World languages

The presentation was prepared by Edvinas Brazis IIIga

 A world language is a language that is spoken
internationally and is learned and spoken by a large
number of people as a second language. A world
language is characterized not only by the total number
of speakers, but also by its geographical distribution, as
well as use in international organizations and diplomatic
relations.
One of the most widely spoken and fastest
spreading world languages today is English.
European languages
 English language
• English is a West Germanic language that was first
spoken in early medieval England and is now the
third most widespread native language in the world.
• Official language in 67 countries.
• English language, West Germanic language of the
Indo-European language family that is closely
related to Frisian, German, and Dutch (in Belgium
called Flemish) languages.
 French language
français
• French language is a Romance language of the
Indo-European family.
• French is an official language in 29 countries
across five different continents, the community of
84 countries which share the official use or
teaching of French.
• French is the second most taught foreign language
in the EU.
• French has a long history as an international
language of literature and scientific standards and
is a primary or second language of many
international organisations.
 German language
Deutsch
• Is a West Germanic language that is mainly spoken
in Central Europe.
• German is the first language of about 95 million
people worldwide and the most widely spoken
native language in the European Union.
• Official language in 6 countries.
• German served as a lingua franca in large portions
of Europe for centuries, mainly the Holy Roman
Empire and later the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
 Russian language
russkiy yazyk -русский язык
• Is an East Slavic language and an official language in
Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and many minor
or unrecognised territories throughout Eurasia.
• It is the most geographically widespread language of
Eurasia and the most widely spoken of the Slavic
languages (followed by Polish and then Ukrainian).
• It is also the largest native language in Europe, with 144
million native speakers in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus.
• Russian is the eighth most spoken language in the world by
number of native speakers and the seventh by total number
of speakers.
• The language is one of the six official languages of the
United Nations.
• Russian is also the second most widespread language on
the Internet after English.
 Spanish language
Castilian- español- castellano
• Is a Western Romance language that originated in
the Castile region of Spain and today has hundreds
of millions of native speakers around the world.
• Spanish is one of the six official languages of the
United Nations.
• Official language in 20 countries.
• As of June 30, 2016 Spanish is estimated to be the
third most used language on the Internet.
Asian languages
 Arabic language
• Is a Central Semitic language that first emerged in Iron
Age northwestern Arabia and is now the lingua franca of
the Arab world.
• Modern Standard Arabic is an official language of 27
states, the third most after English and French.
• Classical Arabic is the liturgical language of 1.7 billion
Muslims and Modern Standard Arabic is one of six
official languages of the United Nations.
• Modern Standard Arabic largely follows the
grammatical standards of Classical Arabic and uses
much of the same vocabulary. However, it has discarded
some grammatical constructions and vocabulary that no
longer have any counterpart in the spoken varieties, and
has adopted certain new constructions and vocabulary
from the spoken varieties.
 Chinese language
• Is a group of related, but in many cases mutually
unintelligible, language varieties, forming a
branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family.
• Nearly 1.2 billion people (around 16% of the
world's population) speak some form of Chinese
as their first language.
• It is the official language of China and Taiwan, as
well as one of the four official languages of
Singapore.
• It is one of the six official languages of the
United Nations.