Here you will find in-depth information about the
most spoken languages in the world. These are called world languages, global languages or international languages.
You will learn some interesting facts about the 12 world languages, how to say
"hello" and "thank you" in these languages
and the best ways to learn these and other languages.
WHAT IS A WORLD LANGUAGE?
The most important attribute of a world language is a large number speakers, both as a native language and as a
foreign language. World languages are thus the most spoken languages in the world.
Some also see the geographic distribution of a language as critical when determining if it is indeed a world language.
According to this theory, there are only 5 world languages:
English,
Spanish,
French,
Arabic and
Portuguese.
That is because only these languages are used as official languages in countries on different continents.
The international importance of a language is determined by how much this language is used as a lingua franca in international contacts, business, science and culture.
Since
Hindi,
Bengali,
Japanese and
Korean
are only rarely used internationally, they are generally not seen as world languages, despite their large number of speakers.
Wikipedia also has a good article about the world languages.