Your Language Connection:

The total number of languages in the world is between 5,000 and 10,000. There are quite a few spoken right here in Lancaster County. English is NOT the language that is spoken by the most people in the world, in fact it is the third most spoken language. Do you know the top 2 most spoken languages? They are listed below. But first, what country would you go to if you wanted to hear these languages? These languages are each spoken by millions of people.

1. Malagasy – more than 10 million
2. Oromo – more than 17 million
3. Karen – more than 3 million
4. Khmer – more than 20 million
5. Mandingo (also called Mandinka) – more than 5 million
6. Tagalog – more than 17 million
7. Amharic – more than 25 million
8. Tamil – more than 66 million
9. Urdu – more than 60 million
10. Wu – more than 77 million

The top 2 languages spoken are Mandarin and Hindi.

Below are the countries where you would need to go to hear the languages listed above.

1. Malagasy – Madagascar
2. Oromo – Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya
3. Karen – Burma
4. Khmer – Cambodia
5. Mandingo – The Gambia, Mali, Senegal
6. Tagalog – Philippines
7. Amharic – Ethiopia, Eritrea
8. Tamil – India, Sri Lanka, Singapore
9. Urdu – Pakistan, India, Fiji
10. Wu – China