Languages spoken
A self-reported inventory of the languages a member can speak. It draws on linguistic demography rather than any single author, ranking languages by total speaker count (first- and second-language combined). It sorts people by the languages they actively use to communicate.
This is a factual demographic attribute, not a personality system; the list reflects the world's most-spoken languages by total speaker count, which shifts gradually over time. (Linguistic demography; ordering based on Ethnologue / contemporary speaker-count estimates (2020s))
Groups
- English — A West Germanic language and the most widely spoken second language worldwide, dominant in the United Kingdom, Ireland, North America, Australia, and as a global lingua franca.
- Mandarin Chinese — The Sinitic language with the most native speakers, spoken across mainland China and Taiwan and serving as the standard form of Chinese.
- Hindi — An Indo-Aryan language written in Devanagari, spoken mainly across northern India and one of India's two official languages at the union level.
- Spanish — A Romance language originating in Spain and spoken throughout most of Latin America, making it one of the world's most geographically widespread languages.
- Arabic (Modern Standard) — The standardized literary form of Arabic used across the Arab world and the Middle East and North Africa for formal writing, media, and education.
- Bengali — An Indo-Aryan language spoken in Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal, written in the Bengali-Assamese script.
- Portuguese — A Romance language spoken in Portugal, Brazil, and several countries in Africa such as Angola and Mozambique.
- Russian — An East Slavic language written in Cyrillic, spoken in Russia and widely used across the former Soviet states of Eastern Europe and Central Asia.
- Japanese — The national language of Japan, written with a mix of kanji and the kana syllabaries.
- Punjabi — An Indo-Aryan language spoken in the Punjab region spanning northwestern India and eastern Pakistan.
- German — A West Germanic language spoken mainly in Germany, Austria, and parts of Switzerland.
- Javanese — An Austronesian language spoken by people on the island of Java in Indonesia, with a large native-speaker population.
- Korean — The language of the Korean Peninsula, spoken in both South and North Korea and written in the Hangul alphabet.
- French — A Romance language spoken in France, parts of Belgium, Switzerland, and Canada, and widely across West and Central Africa.
- Telugu — A Dravidian language spoken mainly in the southern Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
- Marathi — An Indo-Aryan language spoken predominantly in the western Indian state of Maharashtra.
- Turkish — A Turkic language spoken mainly in Turkey and Cyprus, written in a Latin-based alphabet.
- Tamil — A Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, Sri Lanka, and Singapore, with one of the world's longest literary traditions.
- Vietnamese — The national language of Vietnam, written in a Latin-based script with diacritics.
- Urdu — An Indo-Aryan language closely related to Hindi, written in Perso-Arabic script and the national language of Pakistan.
- Italian — A Romance language spoken mainly in Italy, San Marino, Switzerland, and Vatican City.
- Persian (Farsi) — An Iranian language spoken in Iran (as Farsi), Afghanistan (as Dari), and Tajikistan (as Tajik).
- Gujarati — An Indo-Aryan language spoken mainly in the western Indian state of Gujarat.
- Polish — A West Slavic language and the official language of Poland in Central Europe.
- Ukrainian — An East Slavic language written in Cyrillic and the official language of Ukraine.
- Hausa — A Chadic language and major lingua franca of West Africa, especially northern Nigeria and Niger.
- Swahili — A Bantu language and widely used lingua franca across East Africa, including Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
- Thai — The national language of Thailand, written in its own Thai script.
- Dutch — A West Germanic language spoken in the Netherlands and northern Belgium (Flanders), and closely related to Afrikaans.
- Yoruba — A Niger-Congo language spoken mainly in southwestern Nigeria, Benin, and Togo.
- Indonesian/Malay — An Austronesian language standardized as Indonesian in Indonesia and as Malay in Malaysia, Brunei, and Singapore.
- Burmese — The official language of Myanmar (Burma), written in the rounded Burmese script.
- Tagalog/Filipino — An Austronesian language native to the Philippines and the basis of Filipino, the country's national language.
- Amharic — A Semitic language and the official working language of Ethiopia, written in the Ge'ez script.
- Pashto — An Iranian language spoken by the Pashtun people of Afghanistan and northwestern Pakistan.
- Kurdish — An Iranian language spoken by the Kurds across parts of Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Syria.
- Hebrew — A Semitic language and the official language of Israel, revived for everyday use in the modern era.
- Greek — An independent branch of the Indo-European family and the official language of Greece and Cyprus.
- Czech — A West Slavic language and the official language of the Czech Republic in Central Europe.
- Hungarian — A Uralic language unrelated to its neighbours and the official language of Hungary in Central Europe.
- Romanian — A Romance language spoken in Romania and Moldova, distinct from its Slavic-speaking neighbours.
- Zulu — A Bantu language and one of the most widely spoken official languages of South Africa.
- Somali — A Cushitic language spoken in Somalia and across the Horn of Africa, including parts of Ethiopia, Djibouti, and Kenya.
- Nepali — An Indo-Aryan language and the official language of Nepal, also spoken in parts of India and Bhutan.
- Sinhala — An Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Sinhalese people of Sri Lanka, written in its own Sinhala script.
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