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mallory | 17:00 Sun 08th May 2005 | Quizzes & Puzzles
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What is the worlds SECOND most spoken language?
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1st = Mandarin (885m)

2nd = Spanish (332m)

3rd =  English (322m)

Question Author
Thanks but where on the www can I confirm the answer.

Can't prove it to be true but I read somewhere (a few years ago) that there are as many people in China learning English as there are people who speak it as a first language.

Do the figures above indicate whether this is as a first language or does it include foreign polyglots.

Data from Wikipedia (estimates from 1999)

Mandarin - 867.2 total speakers.

English    - 340m as 1st language plus 600m as 2nd.

Spanish   - 352m as 1st language plus  65m as 2nd.

Hope this helps mallory: www.krysstal.com/spoken.html

Check out this link also for confirmation (and a different answer also!!)  Items #19 & #20 www.le.ac.uk/eg/fss1

Toss-up between Encycl Britannia & The Ethnologue.

Good Luck . . .

Since there are over 1,000,000,000 chinese in China plus mandarin speakers in Taiwan, Singapore and other such exotic places, 885,000,000 seems a small figure

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