Behold the nine languages with more than 100 million speakers

PatrickMadrid ^ | September 5, 2010 | Patrick Madrid

[NYer]

Wait. Before you click the link and see which they are, try to guess. Jot your guesses down in descending order from most number of speakers to least. See how close you get. As for me, I was surprised by one of them in particular.

Genesis 11:

And the earth was of one tongue, and of the same speech. And when they removed from the east, they found a plain in the land of Sennaar, and dwelt in it.

And each one said to his neighbour: Come let us make brick, and bake them with fire. And they had brick instead of stones, and slime instead of mortar: And they said: Come, let us make a city and a tower, the top whereof may reach to heaven; and let us make our name famous before we be scattered abroad into all lands.

And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of Adam were building. And he said: Behold, it is one people, and all have one tongue: and they have begun to do this, neither will they leave off from their designs, till they accomplish them in deed. Come, therefore, let us go down, and there confound their tongue, that they may not understand one another's speech.

And so the Lord scattered them from that place into all lands, and they ceased to build the city. And therefore the name thereof was called Babel, because there the language of the whole earth was confounded: and from thence the Lord scattered them abroad upon the face of all countries.

[NYer]

Something “fun” for your Monday evening :-)

[El Sordo]

From the very bottom of the list: http://www.barentsobserver.com/sami-languages-disappears.4749497-116321.html

[ROCKLOBSTER]

And the earth was of one tongue

So what language were they speaking?

[Tax Government]

Ig-Pay atin-Lay. Or maybe Eek-Gray.

[James C. Bennett]

[sinanju]

The last three were a surprise. I guess there Portuguese would include Brazil, Angola and Mozambique?

Didn’t know there were sufficient Japanese to put it in the top ten.

[pappyone]

Won ton

[Vigilanteman]

My guesses before peeking:

1. Mandarin Chinese
   
2. Arabic
   
3. Spanish
   
4. English
   
5. Russian
   
6. French
   
7. Japanese
   
8. Bahasa Indonesian
   
9. Tagalog/Filipino
   
10. Portuguese

I am certain that there are tribal languages in Africa such as Ibo and Bantu with comparably huge numbers of speakers, but many of these people would also speak one of the colonial languages as well.

[pappyone]

Pronounced: One tounge

[USMCPOP]

At least there are two of them. When I talk to myself, I’m all alone.

[x]

Didn’t know there were sufficient Japanese to put it in the top ten.

In 20 years there won't be. Maybe the same for Russian.

BTW, only 2 million speakers of Japanese as a second language in the world. 1) It must be a very tough language to learn. 2) There are opportunities if you can master it.

[BenKenobi]

English/French/German/Spanish/Russian/Mandarin/Japanese/Punjabi/Arabic/Portuguese.

[RedWhiteBlue]

I missed Bengali.

[allmendream]

I like how the Wiki article this blog is about mentions that English (#3 for native speakers) has as many as 1.8 billion speakers, i.e. one third of the world; the educated third.

WE ARE ROME.

[BenKenobi]

Missed Bengali/Hindi but I had Punjabi and German, German, which arguably has 100 million speakers.

Oh and it makes a big difference between NATIVE speakers, and otherwise.

[Ronin]

Interesting!

I got the top three right (although not in the right order), four, five and eight exactly right, and missed three.

I am intensely embarrassed to miss number 9 considering where I live!

[ml/nj]

300 Ways to Ask the Four Questions

[NYer]

Ig-Pay atin-Lay. Or maybe Eek-Gray.

I cast my vote for Aramaic, the language spoken by Jesus.

[Tax Government]

The Caucasian languages are very interesting to hear. Isolated for millenia; very distinctive sounds. Go to YouTube, start with keywords avaristan, dagestan, lezgin, chechen.