FAQ

How many languages are there?

Approximately 7,000 languages are spoken worldwide. However, the top 20 languages account for over half the worlds population. About 40% of languages are endangered.

What is the most spoken language?

English with 1.5 billion total speakers, followed by Mandarin Chinese with 1.1 billion native speakers. By native speakers only, Mandarin is first, Spanish second, English third.

What is a language family?

A group of languages descended from a common ancestor. Indo-European is the largest, including English, Spanish, Hindi, Russian, and Persian. Some languages like Basque have no known family.

Which language has the hardest writing system?

Japanese uses three writing systems simultaneously (kanji, hiragana, katakana). Chinese has thousands of characters to memorize. Khmer has the largest alphabet at 74 letters. Georgian and Armenian have unique alphabets unlike any other.