World Languages

Name
Professor
Subject
Date
World Languages
Languages are not similar across the world, and they are distributed unequally in continents. According to Ethnologue, there are about 7097 languages spoken around the world. These languages are spread in continents differently where some continents comprise more words compared to other continents. Asia comprises of about 2300 words, Africa about 2143, Pacific about 1306, North and South Americas about 1060, and finally Europe having the least with 288 languages (Ethnologue). Moreover, research shows that Mandarin Chinese, Spanish, and English are the top three languages. Chinese has about 1.3 billion native speakers while Spanish and English have about 442 and 378 million speakers (Statista). Indeed, I was considerably surprised by these results because I thought that the English language ranked first globally. My perception was influenced by the fact that English is widespread in numerous countries around the globe and it has gained prominence as a subject in most schools globally.

I speak two languages namely English and Yoruba. From the statistics, approximately 378 million speakers from 118 countries talk one of my language, which is English. On the other hand, Yoruba is a language mostly spoken in Nigeria and some West African countries by about 39 million speakers (Ethnologue). Therefore, based on the two words that I know, I am well equipped to communicate with numerous people across the world. Specifically, English is the language that I can use in most continents across the globe because it ranks third regarding speakers.

On the contrary, I can only use my Yoruba language to communicate with a minority of people across the world because the language is spread mostly in Nigeria and some West African countries.
Conclusion
Languages are distributed unequally in different continents across the world. Accordingly, continents that have more languages is attributed to the fact that they have a larger population size compared to other continents. Asia is populated significantly followed by Africa, Europe, and America and thus, has the most languages. Nonetheless, English makes me well equipped to communicate with a majority of people across the world.
Works Cited
Ethnologue. “Summary by Language Size.” Ethnologue, 2018, HYPERLINK “http://www.ethnologue.com/statistics/size” www.ethnologue.com/statistics/size.
Statista. “Most Spoken Languages in the World | Statistic.” Statista, 2018, www.statista.com/statistics/266808/the-most-spoken-languages-worldwide/.