A
world language is a
language spoken internationally, which is learned by many people as a
second language. A world language is not only characterized by the number of its speakers (native or second language speakers), but also by its geographical distribution, and its use in
international organizations and in
diplomatic relations. In this respect, major world languages are dominated by languages of
European origin.
The historical reason for this is the period of European
colonialism. World languages originating with historical colonial empires include
English,
Spanish,
Portuguese and
French. The international prominence of
Arabic has its historical reason in the medieval
Islamic conquests and the subsequent
Arabization of the
Middle East, and also exists as a liturgical language amongst Muslim communities outside of the
Arab World.
Standard Mandarin is the direct replacement of
Classical Chinese which was an important historical lingua franca in
Far East Asia until the early 20th century, and today serves the function of providing a common spoken language between speakers of different and mutually unintelligible Chinese spoken languages not only within
China proper (between the
Han Chinese and other unrelated ethnic groups), but in
overseas Chinese communities as well as being widely taught as a second language internationally.
Russian was used in the
Russian empire and the
Soviet Union, and today is in use and widely understood in areas of
Central and
Eastern Europe, and
Northern and
Central Asia which were formerly part of the Soviet Union, or of the former Soviet bloc, and it remains the lingua franca in the
Commonwealth of Independent States.
German served as a lingua franca in large portions of Europe for centuries, mainly the
Holy Roman Empire and later the
Austro-Hungarian Empire. It remains an important second language in much of
Central and
Eastern Europe, and in the international scientific community.
Other major languages are not widely used across several continents, but have had an international significance as the
lingua franca of a historical
empire. These include
Greek in the Hellenistic world after the conquests of
Alexander the Great, and in the territories of the
Byzantine Empire;
Latin in the
Roman Empire and previously as the standard liturgical language for the Catholic faithful worldwide;
Classical Chinese in
East Asia during the
Imperial era of Chinese history;
Persian or Farsi during ancient and medieval incarnations of various succeeding
Persian Empires, and once served as the second lingua franca of the
Islamic World after Arabic;
Sanskrit during the ancient and medieval historical periods of various states in
South Asia,
Southeast Asia, and
Central Asia, and like Latin an important liturgical language of the
Vedic religions; and
Hindi following the
British Raj which united and subsequently founded the present-day republic of the
Union of India .
The
major languages of the
Indian subcontinent have numbers of speakers comparable to those of major world languages primarily due to the extreme
population growth in the region in recent decades rather than a supra-regional use of these languages, although
Hindustani (including all
Hindi dialects and
Urdu) and to a lesser extent
Tamil may fulfill the criteria in terms of supra-regional usage and international recognition.
As an example, the native speaking population of
Bengali vastly outnumber those who speak French as a first language, and it is one of the
most spoken languages (ranking fifth
or sixth
) in the world with nearly 230 million total speakers, and is known for its long and rich literary tradition. However, while French is spoken intercontinentally, is internationally recognized to be of high
linguistic prestige and used as a diplomatic language and international commerce, as well as having a significant portion of second language speakers throughout the world, the overwhelming majority of Bengali speakers are native
Bengali people, with little to no influence outside of its regionally limited
sprachraum or language space.
History
Historical world languages include
Babylonian Akkadian,
Old Aramaic,
Koine Greek,
Latin,
Arabic,
Sanskrit,
Chinese,
Spanish,
Portuguese,
Dutch,
English,
French,
Russian.
The
Romance languages bear testimony to the role of
Latin as the
lingua franca of the
Roman Empire.
Koine Greek was the "world language" of the
Hellenistic period, but its distribution is not reflected in the distribution of
Modern Greek due to the linguistic impact of the
Slavic,
Arabic and
Turkic expansions. The distribution of the
Turkic languages, in turn, are a legacy of the
Turkic Khaganate.
Just as all the living world languages owe their status to historical
imperialism, the suggestion of a given language as a world language or "
universal language" has strong political implications. Thus, Russian was declared the "world language of
internationalism" in Soviet literature, which at the same time denounced French as the "language of fancy courtiers" and English as the "jargon of traders". A number of
international auxiliary languages have been introduced as prospective world languages, the most successful of them being
Esperanto, but none of them can claim the status of a living world language. Many natural languages have been proffered as candidates for a global
lingua franca, including
Italian,
Dutch,
Hungarian,
German and
Malay.
Living world languages
One source describes a living world language as having the following properties:
- a large number of speakers
- a substantial fraction of non-native speakers (function as lingua franca)
World languages in the strictest sense are:
Other sources denote the following languages as world languages, whilst stricter sources list them as merely supra-regional languages:
Two languages with a number of speakers in excess of 100 million are not listed. These are
Japanese and the sister languages of
Hindi and
Urdu, collectively known as
Hindustani. Although considered to be amongst the most internationally influential languages along with the listed world languages, they are not considered world languages
per se - Japan for example is ethnically, culturally and linguistically homogenous, thus Japanese does not have a history of usage as a
lingua franca amongst communities who do not share a mother tongue or first language; their overseas communities are strongly tied to ethnicity; Hindi and Urdu are not as widely taught as a foreign language as Japanese, where international interest since the 1980's have prompted many major universities as well as a number of secondary and even primary schools worldwide to
offer courses in the language; and at least in the present, these languages exert a regionally limited sphere of influence;).
Other supra-regional languages
Other languages of supra-regional importance which fail some of the other criteria to be considered
de facto world languages include:
