【Discussion】most important languages

pluiepoco

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OOPS! I didn\t know you had one here on the smallest and biggest languages already fully at full swing!

Anyway for me personally the languages that matter most are as follows:

1) English - because it\s the world\s top language of modern technology, all the rest, as you said, I support what you said on English...

2) Arabic - because it\s a language of our religion (to me as a Muslim), like I said on other thread it used to be a main vehicle or engine of Middle East, Central Asia, North Africa, Indonesia and all those areas inhabited by Muslims.

3) Chinese - because it\s a language of our great neigbour it\s just another cultural axis. I wouldn\t want to sound like Bush in saying about axis of evil. I just would like to admit that the world is full of many axises (correct me here please with plural form of axis). They are doing pretty good in making more and more Chinese.

4) Russian - because it\s a language of different centre, I still bear many good memories with former USSR, we still speak it..., we still use it...

5) Turkish - it\s important to know Turkish for us because that is our only fully fledged closely related country. In the past history of Middle East and Central Asia culture was always three-fold: Turki-Farsi-Arabi...

6) Japanese - is a language of very high technology. Becoming great in their numbers and their weight.

7) French - it\s an important language its impact is felt throughout Europe in every corner. Including all menu\s written in French, well...all these...restaurants.

8) Persian - or Farsi like I said before it\s part of former three-fold flower of Islamdom. Language of such great ayatollahs of literature as Firdawsi, Rudaki, Hayyam so many poets etc.

9) Korean - is the only language that uses Hangul, a unique system of writing.

10) Spanish - this language is important because, so many latin americans speak it. Fidel Castro, Ugo Chaves, Che Gue Vara (please, correct me if I am wrong here...).

11) Hindustani - it\s a language, an heir of Sanskrit, that represents another great axis of the world\s culture. Sheer numbers, look at them, they make too many Indians, you know. I don\t know whether we should see two languages here Hindi and Urdu under blanket term? If we do then its weight becomes even greater.

12) Bahasa - is the language of Nusantara (Austronesian world), they are making more and more Indonesians. Of course, one would argue why to make them more and more, if we have so few islands left over. But that is another question, you know.

13) German - is important because there are so many Germans live in Europe, its population is the second in size after Russia. Germany is one of biggest and robust economies of the modern world. Impact of Germans was also great on world history.

14) Portuguese - is very important because they are making lots of Brazilians...And Brazilians produce coffee and too many football players. To be honest with you I can\t say much about Portugal.

Of course I would like to add few more or couple more like Ethiopian and Suahili - but I just can\t think of what to say about them. I have very poor knowledge about Africa, you know

pluiepoco

这是一个哈萨克人abu_duna的论述和参考：
论述：
[QUOTE=abu_dana] This is I think most reliable source from USA to my mind

People keep giving different numbers on different languages. What I also notice is that people keep confusing Indonesian, Malaysian and Javanese languages. This is essentially one language and it is called "Bahasa" meaning language. It\s like Arabic - it\s got separate dialects in 3-4 countries including Saltanat Brunei, Singapore...

Top 50 most widely spoken languages

I think 50 is kind of an overkill. If we count only those languages number of speakers of which exceed 50 million people. Then we come up with 22-23 languages.

I think if you speak these 22 languages, there should be no problems in understanding you. How does that idea grab you tenderly by your b.t?

My God. I didn\t know they speak Spanish in Algeria!???[/quote]

参考：

http://www2.ignatius.edu/faculty/turner/languages.htm
The World\s Most Widely Spoken Languages

Click here to see the full data from Comrie (1998), Weber (1997), and the Summer Institute for Linguistics (SIL) 1999 Ethnologue Survey as well as charts comparing the number of speakers of each language and the number of countries using each language.

What are the world\s most widely spoken languages?

This question is a very interesting one that has a rather complicated answer.  Estimates of how many people speak a language are quite general and can vary considerably.  For example, English estimates vary from 275 to 450 million, Spanish from 150 to over 300 million, Hindi from 150 to 350 million, and Russian from 150 to 180 million.

To further complicate matters, the definition of “speaker” can be vague.  Some surveys of languages give information on native speakers only.  Others count both native speakers and secondary speakers (those who use the language regularly or primarily even though it is not their native language).

Lastly, it is important to consider not only the population (number) of language speakers, but also the geographic distribution of these languages.  Some languages have relatively large populations of native speakers but are used almost exclusively in a few countries.  On the other hand, other languages have relatively small populations of native speakers but are used in many different countries as an official or national language.

The Summer Institute for Linguistics (SIL) Ethnologue Survey (1999) lists the following as the top languages by population:
(number of native speakers in parentheses)

Chinese* (937,132,000)
Spanish (332,000,000)
English (322,000,000)
Bengali (189,000,000)
Hindi/Urdu (182,000,000)
Arabic* (174,950,000)
Portuguese (170,000,000)
Russian (170,000,000)
Japanese (125,000,000)
German (98,000,000)
French* (79,572,000)
* The totals given for Chinese, Arabic, and French include more than one SIL variety.  See chart for full details.

The following list is from Dr. Bernard Comrie’s article for the Encarta Encyclopedia (1998):
(number of native speakers in parentheses)

Mandarin Chinese (836 million)
Hindi (333 million)
Spanish (332 million)
English (322 million)
Bengali (189 million)
Arabic (186 million)
Russian (170 million)
Portuguese (170 million)
Japanese (125 million)
German (98 million)
French (72 million)
The following list is from George Weber’s article “Top Languages: The World’s 10 Most Influential Languages” in Language Today (Vol. 2, Dec 1997):
(number of native speakers in parentheses)

Mandarin Chinese (1.1 billion)
English (330 million)
Spanish (300 million)
Hindi/Urdu (250 million)
Arabic (200 million)
Bengali (185 million)
Portuguese (160 million)
Russian (160 million)
Japanese (125 million)
German (100 million)
Punjabi (90 million)
Javanese (80 million)
French (75 million)
However, in terms of secondary speakers, Weber submits the following list:
(number of speakers in parentheses)

French (190 million)
English (150 million)
Russian (125 million)
Portuguese (28 million)
Arabic (21 million)
Spanish (20 million)
Chinese (20 million)
German (9 million)
Japanese (8 million)
Thus, if you add the secondary speaker populations to the primary speaker populations, you get the following (and I believe more accurate) list:
(number of speakers in parentheses)

Mandarin Chinese (1.12 billion)
English (480 million)
Spanish (320 million)
Russian (285 million)
French (265 million)
Hindi/Urdu (250 million)
Arabic (221 million)
Portuguese (188 million)
Bengali (185 million)
Japanese (133 million)
German (109 million)
The following is a list of these languages in terms of the number of countries where each is spoken.  The number that follows is the total number of countries that use that language (from Weber, 1997):

English (115)
French (35)
Arabic (24)
Spanish (20)
Russian (16)
German (9)
Mandarin (5)
Portuguese (5)
Hindi/Urdu (2)
Bengali (1)
Japanese (1)
The number of countries includes core countries (where the language has full legal or official status), outer core countries (where the language has some legal or official status and is an influential minority language, such as English in India or French in Algeria), and fringe countries (where the language has no legal status, but is an influential minority language in trade, tourism, and the preferred foreign language of the young, such as English in Japan or French in Romania).  For a complete breakdown of each and an accompanying chart, click here.

After weighing six factors (number of primary speakers, number of secondary speakers, number and population of countries where used, number of major fields using the language internationally, economic power of countries using the languages, and socio-literary prestige), Weber compiled the following list of the world\s ten most influential languages:
(number of points given in parentheses)

English (37)
French (23)
Spanish (20)
Russian (16)
Arabic (14)
Chinese (13)
German (12)
Japanese (10)
Portuguese (10)
Hindi/Urdu (9)
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http://www.photius.com/rankings/languages2.html

Rank, Countries2 Population3
language (in millions)
1. Chinese, Mandarin Brunei, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia, Philippines, Singapore, S. Africa, Taiwan, Thailand 1120
2. English Australia, Belize, Botswana, Brunei, Cameroon, Canada, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Fiji, The Gambia, Guyana, India, Ireland, Israel, Lesotho, Liberia, Malaysia, Micronesia, Namibia, Nauru, New Zealand, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Somalia, S. Africa, Suriname, Swaziland, Tonga, U.K., U.S., Vanuatu, Zimbabwe, many Caribbean states 480
3. Spanish Algeria, Andorra, Argentina, Belize, Benin, Bolivia, Chad, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Rep., Ecuador, El Salvador, Eq. Guinea, Guatemala, Honduras, Ivory Coast, Madagascar, Mali, Mexico, Morocco, Nicaragua, Niger, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Spain, Togo, Tunisia, United States, Uruguay, Venezuela. 332
4. Arabic Egypt, Sudan, ALgeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Lybia, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Jordan, Yemen, UAE, Oman, Iraq, Lebanon 235
5. Bengali Bangladesh, India, Singapore 189
6. Hindi India, Nepal, Singapore, S. Africa, Uganda 182
7. Russian Belarus, China, Estonia, Georgia, Israel, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Mongolia, Russia, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, U.S., Uzbekistan 180
8. Portuguese Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, France, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Portugal, São Tom

pluiepoco

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一日一句

Tu dis que tu aimes la nature et tu la pollues, 你说你爱自然，但你却搞污染，

Tu dis que tu aimes les fleurs et tu les coupes, 你说你爱花朵，但你却都剪掉，

Tu dis que tu aimes les animaux et tu les tues, 你说你爱动物，但你却全杀掉，

Alors quand tu dis que tu m\aimes, j\ai peur..."当你说你爱我，让我怎么不害怕...

http://marocains.net/viewtopic.php?t=260&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

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