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A “living language” is simply one which is in wide use as a primary form of communication by a specific group of living people. The exact number of known living languages varies from 6,000 to 7,000. This depends on the precision of one’s definition of “language.” In particular, it is based on how one defines the distinction between languages and dialects. As of 2009, SIL Ethnologue cataloged 6909 living human languages. The Ethnologue establishes linguistic groups based on studies of mutual intelligibility. For this reason, it often includes more categories than more conservative classifications. For example, the Ethnologue classifies the Danish language, which most scholars consider a single language with several dialects, as two distinct languages (Danish and Jutish).
The Top Ten Living Languages
According to the Ethnologue, 389 (or nearly 6%) languages have more than a million speakers. These languages together account for 94% of the world’s population, whereas 94% of the world’s languages account for the remaining 6% of the global population.
Here is a table of the world’s 10 most spoken languages with population estimates from the Ethnologue (2009 figures).
At the top of the list is Mandarin Chinese, which is by far the most commonly spoken dialect of the Chinese language. Chinese is clearly a fast-growing language for international business, too.
In second place is Spanish, the primary language of Spain and of most Latin American countries.
English, whose native speakers are located in many countries throughout the globe, is not far behind Spanish for third place.
In fourth place are the Arabic languages, which dominate throughout the Middle Eastern countries.
In slots five and six are Hindi and Bengali. They are distinct but related languages of the Indian subcontinent whose combined total exceeds that of Spanish. For that reason, one could consider Hindi and Bengali for second place. And there are many other Indian languages besides.
And finally, in positions seven through ten, we find Portuguese, Russian, Japanese, and German respectively.
Source: Wikipedia – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language
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