Languages evolve over time. Currently, more than 7000 languages are spoken across the world. Out of these, some are about to become extinct, while some are spoken in some particular regions. Moreover, there are many languages that are widely spoken in more than one country. Interestingly, only 23 languages are used by half of the global population. Many businesses, especially language services provider platforms, cover important languages to assist your global growth. It’s important to know which are the most influential and most spoken languages so that businesses can cover them in order to become a globally recognized name.

Here, in this article, we will cover the 10 most spoken languages in the world.  Give it a read! 

English 

Belonging to a Germanic family, it is closely related to Dutch, Frisian, and German. Interestingly, over 1.35 billion people speak the English language across the world. Known as the lingua franca of international relations, business, and travel, it is certainly the most spoken language. Being spoken in the US. and other strong nations, English is predicted to be the most dominating language in the future as well.

Mandarin

Mandarin belongs to the Sino-Tibetan family and is related to the Cantonese, Burmese, and Tibetan languages.  Over 1.1 billion people speak the Mandarin language. Moreover, it is the official language of more than one country. These countries include Singapore and Taiwan alongwith China. Furthermore,  it is among the United Nations’ 6 official languages. Being a tonal language, it comprises over 50,000 characters, which makes it a very complex language to learn. It is the 2nd most spoken and influential language that can help grow your business fast.

Hindi

Belonging to the Indo-Aryan language family, the Hindi language is strongly influenced by Sanskrit. Moreover, it is closely related to Marathi, Bengali, Nepali, and Kashmiri. It’s India’s official language, and there are over 615 million Hindi speakers in the world. Also, people in other countries like Guyana, Fiji, and Nepal speak the Hindi language. Many companies providing global localization solutions also include Hindi.

Spanish 

Spanish, a romance language, belongs to an Indo-European subfamily. It is related to Romania, French, Italian, and Portuguese. More than 22 countries in 4 continents have Spanish as their official language. Moreover, there are around 543 million native Spanish speakers in the world. The rising popularity of the languages has made many LSPs and language services provider platforms include Spanish in their key languages. Furthermore, for English speakers, Spanish is the easiest language to learn.

Arabic

Arabic, an Afro-Asiatic language, is related to Aramaic, Hebrew, and Amharic languages. In addition to being the official language of Saudi Arabia and some other countries, different dialects of the language are spoken in around 24 different countries. Also, there are around 422 million speakers of the Arabic language. It’s the only language in the most spoken list that is written from right to left. Moreover, it is a powerful language, with a strong influence on some other languages including English, Portuguese, and Spanish.

French

This romance language is known as the language of love. It is related to Portuguese, Italian, and Spanish, and it is widely spoken in various parts of the globe. Around 280 people speak the French language. Furthermore, French has the status of official language in 29 countries on different continents. Thus, it’s a powerful business language as well.

Bengali 

Belonging to the Indo-Aryan family, Bengali is related to Nepali, Hindi, Marathi, and Punjabi. Along with being an official language of Bengal, it is widely used in India. Also, it is considered one of the most beautiful languages in the world. There are over 265 million people who speak this language. 

Russian

Russian is an East-Slavic language, and it is related to Belarusian and Ukrainian. Around 258 million people speak the Russian language, and it is the official language of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. 

Portuguese

Another romance language, Portuguese is related to Romanian, Italian, Spanish, and French. It is the official language of Brazil, Angola,  East Timor, Cape Verde, Macau, and  Equatorial Guinea. Over 250 million people speak the Portuguese language.  

Indonesian

This Austronesian language is related to Javanese, Malay, and Sundanese. With 199 million speakers in the world, Indonesian is the 10th most spoken language in the world. It is one of the very polite languages. Also, it is the official language of Malaysia. Like many other languages, this language also has a variety of dialects. 

Bottom Line

So, now you know which languages are more powerful and spoken by a majority of the world population. Most of the localization solution providers cover all these languages and help boost the global growth of big and small businesses. So in case you are planning to tap into international markets or learning one or more languages, make sure you choose any of these powerful languages.  Read More