Asia is home to nearly 5 billion people who speak over 2,300 different languages. This article examines the top 10 languages spoken on this large continent. We’ll look at how many people speak each language, where they’re spoken, and some interesting facts about each one.
What are the 10 Most Popular Asian Languages
1. Mandarin Chinese – 1.2 Billion Speaker
Mandarin is spoken by about 1.2 billion people, making it the most spoken language in Asia and the language with the most native speakers worldwide. It is the official language of China and Taiwan, as well as one of Singapore’s four official languages. People in China speak a variety of dialects, some of which differ significantly from Mandarin and can be considered their own language. However, Mandarin is China’s only official language and is spoken by more than 70% of the population.
Mandarin has about 50,000 characters, however, you just need to know about 2-3,000 to be considered fluent. It is also a tonal language, with four distinct tones that influence the meaning of a word. It’s a challenging language for English speakers to learn, yet knowing Mandarin can open doors in many fields, including business and diplomacy.
2. Hindi – 550 Million Speakers
India’s official languages are Hindi and English. It is primarily spoken in Bihar, Delhi, Haryana, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, and Uttar Pradesh in northern India. Large communities of Hindi speakers can also be found in Nepal, Mauritius, Fiji, and South Africa.
Because each letter of the Hindi script has its own sound, words are pronounced exactly as written. Many commonly used English words are derived from Hindi, including yoga, typhoon, nirvana, and khaki. Hindi has its own festival to commemorate the day it was designated as India’s official language. On September 14th, people commemorate Hindi Day.
3. Indonesian – 260 Million Speakers
More than 260 million people speak Indonesian, generally known as Bahasa Indonesia. Indonesia is one of the world’s most linguistically diverse countries, with over 700 languages spoken across the islands. Because of this diversity, Indonesian became the lingua franca or common language. Although more than 94% of Indonesians speak it, just 20% consider it their primary language!
4. Russian – 260 Million Speakers
Russian is spoken by around 260 million people. It is the official language of four nations: Russia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan, although it is also widely spoken in neighboring countries like as Ukraine, Georgia, and Azerbaijan.
Russian is Europe’s most widely spoken language. It’s a useful language to learn since it can span the geographical gap between Europe and Asia like Russia does. It’s also the second most used language on the internet, with 6% of all websites using it. Some of the most famous literary works written by Russian authors are War and Peace, Anna Karenina, Doctor Zhivago, and others.
5. Arabic – 230 Million Speakers
More than 20 countries use Arabic as their official language, including Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Egypt, and Lebanon. It stretches across a large geographical area, from northern Africa to the Middle East. Because of the distance, several dialects exist. Most Arabic speakers understand Modern Standard Arabic, although it is a bridging language that few people use on a daily basis. The most common dialect is Egyptian, which is understood in other Arabic-speaking nations.
Arabic is regarded as a difficult language to master for English speakers. It has an entirely different alphabet than Romance languages. It’s also written from right to left and in a cursive script, which may make distinguishing the individual letters challenging.
6. Bengali – 230 Million Speakers
Bengali is the official language of Bangladesh and is widely spoken in India’s northern provinces. Because Bengali is such an important language in India, the national anthem was initially written in Bengali. Bengali speakers are enthusiastic about their language and have campaigned to ensure that it remains an official language in Pakistan. UNESCO now commemorates this occurrence by designating February 21 as International Mother Language Day.
According to a UNESCO survey, it is the loveliest language in the world. It was given this appellation due to its easy pronunciation and great emotional expressions. The Bengali language lacks gender distinctions, making it easier for English speakers to learn.
7. Persian – 130 Million Speakers
Persian, commonly known as Farsi, has several other names. It is the official language of Iran (where it is known as Persian), Afghanistan (where it is known as Dari), and Tajikistan (where it is known as Tajik). Other countries where it is widely spoken include Uzbekistan, Bahrain, Iraq, Turkey, and Kuwait.
Persian is one of the world’s oldest living languages. Iran was known as Persia until 1935 when the government changed the name to Iran, which is the country’s name in Farsi. And, because of its historical ties to France, hundreds of French words are regularly used.
8. Japanese – 120 Million Speakers
Japanese, believe it or not, is not the official language of Japan! This is because Japan does not have an official language. Because of its proximity, many people believe that Japanese is developed from Chinese, yet it is a distinct language that was used orally until it was written down by experts using Chinese characters.
In Japanese, there are three major writing systems. Hiragana and katakana are Japanese alphabets, while kanji is a Chinese alphabet. A sentence may contain all three types of characters! Katakana is used to write several borrowed words from various languages. It becomes considerably more confusing when multiple levels of formality are employed when speaking Japanese. You don’t want to irritate anyone!
9. Punjabi – 100 Million Speakers
Punjabi, India’s third most prevalent language, is one of the country’s 22 scheduled languages. This means that it is protected, and the government will ensure that it is used and developed. Surprisingly, while Punjabi is the most widely used language in Pakistan, it is not recognized as an official language. Urdu and English are.
Because of the outflow from India and neighboring countries, Punjabi is now the third most spoken language in the United Kingdom and the fourth in Canada. It is one of the rare languages that has more than one script. It is available in Shahmukhi and Gurmukhi scripts.
10. Marathi – 99 Million Speakers
Marathi is primarily spoken in India. It is one of India’s 22 official languages and the official language of the states of Maharashtra and Goa.
It is an Indo-Aryan language, which means it is closely connected to Hindi, Bengali, Punjabi, Gujarati, and other languages. It is the oldest language in this group. It is derived from Sanskrit, and its grammar is comparable to that of Pali and Prakrit.
Source: thpttranhungdao.edu.vn/en/
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Source: thpttranhungdao.edu.vn/en/
