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No one is certain how many living languages there are in thte world, but it is likely that the number exceeds 5000. Each language is unique in that it has its own system of sounds, words, and structures, and yet almost all are realed wither closely or distantly to other lanagues found in the same part of the world. Language families Languages are classed in families containing related tongues. The languages of the largest family -- Indo-European -- are spoken by about 2.24 billion people, or about half the world's population. Based in South Asia and Europe, these languages have been take to many parts of the world by European colonists. The group includes all the langagues of Europe (except Finnish , Estonian, Lappish, Magyar and Basque) as well as the Iranian group of lanaguages and the Indic languages, including Gujarati, Marathi, Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Sindhi, Sinhalese, Rajasthani and Punjahi. Other families: Sino-Tibetan: Second in numerical importance with over 1 billion speakers, it includes Chinese with its many dialects, Thai, Burmese, and Tibetan. Black African: Includes three main families: Nilo-Saharan, Niger-Kordofanian, and Khoisan. Spoken by about 330 million speakers. Malayo-Polynesian: Includes languages of Indonesia, the Philippines, Hawaii, New Zealand, Madagascar and most other islands of the Pacific and Inidan oceans. About 233 million speakers. Dravidian: This family is spoken in southern India and parts of Sri Lanka. About 192 million people speak the languages in this family. Afro-Asian: Includes Arabic and Hebrew. Over 187 million persons speak languages in this family. Japanese and Korean: Form a family with more than 181 million speakers. Ural-Altaic: This includes Finnish, Hungarian, Mongol, Manchu, and Turkish. Over 110 million people speak the languages in this family. Mon-Khmer: Also known as Austro-Asiatic. It is found mostly in southeast Asia and parts of India. Includes over 70 million speakers. All Others: More than a 1000 languages -- many of which are not classified -- are spoken by Amerindian people (north and south), Inuit people, Siberian tribes, Indo-Pacific islanders, and Australian aborigines.
Mandarin (Chinese) or Putonghua is standardized Northern Chinese. It was converted to the Pinyin system of phonetic pronunciation in 1958. Spoken in China and by Chinese communities throughout Southeast Asia, including those in Singapore and Malaysia. Language family: IndoChinese. 910 million speakers; 820 million as a first language, making it the most widely spoken first language in the world. English evolved from Anglo-Saxon, it shows strong Norman-French and Latin influences. It is the first language in Australia, Canada, Caribbean Commonwealth countries, Ireland, New Zealand, UK and the USA. English is widely understood in Commonwealth and former Commonwealth nations, including nigeria, India, South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania, Malaysia, Ghana and Zimbabwe. Language family: Indo-European. 455 million speaker; 315 million as a first language. Hindustani (Hindi). Indo-European family. It is the main language of India. About 385 million speakers. Spanish (Castilian) evolved as a separate language in the 10th century and has been the most widely used language of Spain sicne the 13th century. It is spoken as the first language in Spain (except the Basque Country, Catalonia and Galicia) and in the Latin American countries except Brazil. Language family: Indo-European. 365 million speakers, 320 million asa first language. Great Russian (Indo-European family) is the foremost of langagues of Russia and is spoken as a second language by over 50% of the population of the former USSR. spoken by 290 million persons, 170 million as a first language. Arabic (Semitic-Hamitic family) dates from the 6th century, when it originated in the Arabian peninsula. It is spoken throughout North Africa and southwest Asia. 210 million speakers, 180 million as a first language. Bengali (Indo-European family) is the official language of Bengladesh and of the Indian state of West Bengal. 190 million speakers, 180 million as a first language.
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