Cultured Kids of Madison 
Language News & Trivia
Speaking More Than One Language Could Sharpen Your Brain
Time Magazine by Alexandra Sifferlin
Babies Cry With an Accent, Study Finds
Newborns Cry With the Melody of Their Parent’s Language By LAUREN COX
ABC News Medical Unit
Nov. 5, 2009
Top 20 Languages by Population
|
Rank |
Language |
Speakers(millions) |
|
1 |
Chinese |
1,197 |
|
2 |
Spanish |
406 |
|
3 |
English |
335 |
|
4 |
Hindi |
260 |
|
5 |
Arabic |
223 |
|
6 |
Portuguese |
202 |
|
7 |
Bengali |
193 |
|
8 |
Russian |
162 |
|
9 |
Japanese |
122 |
|
10 |
Javanese |
84.3 |
|
11 |
German |
83.8 |
|
12 |
Lahnda |
82.7 |
|
13 |
Telugu |
74.0 |
|
14 |
Marathi |
71.8 |
|
15 |
Tamil |
68.8 |
|
16 |
French |
68.5 |
|
17 |
Vietnamese |
67.8 |
|
18 |
Korean |
66.4 |
|
19 |
Urdu |
63.4 |
|
20 |
Italian |
61.1 |
A 2013 Census of the top 20 languages by population shows the importance of Mandarin and Spanish language abilities.
Lewis, M. Paul, Gary F. Simons, and Charles D. Fennig (eds.). 2013. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Seventeenth edition. Dallas, Texas: SIL International. Online version: http://www.ethnologue.com.