Wuo Posted June 17, 2009 Share Posted June 17, 2009 English is only the third most popular language in the world Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Qwpzxjor1 Posted June 17, 2009 Share Posted June 17, 2009 English is only the third most popular language in the world Really?.. I'm assuming you're grouping all the types of chinese together and having Chinese as one of the 2 then?.. what's the other? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted June 17, 2009 VT Supporter Share Posted June 17, 2009 In terms of native language I'd imagine that was correct. But out any language spoken (as in counting people who speak english as well as their native language) surely English must be number one? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fastzombies Posted June 17, 2009 Share Posted June 17, 2009 an ostrich's eyeball is bigger than it's brain. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Qwpzxjor1 Posted June 17, 2009 Share Posted June 17, 2009 Even as native language I find it hard to believe English isn't number 1. You have the United Kingdom, USA, South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, all with English as native language... unless you're breaking English down into English, American English, South Africa, Australian... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chindie Posted June 17, 2009 VT Supporter Share Posted June 17, 2009 Nedved has unique kneecaps. Instead of having his kneecaps made of a single part, his are in 3 bits, which is why he runs in a slightly funny fashion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villahero Posted June 17, 2009 Share Posted June 17, 2009 George Foreman has 4 sons...All of which are named George Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wainy316 Posted June 17, 2009 Share Posted June 17, 2009 George Foreman has 4 sons...All of which are named George I thought one was called mini grill? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Qwpzxjor1 Posted June 17, 2009 Share Posted June 17, 2009 Where is Wuo?.. I wanna know about this damn language thing.. That Nedved one is interesting though, I never knew that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOF Posted June 17, 2009 Moderator Share Posted June 17, 2009 You'd think Mandarin & Indian would be the top 2. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted June 17, 2009 VT Supporter Share Posted June 17, 2009 The current targetted ad at the bottom of the screen. Bizarre Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOF Posted June 17, 2009 Moderator Share Posted June 17, 2009 Aston Villa benefitted from more league own goals last season than in any other season in their history. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyh29 Posted June 17, 2009 Share Posted June 17, 2009 George Foreman has 4 sons...All of which are named George doesn't he also have a daughter called Georgia ? Edit : just wiki'd it he has 10 Children .. 5 called George , 1 called Georgetta , 1 called Freeda George ..the others are called Natalie, Leola & Michi Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheDon Posted June 17, 2009 Share Posted June 17, 2009 English is only the third most popular language in the world I'd be interested to see a source on this. By total speakers (which you'd have to use if judging "popular") English is by far number 1 with 1.8bn speakers, Chinese being second with 1.3bn, but that includes all dialects of Chinese. If you're going native speakers only, it's still 2nd behind Chinese. Many people try quoting Spanish as having more native speakers, but use old data (wikipedia for one shows Spanish as second, using the figures for native Spanish speakers in 1995, and native English speakers in 1984, I think anyone can see the huge problem with that). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyh29 Posted June 17, 2009 Share Posted June 17, 2009 I'd always heard the answer was Mandarin and that whilst English doesn’t have the most speakers, it is the official language of more countries than any other language Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Qwpzxjor1 Posted June 17, 2009 Share Posted June 17, 2009 Well, English would win on 'most countries' by a long way. Chinese/Mandarin is even a debatable one for most speakers as it has many many varieties... and before anyone says anything, it is NOT like comparing it to geordie and scouser... they are totally different languages... but they all descend from one language.. If we're counting all types of Chinese as one language, then you'd have to make a point for Latin, which gave birth to pretty much every European language, including English and Spanish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leviramsey Posted June 18, 2009 VT Supporter Share Posted June 18, 2009 The language rankings are subject to a lot of variation, depending on how one defines fluency, how dialects get broken down (for instance, American English nearly has more native speakers than all other dialects of English combined (about 275 million vs. 600 million)), etc. So if you go by the highest credibly published number of speakers, the table is: 1. English (1800 million) 2. Chinese [all dialects] (1300 million) 3. Hindustani [Hindi and Urdu being essentially the same language] (829 million) 4. French (600 million) 5. Arabic (480 million) 6. Spanish (450 million) 7. Russian (285 million) 8. Portuguese (235 million) 9. Bengali (230 million) 10. Indonesian/Malay (200 million) German (200 million) 12. Japanese (132 million) By taking a median of academically credible studies 1. Chinese [all dialects] (1036 million) 2. English (618 million) 3. Hindustani (487 million) 4. Spanish (376 million) 5. Arabic (285 million) 6. Russian (278 million) 7. Indonesian/Malay (234 million) 8. French (213 million) 9. Bengali (207 million) 10. Portuguese (203 million) 11. Japanese (127 million) 12. German (91 million) By native speakers, it goes as follows: Mandarin Chinese: 873 million English: 508 million Hindi: 497 million Spanish: 438 million Portuguese: 236 million Arabic: 206 million Bengali: 171 million Russian: 145 million Japanese: 122 million French: 113 million German: 95 million Telugu: 94 million Punjabi: 88 million Korean: 78 million Tamil: 78 million Wu: 77 million Javanese: 76 million Marathi: 68 million Vietnamese: 67 million Italian: 62 million Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leviramsey Posted June 18, 2009 VT Supporter Share Posted June 18, 2009 And of course, if you go the furthest and look at language families by native speakers, you get: 1. Indo-European 2. Sino-Tibetan 3. Niger-Congo 4. Afro-Asiatic 5. Austronesian 6. Dravidian 7. Altaic 8. Austro-Asiatic 9. Tai-Kadai 10. Japonic (though Japanese is considered by some linguists to be Altaic) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted June 18, 2009 VT Supporter Share Posted June 18, 2009 The current targetted ad at the bottom of the screen. Bizarre Presumably in the interests of balance, I now have one for an Arab dating site. WTF? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glarmorgan Posted June 18, 2009 Share Posted June 18, 2009 The current targetted ad at the bottom of the screen. Bizarre This is a crappy ad. As far as I know (and I am a native Hebrew speaker...) there is not much difference between modern-day Hebrew and Biblical Hebrew... And beside, who speaks Biblical Hebrew?! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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