| Major languages of the world | ||
| (Number of native speakers) | ||
| ||
| 1. | Mandarin Chinese | 836,000,000 |
| 2. | Hindi | 333,000,000 |
| 3. | Spanish | 332,000,000 |
| 4. | English | 322,000,000 |
| 5. | Bengali | 189,000,000 |
| 6. | Arabic | 186,000,000 |
| 7. | Russian | 170,000,000 |
| 8. | Portuguese | 170,000,000 |
| 9. | Japanese | 125,000,000 |
| 10. | German | 98,000,000 |
| 11. | French | 72,000,000 |
| 12. | Malay | 50,000,000 |
posted on Jan 23, 2009 6:41 AM ()