Happy International Mother Language Day! 🌎

Languages are what connect us, and today is all about celebrating them! International Mother Language Day has been observed since the 1970s, officially recognized by UNESCO in 1999.

There are a whopping 7,164 languages spoken worldwide, but almost half of the world’s countries have just 10 languages as their official language.

Can you guess the most spoken native language? Here’s a breakdown of the top 10 by native speakers:

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🌍 The 10 Most Spoken Native Languages

1️⃣ Chinese – 1.3 billion (Mandarin alone has 900 million speakers)
2️⃣ Spanish – 486 million (Official in Spain, Mexico, and most of South America)
3️⃣ English – 380 million (But don’t count it out just yet!)
4️⃣ Arabic – 362 million
5️⃣ Hindi – 345 million (India’s most spoken language)
6️⃣ Bengali – 237 million (Main language of Bangladesh)
7️⃣ Portuguese – 236 million (Spoken mainly in Brazil)
8️⃣ Russian – 148 million
9️⃣ Japanese – 123 million
🔟 Lahnda – 118 million (Spoken in India & Pakistan)

👉 But what about total speakers worldwide?
If you count people who speak a language as a second language, the rankings change:
✅ English jumps to #1 with 1.5 billion speakers globally!
✅ Mandarin, Hindi, Spanish, Arabic, and French follow.

Fun Fact: 🎬 Friends is the most-watched show worldwide for learning English, followed by The Simpsons!

What languages do you speak or want to learn? Let’s celebrate linguistic diversity! 🎉