What is the most popular language in the world?

mk2norwich

The most widely spoken language, if that's what you mean, is Mandarin Chinese, with an estimated 874 million speakers. (Source: The Top 10 of Everything, 2003 edition). Feb 15 03, 7:30 PM

mochyn

As a first language mandarin but if you include second language english by far as I said in my question earlier in the week Feb 15 03, 7:36 PM

sequoianoir

I agree with mochyn that English is the most used/popular/spoken overall. Especially given that it is the second language of almost every country in the world and is the language of science and technology. However, the question doesn't specify that it is necessarily a spoken language. As far as a written communication language is used I think this also has to be English. Any votes for a computer programming language? Obviously a PC compatible one! Basic? C ? Feb 15 03, 7:57 PM

triviaaddict

From infoplease.com- The 10 most widely SPOKEN languages in the world are: 1.Chinese (Mandarin) 1,075,000,000 2.English 514,000,000 3.Hindustani 496,000,000 4.Spanish 425,000,000 5.Russian 275,000,000 6.Arabic 256,000,000 7.Bengali 215,000,000 8.Portuguese 194,000,000 9.Malay-Indonesian 176,000,000 10.French 129,000,000 Source: Ethnologue, 13th Edition and other sources Feb 15 03, 8:25 PM

rhiannon1983

Actually, the language of science and technology happens to be French. (I would like to thank my HS French teacher and her endless knowledge) Feb 16 03, 7:06 AM

Esperanto rules

Languages spoken by the most people (Native speakers only) Chinese Mandarin 874 million Hindi 366 million English 341 million Spanish 323 million Bengali 207 million Portuguese 176 million Russian 167 million Japanese 125 million German 100 million Korean 78 million French 77 million Chinese, Wu 77 million Javanese 75 million Chinese. Yue 71 million www.populationweb.com/est/languages/ Feb 16 03, 12:12 PM

sequoianoir

http://www.calus.org/articles/communications/0002.htm Re Language of Science and Technology - Quote: There are two reasons why English is almost certainly going to be the world language of the future, even though two other languages, Mandarin Chinese and Spanish, have more native speakers than English. The first, and major, reason is that English became the main language of science and technology at about the turn of the century. At that time it was possible that German might have taken the lead, taking over from English and French but, by this time, the Americans were already beginning to forge ahead as the major industrial nation and thus, as a consequence, the progenitor of most scientific papers and technological know-how. The second reason is a consequence of the first in that English is now not only the language of science and technology but also of all the cultural and managerial offshoots that occurred during the remainder of the twentieth century, such as the media, telecommunications, multinational corporations, international freight and air transport, and international tourism, banking, politics and sports. Most spoken language worldwide: The result of all this is that the global status of English has nothing to do with the number of people who speak it as a native language -- a mere 300 million -- but of the other billion who speak English as a second language and of a further billion or more who are likely to do so well within a generation. Feb 16 03, 7:07 PM