The Current Top Twenty

Empires of the Word: a Language History of the World by Nicholas Ostler

New Words
-The article gave a distorted picture of his childhood.
-Switzerland is a mountainous country; conversely Holland is flat.
-The growing town soon encroached on the surrounding countryside.
-A Mediterranean cruise was the perfect antidote to a long cold winter.
-Japanese people eat rice as a staple crop.
-Though a talented player, he was completely eclipsed by his brother.
-Romance languages such as French, Italian and Spanish are language that developed from Latin.
-These tasks were repetitive, lengthy and lacking any intrinsic interest.
-Our life has changed because of the advent of new technology
-The bomb devastated much of the old part of the city.
-The runners jocked for position at the start.
-She was the relegated to the role of assistant.
-We have a good reason for our contention over the idea of a new motorway.
-There was a crisis looming.

Summary
Languages have grown by organic growth through the increase of population as well as merger and acquisition through the colonial policy. The figures of the top twenty languages in the world are based on use as a first or second language. The top language is Mandarin Chinese with 1,052 million speakers which is more than twice as many as the next highest language, English, with 508 million speakers. Third highest language is Hindi with 487 million and fourth Spanish, with 417 million. Interestingly, just under half in the table are spoken in area where people eat rice as a staple crop. And the dialect used in the national capital is chosen as the standard language. When it comes to the global language in the future, the population will be important. Asian languages, especially languages in India Pakistan and Arabic countries, will maintain the position or will be higher in the top 20 because of the birth rate. In contrast, German and Italian will go to the bottom of the table unless the number of immigrants will increase. English, Spanish Portuguese and French established the status due to the colonial empires. Future growth of French and English are limited, but they are used as a lingua franca in the world and those countries have influenced the world economically, culturally and militarily. The languages will maintain the prestige as a tool for communication and access to the global system.