Aside from English, what (and why) are the other best languages in the world in terms of structure, construction, adaptability and all the other criteria....and also, Why is English considered to be among the top languages of the world?

kolchak

I don't know that there are 'best' languages. But I believe that the popularity and universality of English is due to several factors. First is the fact that English is the language of several of the world's richest and most influential countries. If you want to do business in these countries you learn English. Also English is rich and varied and always in a state of transformation. It has borrowed/stolen words from other languages freely, whereas a language (and culture) like French is killing itself by 'excluding' words from other languages that could enrich it. English is full of colorful words that can give you the EXACT meaning you seek, not just a 'close' approximation that you have to figure out by context or how the speaker wiggles his eyebrows. English is precise and expressive. Jul 30 02, 1:08 AM

Gnomon

English is not considered the top language. It is just a language, not any more adaptible than any other. But English is spoken by a very large number of people, which makes it useful. It also has the most words of any language. This makes it extremely useful. Jul 30 02, 7:27 AM

Friar Tuck

The fact that English has more words makes it more difficult for other people to understand. It would be so much simpler for everyone just to have to learn one word rather than ten meaning roughly the same thing. Sign language is simple and universal. Jul 30 02, 7:45 AM

Brainy Blonde

I wouldn't call any language best or worst. English is the second most spoken language in the world after Mandarin and one of the hardest to learn. Make that the third most spoken after Mandarin and Hindi/Urdu, and is spoken in more countries than any other. See: http://www.askmen.com/toys/top_10/45b_top_10_list.html http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0774735.html says Spanish is second and Hindi fifth. http://www.linguasphere.org/language.html has this to say - Including alternate (second language) as well as primary (mother-tongue) speakers, two languages reached approximately one billion (1,000,000,000) speakers by the end of the 20th century. These are Putonghua or 'Mandarin' Chinese, official language of the most populous nation on earth, and English, now the most widely used and studied language of the world. However, kolchak is correct. The movers and shakers of the world, and most world leaders speak English. English is also considered the international language of the skies. You cannot be a commercial pilot or air traffic controller in most countries if you don't speak English. See: http://comm.db.erau.edu/media2/pr/prerli.html Don't forget, when it comes to the more powerful countries in the world, most are English speaking. If an individual, company or country want to do business with those countries, they have to speak English. Jul 30 02, 9:59 AM

Barrow boy

Two important considerations are how easy are they to pronounce and how easy are they to learn (or maybe, how easy is the grammar). This was actually surveyed about three years back and out of the European languages Italian came first closely followed by Spanish. English was well down the list. Jul 30 02, 10:03 AM

tented

Speaking as an Englishman who struggles with other tongues I think it's main advantage is its lack of genders (masculine, feminine, neuter etc) which is what causes me the most trouble in 'foreign' tongues Jul 30 02, 10:22 AM

riotgrrl

The relative difficulty of learning a language is largely subjective. The complex exceptions to almost any rule in English provide more of a barrier to learners than the large vocabulary. Having a large variety of words in English allows greater use of nuance and permits complex ideas to be discussed more succinctly. However, everyday English probably requires no more vocabulary than any other language. Friar Tuck: Sign language is not universal. Each country has a different sign language. They are not especially 'simple', although often the relationship of signs to the object or concept they describe and logical grammar do combine to make sign languages easy to acquire. Aug 02 02, 12:07 AM