There are anywhere from 5,000-10,000 different spoken languages in the world. Many of these languages share the same roots and are spoken by many people all over the world. Many are know and spoken by people not near their place of origin due to the spreading of the language through cultural diffusion. The following are the most widely spoken languages in the world. The list is in order from total number of first hand speakers.
1) Mandarin:873,000,000 speakers
With 1.051 billion total speakers mandarin is the most widely spoken language in the world. It is part of the Sino-Tibetan and Chinese families. It is the official language in The People’s Republic of China, Taiwan, and one of the four official languages of Singapore. It is also one of the 6 official languages of the United Nations.
2) Hindi:370,000,000
With 490 million total speakers Hindi is the second most widely spoken language in the world. It is an Indo-European, Western Hindi language. It is the official language of India and one of the official languages of Fiji. There are amny native dialects and select words used in Hindi but all follow the Standard Hindi pronciples. It is widely spoken in Pakistan as well and is the first language of many people there however, it has no official status there.
3) Spanish:350,000,000
With 490 million total speakers Spanish is the third most widely spoken language in the world. It is a romantic, Italic language and traces its roots to Latin. It is the official language in 20 countries;Colombia, Spain, Peru, Venezuela, Ecuador, Guatemala, Cuba, Bolivia, Honduras, El Salvador, Paraguay, Costa Rica, Panama, Equatorial Guinea, Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, and Uruguay. It too is one of the 6 official languages of the United Nations. The United States of America has the most Spanish speakers in it, whether first or second hand, other than the places where it is the official language.
4)English:338,000,000
With 510 million total speakers English is the fourth most widely spoken language in the world. English is a Western Germanic language however, it has borrowed many Latin based words. Making it easier for people learning Latin languages such as French, Spanish, and Portugese due to the high number of cognates, or words that mean the same and sound similar between languages. English is also one of the 6 official languages of the United Nations, it is also one of the official languages in The European Union, NATO, and Commonwealth of Nations. It is the single official language in The United States of America, The United Kingdoms, and Australia. It is also an official language in 50 other countries however it is not the only official language or the mainly spoken language. These countries include The Bahammas, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Sudan, Singapore, Rwanda, Phillipines, New Zealand, Pakistan, Madagascar, Ireland, India, Kenya, Jamaica, Fiji, Canada, Cameroon, etc.
5)Arabic:206,000,000
With 230 million speakers total Arabic is the fifth most wodely spoken language in the world. It is an Afro-Asiatic, Semitic language. It is most spoken in the Middle East and Northern Africa. It is the official language of 26 countries;Algeria, Bahrain, Chad, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. It is not the only official language in several of these countries. It is also one of the 6 official languages of the United Nations
Sources:
Vista Wide
Wikipedia
