole lot. Ethnologue, the biggest authority on languages on the web, estimates that there are

over 7,000 spoken languages

in the world.

Who created language?

Some scholars assume the development of primitive language-like systems (proto-language) as early as

Homo habilis

, while others place the development of symbolic communication only with Homo erectus (1.8 million years ago) or with Homo heidelbergensis (0.6 million years ago) and the development of language proper with …

What's the hardest language to learn?


Mandarin

As mentioned before, Mandarin is unanimously considered the toughest language to master in the world! Spoken by over a billion people in the world, the language can be extremely difficult for people whose native languages use the Latin writing system.

What is the easiest language to learn?

  1. Norwegian. This may come as a surprise, but we have ranked Norwegian as the easiest language to learn for English speakers. …
  2. Swedish. …
  3. Spanish. …
  4. Dutch. …
  5. Portuguese. …
  6. Indonesian. …
  7. Italian. …
  8. French.

What's the first language in the world?

As far as the world knew,

Sanskrit

stood as the first spoken language because it dated as back as 5000 BC. New information indicates that although Sanskrit is among the oldest spoken languages, Tamil dates back further. Tamil dates as far back as 350 BC—works like the ‘Tholkappiyam,' an ancient poem, stand as evidence.

What are the top 5 languages spoken in the world 2021?

  • English (1.132 million speakers)
  • Mandarin (1.117 million speakers)
  • Spanish (534 million speakers)
  • French (280 million speakers)
  • Arabic (274 million speakers)
  • Russian (258 million speakers)
  • Portuguese (234 million speakers)

Who speaks the most languages currently?


Ziad Fazah

, born in Liberia, brought up in Beirut and now living in Brazil, claims to be the world's greatest living polyglot, speaking a total of 59 world languages. He has been ‘tested' on Spanish television, where it was not clear just how well he could communicate in some of them.

What is the most beautiful language?

  • FRENCH – MOST BEAUTIFUL SPOKEN LANGUAGE.
  • GERMAN – MOST BEAUTIFUL SUNG LANGUAGE.
  • ARABIC – MOST BEAUTIFUL WRITTEN LANGUAGE.
  • ITALIAN – MOST BEAUTIFUL BODY LANGUAGE.

What language did the Jesus speak?

Most religious scholars and historians agree with Pope Francis that the historical Jesus principally spoke

a Galilean dialect of Aramaic

. Through trade, invasions and conquest, the Aramaic language had spread far afield by the 7th century B.C., and would become the lingua franca in much of the Middle East.

How many languages can a person learn?

How Many Languages Does the Average Person Speak? An average person can speak

two to four languages in a lifetime

. However, human brains work differently, and an average person's brain can handle a maximum of four languages.

Which country speaks many languages?

Country # of languages 1.

Papua New Guinea

820
2. Indonesia 742 3. Nigeria 516 4. India 427

Which country has most no of languages?

Rank Country or territory Number of living languages Established 1

Papua New Guinea

840
2 Indonesia 707 3 Nigeria 517

What is the most perfect language?

Experts regard

Sanskrit

as the ‘most scientific human language ever'. Sanskrit is probably the only known language in the world boasting of a context free grammar, which makes sentence formation utterly precise, based on set rules.

What language is closest to English?

The closest language to English is one called

Frisian

, which is a Germanic language spoken by a small population of about 480,000 people. There are three separate dialects of the language, and it's only spoken at the southern fringes of the North Sea in the Netherlands and Germany.

Who made English?

English is a West Germanic language that originated from Anglo-Frisian languages brought to Britain in the mid 5th to 7th centuries AD by

Anglo-Saxon migrants

from what is now northwest Germany, southern Denmark and the Netherlands.

What language did Adam and Eve speak?


The Adamic language

, according to Jewish tradition (as recorded in the midrashim) and some Christians, is the language spoken by Adam (and possibly Eve) in the Garden of Eden.

Can you learn 2 languages at once?


Yes! Learning two languages at once is certainly possible

. … So, if you're serious about reaching fluency in two target languages rather than just studying them for the fun of it, I recommend you don't study them both at the same time.

What was the sweetest language in the world?

According to a UNESCO survey,

Bengali

has been voted the sweetest language in the world; positioning Spanish and Dutch as the second and third sweetest tongues.

What is the hardest language to learn for English speakers?

  1. Mandarin Chinese. Interestingly, the hardest language to learn is also the most widely spoken native language in the world. …
  2. Arabic. …
  3. Polish. …
  4. Russian. …
  5. Turkish. …
  6. Danish.

What is the best language to learn after English?

  • Spanish.
  • French.
  • Chinese.
  • German.
  • Japanese.
  • Arabic.
  • Portuguese.

What is the best second language to learn?

  • Spanish. Ziplining over the rainforests in Costa Rica, oohing and awing at Machu Picchu, and sunbathing on the sun-kissed coasts of Spain — that could be you while learning Spanish! …
  • French. …
  • 3. Japanese. …
  • Italian. …
  • Mandarin. …
  • Portuguese. …
  • Arabic. …
  • Korean.

Which is the mother of all languages?

The oldest form of

Sanskrit

is Vedic Sanskrit that dates back to the 2nd millennium BCE. Known as ‘the mother of all languages,' Sanskrit is the dominant classical language of the Indian subcontinent and one of the 22 official languages of India. It is also the liturgical language of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism.

What is the number 1 language?

Rank Language Total Speakers 1

English


1,132

million
2 Mandarin Chinese 1,117 million 3 Hindi 615 million 4 Spanish 534 million

What will be the most spoken language in 2050?

A 2014 study by the investment bank Natixis even predicted that

French

would become the world's most widely spoken language by 2050. The authors of the study referred to were demographic growth prospects in Africa. “French is also widespread in many smaller countries,” Ammon said.

How many people in China speak English?

Country Eligible population Total English speakers No. China

1,432,035,200


10,000,000
Brazil 205,000,000 10,542,000 Sweden 10,377,771 9,236,000

What is the original language of God?

Indic traditions

In Vedic religion, “speech” Vāc, i.e. the language of liturgy, now known as

Vedic Sanskrit

, is considered the language of the gods.

What is the newest language in the world?

  • Light Warlpiri.
  • Esperanto.
  • Lingala.
  • Lingala wasn't even a language until the 19th century, before Congo was a free state. As the 19th century closed, the Belgian forces that conquered the area began simplifying the local languages for commercial purposes. …
  • Gooniyandi.

What was Jesus real name?

Jesus' name in Hebrew was “

Yeshua”

which translates to English as Joshua.

Does anyone still speak Aramaic?

Aramaic is

still spoken by scattered communities of Jews, Mandaeans and some Christians

. Small groups of people still speak Aramaic in different parts of the Middle East. … Today, between 500,000 and 850,000 people speak Aramaic languages.

What language does Australia speak?

Although English is not Australia's official language,

it is effectively the de facto national language

and is almost universally spoken. Nevertheless, there are hundreds of Aboriginal languages, though many have become extinct since 1950, and most of the surviving languages have very few speakers.

Who is the youngest polyglot?

One incredible student,

16-year-old Timothy Doner

, is the world's youngest polyglot, putting all our of language-learning skills to shame. Timothy speaks 23 languages, to be exact.

What is it called when you can speak 4 languages?

The definition of

quadrilingual

means you can use four languages, or refers to something in four languages. An example of quadrilingual is a translator who speaks French, English, German and Japanese. An example of something quadrilingual is an instructional manual in Spanish, English, French and Chinese. adjective.

Which language is the most poetic?


Persian language

is considered among the most poetic languages of the world. Persian words enjoy a soft and melodic quality and the phrases have a unique rhythmic nature. This singing quality gives Persian poets such as Hafez and Rumi, a marvelous chance to create rhythm through the matchlessly euphonic words.

Is knowing 4 languages impressive?

level is highly commendable, and generally qualifies a person as a

Polyglot

. I would say that speaking 4 languages pretty well is a good goal as a Polyglot because it can get logistically difficult to maintain lots and lots of languages unless you are particularly talented and or have loads of time on your hands.

Can you be fluent in 5 languages?

A monolingual speaks only one language. … Only three percent of people around the world can speak over four languages. Less than one percent of people worldwide are proficient in many languages. If someone is fluent in more than five languages,

the person is called a polyglot

.

How does Bella speak 7 languages?

Initially, the parents wanted Bella to speak English like a native speaker, and the mother spoke with Bella in English and

Russian

from birth, alternating every other day. She made sure that the languages were not mixed, not allowing the girl to insert Russian words during a conversation in English.

Amira Khan
Author
Amira Khan
Amira Khan is a philosopher and scholar of religion with a Ph.D. in philosophy and theology. Amira's expertise includes the history of philosophy and religion, ethics, and the philosophy of science. She is passionate about helping readers navigate complex philosophical and religious concepts in a clear and accessible way.