Which are the most widely spoken languages in the world? Some, such as English and Spanish seem obvious, but others may surprise you. Around 7,139 languages are spoken in the world, 90% of which are used in communities of less than 100,000 people, such as tribes or dialects within certain populations.
What Is Means to Be Trilingual. Being trilingual means that you speak three languages with general fluency. Some estimates put the total of the world's trilingual speakers at just over 1 billion people. That's 13% of everyone on Earth!
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.
Ever wondered what the most widely spoken languages are in the world? Although there are currently more than 7,000 languages, more than half of the world's population speak 23 of them only.
If you speak more, you may be considered a polyglot. Polyglots are certainly rare and interesting people: only about 3% of the world's total population can speak four or more languages.
Whilst 1.4% say they can fluently speak 4 languages. And 0.1% say they're able to speak 5 or more languages fluently!
Co-author Professor Lindell Bromham said that of the world's 7,000 recognized languages, around half are currently endangered: “We found that without immediate intervention, language loss could triple in the next 40 years. And by the end of this century, 1,500 languages could cease to be spoken.”
Kawishana is the rarest language in the world.
Bilingual – Two different languages. Trilingual – Three different languages. Polyglot – (Three)/Four+ different languages. Hyperpolyglot – Six+ different languages.
A person who can speak four or more languages is multilingual. 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.
Across multiple sources, Mandarin Chinese is the number one language listed as the most challenging to learn. The Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center puts Mandarin in Category IV, which is the list of the most difficult languages to learn for English speakers.
Yet is is no match for a country of just 7.6m inhabitants in the Pacific Ocean: Papua New Guinea. There are nearly 850 languages spoken in the country, making it the most linguistically diverse place on earth.
You cannot help but be impressed when you meet someone who is able to speak several languages. It is already impressive when a person can speak two or three languages, but when an individual can speak four or more, then it is something amazing.
1. Chinese — 1.3 Billion Native Speakers. Numbers vary widely — Ethnologue puts the number of native speakers at 1.3 billion native speakers, roughly 900 million of whom speak Mandarin — but there's no doubt it's the most spoken language in the world.
Although languages have always become extinct throughout human history, they are currently dying at an accelerated rate because of globalization, mass migration, cultural replacement, imperialism, neocolonialism and linguicide (language killing).
A language becomes dormant or extinct when no one can speak it anymore. It becomes doomed when the latest generation of children no longer speak the language. From that point, the last fluent speakers of the language, in their late teens or early twenties, give the language about 75 more years of life.
Of the world's 6,500 living languages, around half are expected to die out by the end of this century, according to Unesco. Just 11 are spoken by more than half the earth's population, so it is little wonder that those used by only a few are being left behind as we become a more homogenous, global society.
Some people can speak more than five languages, and they are known as polyglots. They are less than one percent of the population. Hyperpolyglots are fluent in more than 12 languages, and they are sporadic to find. It means that there are people who speak more than 12 languages in the world.
Indeed, a surprising proportion of them are “hyperglots”, like Keeley and Krasa, who can speak at least 10 languages. One of the most proficient linguists I meet here, Richard Simcott, leads a team of polyglots at a company called eModeration – and he uses about 30 languages himself.
In theory, children can learn an unlimited number of languages. However, in reality, experts recommend that a child should spend approximately 20% to 30% of their waking hours on attaining conversation fluency in any language. As such, the maximum number of languages your child should be learning at a time is three.