Language Education
Albanian
Native to Southeastern Europe and Albanian diaspora – Albania, Kosovo, Turkey, the Republic of Macedonia, Greece and Italy (Arbereshe)
Native speakers 7,436,990
Language family: Indo-European > Albanian
The Albanian language is an Indo-European language in a branch by itself, sharing its branch with no other language
Arabic
Native to Majorities in the countries of the Arab League, minorities in neighboring countries: Israel, Iran, Turkey, Eritrea, Mali, Niger, Chad, Senegal, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Arabic-speaking communities in the Western World
Native speakers 295 million
Language family: Afro-Asiatic > Semitic > Central Semitic > Arabic
Classical Arabic is the language of the Qur’an. Arabic is closely associated with the religion of Islam because the Qur’an is written in the language, but it is nevertheless also spoken by Arab Christians, Mizrahi Jews and Iraqi Mandaeans.
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| Arabic (Eastern), Conversational – Sixteen 30-minute lessons of spoken Eastern Arabic language instruction. |
Armenian
Native to Armenia, Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, Russia, United States, Georgia, Lebanon, Iran, Syria, Turkey
Native speakers 7,000,000
Language family
Indo-European
Armenian
Eastern Armenian is the official language of the Republic of Armenia. It is also spoken in parts of Azerbaijan and Iran. Western Armenian is the dialect most often encountered among Armenians outside of Armenia. It is spoken by Armenians in the U.S, Egypt, Istanbul, Egypt, and other parts of the Diaspora.
Cantonese Chinese
Native to China, overseas communities
Region the Pearl River Delta and neighboring areas
Language family
Sino-Tibetan
Chinese
Yue
Yuehai
Cantonese
Cantonese ia a tonal language, which means that each sound’s meaning is affected by the tone used to pronounce it. There are six tones or Cantonese.
Mandarin Chinese
Region Most of northern and southwestern China
(see also Standard Chinese)
Native speakers 955 million
Language family
Sino-Tibetan
Sinitic
Chinese
Mandarin
Mandarin is a tonal language, which means that each sound’s meaning is affected by the tone used to pronounce it. There are four tones for Mandarin.
Croatian
Native to Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia (Vojvodina), Montenegro, Romania (Caraș-Severin County), Slovenia, and diaspora
Native speakers 5.55 million
Language family
Indo-European
Balto-Slavic
Slavic
South Slavic
Western
Serbo-Croatian
Shtokavian
Neo-Shtokavian
Eastern Herzegovinian
Standard Croatian
Croatian, a member of the South Slavic branch of Indo-European, is the official language of Croatia. There are three main dialects: kajkavski, čakavski, and štokavski (ijekavski), the official dialect.
Czech
Native to Czech Republic
Ethnicity Czechs, Moravians
Native speakers 10 million
Language family
Indo-European
Balto-Slavic
Slavic
West Slavic
Czech–Slovak
Czech
Czech was known as Bohemian in English until the late 19th century. Czech is similar to and mutually intelligible with Slovak and, to a lesser extent, to Polish and Serbian.
Danish
Native to Denmark, Greenland, Schleswig-Holstein (Germany)
Native speakers 5.6 million
Language family
Indo-European
Germanic
North Germanic
East Scandinavian
Danish
Danish is derived from Old Norse. Because of the large number of similarities between Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish, knowledge of any one of these languages makes it possible to understand the others. This is true for both spoken and written forms.
Dari Persian
Native to Afghanistan, Eastern Iran
Native speakers ca. 15–18 million
Spoken by between 25% to 50% and understood by over 90% of Afghanistan’s population Also spoken and understood by around 2.5 million people in Pakistan and Iran with communities who speak Dari as their primary language, but understood by every Iranian.
Language family
Indo-European
Indo-Iranian
Iranian
Western Iranian
Southwestern Iranian
Persian
Dari
Dari is one of the two official languages of Afghanistan. Dari is the primary means of communication, taught in schools and heard on national radio. It serves as the language of business and higher education. Dari is considered a purer form of Persian.
Dutch
Native to mainly the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, also in Aruba, Curaçao, and Sint Maarten, as well as France (French Flanders).
Region mainly Western Europe, today also in South America and the Caribbean.
Afrikaans is spoken in Southern Africa.
Native speakers 23 – 28 million
Language family
Indo-European
Germanic
West Germanic
Low Franconian
Dutch
Dutch is the official language of the Netherlands and one of the three official languages in Belgium, along with French and German. The variant of Dutch spoken in Belgium is called Flemish (Vlaams) and is spoken by 5 million people. Linguistically, Dutch and Flemish are almost identical and they are mutually intelligible.
English
Native speakers: 360 million. English is a second language for 375 million and a third for 750 million.
Language family: Indo-European > Germanic > West Germanic > Anglo–Frisian > Anglic > English
In a variety of mutually intelligible dialects, English has become the lingua franca in many regions of the world. It is the international language of business, technology, and science. English is an official language of Canada, the European Union, the UK and many Commonwealth countries, Australia, New Zealand, and many world organizations, such as the UN. The United States does not have an “official language”; however, English is the de facto national language.
English for non-native readers and speakers is offered from three pedagogical viewpoints. They are:
English as a Foreign Language — English as a Second Language — English for Speakers of Other Languages
English for Arabic Speakers
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English for Arabic Speakers |
English for Cantonese Chinese Speakers
English for Mandarin Chinese Speakers
English for Farsi Persian Speakers
English for French Speakers
English for German Speakers
English for Haitian Speakers
English for Hindi Speakers
English for Italian Speakers
English for Korean Speakers
English for Portuguese Speakers
English for Russian Speakers
English for Spanish Speakers
English for Vietnamese Speakers
Farsi
Native to Iran, Afghanistan (as Dari), Tajikistan (as Tajik), Uzbekistan, Iraq, Bahrain, Azerbaijan
Native speakers 60 – 110 million total speakers
Language family
Indo-European
Indo-Iranian
Iranian
Western Iranian
Southwestern Iranian
Persian
Persian has three major dialects: Farsi (spoken in Iran), Dari (spoken in Afghanistan), and Tajik (spoken in Tajikistan). Dari and Tajik are considered a purer form of Persian – that is, they show less Arab influence. All three dialects are, for the most part, mutually intelligible.
Finnish
Native to Finland, Estonia, Ingria, Karelia, Norway, Sweden, Russia
Native speakers c. 5 million
Language family
Uralic
Finnic
Finnish
The closest relative to Finnish is Estonian; Hungarian is a distant cousin. There are three varieties of standard Finnish that are spoken throughout Finland: kirjakieli (“book language”) – used in official documents, official speeches and the daily news, yleiskieli – the standard language used in schools; it is formal and correct, though more relaxed than the “book language,” and puhekieli (“spoken language”) – more casual variety used in everyday conversation, which changes frequently.
French
Native to:Mexico, Belgium, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Canada (Quebec; less than 3% outside), Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo (Brazzaville), Congo (Kinshasa), Côte d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, France, Gabon, Guinea, Haiti, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Mali, Monaco, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Seychelles, Switzerland, Togo, Vanuatu
Native speakers 75 million (220 million L1 and L2 speakers)
Language family
Indo-European
Italic
Romance
Western Romance
Gallo-Romance
Oïl
French
French is an official language in 44 countries and an official language of the United Nations. An estimated 50 million people around the world speak French as a second language.
German
Native to Primarily German-speaking Europe, as a minority language and amongst the German diaspora worldwide
Native speakers Standard German: 95–120 million (L2 speakers: 80 million)
Language family
Indo-European
Germanic
West Germanic
High German
German
German is the official language of Germany and Austria and is one of the official languages of Switzerland. It is also an official language in Belgium, Lichtenstein, and Luxembourg.
Greek
Native to Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Turkey, Albania, Egypt, Georgia, Bulgaria, Romania, France, Ukraine, Russia and the Greek diaspora
Native speakers c. 13 million
Language family
Indo-European
Hellenic
Greek
Greek is the official language of Greece and one of the official languages of Cyprus. Modern Greek is written using an alphabet which is based on and similar to the ancient Greek alphabet. Many modern scientific and technical words in English are derived from Greek, and it has been estimated that 12% of the English vocabulary is of Greek origin.
Haitian Creole
Native to Haiti and Dominican Republic (Haitian descents)
Native speakers 9.6 million
Language family
French Creole
Antillean Creoles
Haitian Creole
French-based creole heavily influenced by various West African languages and it is classified as part of the Romance group in the Indo-European language family. The standard dialect is that of the central district and the capital, Port-au-Prince. Other key dialects include the northern dialect, centered around Cap-Haitien; the southern dialect, centered in the Cayes area; and the plateau dialect.
Hebrew
Native to Israel, Jewish settlements in the West Bank; used globally as a liturgical language for Judaism
Native speakers 5.3 million
Language family
Afro-Asiatic
Semitic
Central Semitic
Northwest Semitic
Canaanite
Hebrew
Ancient (or Classical) Hebrew flourished as a spoken language from sometime before the 10th Century BC. It faded as a spoken language around the 3rd or 4th Century BC, replaced by Aramaic, but it remained as a lingua franca with scholars and was used by the Jewish community around the world. It continued as a written form for contracts, laws, commerce, and poetry. Near the end of the 19th Century, it was revived in its present form as Modern Hebrew and replaced a score of languages spoken by Jews at this time. It was declared an official language in British-ruled Palestine in 1921, along with English and Arabic. In 1948 it became an official language of the newly-declared state of Israel.
Hindi
Native to India, significant communities in South Africa, and Nepal
Native speakers 180 million
Language family
Indo-European
Indo-Iranian
Indo-Aryan
Central zone
Western Hindi
Hindustani
Khariboli
Hindi
Hindi is one of 23 official languages of India, and is reported to be the second most commonly spoken language in the world. Approximately 500 million people around the world speak a dialect of Hindi. Included in that estimate are speakers of the many regional dialects of the language, which are often quite different. “Hindustani” is the term used to describe a closely related series of languages or dialects. Hindi is a close relative of the Urdu language spoken in Pakistan, and speakers of the two languages can often understand one another to some extent.
Hungarian
Native to Hungary and areas of Austria, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Ukraine
Native speakers c. 13–15 million
Language family
Uralic
Finno-Ugric
Ugric
Hungarian
Hungarian is an “agglutinative” language, which means that grammatical relations (past tense, possession, plural, etc.) are expressed by adding suffixes and prefixes to words. The vowels of the suffixes change according to the dominating vowels of the word they are attached to. This important feature of Hungarian is called “vowel harmony.”
Indonesian
Native to Indonesia, East Timor
Native speakers 23 million (Over 140 million L2 speakers)
Language family
Austronesian
Malayo-Polynesian
Nuclear Malayo-Polynesian
Sunda–Sulawesi
Malayic
Malayan
Malay
Malacca (“Riau”) Malay
Indonesian
While only a small percentage of Indonesia’s population speaks Indonesian as its first, or native, language, almost 100 percent of the population speaks it as a second or third language. Indonesian is mutually intelligible with Malay, the language of Malaysia, although minor dialectical differences exist. There are numerous Indonesian dialects, all of which are mutually intelligible.
Irish
Native to Ireland, United Kingdom, Gaeltachtaí
Native speakers
133,000 native (1.77 million (native + L2) in the Republic)
Language family
Indo-European
Celtic
Insular Celtic
Goidelic
Irish
Irish and English are the official languages of Ireland. Irish is also called Irish Gaelic. The three major dialects of Irish are: Connemara (spoken in the west of Ireland and centered
around the city of Galway), Munster (spoken in Counties Kerry and Cork), Ulster (spoken in County Donegal). The dialects are mutually intelligible, and all three dialects are heard in Dublin.
Italian
Native to Italy, San Marino, Malta, Switzerland, Vatican City, Slovenia (Slovenian Istria), Croatia (Istria County), Argentina, Brazil, Australia. Widely known among older people and in commercial sectors in Somalia, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Libya; used in the Federal Government of Somalia.
Native speakers 61 million Italian proper, native and native bilingual. 85 million all varieties.
Language family
Indo-European
Italic
Romance
Italo-Dalmatian
Italian
Italian is the official language of Italy and San Marino, and one of the official languages of Switzerland, Croatia, and Slovenia. Historically, Italian is a daughter language of Latin. Italian uses the Roman alphabet and the pronunciation of the language follows the spelling very closely.
Japanese
Native to Japan
Native speakers 125 million
Language family
Altaic? (controversial)
Japonic
Japanese
Japanese has many “registers” – levels of politeness. In the 3rd and 4th century AD, the Japanese borrowed the Chinese writing system of ideographic characters. Since Chinese is not inflected and since Chinese writing is ideographic rather than phonetic, the Chinese characters did not completely fill the needs of the inflected Japanese language in the sphere of writing. In the 8th century AD, two phonetic alphabets, or kana, were devised: Hiragana and Katakana. They are used along with the ideographic characters (or kanji) to indicate the syllables that form suffixes and particles and for foreign loan words.
Korean
Native to South Korea, North Korea, Jilin·Liaoning·Heilongjiang, China, Japan (Koreans in Japan)
Native speakers 76 million
Language family
Altaic (disputed)
Koreanic
Korean
Korean is the official language of both North and South Korea. It’s also spoken widely in neighboring Yanbian, China. There are approximately seven regional dialects. All dialects, except that spoken on the Jeju Island, are mutually intelligible. Korean is written in the Hangul alphabet, a phonetic alphabet created by King Sejong the Great in the 15th Century. It is characterized by syllable blocks containing two to four letters.
Lithuanian
Native to Lithuania
Native speakers 3.2 million
Language family
Indo-European
Balto-Slavic
Baltic
Eastern Baltic
Lithuanian
Lithuanian is a Baltic language, closely related to Latvian, although they are not mutually intelligible. Lithuanian has two main dialects: Aukštaičių (Aukštaitian, Highland Lithuanian) and Žemaičių/Žemaitiu (Samogitian, Lowland Lithuanian). Each has three sub-dialects. The standard Lithuanian is based on W. High Lithuanian. Lithuanian is written using a modified Roman alphabet.
Norwegian
Native to Norway
Native speakers 5 million
Language family
Indo-European
Germanic
North Germanic
West Scandinavian
Norwegian
Norwegian is closely related to Swedish and Danish. There are hundreds of spoken dialects that are mutually intelligible. There are two official written forms of Norwegian: nynorsk (literally, new Norwegian) and bokmål (literally, book language). These standards emerged after Norway separated from Denmark in 1814.
Ojibwe
Native to Canada: Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, groups in Alberta, British Columbia; United States: Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, groups in North Dakota, Montana
Ethnicity Ojibwe people
Native speakers 56,531 (47,740 in Canada; 8,791 in the United States)
Language family
Algic
Algonquian
Ojibwe–Potawatomi
Ojibwe
Ojibwe were historically located mainly around the outlet of Lake Superior, which the French colonists called Sault Ste. Marie, they referred to the Ojibwe as Saulteurs. Ojibwe who subsequently moved to the prairie provinces of Canada have retained the name Saulteaux. Ojibwe who were originally located about the Mississagi River and made their way to southern Ontario are known as the Mississaugas.
Pashto
Native to Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the Pashtun diaspora
Native speakers 40 million
Language family
Indo-European
Indo-Iranian
Iranian
Eastern Iranian
Northeastern
Pashto
Pashto has many dialects, the three primary ones are: Northern – as spoken in Kabuland Jalalabad (Afghanistan) and in the Northwest Frontier Province (Pakistan); Southern – as spoken in Kandahar (Afganistan) and Balochistan (western Pakistan and eastern Iran); Central – as spoken in Wazirstan (northern Pakistan). These three dialects are mutually intelligible. The northern dialect is spoken in Kabul, which will be understood through all Pashto-speaking regions. Pashto is also called Pakhto, Pushto, Pukhto, Pashtu, or Pushtu.
Polish
Native to Poland; bordering regions of Ukraine, Slovakia, Czech Republic; along the Belarusian–Lithuanian and Belarusian–Latvian border; Germany, Romania, Israel. See also Polish diaspora.
Native speakers 40 million (2007)[1]
Language family
Indo-European
Balto-Slavic
Slavic
West Slavic
Lechitic
Polish
There are many dialects of Polish. Standard Polish is spoken or at least understood throughout contemporary Poland.
Portuguese
Native to Brazil, Mozambique, Angola, Portugal, Guinea-Bissau, East Timor, Macau, Cape Verde, São Tomé and Príncipe
Native speakers 250 million
Language family
Indo-European
Italic
Romance
Western Romance
Ibero-Romance
West Iberian
Galician-Portuguese
Portuguese
The Portuguese spoken in Portugal differs from the Portuguese spoken in Brazil, although in vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation they are mutually intelligible.
Punjabi
Native to India, Pakistan
Native speakers 100 million
Language family
Indo-European
Indo-Iranian
Indo-Aryan
Central[2]
Punjabi
Punjabi is the only tonal language in the Indo-European language family. It is most commonly written using the Gurmukhi script. There are ten Punjabi dialects which are , for the most part, mutually intelligible.
Romanian
Native to
Romania, Moldova, Transnistria (Disputed region)
Minority in:
Israel, Serbia, Ukraine, Hungary, diaspora in Italy, Spain, Portugal, and other parts of Western Europe
Native speakers 24 million (Second language: 4 million)
Language family
Indo-European
Italic
Romance
Eastern Romance
Romanian
There are four main dialects of the language: Daco-Romanian is the official language spoken in Romania. Megleno-Romanian is spoken in the Balkans. Istro-Romanian is spoken in Istria and Croatia, closer to Italian than to Daco-Romanian. The Daco-Romanian dialect is used in both Romania and Moldovain the mass media, in schools, and in colloquial speech and writing. Romanian is written in a modified Latin alphabet.
Russian
Native to Russia, other post-Soviet states, Germany, Israel, the United States, Canada, and other parts of Western Europe
Native speakers 155 million (110 million L2 speakers)
Language family
Indo-European
Balto-Slavic
Slavic
East Slavic
Russian
Moscow and St. Petersburg, account for slight pronunciation differences between speakers, but accurately depicts contemporary spoken Russian. The new editions reflect substantial changes in the language in the post-Soviet period. Russian is written using the Cyrillic alphabet.
Spanish
Region Spain, Latin America, Equatorial Guinea, Western Sahara, Philippines, and Easter Island
Native speakers 406 million. (60 million as a second language.)
Language family
Indo-European
Italic
Romance
Western Romance
Ibero-Romance
West-Iberian
Castilian languages
Spanish
Spanish is a common second language — the most studied after English. The difference between Castilian Spanish as spoken in Spain and Spanish as spoken in the Americas (now called Latin American Spanish) is due to the diminishing contact between Spain and the Americas over the centuries and to the influence of local languages in the Americas. These two main variants of Spanish are mutually intelligible.
Swahili
Native to Burundi, DR Congo, Kenya, Mayotte (mostly Comorian), Mozambique (mostly Mwani), Oman, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda
Native speakers 15 – 26 million (40 million L2 speakers)
Language family
Niger–Congo
Atlantic–Congo
Benue–Congo
Bantoid
Bantu
Northeast Coast Bantu
Sabaki
Swahili
Swahili is the most widely-spoken African language, with approximately 50 million speakers in East and Central Africa. Business and cultural exchange have one begun to make it more prominent and useful to outsiders. Swahili is now used throughout the region, in settings ranging from everyday communication to government and commerce.
Swedish
Native to Sweden, Finland
Native speakers 8.7 million
Language family
Indo-European
Germanic
North Germanic
East Scandinavian
Swedish
Swedish is similar to Danish and Norwegian. These languages are mutually intelligible to a certain extent, more so in written than in spoken form. Swedish is a descendant of Old Norse, the language spoken in Scandinavia during the Viking Era. New vocabulary was introduced during different eras as a consequence of religious and commercial interaction with other cultures. The Gustav Vasa Bible (1541), began a movement towards a more consistent Swedish. The Swedish alphabet is a Latin-based alphabet consisting of twenty-nine letters: the same twenty-six as in English plus three additional vowels (å, ä, ö). Pronunciation, however, is quite different from English.
Swiss German
Native to Switzerland (as German), Liechtenstein, Vorarlberg (Austria), Piedmont & Aosta Valley (Italy)
Native speakers 4,500,000
Language family
Indo-European
Germanic
West Germanic
High German
Upper German
Alemannic
Swiss German
The Swiss federation is composed of 23 “cantons (states)”. The majority of the population, about 65%, speaks Swiss German, and it is spoken in 11 out of the 23 cantons. The first l
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