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Top 100 Languages by Population
<In European Union the status is also different:
1. English, the most studied language
2. German, very studied in Central Europe.
3. French, very studied in Western Europe
4. Spanish, very studied in Western Europe.
5. Russian, very studied in Eastern Europe.
6. Italian, very studied in Slovenia, Austria and Malta. It will be 5th in the near future.
PD. Russian WAS compulsory in Eastern Europe, but not now. So, it will decline in the near future. >
Actually I would like it to be updated in the near future as the following result,
1. English, the most studied language
2. German, very studied in Central Europe.
3. French, very studied in Western Europe
4. Italian, very studied in Western and Southern Europe.
5. Spanish, very studied in Western Europe.
6. Russian, very studied in Eastern Europe.
At this moment Italian is very studied also in Eastern Europe: Croatia, Romania, Albania, Montenegro, Slovenia, ecc. bur there are not statistics.
1. English---英语
2. German---德语
3. French--- 法语
4. Italian---意大利语
5. Spanish---西班牙语
6. Russian---俄语
<Sorry, but the info is official and very clear, and there are OFFICIAL STATS:
4. Spanish 6% second users
5. Russian 6% second users
6. Italian 3% second users.>
Whether a language is important/usefule or not, actually it does not depend on how many population speak it as native language, it also depends on its National Power, Developed Economy, Advanced Technology, Cultural Prestige, and then the last factor is Population. Official statistics would not be the only standard for us to judge the importance of languages.
You are partially wrong, Jiajia.
It not only depends on native speakers. It depends also on second language speakers (as above) and total speakers.
Anyway, a language must be spoken by a large population. This factor shouldn't be underestimated.
The last factor can't be population. Dutch is important? Swedish is important? Norwegian is important? No, of course.
Which are the official languages of the United Nations? Chinese, English, Spanish, Arabic, Russian and French. They are the most spoken world languages (only Hindi is not in the list).
What is cultural prestige? That is a very subjective factor. It can't be considered. For instance, Swedish has an important prestige in Northern Europe, and it is not a world language.
There are also 2 important factors, in my opinion: economic importance and countries where the language is spoken.
The economic power shoudn't be overestimated. Japanese is an important world language? No, and it is the second most powerful country, after USA.
So, you can see the 3 lists:
Most spoken languages: Chinese, English, Hindi, Spanish, Arabic.
Economic power (Estimated, 2010): English, Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, German
Countries: English, French, Spanish, Arabic, Russian.
In my opinion, a world language should be important in all of them, or 2, at least.
Mandarin Chinese (my native language) is the most spoken language in the world, it has more than 1300,000,000 population, has Mandarin already been the most important language so far? No, unfortunately not. And India has over 700,000,000 population, it's just second to China, but has Hindi language ever played an important role to the world? No, absolutely not. And Arabic world also has a great deal of population, but who cares? I heard that only a few talents, who is able to speak Arabic very well, can meet the actual demand of internation affairs, so they usually earned much better salary due to their special ability, it's all, it does not mean Arabic is a necessary language, it would be of some importance only when they need to speak Arabic in the special time such as War, Trading, or anything else. For example, China has more than 1300,000,000 population, please note that, this amount does not include Non-Chinese learners all over the world, do you think Spanish (Spain + Latin America = 400,000,000 population) has about 900,000,000 Non-Hispanic foreign learners to compared with China? The answer is NO, so I mean that, based on your viewpoint, perhaps the most important language would be Mandarin Chinese, and the second is Hindi? In this case, maybe you're partially wrong, too. hahahaha, thank you very much!
I said that the 3 factors are important.
So, the number of speakers is ONLY 1 factor or 33% of the power of a language, the other 2 factors, countries where is spoken and economic power of the language are 66% of the total.
See you the 3 lists (top ten):
1. Speakers: Chinese, English, Hindi-Urdu, Spanish, Arabic, Russian, Malay-Indonesian, Bengali, Portuguese and French.
2. Economic power (estimated, 2010): English, Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, German, French, Portuguese, Italian, Russian, Arabic.
3. Countries: English, French, Arabic, Spanish, Russian, Portuguese, German, Malay-Indonesian, Italian, Chinese.
According to these 3 lists, Chinese is an important language because has a lot of speakers (first), BUT ALSO because is very important economically (SECOND).
Spanish is an important language because has a lot of speakers (4th), is very important economically (4th) and is spoken in a lot of countries (4th). Spanish is spoken in Spain, Latin America, but also in USA.
Hindi is NOT an important language because is very spoken (3rd), but IT IS NOT in the top ten economically. In India, business is in English. THAT IS AN IMPORTANT DIFFERENCE WITH CHINESE AND SPANISH.
Arabic is less important because is very spoken (5th), but is not very important economically (10th). It is spoken in a lot of countries (3rd) and it is a second language for Muslim people around the World. So, it is less important than Chinese or Spanish, but more than Hindi.
In short, the importance of a language is an average among the 3 lists.
2010? can you read the future?
Spanish economic power? I never seen Spain or Mexico in the G8.
Your are "ipotesis".
You don't consider "prestige". French, German and Italian are prestigious languages, Spanish almost.
Spanish will be one of the most important languages (English, Spanish, Chinese and Arabic), more than French, German and Italian only for number of speakers. But will be a language without prestige.
<Spanish is an important language because has a lot of speakers (4th), is very important economically (4th) and is spoken in a lot of countries (4th). Spanish is spoken in Spain, Latin America, but also in USA.>
economically (4th)???
Spain + Latin America (except Brazil) = 4th in the world ?
You compared so many Hispanic countries to each single country such as Germany, Britain, France, or Italy? It's not correct.
I don't read the future. That is a report by Davis (2003). You can read it in "English next" ,page 62, David Graddol.
The GDP of all the Hispanic countries, including Hispanics in USA, make Spanish more important than French, for instance, mon ami.
It is very interesting another list with the top ten Internet languages:
English, Chinese, Spanish, Japanese, French, German, Arabic, Portuguese, Korean and Italian.
Oh! Sorry, mon ami! Another list where Chinese and Spanish are more important than French.
http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats7.htm
What is prestige, mon ami? French has more prestige than German or less? Italian more than Chinese or less? That is a subjective factor, mon ami.
Look this mon ami: www.wikipedia.org.
With 400.000.000 of speakers only "380.000 artÃculos". Spanish speakers are really lazy.
Ok. We can do it fast:
GDP Spanish language: 4.8
Spain: 1.4
Mexico: 0.9
Latin America: 1.2
Hispanics (USA): 1.3
GDP German language: 3.8
Germany: 3.2
Austria: 0.3
German Switzerland: 0. 3
GDP French language: 3.5
France: 2.5
Quebec: 0.5
French Belgium: 0.2
French Switzerland: 0.1
French Africa: 0.2
GDP Italian language: 2
Italy: 2
400.000.000 of Spaniards and only 4.8. Really lazy poor people.
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