List of languages by number of native speakers

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For various estimates of the total speakers of the top dozen languages, see List of languages by total number of speakers.

Current distribution of human language families
For larger map, scroll towards end of article.

The following tables list languages with more than three million estimated native speakers, ordered by number of speakers.

Since the definition of a single language is to some extent arbitrary, some mutually intelligible idioms with separate national standards or self-identification have been listed together, including Hindi-Urdu; Indonesian and Malay; Croatian, Bosnian and Serbian; Punjabi; Tibetan, etc.

The primary estimates used for this list are those of SIL Ethnologue.¹ Other estimates will vary, and the numbers should be taken as no more than an indication of the rough order of magnitude of a linguistic community.

Figures are accompanied by dates the data was collected; for many languages, an old date means that the current number of speakers will be substantially greater. A range of dates means that the figure is the sum of data from more than one country and from different years.

1 More than 100 million native speakers
2 50 to 100 million native speakers
3 30 to 50 million native speakers
4 10 to 30 million native speakers
5 5 to 10 million native speakers
6 3 to 5 million native speakers
7 Other languages frequently cited as having more than 3 million speakers
8 Additional languages
9 See also
10 References
11 External links

More than 100 million native speakers

Language	Family	Native¹	Total¹	Other estimates	Rank
Mandarin	Sino-Tibetan, Chinese	845 million (2000)	1025 1025 million	One of the six official languages of the United Nations. All varieties of Chinese language: 1,200 million (2000)	1
Spanish (Castilian)	Indo-European, Romance	329 million (1986–2000)	0390 390 million	400 million native.² 500 million total (2009)³ One of the six official languages of the United Nations.	2
English	Indo-European, Germanic	328 million (2000–2006)	0 —	Approximately 375 million L1 speakers, 375 million L2 speakers, and 750 million EFL speakers. Totaling about 1.5 billion speakers.⁴ One of the six official languages of the United Nations.	3
Hindi-Urdu (Hindustani)	Indo-European, Indic	240 million (1991–1997)	0405 405 million (1999)	490 million total speakers.⁵	4
Arabic	Afro-Asiatic, Semitic	206 million (1999), 221 million, 232 million (206M is 'all Arabic varieties'; 221M is Arabic 'macrolanguage', not counting Hassaniya; 232M is sum of counts for all dialects)	0452 452 million (1999)	280 million native.⁶ One of the six official languages of the United Nations.	5
Bengali (Bangla)	Indo-European, Indic	181 million (1997–2001)	0250 250 million	Bangla is spoken by over 300 million people worldwide. ⁷ Wants to be an official language of the United Nations. ⁸	6–7
Portuguese	Indo-European, Romance	178 million (1998)	0193 193 million	220 million native, 240 million total.⁹ Ethnologue estimate misses ~12 million in Angola^{citation needed}	6–7
Russian	Indo-European, Slavic	144 million (2002)	0250 250 million	One of the six official languages of the United Nations.¹⁰	8
Japanese	Japonic	122 million (1985)	0123 123 million		9
Punjabi	Indo-European, Indic	109 million (2000) All varieties: Lahnda, Seraiki, Hindko, Mirpur	0 —		10

50 to 100 million native speakers

Language	Family	Native¹	Total¹	Other estimates
German	Indo-European, Germanic	90 million (standard German, 1990)	118 million	101 million native (2005: 82 million in Germany, 8 million in Austria, 5 million in Switzerland), 60 million second language in EU¹¹ + 5–20 million worldwide.
Javanese	Austronesian, Malayo-Polynesian	85 million (2000)	—
Wu (Shanghainese)	Sino-Tibetan, Chinese	77 million (1984)	—	90 million,¹² Shanghainese is not mutually intelligible with some other Wu dialects/languages.
Marathi	Indo-European, Indic	75 million (1997) (including Varhadi)	3 million L2	72 million (2001 census)¹³
Telugu	Dravidian	70 million (1997)	75 million	84.6 million (2011 census)¹³
Vietnamese	Austro-Asiatic, Viet–Muong	69 million (1999)	—	86 million total?^{citation needed}
French	Indo-European, Romance	68 million (2005)	120 million	128 million "native and real speakers" (includes 65 million French people¹⁴, 72 million "bilinguals"¹⁵. More than 200 million native and second language.¹⁶¹⁷ One of the six official languages of the United Nations.¹⁰
Korean	language isolate	66 million (1986)	—	72 million (2010 WA)
Tamil	Dravidian	66 million (1997)	74 million	61 million (2001 census)¹³^verify
Yue (Cantonese)	Sino-Tibetan, Chinese	56 million (1984)	—	70 million¹⁸
Turkish	Turkic, Oghuz	51 million (1987)	—	74 & 83 million (2005)¹¹ Turk-Azeri-Turkmen = 80 million (1987–2007) per Ethnologue figures.
Pashto	Indo-European, Iranian	50 million (2009)	—	50 to 60 million¹⁹²⁰²¹²²
Italian	Indo-European, Romance	—	62 million (no date)	Figure includes "bilinguals" who do not use standard Italian as their main language, who may account for nearly half the population in Italy

30 to 50 million native speakers

Language	Family	Native¹	Total¹	Other estimates
Min Nan (Amoy, Hokkien, Taiwanese)	Sino-Tibetan, Chinese	47 million (1984–1997)	—
Gujarati	Indo-European, Indic	46 million (1997)	—
Polish	Indo-European, Slavic	40 million (1986)
Persian	Indo-European, Iranian	39 million (1991–2000) incl. Dari, Tajik, Hazara	—	Data from Uzbekistan highly uncertain. 63 million (Encyclopedia of Orient)²³ 59 million 2009 CIA Factbook (Afghan Persian, Iranian Persian and Tajiki are considered dialects of one language);²⁴²⁵²⁶²⁷²⁸ ca. 60-70 million, as their mother tongue (2006 estimates).²⁹³⁰³¹³²³³
Bhojpuri	Indo-European, Indic	39 million (2007)	—
Awadhi	Indo-European, Indic	38 million (2001)	—	Often included in Hindi, but not in Hindi-Urdu. Separate literature.
Ukrainian	Indo-European, Slavic	37 million (1993)	—
Malay (Malaysian-Indonesian)	Austronesian, Malayo-Polynesian	37 million (2000)	180 million
Xiang (Hunanese)	Sino-Tibetan, Chinese	36 million (1984)	—
Malayalam	Dravidian	36 million (1997)	—
Kannada	Dravidian	35 million (1997)	44 million
Maithili	Indo-European, Indic	35 million (2000)	—
Sundanese	Austronesian, Malayo-Polynesian	34 million (2000 census)	—
Burmese	Sino-Tibetan, Tibeto-Burman	32 million (2000)	42 million	50-56 million total speakers, including 18 to 23 million as second language (Myanmar Language Commission)
Oriya	Indo-European, Indic	32 million (1997)	—	2001 Indian Census: 33,017,446.³⁴
Marwari	Indo-European, Indic	31 million (undated)	—	Sometimes included in Rajasthani. The sum of speakers of individual dialects is 23M (2001–2007).
Hakka	Sino-Tibetan, Chinese	30 million (1984)	—

10 to 30 million native speakers

Language	Family	Native¹	Total¹	Other estimate
Thai	Tai–Kadai, Tai	26 million (2000) 20M Central (Siamese) + 6M Northern	60 million (2001)	Divergent definitions of what constitutes "Thai".
Hausa	Afro-Asiatic, Chadic	25 million (1991)	40 million
Tagalog (Filipino)	Austronesian, Malayo-Polynesian	24 million (2000) (as Tagalog) 25 million (2007) (as Filipino)	—	Perhaps 90% of the population of 85 million can speak Tagalog.^{citation needed}
Romanian	Indo-European, Romance	23 million (2002)	—	The Latin Union reports 28 million speakers for Romanian, out of whom 24 million are native speakers of the language³⁵
Dutch	Indo-European, Germanic	22 million (2007) 27M incl. 5M Afrikaans	(+ 10 million Afrikaans)	25 million¹¹³⁶
Gan	Sino-Tibetan, Chinese	21 million (1984)	—	48 million³⁷^{Cannot verify}
Sindhi	Indo-European, Indic	21 million (2001)	—	(significant L2 speakers?)^{citation needed}
Uzbek	Turkic, Uyghur	20 million (1995)	—	Population has grown substantially since 1995, but figures are exaggerated to hide Persian/Tajik population.
Azerbaijani	Turkic, Oghuz	20 million (2001–2006) 22 million including Qashqai	28 million	Data from Iran highly uncertain. CIA: 26 million native (2010).³⁸
Rajasthani	Indo-European, Indic	20 million (2000–2003)	—	Dominant variety is Malvi
Lao–Isan	Tai–Kadai, Tai	19 million (1983–1991)	20 million
Yoruba	Niger–Congo, Volta–Niger	19 million (1993)	21 million
Igbo	Niger–Congo, Volta–Niger	18 million (1999)	—	18–25 million³⁹
Northern Berber	Afro-Asiatic, Berber	15–22 million (Total of Central Atlas Tamazight, Riff, Shilha, Kabylian, Shawia, others.)	—
Amharic	Afro-Asiatic, Semitic	17.5 million (1994)	22 million	^{need updated fig.} Significant L2 speakers.
Oromo	Afro-Asiatic, Cushitic	17 million (1994)	—	30 million ethnic Oromo. Significant L2 speakers.
Chhattisgarhi	Indo-European, Indic	17.5 million (2002)	—	Frequently counted as "Hindi"
Assamese	Indo-European, Indic	16.8 million (2000)	—	Many L2 speakers^{citation needed}
Kurdish	Indo-European, Iranian	16 million (1980–2004)	—	≈35 million ethnic Kurds ca. 2010, not all of whom speak Kurdish
Serbo-Croatian (Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian)	Indo-European, Slavic	16 million	—
Sinhalese	Indo-European, Indic	16 million (2007)	18 million
Cebuano	Austronesian, Malayo-Polynesian	15.8 million (2000)	—	Significant L2 speakers
Rangpuri	Indo-European, Indic	≈ 15 million (2007)	—
Malagasy	Austronesian, Malayo-Polynesian	15 million (2006)	—
Khmer	Austro-Asiatic, Mon–Khmer	15 million (2006)	16 million
Sotho–Tswana	Niger–Congo, Bantu	15 million (2006)	—	Tswana, Southern Sotho, and the various lects lumped under 'Northern Sotho' are mutually intelligible
Nepali	Indo-European, Indic	14 million (2001)	—	As the national language of Nepal, the number total speakers is closer to 32 million.
Rwanda-Rundi	Niger–Congo, Bantu	14 million (1986–1998)		Given the populations of Rwanda and Burundi, the 2010 figure is likely 23 million native.
Somali	Afro-Asiatic, Cushitic	14 million (2006)	—
Madurese	Austronesian, Malayo-Polynesian	14 million (2000)
Haryanvi	Indo-European, Indic	13 million (1992)		Frequently counted as "Hindi"
Fula (Fulani, Fulfulde, Pulaar)	Niger–Congo, Senegambian	13 million (1991–2007) (all varieties)	—	Significant L2 speakers
Bavarian	Indo-European, Germanic	13 million (2005)	—	Listed figure of 13.26 spuriously precise
Magahi	Indo-European, Indic	13 million (2002)		Bihari, and so sometimes counted as "Hindi"
Greek	Indo-European, Greek	13 million (2002)	—
Chittagonian	Indo-European, Indic	13 million (2006)		sometimes considered a dialect of Bengali, but not mutually intelligible
Deccan	Indo-European, Indic	12.8 million (2000)		Perhaps the same as the Dakhini "dialect" of Urdu
Hungarian	Uralic, Ugric	12.5 million (2001)	—
Catalan (Valencian)	Indo-European, Romance	11.5 million (2006)	15 million
Shona	Niger–Congo, Bantu	10.8 million (2000) (Shona proper)	11.6 million	15 million native (2000) including Ndau, Manyika, etc.
Min Bei	Sino-Tibetan, Chinese	10.3 million (1984)	—
Zulu	Niger–Congo, Bantu	10.3 million (2006)	26 million
Sylheti	Indo-European, Indic	10 million		Similar to Bengali. Ethnologue figure of 10.3 million spuriously precise.

5 to 10 million native speakers

Language	Family	Native¹	Total	Other estimates
Czech	Indo-European, Slavic	9.5 million (2001)	—	15 million Czech-Slovak
Kanauji	Indo-European, Indic	9.5 million (2001)	—	Generally considered Hindi
Bulgarian	Indo-European, Slavic	9.1 million (1986)	—	11.2 million Bulgarian-Macedonian
Min Dong (Fuzhou)	Sino-Tibetan, Chinese	8.6 million (2000)	—
Lombard	Indo-European, Romance	9.1 million (2000)	—
Uyghur	Turkic, Uyghur	8.9 million (2000)	—
Chewa (Nyanja)	Niger–Congo, Bantu	8.7 million (2001)	—
Belarusian	Indo-European, Slavic	8.6 million (2001)	—
Kazakh	Turkic, Kypchak	8.3 million (1979)	—
Swedish	Indo-European, Germanic	8.3 million (1998)	—
Akan (Twi, Fante)	Niger–Congo, Kwa	8.3 million	9.3 million	10 million native, ≈20 million total ⁴⁰
Makuwa (Lomwe)	Niger–Congo, Bantu	8.0 million (2006) (incl. Lomwe/West Makua)	—
Tatar-Bashkir	Turkic, Kypchak	7.9 million (2002)	—
Bagheli	Indo-European, Indic	7.9 million (2004)	—	Generally considered Hindi
Xhosa	Niger–Congo, Bantu	7.8 million (2006)	—
Haitian	French creole	7.7 million (2001)	—
Konkani	Indo-European, Indic	ca. 7.6 million (2001)	—
Albanian	Indo-European, isolate	7.5 million (1989–2007)	—
Gikuyu	Niger–Congo, Bantu	7.2 million (undated)	—
Neapolitan (Calabrese)	Indo-European, Romance	7.0 million (1976)	—
Ilokano	Austronesian, Malayo-Polynesian	7.0 million (2000)	—	significant L2 use
Balochi	Indo-European, Iranian	7.0 million (1998)	—
Southern Quechua	Quechuan	6.9 million (1987–2002)	—
Batak	Austronesian, Malayo-Polynesian	6.8 million (1991–2000) (all varieties)	—
Turkmen	Turkic, Oghuz	6.6 million (1995–1997)	—
Mossi-Dagomba	Niger–Congo, Gur	6.4 million (1991–2003)	—	Does not include Frafra.
Armenian	Indo-European, isolate	6.4 million (?–2001)	—
Sukuma-Nyamwezi	Niger–Congo, Bantu	6.4 million (2006)	—
Tshiluba (Luba-Kasai)	Niger–Congo, Bantu	6.3 million (1991)	7.0 million
Santali	Austro-Asiatic, Munda	6.2 million (1997)	—
Venetian	Indo-European, Romance	≈ 6.2 million (2000–2006)	—	Incl. ≈ 4M in Brazil.
Kongo	Niger–Congo, Bantu	≈ 6 million (?–2007)	≈ 11 million	Figures are only approximate.
Hiligaynon	Austronesian, Malayo-Polynesian	5.8 million (2000)	—	Significant L2 use.
Tigrinya	Afro-Asiatic, Semitic	5.8 million (1994–2006)	6.0 million
Mongolian	Mongolic	5.7 million (1982–1995)	—	Some L2 use.
Bhili (Wagdi, etc.)	Indo-European, Indic	5.6 million (1998–2007) (all varieties)	—
Danish	Indo-European, Germanic	5.6 million (2007)	—
Minangkabau	Austronesian	5.5 million (2007)	—
Kashmiri	Indo-European, Indic	5.6 million (undated)	—	data apparently post-2000
Hebrew	Afro-Asiatic, Semitic	5.3 million (1998)	—	Number is L1 use, not nec. native. Significant L2 use.
Finnish	Uralic, Finnic	5.1 million (1993)	—
Slovak	Indo-European, Slavic	5.0 million (2001)	—	See Czech above.
Afrikaans	Indo-European, Germanic	4.9 million (2006)	15.2 million	See Dutch above.
Guarani	Tupi	4.9 million (1995)	—

3 to 5 million native speakers

Language	Family	Native¹	Total	Other estimates
Mandingo (Maninka)	Mande	4.8 million (1986–2006)	—	L2 use.
Sicilian	Indo-European, Romance	4.8 million (2000)	—
Norwegian	Indo-European, Germanic	4.6 million (no date)	—	4.7 million (2006, Statistics Norway)
Bikol	Austronesian, Malayo-Polynesian	4.6 million (2000) (all varieties)	—	L2 use.
Bambara (Malinke, Jula)	Mande	≈ 4.5 million (1990–1995)	—	Widespread as L2, over 10 million
Southern Thai	Tai–Kadai, Tai	4.5 million (2006)	—
Dholuo (Luo proper)	Nilo-Saharan, Eastern Sudanic, Nilotic	4.4 million (undated)	—	(data apparently after 2000)
Georgian	Kartvelian	4.3 million (1993)	—
Kituba	Kikongo-based creole	4.2 million (1990)	5 million	Widely used as L2
Kanuri (Kanembu)	Nilo-Saharan, Saharan	≈ 4.2 million (1985–2006)	≈ 4.8 million	3 of the 4.2 M is a rough estimate from 1985
Wolof	Niger–Congo, Senegambian	4.2 million (2006)	—	Significant L2 use.
Ganda (Luganda)	Niger–Congo, Bantu	4.1 million (2002)	≈ 5 million (1999)
Umbundu (South Mbundu)	Niger–Congo, Bantu	≈ 4 million (1995)	—	L2 use.
Kamba	Niger–Congo, Bantu	4.0 million (undated)	4.6 million	Data likely after 2000.
Dogri (Kangri)	Indo-European, Indic	3.8 million (1996–1997)	—
Tsonga	Niger–Congo, Bantu	3.7 million (2006)	—
Konkani	Indo-European, Indic	3.6 million Goan Konkani (2000) ≈ 7.6 million all varieties	—	There is debate over whether Maharashtra Konkani is actually Konkani or Marathi
Luyia	Niger–Congo, Bantu	3.6 million (1989)	—	Scope of language has been changed, but without complete data available.
Bemba	Niger–Congo, Bantu	3.6 million (2001)	—	Significant L2 use.
Buginese	Austronesian, Malayo-Polynesian	≈ 3.5 million (1991)	≈ 4 million
Efik (Ibibio–Efik)	Niger–Congo, Cross River	(≈ 3½ million, 1990–1998) (incl. Anaang)	(≈ 5½ million)	Ethnologue has rescinded its data for Ibibio.
Acehnese	Austronesian, Malayo-Polynesian	3.5 million (2000)	—	L2 use.
Balinese	Austronesian, Malayo-Polynesian	3.3 million (2000)	—	3.9 million (2001 Johnstone and Mandryk)
Mazanderani–Gilaki	Indo-European, Iranian	3.3 million (1993)	—
Shan	Tai–Kadai, Tai	3.3 million (2001)	—
Lithuanian	Indo-European, Baltic	3.2 million (1998)	—
Galician	Indo-European, Romance	3.2 million (1986)	—	Portuguese and Galician are dialects.
Jamaican Creole	English creole	3.2 million (2001)	—
Shan	Tai–Kadai, Tai	3.2 million (2001)	—
Ewe	Niger–Congo, Kwa	3.1 million (1991–2003)	3.6 million
Piemonteis	Indo-European, Romance	3.1 million (2000)	—
Kimbundu (North Mbundu)	Niger–Congo, Bantu	≈ 3 million (1999)	—
Kyrgyz	Turkic, Kypchak	2.9 million (1993)	—

Other languages frequently cited as having more than 3 million speakers

Some languages are widely cited as having more speakers than the sources for this article allow, due to discrepancies in the conception of language. Differences may be due to defining a language along ethnic lines rather than by degree of comprehension (Tibetan, Hmong), large numbers of L2 speakers who use the language on a daily basis (Swahili, Lingala), or a suspected but undocumented number (Chinese Sign Language). Numerous cases where estimates disagree without some such extenuating circumstance are not listed.

Language	Family	Native	Total	Other estimates
Chinese Sign Language	language isolate	—	—	Perhaps the most populous sign language; number of speakers (signers) unknown.
Indo-Pakistani Sign Language	language isolate	2.7 million in India (2003)	—	Additional speakers (signers) in Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Zhuang	Tai–Kadai, Tai	2.65 million Buyei (2000), 2.0 million Yongbei Zhuang (2007)	—	15 million all varieties (2001–2007). Not mutually intelligible. Ethnologue divides Zhuang into 16 languages.
Hmong	Hmong–Mien	2.7 million		Not mutually intelligible with other Hmongic languages. Cited figures dependent on conception of "Hmong": 7.8 million (2006); ca. 4 million (Lemoine, 2005)
Lingala	Niger–Congo, Bantu	2.1 million	≈ 9 million (1999) in DR Congo	L2 also in Congo-Brazzaville. Per Britannica (2005 Yearbook), > 36 million speak Lingala as lingua franca.
Yi (Nuosu)	Sino-Tibetan, Tibeto-Burman	2 million		Not mutually intelligible with other Yi languages. Cited figures dependent on conception of "Yi": 4.2 million (2006), 7.8 million ethnic Yi (2000 census)
Central Tibetan (Dbus / Ü)	Sino-Tibetan, Tibeto-Burman	1.3 million (1990)	—	Not mutually intelligible with other Tibetan languages. Cited figures dependent on conception of "Tibetan".
Swahili	Niger–Congo, Bantu	800 thousand (1994–2006)	40 million (1991–2006)	~5 million native, ~80 million second language^{citation needed}

Additional languages

The following are languages which were not properly sourced for where they were included, or which have not yet been added

Varhadi-Nagpuri vah 7.0

Lambadi lmn 6.0

Mewati wtm 5.0

Mainfränkisch vmf 4.9

Domari rmt 4.0

Musi mui 3.9

Mina myi 3.8

Banjar bjn 3.5

Hassaniyya mey 3.1 [already counted under Arabic]

Godwari gdx 3.0

Hunsrik hrx 3.0

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^ Persian language in Encyclopedia of Orient
^ R. Khanam, "Encyclopaedic ethnography of Middle-East and Central Asia: J-O, Volume 2", Global Vision Publishing Ho, 2005. pg 730: "The Standard Tajiki dialect is mutually intelligble with the Persian of Iran and the Dari of Afghanistan and is increasingly being called either Farsi-Tojiki [="Tajiki Persian"] or Farsi (=Persian)"
^ David Levinson, Karen Christensen, "Encyclopedia of modern Asia", Charles Scribner's Sons, 2002. pg 50: "The most important modern languages of the Iranian family are (West Iranian) Persian (Farsi, Dari, and Tajiki), Tati, Baluchi, Zaza, and numerous unwritten "
^ Bernard Lewis, "The Middle East: a brief history of the last 2,000 years",Simon and Schuster, 1995. pg 247: "Persian- Zaban-i Farsi, the language of the province of Fars, or Pars, from which the Greek and hence the Western names of the country are derived – was spoken and written in Iran (the ancient name of the country), and in a zone extending eastward into Central Asia, in regions now included in Afghanistan and in the republic of Tajikistan. Tajik and also Dari, one of the two languages of Afghanistan (the other is Pashto, also of Iranic family), are variants of Persian
^ Bernard Lewis,"The multiple identities of the Middle East", Schocken Books, 1998. ISBN-0805241728, 9780805241723 pg. 55: "Apart from Iran, Persian has official status in two other countries; in Afghanistan, where the local form of Persian is known as Dari, and in the former soviet Republic of Tajikistan.
^ 2009 CIA Factbook: Iran:[3][4] (Persian and Persian dialects 58%) (38.514), Afghanistan [5], Afghan Persian or Dari (official) 50% (14.1), Tajikistan 79.9% (5.8 million), Uzbekistan (4.7% 1 million),
^ Iran 36 M (51%) - 46 M (65%) [6], Afghanistan 16.369 M (50%), Tajikistan 5.770 M (80%), Uzbekistan 1.2 M (4.4%)
^ Svante E. Cornell, "Uzbekistan: A Regional Player in Eurasian Geopolitics?", European Security, vol. 20, no. 2, Summer 2000.
^ Richard Foltz, "The Tajiks of Uzbekistan", Central Asian Survey, 15(2), 213–216 (1996).
^ Karl Cordell, "Ethnicity and Democratisation in the New Europe", Published by Routledge, 1999. Excerpt from pg 201: "Consequently, the number of citizens who regard themselves as Tajiks is difficult to determine. Tajikis within and outside of the republic, Samarkand State University (SamGU) academic and international commentators suggest that there may be between six and seven million Tajiks in Uzbekistan, constituting 30% of the republic's 22 million population, rather than the official figure of 4.7%(Foltz 1996;213; Carlisle 1995:88).
^ Lena Jonson, "Tajikistan in the New Central Asia", Published by I.B.Tauris, 2006. pg 108: "According to official Uzbek statistics there are slightly over 1 million Tajiks in Uzbekistan or about 4% of the population. The unofficial figure is over 6 million Tajiks. They are concentrated in the Sukhandarya, Samarqand and Bukhara regions."
^ http://censusindia.gov.in/Census_Data_2001/Census_Data_Online/Language/Statement1.htm
^ Latin Union - The odyssey of languages: ro, es, fr, it, pt
^ "Het Nederlandse taalgebied" (in Dutch). Taalpeil. Archived from the original on 31 December 2006. http://web.archive.org/web/20061231075139/http://taalunieversum.org/taalpeil/het_nederlandse_taalgebied.html. Retrieved 2007-02-18.
^ http://ling.cass.cn/fangyan/dituji/LANGUAGE%20ATLAS%20OF%20CHINA.html
^ 18.5M Iran, 7.5M Azerbaijan
^ Austin, Peter (2008). One thousand languages: living, endangered, and lost. University of California Press. p. 68. ISBN 0-520-25560-7. http://books.google.com/books?id=Q3tAqIU0dPsC&pg=PA68.
^ http://www.plc.sas.upenn.edu/languages/twi.html

External links

Ethnologue's most recent list of languages arranged by number of speakers
List of top 100 languages in 13th edition of Ethnologue (1996)
Different lists of the most spoken languages (the Ethnologue list is from a previous, not the 2005, edition).
Ethnologue - SIL's Ethnologue, widely referenced source for the world's languages
Languages Spoken by More Than 10 Million People (Archived 2009-10-31) - Encarta list, based on data from Ethnologue, but some figures (e.g. for Arabic) widely vary from it
Top 30 languages of the world
30 most widely spoken world languages
Map of World Languages. Download of MP3 audio files in 1600 language combinations.

[ethnologue1-0] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k "Ethnologue". SIL Haley. http://www.ethnologue.org/ethno_docs/distribution.asp?by=size.

[demogr-1] Demografía de la lengua española (page 38)

[Es2009-2] rysstal.com, 5th International Congress on Spanish Language (la-moncloa.es),uis.edu, Antonio Molina, director of the Instituto Cervantes in 2006 (terranoticias.es,elmundo.es, fundeu.es), Luis María Anson of the Real Academia Española (elcultural.es),International Congress about Spanish, 2008, Mario Melgar of the México University (lllf.uam.es), Enrique Díaz de Liaño Argüelles, director of Celer Solutions multilingual translation network ([1]), Feu Rosa - Spanish in Mercosur (congresosdelalengua.es), elpais.com, eumed.net, [2], babel-linguistics.com.

[BritishCouncilEnglish-3] "Future of English". The British Council. http://www.britishcouncil.org/learning-elt-future.pdf. Retrieved 2011-08-24. (page 10)

[4] "A guide to Urdu - why learn Urdu?". Languages: Other. BBC. http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/other/guide/urdu/steps.shtml. Retrieved 3 October 2011.

[5] Procházka, S. (2006), ""Arabic"", Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics (2nd ed.)

[6] {{|url=http://bdnews24.com/details.php?id=207005&cid=2}}

[7] {{|url=http://bdnews24.com/details.php?id=207005&cid=2}}

[8] "IOL Diário - Somos 240 milhões de falantes". Diario.iol.pt. 2008-07-16. http://diario.iol.pt/sociedade/lingua-portuguesa-portugues-ensino-governo-alunos/972503-4071.html. Retrieved 2010-03-16.

[listverse.com-9] Contributor: flamiejamie (2008-06-26). "Top 10 Most Spoken Languages In The World". Listverse. http://listverse.com/miscellaneous/top-10-most-spoken-languages-in-the-world/. Retrieved 2010-03-16.

[EC-10] "Europeans and Languages". European Commission. http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/ebs/ebs_237.en.pdf. Retrieved 2007-02-18.

[11] "Wu definition - Dictionaries - MSN Encarta". Uk.encarta.msn.com. http://uk.encarta.msn.com/dictionary_1861758362/Wu.html. Retrieved 2010-03-16.

[India-12] "Census of India - Statement 4". Censusindia.gov.in. http://www.censusindia.gov.in/Census_Data_2001/Census_Data_Online/Language/Statement4.htm. Retrieved 2010-03-16.

[13] ttp://www.insee.fr/fr/themes/document.asp?ref_id=ip1332

[14] ttp://www.ladocumentationfrancaise.fr/dossiers/francophonie/francophones-monde.shtml

[15] Posted by 데이빛 / Mithridates (2008-10-15). "French in 9th place with 200 million French speakers in the world / 200 millions de francophones dans le monde". Page F30. http://www.pagef30.com/2008/10/french-in-9th-place-with-200-million.html. Retrieved 2010-03-16.

[16] "200 million French speakers in the world - La France en Australie". Ambafrance-au.org. http://www.ambafrance-au.org/france_australie/spip.php?article2223. Retrieved 2010-03-16.

[cantonese1-17] "Cantonese language". Encarta Dictionary. http://uk.encarta.msn.com/encnet/features/dictionary/DictionaryResults.aspx?lextype=3&search=cantonese. Retrieved 11 February 2010.

[Penzl-18] Penzl, Herbert; Ismail Sloan (2009). A Grammar of Pashto a Descriptive Study of the Dialect of Kandahar, Afghanistan. Ishi Press International. pp. 210. ISBN 0923891722. http://books.google.com/?id=zvRePgAACAAJ. Retrieved 2010-10-25. "Estimates of the number of Pashto speakers range from 40 million to 60 million..."

[Omniglot-19] "Pashto". Omniglot.com. http://www.omniglot.com/writing/pashto.htm. Retrieved 2010-10-25. "The exact number of Pashto speakers is not known for sure, but most estimates range from 45 million to 55 million."

[Thomson-20] Thomson, Gale (2007). Countries of the World & Their Leaders Yearbook 08. 2. European Union: Indo-European Association. p. 84. ISBN 0787681083. http://books.google.com/?id=A6vQ-x7V-bYC. Retrieved 2010-10-25.

[Ethnologue-2009-21] Paul M. Lewis, ed. (2009). "Pashto, Northern". SIL International. Dallas, Texas: Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Sixteenth edition. http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=pbu. Retrieved 2010-09-18. "Ethnic population: 49,529,000 possibly total Pashto in all countries."

[22] Persian language in Encyclopedia of Orient

[23] R. Khanam, "Encyclopaedic ethnography of Middle-East and Central Asia: J-O, Volume 2", Global Vision Publishing Ho, 2005. pg 730: "The Standard Tajiki dialect is mutually intelligble with the Persian of Iran and the Dari of Afghanistan and is increasingly being called either Farsi-Tojiki [="Tajiki Persian"] or Farsi (=Persian)"

[24] David Levinson, Karen Christensen, "Encyclopedia of modern Asia", Charles Scribner's Sons, 2002. pg 50: "The most important modern languages of the Iranian family are (West Iranian) Persian (Farsi, Dari, and Tajiki), Tati, Baluchi, Zaza, and numerous unwritten "

[25] Bernard Lewis, "The Middle East: a brief history of the last 2,000 years",Simon and Schuster, 1995. pg 247: "Persian- Zaban-i Farsi, the language of the province of Fars, or Pars, from which the Greek and hence the Western names of the country are derived – was spoken and written in Iran (the ancient name of the country), and in a zone extending eastward into Central Asia, in regions now included in Afghanistan and in the republic of Tajikistan. Tajik and also Dari, one of the two languages of Afghanistan (the other is Pashto, also of Iranic family), are variants of Persian

[26] Bernard Lewis,"The multiple identities of the Middle East", Schocken Books, 1998. ISBN-0805241728, 9780805241723 pg. 55: "Apart from Iran, Persian has official status in two other countries; in Afghanistan, where the local form of Persian is known as Dari, and in the former soviet Republic of Tajikistan.

[27] 2009 CIA Factbook: Iran:[3][4] (Persian and Persian dialects 58%) (38.514), Afghanistan [5], Afghan Persian or Dari (official) 50% (14.1), Tajikistan 79.9% (5.8 million), Uzbekistan (4.7% 1 million),

[28] Iran 36 M (51%) - 46 M (65%) [6], Afghanistan 16.369 M (50%), Tajikistan 5.770 M (80%), Uzbekistan 1.2 M (4.4%)

[cornellcaspian.com-29] Svante E. Cornell, "Uzbekistan: A Regional Player in Eurasian Geopolitics?", European Security, vol. 20, no. 2, Summer 2000.

[Foltz-30] Richard Foltz, "The Tajiks of Uzbekistan", Central Asian Survey, 15(2), 213–216 (1996).

[Karl_Cordell_1999._pg_201-31] Karl Cordell, "Ethnicity and Democratisation in the New Europe", Published by Routledge, 1999. Excerpt from pg 201: "Consequently, the number of citizens who regard themselves as Tajiks is difficult to determine. Tajikis within and outside of the republic, Samarkand State University (SamGU) academic and international commentators suggest that there may be between six and seven million Tajiks in Uzbekistan, constituting 30% of the republic's 22 million population, rather than the official figure of 4.7%(Foltz 1996;213; Carlisle 1995:88).

[Lena_Jonson_2006._pg_108-32] Lena Jonson, "Tajikistan in the New Central Asia", Published by I.B.Tauris, 2006. pg 108: "According to official Uzbek statistics there are slightly over 1 million Tajiks in Uzbekistan or about 4% of the population. The unofficial figure is over 6 million Tajiks. They are concentrated in the Sukhandarya, Samarqand and Bukhara regions."

[33] ttp://censusindia.gov.in/Census_Data_2001/Census_Data_Online/Language/Statement1.htm

[34] Latin Union - The odyssey of languages: ro, es, fr, it, pt

[35] "Het Nederlandse taalgebied" (in Dutch). Taalpeil. Archived from the original on 31 December 2006. http://web.archive.org/web/20061231075139/http://taalunieversum.org/taalpeil/het_nederlandse_taalgebied.html. Retrieved 2007-02-18.

[36] ttp://ling.cass.cn/fangyan/dituji/LANGUAGE%20ATLAS%20OF%20CHINA.html

[37] 18.5M Iran, 7.5M Azerbaijan

[38] Austin, Peter (2008). One thousand languages: living, endangered, and lost. University of California Press. p. 68. ISBN 0-520-25560-7. http://books.google.com/books?id=Q3tAqIU0dPsC&pg=PA68.

[39] ttp://www.plc.sas.upenn.edu/languages/twi.html

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