Continents & Languages
Which Continent, Which Language?
Here is an overview of languages in different continents or regions of our globe.
European Languages
The languages with the highest diffusion are English and Spanish, followed by Portuguese, Russian, German, French and Italian. They include more than 50 additional languages, such as Finnish, Danish, Dutch, Czech, Catalan, Greek or Romanian.
South Asian Languages
South Asian languages are spoken in one of the most populated regions of the world. This region with its fast-growing industries is gaining increasing importance in the global marketplace.
Hindi (400-500 million, India)
Bengali (250 million, Bangladesh, India)
Punjabi (120 million, Pakistan, India)
Marathi (85 million, India)
Telugu (83 million, India)
Tamil (75 million, India, Sri Lanka)
Urdu (70 million, Pakistan, India)
Gujarati (60 million, India)
Kannada (45 million, India)
Malayalam (40 million, India)
Sinhalese/Sinhala (20 million, Sri Lanka)
For any company doing business in South Asia it should be worthwhile to target the consumers of those countries in their native tongues!
Major East Asian Languages
Numerous languages are spoken in East Asia. They belong to distinct families and some of them are unrelated to any other major language. Chinese, with its many dialects, is by far the most widely spoken language in East Asia, with about 1.3 billion native speakers, Other East Asian languages with high diffusion by approximate number of native speakers are Bahasa Indonesia/Javanese/Sundanese (160 to 180 million), Japanese (125 million), Korean (75 million), Vietnamese (70 million), Thai (40 to 50 million), Malay (30 to 40 million) and Tagalog (30 million).
Minor East Asian Languages
East Asia is an area of exceptional linguistic diversity. Beside the major languages, such as Chinese, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Thai, Malay and Tagalog, there are numerous so-called minor languages. Some of these languages are actually spoken by a great number of people in countries with growing economies and attractive markets. For any company doing business in East Asia it should be worthwhile to target the consumers of those countries in their native tongues.
Cambodian/Khmer (Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam)
Nepali (Nepal, Bhutan),
Mongolian (Mongolia, China)
Tibetan (Tibet, China, Nepal)
Taiwanese (Taiwan)
Lao/Laotian (Laos, Thailand
Yao/Mien, Miao/Hmong (Laos)
Burmese (Myanmar)
Ilocano, Cebuano (Philippines)
Madurese (Indonesia)
Western and Central Asian Languages
Here are the major Western and Central Asian languages, with the approximate number of native speakers:
Farsi (Persian) (70 – 90 million) and Tajiks (8.5 million), whose language is similar to Farsi.
Turkish (78 million) and Uzbek (28 million), Kazakh (22 million), Turkmen (7 million), Kyrgyz (5 million), which belong to the Turkic language family and resemble Turkish.
Pashto (50 million)
Kurdish (30 million)
Azerbaijani (23 million)
Dari (23 million)
Hebrew (7 million, 9 million worldwide),
Armenian (7 million)
Georgian (4 million)
Some of Western and Central Asian countries are faced with political instability, economic challenges and profound cultural changes, which makes communication in their languages especially important.
Languages of the Americas
Sadly, there is a decreasing trend of indigenous language use in all countries, especially in the US and Canada. Here are the major indigenous languages and where they are spoken.
Canada: Cree, Ojibway and Inuit
Mexico: Nahuatl, Mixtec and Zapotec
Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, El Salvador: Maya
Peru, Brazil, Bolivia, Argentina, Chile, Ecuador and Colombia: Quechua
Bolivia: Aymara
Paraguay and adjacent areas: Guaraní
Colombia, Venezuela: Wayuu
You may never have a need for those languages, but if you do, USA TRANSLATIONS is here to help you!
African Languages
Africa is linguistically a remarkably diverse continent with many language families. Here are the major African languages with the approximate number of native speakers:
Swahili (more than 15 million, with about 82 million second language speakers)
Hausa (35 million)
Oromo (32 million)
Yoruba (28 million)
Igbo (27 million)
Fulani (25 million)
Amharic (22 million)
Malagasy (18 million)
Somali (17 million)
Berber (16 million)
Zulu (12 million)
Akan (11 million)
By most accounts, Africa’s economic growth makes it the continent of the future, with the African languages becoming essential for effective communication.
Find out why USA TRANSLATIONS is your best choice in the field of multilingual communication!