List of languages by total number of speakers information
For first-language speakers only, see List of languages by number of native speakers.
Principal language families of the world (and in some cases geographic groups of families). For greater detail, see Distribution of languages in the world.
This is a list of languages by total number of speakers.
It is difficult to define what constitutes a language as opposed to a dialect. For example, Chinese and Arabic are sometimes considered single languages, but each includes several mutually unintelligible varieties, and so they are sometimes considered language families instead. Conversely, colloquial registers of Hindi and Urdu are almost completely mutually intelligible, and are sometimes classified as one language, Hindustani. Such rankings should be used with caution, because it is not possible to devise a coherent set of linguistic criteria for distinguishing languages in a dialect continuum.[1]
There is no single criterion for how much knowledge is sufficient to be counted as a second-language speaker. For example, English has about 450 million native speakers but, depending on the criterion chosen, can be said to have as many as two billion speakers.[2]
There are also difficulties in obtaining reliable counts of speakers, which vary over time because of population change and language shift. In some areas, there is no reliable census data, the data is not current, or the census may not record languages spoken, or record them ambiguously. Sometimes speaker populations are exaggerated for political reasons, or speakers of minority languages may be underreported in favor of a national language.[3]
^Paolillo, John C.; Das, Anupam (31 March 2006). "Evaluating language statistics: the Ethnologue and beyond" (PDF). UNESCO Institute of Statistics. pp. 3–5. Retrieved 17 November 2018.
^Crystal, David (March 2008). "Two thousand million?". English Today. 24: 3–6. doi:10.1017/S0266078408000023. S2CID 145597019.
^Crystal, David (1988). The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language. Cambridge University Press. pp. 286–287. ISBN 978-0-521-26438-9.
and 28 Related for: List of languages by total number of speakers information
This is a listoflanguagesbytotalnumberofspeakers. It is difficult to define what constitutes a language as opposed to a dialect. For example, Chinese...
Ordered bynumberofspeakers as first language. The 2011 census recorded 31 individual languages as having more than 1 million native speakers (0.1% of total...
Human languages ranked by their numberof native speakers are as follows. All such rankings should be used with caution, because it is not possible to...
extinct languagesof Oceania (Deleted article because list had languages which had thousands ofspeakers for that time.) Listof extinct languagesof North...
This is a listof European languagesby the numberof native speakers in Europe only. Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin and Serbian combined, as fully mutually...
Lists of endangered languages are mainly based on the definitions used by UNESCO. In order to be listed, a language must be classified as "endangered"...
extinct language may be narrowly defined as a language with no native speakers and no descendant languages. Under this definition, a language becomes...
table of European languages. The numberofspeakers as a first or second language (L1 and L2 speakers) listed are speakers in Europe only; see listof languages...
language is a language that is at risk of falling out of use, generally because it has few surviving speakers. If it loses all of its native speakers...
major languagesof Africa by region, family and totalnumberof primary languagespeakers in millions. Africa portal Language portal Writing systems of Africa...
140 speakersof the Yola language today. Language death Language revitalization Language policy Minority language Regional language "Living languages"....
This is a listof extinct languagesof Asia, languages which have undergone language death, have no native speakers, and no spoken descendant. There are...
demography is the statistical study oflanguages among all populations. Estimating the numberofspeakersof a given language is not straightforward, and various...
endangered language is a language that it is at risk of falling out of use, generally because it has few surviving speakers. If it loses all of its native...
language is a language that is at risk of falling out of use, generally because it has few surviving speakers. If it loses all of its native speakers...
article is a listoflanguages and dialects that have no native speakers, no spoken descendents, and diverged from their parent language in Europe. Europe...
There are a numberoflanguages in Morocco. De jure, the two official languages are Standard Arabic and Standard Moroccan Berber. Moroccan Arabic (known...
listof extinct languagesof North America, languages which have undergone language death, have no native speakers and no spoken descendant, most of them...
This is a listof States and Union Territories of India by Bengali speakers at the time of the 2011 Census. According to 2011 census of India, Bengali...
Global Information