Perhaps most people have heard of the Tower of Babel, as well as its legend. It was she who said that before all people understood each other, and the language was the same for all. However, this continued exactly until the moment when mankind was angry with God, who delimited the understanding of the linguistic speech of former comrades, forcing them to spread around the world, establishing their peoples with unique traditions and culture.
So it was or not, but now in the world there are over 7,000 languages. Of course, this figure is quite abstract, because it is impossible to exclude specific dialects and many variegated conventions of differences between languages. The most widely spoken language in the world always varies in time periods: at different times, “linguistic” dominance was occupied by Latin, French, Spanish, Arabic, Greek and other languages. Time goes by - established traditions are changing. English is now deeply rooted in the world, but can it live long? We will not talk about it now. The most common languages of the world in 2013 are English and Chinese, which is due to the economic and political dominance of the United States and China, as well as due to historical events.
World languages
Mankind has always sought new discoveries and the development of lands unknown to them, which prompted brave men like Christopher Columbus or Francis Drake to make long trips. The era of the great geographical discoveries paved the way for English, Portuguese and Spanish to remote corners of our planet, raising their overall rating and recognition. At the moment, there are 8 languages that are "world" - these are English, Chinese, Spanish, Russian, Arabic, French, Portuguese and German. They have the largest number of carriers, the number of which is equal to 4.3 billion people, which is about 60% of the total population of the Earth.
The most widely spoken language in the world is English, which has 1.4 billion native speakers and is also universal for international communication. Next to these "giants" in the linguistic environment there is another side of the coin, which contains the "endangered" languages, doomed to complete extinction. For example, these are the languages of Udege, Itonama, Kaguila, Goundo and others, each of which is native to less than 100 people around the world. As a rule, these are tribal languages in remote areas of Africa or South America.
The most difficult languages of the world
Now we will try to make TOP-5, that is, the rating of languages that are not only the hardest to learn, but even learn to at least explain a little with its speakers. Of course, one cannot exactly name the most difficult language to learn, because for most people the kinship of languages will play a huge role. For example, it will be easier for Russian to learn Ukrainian or Belarusian than French, and it will not be difficult for a Japanese to learn Chinese, but it will be difficult to understand Spanish and the like. However, an objective point of view on the most complex languages can be distinguished, which will be based on many rules and generally accepted traditions. So, let's begin.
Chinese
For several reasons, it was this language that took first place in our TOP. Firstly, significant difficulties arise with the hieroglyphs used in writing. It is often difficult even for the Chinese to understand one or another symbol, not to mention foreigners. Each of the words is indicated by its hieroglyph, and even not phonetic, which makes it impossible to know the pronunciation of a word in advance. Adds oil to the fire and the tonal system, numbering 4 tones in the language. Finally, in Chinese there is an extremely large number of homophones, which greatly complicates the mastering of the language. In conclusion, let’s say that Chinese is the most widely spoken language in the world by the number of speakers who consider it native.
Arab
And another language where there are significant difficulties with writing. The fact is that some letters have 4 different spelling forms, which depends on their position in a particular word. Plus, vowels are not used in the letter. Sounds are not easy to learn, and words are even more complicated. Verbs in Arabic usually go before predicates and additions. The verb also has 3 numbers, so nouns and verbs must be studied in singular, dual and plural. At present, there are 13 different forms. The noun has 3 cases and 2 genders. The list of problems in Arabic is supplemented by dialects that differ as much in the language in Arabic-speaking countries as, for example, French and Spanish.
Tuyuka
This language belongs to one of many spoken in Eastern Amazonia. The sound system should not cause any special difficulties, however, agglutination can plunge some into shock. For example, the word hóabãsiriga in translation means "I do not know how to write." The language has about 50-140 classes of nouns (gender), but the most surprising thing in it is that the speaker needs to use specific verbal endings that can make it clear how he knows what he is saying. We give a small example. Diga ape-wi translates as “the boy played soccer,” but the speaker can only say that if he saw it . But Diga ape-hiyi - even if it is translated into Russian in the same way, however, in the language of the tuyuk, the speaker will say so if he assumes or is not exactly sure of the accuracy of the information. Such endings are required in this language. Well, if you want to suddenly learn the language of tuyuk, then always first think about how you learned this or that information.
Hungarian
The most complex languages are replenished with the first European language - Hungarian. There are several reasons for this. Firstly, it has 35 cases, which automatically puts the language in the list of the most difficult. In addition, Hungarian is quite difficult to pronounce, and learning the words will make even the most erudite tense up.
Japanese
Last in our TOP. Firstly, difficulties arise in spelling, because it differs from pronunciation. Plus, there are 3 forms of writing. The kanji system uses Chinese characters, and two original Japanese syllable alphabets are used for borrowed words (katakana) and for writing suffixes, as well as various grammatical particles (hiragana).
"Leading Languages": native countries and statuses in other states
What is the most common language? If we talk about the territorial superiority of the host countries, then the perfect leadership is occupied by English (Great Britain + dependent territories, Australia, USA, New Zealand, Canada, India, Pakistan, Iceland, Ireland, most countries of Oceania and Africa) and Spanish (Spain, Mexico, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Dominican Republic, Cuba and all the countries of South America except Brazil).
Judging by the number of speakers (who consider the language native), the most common languages are Chinese (848 million people), Spanish (406 million people) and English (335 million people). Perhaps, it will not be a secret for anyone that English is compulsory for study in many countries of the world, including Russian speakers. However, such a globalization of English could not but affect the language itself, which is why the "wrong" English with oververted words, erroneous use of the times and the like is more prevalent in the world (except for states where it is considered official). The most widely spoken language on earth (English) also ranks first on websites (approx. 56%) and the percentage of native speakers' contribution to GDP (approx. 29%). As for the individual study of languages, people often strive to master a "beautiful" and melodious language, as can be seen by looking at the results of many online surveys. These include Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Chinese. As you can see, most of the leaders belong to the Romanesque group. The most widespread language in the world, English, more than once fell into the TOP 10 most beautiful because of its harmonious literary and mass popularization in music and cinema.