Most spoken word of the world - Word и Excel - помощь в работе с программами

The intensity of its physical expression. Snatching words from memory the split second before they swing and hang in the room in front of you. The release of something so deeply personal with the raw tools of one’s being.

My first spoken word performance itched with pre-show anxiety and all its peculiar manifestations. We all deal with unwieldy nerves in different ways; some puke before a show, some need solitude. I learnt that on that day, and at every performance since, I need:

An unusual amount of water
To make several visits to the urinal (especially just before going on)
To have conversation as a babbling soundscape but not to be expected to contribute, therein coming across as a rude bastard to strangers

Since then I’ve performed at festivals in Denmark, with jazz musicians in Southern Africa, with vocal ensembles in mainland Europe, run workshops with inspiring young voices from Zimbabwe, South Africa, and Scandinavia, and collaborated with artists from all over the world. The spoken word has always had a possessive element to it for me. I know of no other avenue through which the word can be delivered that ties me so tightly to someone’s thoughts and struggles in the space of a few minutes.

As a teenager, the mathematical dismembering of written poetry in thickset anthologies killed the enigma and subjective nourishment that makes the word so special. Getting lost in words is difficult when you’re encouraged to look for the ‘right’ path or answer in something so vast and fluid. Spoken word and hip-hop felt like wide open spaces in comparison.

If you want to sit by someone’s side for a while and hear the grinding that pushes and pulls them, then here’s my (savagely refined) list of favourites online:

1. Buddy Wakefield — “Convenience Stores”

Why not start at the top? I was into hip-hop before and during my introduction to spoken word. My housemate in my second year at university was one of those crazed hip-hop intellectuals who excavated careers and labels to give you the bones and backstories of all the artists you had and hadn’t heard of.

Sage Francis featured a guy called Buddy Wakefield on one of his albums, and my hip-hop fiend of a friend recommended I listen to the following poem. No piece of music, film, or any other form of artistic expression has had the same clawing effect on me as this:

2. Kate Tempest — “Line in the Sand”

I first met Kate Tempest at a show in a basement in a totalitarian vegan café in Brighton, UK. I joined other acts in the opening slots before her. I crossed her path once more a couple years ago when she was screening one of her pieces at an event in London and her name had already begun to sound on radio and television:

3. LKJ — “Inglan Is a Bitch”

Linton Kwesi Johnson, or LKJ as he’s commonly known, is the father of dub poetry. His poetry gyrates with a cadence born in the Caribbean, and his content is shaped by his experiences as a young man in the UK, highlighting police brutality, racism, and life on the concrete island. A timeless flow and message with or without the backing of a band:

4. Dizraeli — “Maria”

Poems on politicians, verses on bombing supermarket chains, and a deep human resonance and skill for storytelling make Dizraeli one of the illest emcees and spoken word artists around. The following piece, “Maria,” has been known to make the most unbreakable, emotionless zombies shed a tear:

5. TJ Dema — “Neon Poem”

Representing Botswana, TJ Dema has featured at events around the world and never failed to capture audience members and performers as she does so. She is a fellow member of the spoken word / jazz fusion group Sonic Slam Chorus and has a truly unique style and manner of describing her world in a way that calls on all your senses:

6. Toby T — “Tomorrow”

I only heard of this lyrical talent recently. Toby T’s face gives away the fact that he’s in the twilight of his adolescence. His content suggests he’s at the foothills of a promising career. With a staggered flow, Toby’s feelings stammer out against the backdrop of delicate musicianship. Check out other videos online that show his versatility as a poet and emcee, but start here:

7. Andrea Gibson and Katie Wirsing

The links that the online searches will suggest can lead you further on a journey into the word to find other talented practitioners. That’s partly how I came across Andrea Gibson and Katie Wirsing. I had seen them perform on a UK tour once and forgotten their names only to stumble on them online.

Below they perform a poem by Christian Drake, probably the most brutally beautiful and violently heartfelt, blood-stained love poem you will ever come across:

8. Shane Koyczan – “To This Day”

Canadian poet Shane Koyczan released an animated spoken word video earlier this year that has rocketed towards 9 million views on YouTube. A jolting piece on bullying and an anthem for the bullied. Arguably one of the best visual presentations in spoken word accompanies it:

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Alphabet jumble – or the question of defining language

Almost a billion people speak the most widely spoken language in the world! But that’s just ONE language: one among almost 7,100 languages across the world!

According to the Ethnologue nobody can say that for sure, but with 7,100 languages, who’s counting anyways?

What actually constitutes a language?

What is the distinction between a language and a dialect?

Is there actually any difference? And what criteria are used to define these categories?

Are you finding all of this confusing?

Then you are in good company! These end up being questions about questions that do not always have a straightforward answer.

A glance at the Chinese language shows us how confusing the whole thing can become. Chinese is comprised of several languages: the most common of which is Mandarin—a language that, in turn, is comprised of 8 dialect groups.

Due to different scales or definitions (depending on the source) the numbers may therefore vary. In the end, the good news is that we largely agree on which five languages are most widely spoken across the world!

Languages that do not exist at all

As if 7,100 languages were not enough, people seem to love languages so much that they have invented a few fictional ones. Examples include Klingon from Star Trek, or Quenya, the language spoken by the elves in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. But no one shies away from clever new creations: the best example appearing in television advertisements with fluent “Denglisch”, a creative combination of German (Deutsch) and English!

Most-spoken languages – a question of scale

While the most widely spoken language in the world has nearly hit the one billion mark, the 30 least-spoken languages do not even reach 500 speakers!

German, with more than 100 million native speakers, takes first place as the most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union. Sounds like a lot, until we look at the percentage of other languages spoken around the world. With an estimated total population of 7.67 billion (2019), only about 1.3 percent of the entire world population are native German speakers. This percentage does not look very impressive, yet it puts the German language amongst the top 15 most widely spoken languages in the world.

The exact position it occupies depends on whether one includes only the number of native speakers or also those who speak German as a second language. You can read more facts and figures on the German language here!

In the following list of the five most widely spoken languages in the world, each position is based on the number of native speakers.

5th most widely spoken language: Arabic

Arabic is the native language of approximately 290 million people in the world; yet the phrase “no one speaks Arabic” still holds true.

How can that be?

Just like in Chinese, Arabic dialects sometimes differ greatly from each other. Instead of considering these different dialects as a group of languages, these are defined as a single language to make things easier.

Modern Standard Arabic is mainly used in writing; however, spoken Arabic differs greatly depending on the region.

4th most widely spoken language: Hindi

While Hindi is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world, India also breaks other records in terms of languages.

With 22 official languages, India is unrivaled. Nevertheless, Zimbabwe occupies the first place when it comes to the country with the most official languages (16).

How so?

In India, many of the languages are only official at the state level, but not at the national level. The official languages of the Central Government in India are Hindi and English: this does not imply that these are the official languages in each state. Other than in India, Hindi is mainly spoken in neighboring Nepal.

3rd most widely spoken language: English

English is a world language!

It is spoken by most people around the world as a second or third language and is the lingua franca of the globe. In one way or another—whether traveling, at school, on television or on the job—English is the language that most people have come into contact. It therefore seems almost impossible to come up with something new on the English language. Nevertheless, anyone who searches long enough will find what they are looking for: did you know, for example, that the United States has no official language? Although the vast majority of Americans speak English, it has never been declared as the official language!

Incidentally, English is also the language with the most words. Who would have thought?

2nd most widely spoken language: Spanish

The majority of the approximately 460 million native Spanish speakers live outside of Spain—in South and Central America. One figure is especially surprising: there are around 58 million Spanish speakers in the United States (as of 2017). This places the U.S. in second position worldwide, because only Mexico has more Spanish speakers!

Have you ever read a sentence with the wrong emphasis because the question mark did not catch your eye until it was too late?

That can never happen to you with Spanish. ¡Question marks and exclamation marks are placed at the beginning and at the end of each sentence! However, why the initial punctuation mark is upside down remains an open question.

The Spanish language and its history

A language is much more than a means of communication. It contains traces of the history of a region and its culture, factors which shaped the language for centuries. Under the Romans, the Latin language spread across the Iberian Peninsula. This is where the Spanish language has its roots and therefore also belongs to the Romance branch of the Indo-European languages. While most know about the Latin roots of the language, the Arabic influence on Spanish often goes unmentioned. The Muslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsula by Arabs and Berbers began in the eighth century.

Large parts of the peninsula remained under Muslim rule until the 15^th century. Their influence on architecture can still be admired today, especially in Andalusia. Arabs left their footprint even on the language. This means that there are still more than 4,000 Spanish words with an Arabic origin—just to name a few: almendra (almond), almohada (pillow) alfombra (carpet).

1^st most widely spoken language in the world: Chinese

Native speakers of Chinese have almost hit the one billion mark, so the first place goes—by far—to the Chinese language. The second and third most widely spoken mother tongues in the world PUT TOGETHER have approximately as many speakers as Chinese by itself.

When one mentions Chinese, one generally refers to Mandarin: this is the Chinese language with the most native speakers. It belongs to the Sinotibetan language family, the second largest in the world. This family also includes Cantonese and Wu, two languages widely used across China. About 70% of the Vietnamese vocabulary consists of words with a Chinese origin: yet the most amazing fact is that Vietnamese and Chinese are not related.

Have you ever tried to order a coffee in Chinese? I have! Indeed, the pronunciation is as difficult as people say it is! Nevertheless, I was positively surprised when I started learning some basic terminology for my stay in Taiwan.

A timeless world language

Chinese is a language that is incorporates the idea of “here and now” in the truest sense of the word, and much more than other languages. That is because Chinese has no past or future tense. A reference to yesterday or tomorrow is enough to let the other person know what you are talking about. Another fact that helps with learning is that combining two written characters make them take on a new meaning. For example, whoever knows the numbers from 1 to 12 and the word for “month” can automatically articulate the names of all the months. While we say “January”, “February”, etc., in Chinese these are simply composed by the word “month” and the corresponding number, with the number placed first, followed by the character for “month”. “Hello Chinese” is a particularly good app for learning Chinese.

Would you like to read more about the habits and customs in China?

Feel free to take a look at the interesting articles we published on China’s business relations, territory, people and China’s business etiquette.

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At the heart of human self-expression is the language that each person grows up with, as well as the languages one encounters over time in this world. Billions of people have grown comfortable with the ability to communicate with countless peers, which is only a feat made possible through widespread education and agreement on linguistic rules. The existence of dialects in each language proves that standardization is an impossible goal. However, it is remarkable that the following ten languages manage to be mutually intelligible across continents and long stretches of history. This stability is a fleeting occurrence in human history, so for the time being, brush up on our planet’s most popular languages.

1. English – 1.5 Billion Speakers

An English class for immigrants from various nationalities.

A few factors explain why English is one of the most common global languages used for business and academics worldwide. Simple grammar structures, specifically conjugation and gender, allow new speakers the opportunity to pick it up rapidly. For eastern countries, its status as not only widely used but neutral enables political neighbors to converse without feeling one region takes precedence over the other. Moreover, English was aided in its spread by the British colonization of the last several hundred years. Only a few differences exist between American English and British English, but speakers of each dialect pick a favorite and adamantly defend that choice.

2. Mandarin Chinese – 1.1 Billion Speakers

Colors named in English and Chinese languages.

A massive country with a wealth of historical roots, mainland China harbors between 7 and 10 language groups, and the most dominant is called Mandarin. Eighty percent of the population uses this variant, which has been adopted into both English and Chinese alphabets. If you examine a typical Chinese keyboard, each key has an abundance of symbols that allow typists to access the alphabet they desire. Mandarin originated primarily in North China during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), and due to the difficulty, it is suggested that children begin learning the language at a young age to acquire a native accent. Over 50 thousand characters exist in the alphabet, but less than half are typically used, and barely 3 thousand are essential to read most media.

3. Hindi – 602 Million Speakers

A bookstore in Varanasi, India, with store signboard in Hindi.

The primary language of India, Hindi originates from the ancient language of Sanskrit, and similarities between the typography are obvious. One hundred twenty-one languages can be found in the populated country of India, but more than half of the population can speak Hindi. Other influences on the language, over time, have included Persian, Arabic, Turkish, and even Portuguese and English. Therefore, it is considered an Indo-European language. The name comes from Mahavir Prasad Dwivedi, an Indian writer from the late 19th century, and the writer Bharatendu Harishchandra also played an integral part in the systemization of the language. These two educated and talented men understood that an accessible language would aid communication and empower citizens of all demographics in India.

4. Spanish – 548 Million Speakers

Restaurant menu in Spanish at an outdoor bar in Seville, Spain.

Another colonizing force, Spain’s influence on the globe carried with it the impact of their native language. Over 360 million people use it as a first language, and many countries throughout the Caribbean and Americas consider it their official language, such as Mexico and Costa Rica. It is also spoken in Africa. Several variants exist, with some dialects taking heavy influence from medieval occupiers who spoke Arabic, and Latin American Spanish has a handful of differences from Spain’s Castilian Spanish. The language is derived from Vulgar Latin, alongside French and Italian, so it is typical for a speaker of one to readily acquire the other two.

5. French – 274.1 Million Speakers

Some popular words from the French language.

Known as the language of love by some and the language of tongue-twisters by others, French is a product of the merging of Latin and Celtic languages. The first texts written in a recognizable French script appeared around 842, although like English, it took many evolutions to inherit the form it has today. For instance, the word ‘forest’ in English has kept the /s/ and /t/ consonants, whereas the translated sister word ‘forêt’ in French is pronounced like the English word ‘foray.’ This transition of pronunciation happened around the 14th century, where Old French was replaced with Middle French. Like any major language, especially ones that were globalized through colonization, attempts at standardization also slow the rate at which the language evolves into the unrecognizable territory.

6. Arabic – 274 Million Speakers

Old Arabic manuscripts and texts.

Over a thousand years ago, and particularly highlighted in the Quran, Arabic originated in the Arabian Peninsula, where various nomadic groups spoke it. The language has expanded across the world alongside Islamic conquests in the regions of North Africa and the Mediterranean. Arabic is a consonant-heavy language that trips up learners with a background solely in English, a more vowel-centric language. Often described as ‘throaty’ because of sounds that are produced in the back of the mouth, Arabic also utilizes a gorgeous albeit complicated alphabet. Words are formed from individual phonetic symbols that weave together as if written in cursive. Diacritic accents point to differences in pronunciation. There are many dialects of Arabic, but academic elites have toiled to preserve the religious Arabic format that is used in writing, as it is inspired by the Quran.

7. Bengali – 272 Million Speakers

Names of various fruits written in English and Bengali.

Bangladesh and the West Bengal state in eastern India are the strongest bastions of this language which is also spoken in other countries where Bengalis have emigrated. The language is also Indo-European, like Hindi, with connections to Sanskrit. Interestingly, the language is gender-neutral, and it also harbors over 100 thousand unique words. The confusion begins when learners realize a very small mark can entirely change the meaning of a word, but patience is necessary for all new skills and languages.

8. Russian – 258 Million Speakers

A student writing in Russian on the board in a Russian language class in Gadjievo, Russia. Editorial credit: VPales / Shutterstock.com

Centuries of expansion and administration have bound the people of the Russian landmass together. This is no small feat considering the 6.6 million square miles that make up the country. The language itself is Slavic and shares similarities with Ukrainian, Belarusian, and even Polish. The intermingling and Russian army occupations that occurred in the last few centuries certainly solidified those bonds. The symbols of the language are from the Cyrillic alphabet, which is based on the Greek alphabet, hinting at a tie to the predominance of the Eastern Orthodox religion in Russia. Although it is one of the most difficult languages to learn, Russian has a quality and sound to it that make it truly unique whenever it is heard by foreign listeners.

9. Portuguese – 257.7 Million Speakers

Toll signs on a highway in Brazil written in Portuguese: «Toll fees: Car and utility 11.30 reais. Motorcycle 5.65 reais.

A romance language spoken between Portugal and its former colony, Brazil, Portuguese is also heard in places throughout Spain and the Azores Islands. Moreover, large populations of speakers live in several countries in Africa as well as the United States. It is a poetic language that scholars and creatives settled on around 1200 AD, although a split happened between Portuguese and its Galician roots. There are some differences between the way Brazilian speakers use the language, both phonetically and grammatically, but overall, Portuguese is also considered similar enough to Spanish for two people of those backgrounds to be capable of having a conversation.

10. Urdu – 231 Million Speakers

A newspaper stall at a bus stop in Pakistan. Most newspapers are in the Urdu Language. Editorial credit: Tea Talk / Shutterstock.com

As an Indo-Aryan language, Urdu is primarily spoken in Pakistan and India. Large communities also exist in the United States, the United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom. As the official language of Pakistan, Urdu was also heavily influenced by Turkish, Arabic, and Persian, despite the origins being in North India throughout the Delhi region over 900 years ago. Several English words have been borrowed from Urdu, such as Khaki, Pashmina, Pajamas, and Typhoon. A sophisticated and poetic language, it is no wonder that Urdu is one of the most spoken languages on the planet.

Each of these ten languages reveals something unique about the people that speak them. Historical and cultural values, through expression and proverbs, are typically shared over thousands of years in language. Speakers today are drawing from a wealth of knowledge and experience that extends far into the past. In a hundred years, given the ever-fluctuating nature of humankind, the top ten spoken languages of the world could be a very different collection. For now, we are grateful for how these languages have enriched the people and cultures within and around the speakers who have carried on the linguistic traditions.

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What is the most spoken language in the world? In answer, here is the new article: The most spoken languages in 2023!

It is estimated that English will continue to be the most widely spoken language (first and second language) in the world in 2023. English is spoken by more than 1.5 billion people worldwide. In today’s article, we look at the most widely spoken languages around the globe. According to various analyses, there are more than 7,000 languages spoken around the world. But only two of them exceed one billion: English and Mandarin Chinese.

The Most Spoken Languages 1900/2023

What is the most spoken language in the world in 2023? According to new studies, English is also the most spoken language worldwide in 2023. More than 1.5 billion people speak English as a first or second language all over the planet. A figure that has been growing steadily over the past few years. The second most spoken language is Mandarin Chinese, which has overtaken 1.1 billion people worldwide. In third position is Hindi, which is spoken by 600 million people. This is followed by Spanish with 552 million and Bengali with 276 million. Among the top positions we find Nigerian Pidgin for the first time. In fact, 124 million people speak it as a first or second language.

From 2022 to 2023, there were some changes among the world’s most spoken languages. The Bengali language dropped from seventh position in 2022 to fifth in 2023. And, as we mentioned above, Nigerian Pidgin entered the ranking in 2022 and overtook the Japanese language in 2023. These figures are obviously also influenced by the changing population. Just on 15 November 2022, the world reached 8 billion inhabitants with some countries in particular growing, including Nigeria.

Most Popular Languages

If English is the most spoken language in the world as a first and second language, what is the most spoken language as an original language? Here the ranking changes. In fact, English is the third most spoken language in the world as a first-language. There are 372.9 million people in the world who speak it as a first language while there are as many as 1.080 billion who speak it as a second. In fact, the most popular language as first-language in the world is Mandarin Chinese. There are 929 million people in 2022 who spoke this language, which is spoken by another 198.7 million people as second.

In second position among the world’s most widely spoken first-languages is Spanish with 474.7 million people speaking it worldwide. Only in third position is English with 372.9 million and followed by Hindi with 343.9 million and Bengali with 233.7 million. For example, among the top most spoken languages in the world we also find Vietnamese with 84.6 million or Italian which is in 19th position with 64.8 million. The figure in this case is greatly influenced by the number of inhabitants of a given territory.

These days there are many online language learning applications where you have the opportunity to learn a new language online.

Most spoken languages US

World figures say that English is the most spoken language in the world. But what are the most spoken languages in the United States? The first interesting fact is this. The United States has been a land of immigration for years. According to data published by Etnhologue, there are 422 languages spoken in the USA, 216 native and 206 from outside the country.

As you might expect, the most widely spoken language in the USA is English. 78.2% of the population, almost 4 out of 5, speak English exclusively. In second place among the most spoken languages in the USA is Spanish, a language spoken by more than 41 million people, accounting for 13.% of the total. But in third place we find Cilnese including Mandarin, Cantonese and other types. In total there were 3.5 million Chinese speakers in the US in 2017, over 1% of the total population. But there are a large number of languages spoken. These include Arabic, Cohran, Russian, Hindi, Telugu, Urdu, Armenian, Greek and many others.

Source: Slate

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You may wonder what is the most spoken language in the world. This can be a bit difficult to know. First, we need to consider whether we only include native speakers or non native speakers as well? Also, do we include dialects? With that in mind, check out the top 100 most spoken languages in the world based on number of native speakers.

100. Konkani

Number of native speakers: 7.4 million

Percentage of world population: 0.11%

Spoken mostly in: India

99. Balochi

Number of native speakers: 7.6 million

Percentage of world population: 0.11%

Spoken mostly in: Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan

98. Belarusian

Number of native speakers: 7.6 million

Percentage of world population: 0.11%

Spoken mostly in: Belarus and Russia

97. Xhosa

Number of native speakers: 7.6 million

Percentage of world population: 0.11%

Spoken mostly in: South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Lesotho

96. Mossi

Number of native speakers: 7.6 million

Percentage of world population: 0.11%

Spoken mostly in: Burkina Faso, Benin, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Mali, and Togo

95. Hiligaynon/Ilonggo (Visayan)

Number of native speakers: 8.2 million

Percentage of world population: 0.12%

Spoken mostly in: Philippines

94. Uyghur

Number of native speakers: 8.2 million

Percentage of world population: 0.12%

Spoken mostly in: Xinjiang, China