How many languages does the average person speak 

How many languages does the average person speak. Beijing Mandarin, 北京官话, 北京官話. 5 million bilingual adults in the UK. mangopeachguava. The number of people fluent in German is unknown. 9% reporting school as their main motivation for studying a language, compared to 22. I learned Danish (native), English and German, although some people choose French instead of German, but Danish/English/German is probably pretty average for Denmark. Dec 8, 2015 · In 2012, a competition was held across the UK to discover Britain’s most multilingual student. Why is it that humans Mary Alexander 10 June 2019. 5. The living person said to have mastered the most languages is Ziad Fazah. co/danvineberg/my-camera-gear📖 My May 20, 2024 · How many languages can a normal person speak? An average person can speak two to four languages in a lifetime. Dec 20, 2023 · 99% of Turkish people speak Turkish. 6% joining for school during March/April 2019. May 15, 2024 · An average person can speak two to four languages in a lifetime. But not everyone uses English exclusively. 1% of the population) declared German as their mother tongue. Luxembourgish is used by 77% of the population. I am also learning Spanish and Korean. English: B2 (apparently). At work. Standard Chinese, 普通话 Jul 5, 2022 · Many Swiss people speak a comparatively high number of languages. Apr 1, 2018 · Upon finding out that I am a linguist, people typically ask, “How many languages do you speak?” It appears that many linguists have been met with this same question from non-linguists. Four minority languages are officially recognized in the Republic of Turkey by the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne and the Turkey-Bulgaria Friendship Treaty (Türkiye ve Bulgaristan Arasındaki Dostluk Antlaşması) of 18 October Jul 20, 2018 · 07/20/2018 July 20, 2018. Almost everyone today born in Slovenia knows Slovene because people learn obligatory Slovene in school, but many at home speak other languages as well. For the average person, learning the basics of a language takes a year. 06% of the country’s population. 4. The languages of Turkey, apart from the official language Turkish, include the widespread Kurdish (), Zazaki, and Arabic, and a number of less common minority languages. 3 million people in Australia, about 1 million do not speak English at all. 0. The ability to speak 3-5 languages should get you into the polyglots club. • 2 yr. What is this language? Jun 13, 2018 · Around 0. . Out of this population, 17. This topic comes up about 20 times a day on this sub and the consensus seems to be that you can rightfully claim you can speak a language if you have at least a B2. • 4 yr. 1. how many languages does the average person in your country speak? Depends. 22. Overall, 62 percent spoke English “very well,” about 19 percent “well,” 13 percent “not well,” and 6 percent “not at all. A third of black South Africans speak isiZulu as a first language, and 20% speak isiXhosa. Census authorities have revealed the results of the latest language data in India, taking into account the languages spoken by the nation's over 1. You can't really answer how much they could possibly speak. I think it’s highly depending on where the people live native English speakers are often not bothered to learn another language, while most Europeans (excluding Uk) probably speak 2-4 languages. Oct 5, 2022 · The answer is: Over 48. About 13% of all humans around the world are trilingual. How many languages does the average British person speak? Based on the data, the average British person speaks more than one language fluently. Jeong Su-il, a historian from South Korea, who speaks 12 languages. 5 fluent languages per person. Just in Europe alone around 25% of people are trilingual, and 10% of them can speak over four languages. 3% of the population speaks English in Singapore. com Below is a list of the 25 languages with the highest number of total speakers, according to data from the Ethnologue language catalog in the early 2020s. Language Use in the United States: 2019. How many languages does average person know? 1 in 20 people say they can speak 3 languages fluently (5%). 4% say they can Oct 31, 2023 · FAQ: How Many Languages Does the Average American Speak. Sep 5, 2018 · 1. note 2: all told, there are estimated to be just over 7,115 languages spoken in the world (2020); approximately 80% of these languages are spoken by less than 100,000 people; about 150 languages are spoken by fewer than 10 people; communities that are isolated from each other in mountainous regions often develop multiple languages; Papua New Jul 28, 2021 · The number of people who speak more than one language is unknown, but it is estimated that over half the human race is bilingual. Aside from being an expert in the Korean language, he’s best known for being able to speak anywhere from 20 to 50 languages. {According to this, of the EU countries only in Slovenia, The Netherlands and Luxembourg people speak 3 or more languages on average. This report presents data on languages spoken in the United States by people 5 years old and over based on the 1-year 2019 American Community Survey (ACS). e. @user6726 The average person knows roughly 1. 1%). He claims to speak, read and understand 58 languages, most learned before the age of 20. So maybe you could learn 10 or more in a lifetime. We can observe that people who put in a lot of time can learn 20 languages but we can't run studies that investigate how much people who currently don't spend their 10,000 hours on learning new We would like to show you a description here but the site won’t allow us. Jan 30, 2021 · Alexander Argüelles (1964 - present) ‍. Together, they pass through It states that 14% of the adult people living in France in 1999 were born and raised up to the age of 5 in families that spoke only (or predominantly) some other languages than French. If born in one of the former Yugoslavian countries (excluding Slovenia and Macedonia), you automatically speak 4 internationally recognized languages: Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian and Montenegrin. Turkish, Polish, Balkan languages, Kurdish, and Russian are the most spoken immigrant languages of Germany. 5 languages, not 2+. In the census of 2002, just 1,628 persons (0. Sep 17, 2020 · If a person can speak several languages (two or more) with equal proficiency they can be referred to as multilingual. 5 but < 2. English (1,456,448,320) Mandarin Chinese (1,138,222,350) Hindi (609,454,770) Feb 27, 2013 · There are millions of people, even in the mostly monolingual US, who speak more than one language at home. • 9 yr. So, at least 7. 5 languages. 5% can fluently speak 3 or more languages. 2. According to a 2018 study of the Ministry of National Education, 98% of the Luxembourg population speaks French, 80% speaks English, and 78% speaks German. Some have one mother tongue and learn the others later in life, either as children or adults. Mar 10, 2024 · A new study of people who speak many languages has found that there is something special about how the brain processes their native language. Is it possible to be fluent in 10 languages? Most people will learn one or two languages in their lives. Table summary. Feb 25, 2022 · How Many Languages Does the Average Person Speak? In a lifetime, the average person can speak two to four languages. Read a statistic on the average number of languages spoken by the citizens of certain countries. Publication. 8%), with some languages Dec 3, 2020 · The survey also found differences between women and men. Close to 4 overall. But let’s have a closer look at some of the other reasons why Swiss people speak so many languages. How many is ‘many’? Well, the most languages spoken by one person is 58 – a record that was held by Ziad Fazah in the Guinness Book of World Records in 1998. Please add a user flair indicating your age and gender. Who can speak 200 languages? The record for the most languages spoken is held by Sir John Bowring, who was said to know 200 languages and could speak 100 of them. French is the main communication language, followed by Luxembourgish, German, English and Portuguese. With more exposure and some motivation to learn, maybe 10 or more? As far as purely learning, you can probably get really good at 2 languages per decade. 11 January 2012. Apr 2, 2024 · How many languages can 1 person speak? An average person can speak two to four languages in a lifetime. However, it requires persistence and frequent interaction with the language to master it. It is also common for them to learn either French or Spanish. 81 4,213,381 5,040 1,315 2 Indonesia: 707 2 710 9. Aug 12, 2022 · He can speak 40 languages, although some people claim that he was able to speak nearly a hundred different languages. owlpellet. In Europe it's 2. In the brains of these polyglots — people who speak five or more languages — the same language regions light up when they listen to any of the languages that they speak. that's the case for the most people. Most Indians speak a language belonging to the families of the Indo-Aryan branch of Indo-European (c. But what about the average number of words per age group? Discover our human capacity when it comes to learning new words and what active and passive vocabularies mean. Considering there is countries like Belgium where you have I don't think people who only speak 4 languages should speculate about how maintaining 8 languages is (im)possible, because how would they know?)) Also sometimes people say they speak 18 languages, and what they really mean is fluent in 6, intermediate in 4, beginner's in 8. The average person world-wide speaks two or more languages fluently according to a quick google search (percentages given are ~40% monolingual, ~43% bilingual, the rest speaks three or more languages fluently, with it being defined as "speaking them with equal ease"). It does not mean that 14% of adult people in France spoke some other languages than French in 1999. Alexander Argüelles is a linguist from Chicago, Illinois. 5 if you can speak the language but not read or write it. 5% can fluently speak 2 languages, while 6. The problem with higher percentages, is that the share of speakers decreases exponentially. An average Russian speaks only Russian. Does this person speak a language other than English at home? Yes; No; b. September 01, 2022. 0. ‍. native English-speaking adult knows about 20,000–30,000 words. Some reasons for this, such as the country’s four official national languages, are fairly obvious as to why the Swiss are polyglots. The estimate is about 45,000-60,000 words. Oct 5, 2016 · The study looked at Swiss aged 15 or more and found that the people most likely to use more than one language on a regular basis were those with a university education (76%), those aged 15-24 (79% My impression is that most people in the French and German speaking parts prefer English to the other national language. Chinese, 汉语, 漢語. These are some of the most notable hyperpolyglots today: Alexander Argüelles, an American linguist who speaks 12 languages. Some people may speak three or more languages, but that is not the norm for the average person. The number of bilingual speakers in India is 314. Other Languages of Australia. However, human brains work differently, and an average person's brain can handle a maximum of four languages. See full list on preply. But the descriptors seem to end there. Ask a layperson what linguistics is about, and . ago. Our teachers speak the language we are learning for roughly 70-80% of the time in class. 2% more men than women only speak their native language (36. English is widely spoken in the urban areas. Number of living languages Number of speakers Established Immigrant Total Percent Total Mean Median 1 Papua New Guinea: 840 0 840 11. May 19, 2023 · However, researchers have developed a way to estimate the average number of words spoken by an individual based on how much they speak each day. Bilinguals and trilinguals come in all shapes and sizes. Jan 16, 2023 · Some countries have a lot of different languages! In these countries, people often speak the national language plus a local language. ↪ Read more. Reply reply. On page 10 you can find the breakdown of all the countries. 18 years and older) were surveyed. Most people are fluent in English, tnd some people in other languages. Originally answered: How many languages does the average person speak? Roughly 1. Award. Turkey’s primary languages (including secondary languages) are Turkish, Kurdish, Arabic, English, and German. As Lidz and Kronrod observe, “the general populace seems to have no idea what linguistics is” (2014:450). 1% (compared to 19. It may be more productive to look at multilingualism overall. English-speaking ability var- ied across the other languages spoken at home (Table 2). The three questions below were asked in the census in 1980, 1990, and 2000 and are the same questions asked in the American Community Survey. Most numbers were between 1-2. 90% of the people I've met in my life speak two languages (their native one + english, but depending on their age and where they are from sometimes the "international" language will vary; french is the most common alternative). S. You speak about the language you are learning in class, but don't speak the language itself a lot. The Republic of India is home to several hundred languages. Three-quarters of coloured people speak Afrikaans, and 86% of Indian South Africans speak English. Americans, in particular, have been known for their monolingualism, with many assuming that English is the only language spoken in the United States. If you cannot find your age and gender, message us for a custom flair. However, human brains work differently, and an average person’s brain can handle a maximum of four languages. It depends. 2 billion people. 500 language lovers from all over the world), the average participant speaks 6 languages at B1 or better. Multilingual Switzerland ­– the obvious Dec 15, 2020 · Initially, new learners joined to supplement school classes, with 27. Anecdotally, as a kid in the Netherlands I assumed all educated adults spoke Dutch, English, French and German since they were offered in school and most of the adults I knew actually did. In the US it's 0. May 22, 2022 · Improve Podcast estimates that the average falls between 100 and 150 words per minute. Immigrants to Germany speak their native languages. Competence in three languages is not unusual. We see a few people like Han speaking multiple languages, but he had a Wookie copilot/partner and did a lot of business with Hutts and criminals who spoke their own native languages. 08% of Germany’s population speak the Romani languages. According to Argüelles, "If someone tells you how many languages they speak, then you shouldn't trust them Jan 11, 2012 · Take Giuseppe Mezzofanti, a 19th-century priest who was said to be fluent in as many as 50 languages. According to a study, the average person speaks around 16,000 words per day, which translates to approximately 5. Also the basics in Spanish. As the world becomes increasingly interconnected, the ability to speak multiple languages is highly valued. Most people in 2019 who spoke a non-English language at home indicated that they spoke English “very well. A less average Russian speaks 2 languages be it Russian + their Ethnical language (if they are an ethnic minority), Russian + English or Russian + French (because I assume French is quite a popular course to take in schools) Reply. Amu (Ozi), Mvita (Kimvita, Mombasa), Bajuni (Bajun, Gunya, Tikulu, Tikuu, Tukulu), Pemba (Hadimu, Phemba, Tambatu), Mambrui (Malindi), Pate, Siu (Siyu), Jomvu States and union territories of India by the spoken first language. It takes one year to learn the basics of a language for an average person. 61%), the Austroasiatic (precisely Munda and Khasic) (c. As many as they can be in active speech communities for. To be a polyglot, how many languages do you need to speak? To be a polyglot, you must be influent in at least six languages Aug 18, 2022 · According to the research, there are languages that speak faster, but when multiplying the speed by the amount of information in each syllable, they found that: Regardless of the language, whether the speaking rate is fast or slow, the speed is Information conveyed in each sentence is at an average of about 125 to 150 words per minute. Mandarin Chinese, 官话, 官話. • 8 yr. 7. Feb 14, 2023 · The number of languages spoken in Europe is estimated to be around 225, but how many languages do people in Europe speak on average? According to the European Commission, the majority of Europeans (56%) are able to speak at least one language other than their mother tongue. • 3 yr. 10 is more for more serious language learners and linguists. May 29, 2015 · First German, then Hindi, Nepali, Polish, Croatian, Mandarin and Thai – they’ve barely spoken one language before the conversation seamlessly melds into another. In Babel No More , Michael Erard investigates the legend of Mezzofanti and other linguistic prodigies, or “hyperpolyglots”. How many languages do you speak French, German: native. Some speak each language as their mother tongue, having learned all of them simultaneously during childhood. VirtualSpeech crunched the numbers on five popular TED May 4, 2024 · This means that there are around 24. Saying you are a “polyglot” when you can speak twice as many languages as some other people who are also classed as this, doesn’t seem fair, so it makes sense that you would want to have the addition of the “hyper” to help differentiate that you are on another level. Apr 26, 2016 · You can have a scientific study that asks how many languages the average person can speak. So when you hear people claim they can speak 8 or 9 languages, usually what they mean is they have reached B2 in 8 or 9 languages. But, human brains work in different ways. Older_1. 9% (compared to 7. We would like to show you a description here but the site won’t allow us. The number of sentences we know is even larger: Sextillion sentences. Approximately half of the world’s population speaks only one language, while the other half speaks two or more. If we count very basic or passive knowledge then maybe > 1. Sixty percent of white people speak Afrikaans, and 30% speak English. SaikaTheCasual. Table 2. Sinitic. Recent studies show that the average U. Non-response rate and imputation rate for knowledge of official languages (Question 8), Canada, provinces and territories, Census of Population, 2021. However, those statistics are mostly because their Dec 19, 2023 · About 18 major languages and over 1600 regional dialects are spoken in India. Jan 11, 2012 · How many languages can one person speak? By Christine Kenneally. EU wide English. Japanese: still learning, but I found myself to understand the context of a kids manga so not bad. Native speakers came from all over the world to test his abilities, and many left astonished. If you cant open it, the breakdown for Netherlands with the question "Which languages do you speak well enough in order to be able to have a conversation, excluding your mother tongue?" is: One 91%, Two 75%, Three 34%. 8 million words per year. For a list of languages that counts only the number of native speakers, see languages by number of native speakers. Immigrant Languages Spoken in Germany . The linguistic diversity of China reflects its rich cultural heritage and the historical development of various regional languages. Jul 17, 2017 · For example, the 250,000 people who live on Vanuatu’s 80 islands speak 110 different languages, but in Bangladesh, a population 600 times greater speaks only 41 languages. Aside from the official language of Sweden (Swedish), there are hundreds of different Swedish dialects, minority, foreign, and immigrant languages spoken. Sep 5, 2018 at 5:20. The Austronesian family: 1 official ethnicity (the Gaoshan, who speak many languages of the Formosan branch), 1 unofficial (the Utsuls, who speak the Tsat language but are considered Hui. However, polyglots can be proficient in far fewer languages and still be referred to as such. First, about 43 percent of the world’s population is bilingual, that is, they speak two languages fluently. Mar 21, 2022 · The average Swede speaks roughly 2-3 languages, with Swedish and English being a part of the mix. At the annual Polyglot Gatherings in Europe (a conference I founded and which attracts ca. Uncategorized. Oct 9, 2017 · 11. 98 222,191,197 315,165 3,500 3 Nigeria: 517 7 524 7. Dec 16, 2021 · In the past, various questions on language use were asked in the censuses from 1890 to 1970. 20. It probably only counts as . As mother tongue I know French and Turkish and my English is okay. With 12 languages -Mandarin, Spanish, English, Hindi, Arabic, Portuguese, Bengali (Bangla), Russian, Japanese, Punjabi, Javanese, German- you can communicate with at least 50% of the world population, talking in their native language. 9%) even two. 2%), or the Sino-Tibetan (precisely Tibeto-Burman) (c. Daniil_KnyaZz. The average person could probably pick up 5 languages over their lifetime and actually speak them. a. Hindi is the official language, yet many people still need to talk about the language. ago • Edited 9 yr. Reply. Share. It was a bit confusing at first, but then I thought it was hilarious, since several letters are the same or are written the same but pronounced differently. I think most small countries average 3, while most big countries average 2, purely by gut feeling. 9%) of women in the EU speak at least one foreign language and 8. The remaining 10% are mostly people who speak three languages. WHO hasn’t wanted to master not just two languages but 10? Take Giuseppe Mezzofanti, a 19th-century priest who A person who speaks more than 6 languages. When Europeans first made contact, it was believed there were more than 400 indigenous languages in Australia. This rate can vary depending on factors such as language, emotional state, and familiarity with the topic being discussed. My native language is greek but I was very young when I learnt the latin alphabet. ”. 9%) was a distant second among reasons for taking up language study during the lockdown. People speak around 941 words per hour, on average, during the typical day. Because what I found said that around 25% of Americans spoke a second language (although this data was really old so idk) 1. Simcott For 90% of the class, the language spoken was Korean. Jul 28, 2023 · Some countries have a lot of different languages! In these countries, people often speak the national language plus a local language. I’m also sure there are people who can speak 15 languages and only Apr 14, 2017 · The truth is, there are other statistics that mildly combat these statistics, 24% of American households speak languages other than English. India is a diverse country. Whilst 1. However, Ziad Fazah holds the Guinness World Record for speaking the most languages, with a total of 58. You Nov 7, 2023 · The average person speaks around 16,000 words in a day, with females (16,215 words) speaking slightly more than males (15,699). In summary, I would be surprised if the average is any higher than 2. Apr 11, 2021 · Some clever experiments are aimed to estimate the number of words people know. Minority languages spoken in Turkey are Kurdish (6%) and Arabic (1,2%). 9 million, which is 26\% of the population in 2011. However, this is far from the Aug 27, 2018 · Kató Lomb, a Hungarian autodidact, learned seventeen tongues—the last, Hebrew, in her late eighties—and in middle age became one of the world’s first simultaneous interpreters. Only adults (i. The majority of residents are bilingual, speaking both English and another language. But what about 10, 20, 30, 100 Aug 23, 2021 · An average person can speak two to four languages in a lifetime. Mar 25, 2023 · Today we visit New York City, USA and ask strangers how many languages they speak. The actual time people spend speaking during the day is around 1 hour and 54 minutes. States in India have their respective languages and dialects. There are about 15 still in use by all ages and about 110 other indigenous languages that are only spoken by older Sep 18, 2023 · The average person speaks around 125-150 words per minute in English. Speaking multiple languages has many benefits, including cognitive advantages, social benefits, and improved job prospects. And no, these are not some Youtubers making wild claims; the native speakers among the participants can easily verify. Average person: probably one, maybe two depending what planet they're on. How many languages does the average Chinese person speak? The average Chinese person can typically speak at least two languages. Alex Rawlings, age 20, tested for fluency in 11 different languages (English, Greek, German, Danish, Russian, Hebrew, Catalan, Italian, French, Afrikaans and Spanish), before taking out the coveted title. Apr 28, 2022 · How many languages does the average person speak? Most people speak one or two languages fluently. You may be able to learn more than 10, but you probably don't speak them all very well and you might start to lose the lesser used ones. Monolingualism is common among native speakers of any large language, that adds up. 77%), the Dravidian (c. A typical person’s mind can only handle four languages. Help to correct. %93 of Turkish people speak Turkish as their mother tongue, and 6% speak Turkish as a secondary language. Does this mean that humans are incapable of being fluent in more than ten languages? uufo. Some people might even say they speak a language Speaking 1 language: Monolingual Speaking 2 languages: Bilingual 3 languages: Trilingual 4: Quadrilingual 5: Pentalingual 6: Hexalingual 7: Septalingual 8: Octolingual 9: Nonalingual 10: Decalingual. This is very different from how we are taught in Germany. – curiousdannii ♦. In many countries, English is a mandatory second language in public education. Singlish is the most popular form of local jargon here. Danish is spoken by about 0. May 18, 2024 · These languages are spoken by different ethnic groups across the country. probably just one or two. But speeches are fairly often given at a quicker pace. Additionally, women are fluent in more languages on average than men overall. How to Write Essay Titles and Headers. 7. We know that before the age of 4, children Of the 25. Any more than that is unlikely. Apr 29, 2020 · How many people speak multiple languages in India? The Constitution of India designates the official languages of India as Hindi and English. 🎥 My YouTube Camera Gear - https://kit. 37 163,317,444 348,225 14,000 4 India: 453 6 447 1,257,421,714 2,924,237 35,000 5 China (mainland only) r/AskTeenBoys is a subreddit to ask boys questions. How many languages does the average person in the Star Wars universe speak? We see some characters speak a lot of different alien languages (not talking about C3PO), but it seems quite unrealistic considering that the average human on earth only speaks 1. Mar 30, 2022 · This information is scheduled for release on August 17, 2022, for short-form questions and on November 30, 2022, for long-form questions. The British political economist John Bowring, who died in 1872, claimed to know 200 languages and to be able to speak 100. ) Sino-Tibetan. Brain training (15. aa in pk jt zc xq au ot hr sm