Ethnipedia's list of Languages[]
*The "minority" and "majority" speakers on this list is a numbers game, regardless of whether a language is actually an offical or national in a country or whether it is native or L2 speakers. (Example: French is an official language in Canada, but only the French-Canadians from Quebec speak French but most Canadians speak English since most Canadians are of British descent. In Indonesia, the Indonesian language is spoken nearly 100% but 98% of the population learns their own dialects before Indonesian.) Also, some territories of countries might not be listed. (For example, Guam would count as United States, French Polynesia of France).
| Language | Description | Spoken as a majority in: | Spoken as a minority in: |
| Chinese | A world major language, the national language and main unifying lingua franca of China. | China, Taiwan, Singapore | United States, Malaysia, Vietnam |
| Mandarin | A language spoken by most of the Han Chinese populations, this also includes the majority Chinese populations in Taiwan and Singapore. | China, Taiwan, Singapore | Vietnam, Malaysia, Philippines, United States |
| Cantonese | A language that originated from the city of Canton, a sister-language of Mandarin also spoken by ethnic Han Chinese. | China, Singapore | Taiwan, Malaysia, United States, Philippines |
| Hokkien | A dialect spoken by ethnic Hoklo Chinese | *regional language |
China, Taiwan, Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore |
| Tibetan | A language spoken as the liturgical langauge of the Tibetan subsection of the Buddhist religion. | *regional language | China, Nepal, Bhutan |
| Language | Description | Spoken as a majority in: | Spoken as a minority in: |
| Spanish | A world major language, that is a prestige register of the Castilian dialect from Spain. | Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Spain, Nicaragua, Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Chile, Peru | United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, United States, Philippines, France, Belize |
| Portuguese | Another world major language, that is Portugal's prestige register of the Galician dialect from Spain | Portugal, Brazil, São Tomé and Príncipe, Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, East Timor | China, India |
| Italian | Another world major language, spoken by Italian people. Italian is a direct descendant of the Latin language. | Italy | Vatican City, Switzerland, Somalia, Croatia, Libya, Montenegro, Eritrea |
| French | A world major language, originated from France and the ethnic French people. | France, Burundi, Burkina Faso, Chad, Cameroon, Comoros, Guinea, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Congo, Niger, Monaco, Togo, Vanautu, Senegal, Rwanda, Mali, Madagascar | Belgium, Canada, Luxembourg, Vietnam, Switzerland |
| Castilian | A native dialect from Spain, that eventually became the Spanish language. Castilian is Spain's national language and the direct versions of Spanish spoken in many South American countries. | Spain, El Salvador, Venezuela, Bolivia, Chile, Peru, Paraguay, Uruguay, Suriname, Ecuador | United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy |
| Galician | A dialect that originated from Galicia, a Spanish province. | Portugal (as Portuguese) | Spain |
| Catalan | A Spanish dialect, that originated from Catalonia, Spain. | *regional language | Spain |
| Mirandese | A dialect spoken in what is now northern Portugal | *regional language |
Portugal |
| Language | Description | Spoken as a majority in: | Spoken as a minority in: |
| Russian | A world major language, that originated from the Old East Slavic language spoken in Russia and most of its former territories. | Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgystan, Tajkistan | Ukraine, China, Uzbekistan, Georgia, Mongolia |
| Ukrainian | An East Slavic language, spoken in the country of Ukraine, south of Russia. Also rooted from Old East Slavic, a sister language of Russian. | Ukraine | Moldova, Serbia, Poland, Romania, Croatia, Slovakia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Czech Republic |
| Belarusian | An East Slavic language, that originated in Belarus long before Russian contact. | *semi-extinct language | Belarus |
| Rusyn | An East Slavic language spoken by the Rusyn people or the "Carpatho-Russians" from the Caucius region | *regional language | Ukraine, Slovakia |
| Church Slavonic | A South Slavic language, that is the liturgical language of the Eastern Orthodox Church. | Russia, Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro, Ukraine, Belarus, Macedonia | Kazakhstan, Bosnia |
| Serbian | A South Slavic language, which is Serbia's national prestige register of the Serbo-Croatian dialect | Serbia | Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Austria, United States |
| Croatian | A South Slavic language, which is Croatia's national register of the Serbo-Croatian dialect | Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina | Montenegro, Austria, Italy, Serbia |
| Bosnian | A South Slavic language, which is Bosnia's national register of the Serbo-Croatian dialect | Bosnia | Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia, Slovenia |
| Montenegrin | A South Slavic language which is Montenegro's national register of the Serbo-Croatian dialect | Montenegro | Serbia |
| Bulgarian | An eastern South Slavic language that is Bulgaria's national register of the Church Slavonic language | Bulgaria | Serbia, Ukraine, Romania |
| Macedonian | An eastern South Slavic language that is Macedonia's national register of the Church Slavonic language | Macedonia | Albania, Romania and Serbia |
| Polish | A world major language, West Slavic language originating from Poland | Poland | Romania, Ukraine, Belarus, Czech Republic, Slovakia |
| Czech | A West Slavic language that is spoken in the Czech Republic. | Czech Republic | Slovakia |
| Slovak | A West Slavic language that is spoken in Slovakia. | Slovakia | United States, Czech Republic, Ireland, Poland, Hungary, Croatia |
| Sorbian | A West Slavic language spoken by the ethnic Sorbs from the German province of Lusatia. | *regional language | Germany |
| Language | Description | Spoken as majority in: | Spoken as a minority in: |
| Malay | Known as Bahasa Melayu, a language that is spoken by the ethnic Malays as native language, situated around western and central Indonesia, all of Malaysia and Brunei, Singapore and southern Thailand. | Malaysia (Malaysian), Indonesia (Indonesian), Brunei | Singapore, Thailand |
| Indonesian | Known as Bahasa Indonesia, this is Indonesia's national standard register of the Malay language. Indonesian contains noticeable differences from standard Malay. Indonesian is the unifying lingua franca of Indonesia. | Indonesia, East Timor | Netherlands, Philippines |
| Malaysian | Known as Bahasa Malaysia, this is Malaysia's national standard register of the Malay language. Malaysian contains literally no difference from Bahasa Melayu. Malaysian is the unifying lingua franca of Malaysia. | Malaysia | Thailand, Singapore |
| Bruneian | Called Brunei Melayu (literally means Bruneian Malay), this is the traditional dialect of Malay spoken in Brunei. Although Bahasa Melayu is Brunei's national language. This version of Malay is not readily intelligable with Bahasa Malaysia or Bahasa Indonesia. | Brunei | Malaysia |
| Javanese | The predominant dialect spoken in Indonesia, second from Indonesian since Javanese make up most of Indonesia's population. | Indonesia | Malaysia |
| Filipino | Also known as Pilipino, this is the Philippines's national prestige register of the Tagalog dialect, a dialect from the Central Manila area. This is the unifying lingua franca of Filipinos. | Philippines | United States, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, China |
| Tetum | Tetum is one of East Timor's official language, spoken by the ethnic natives of East Timor. | East Timor | Indonesia |
| Balinese | An indigenous dialect from the Indonesian island of Bali. Spoken by the Balinese people. | *regional language | Indonesia |
| Yawi | A dialect spoken in southern Thailand, by both non-Malays and Malays. Used as a regional lingua franca of southern Thai people. | *regional language | Thailand |
| Sundanese | A dialect that originated from the Sundanese people and spoken in most of Indonesia's western islands. | *regional language | Indonesia |
| Tagalog | A dialect that originates from the central Manila area of the Philippines. One of the most spoken dialects in the Philippines. | Philippines (as Filipino) | United States, Malaysia, United Arab Emirates |
| Cebuano | A dialect from the island of Visayas, in the central Philippines. The second most spoken dialect in the Philippines. | *regional language | Philippines |
| Tausūg | A native dialect from the Sulu region of southern Philippines and northern Malaysia, spoken by the Tausūg people. The language is known as Bahasa Sūg. | *regional language | Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia |
| Buginese | Native dialect spoken by the Bugis people of Malaysia and Indonesia. | *regional language | Malaysia, Indonesia |
| Samoan | The dialect spoken by ethnic Samoans in the Polynesian region of Oceania. | Samoa | United States, Australia, New Zealand, China |
| Tongan | A dialect that is closely related to Samoan, it is spoken by the ethnic Tongans, also in the Polynesian region of Oceania near Samoa. | Tonga | New Zealand, Australia, Fiji |
| Chamorro | A Micronesian language, spoken by the Chamorros, a Micronesian ethnic group. | Northern Mariana Islands | United States |
| Malagasy | A language spoken in the African island of Madagascar. | Madagascar | Comoros |
| Language | Description | Spoken as a majority in: | Spoken as a minority in: |
| Hebrew | Hebrew is one of the oldest surviving languages, that originates from what is now Israel. The ancient Jewish and Christian prophets spoke Hebrew. This is also a liturgical language for the Jewish religion. | Israel | *country isolate |
| Arabic | Like Hebrew, Arabic is also one of the oldest surviving languages. Arabic and Hebrew in fact, are very close languages. Arabic originated from the Arabian Peninsula, the ancient Jewish and Christian prophets also spoke Arabic. Arabic is the liturgical language of Islam. | Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Israel, Egypt, Chad, Nigeria, Sudan, Iraq, Yemen, Oman, Somalia, Libya, Lebanon, Mauritania, Qatar, Syria, Kuwait, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia, Chad, Camaros, Sudan | Iran, Malaysia, Philippines, United States, United Kingdom, France |
| Aramaic | Aramaic is an ancient language, still spoken that is from Aram, a region in central Syria. Aramaic is a very diverse language and conatains many dialects of itself as well. | *regional language | Iran, Iraq, Syria, Israel, Turkey |
| Language: | Description: | Spoken as a majority in: | Spoken as a minority in: |
| German | A world major language, West Germanic language that hails from Germany. Spoken in the country itself and most of its former territories. | Germany, Austria, Swtizerland, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein | Belgium, Poland, Russia, Italy |
| English | A world major language, West Germanic language, originating from the ancient Anglo-Saxon language from United Kingdom. Declared the "international language". | United States, Canada, Belize, United Kingdom, Philippines | India, Pakistan, Mexico, Singapore, Ireland |
| Dutch | Another West Germanic language, closely related to English. Dutch originates from the country Netherlands. | Netherlands, Belgium | Indonesia |
| Norwegian | A North Germanic language, spoken in Norway and traces roots back to some Scandanavian and Old Norse languages. | Norway | Denmark |
| Luxembourgish | A West Germanic and High German language, spoken in Luxembourg. Very close to German and Dutch. | Luxembourg | *country isolate |
| Swedish | A North Germanic language, spoken in Sweden. Closely related to Danish and Norwegian. | Sweden | Finland, Spain, United States, Canada |
| Danish | A North Germanic language, that has close roots and ties with Swedish, Dutch and Norwegian spoken in Denmark. | Denmark | Germany |
| Frisian | One of the only surviving descendants of the Anglo-Saxon language, other than English. | *regional language | Netherlands, Germany |
| Yiddish | A West Germanic/High German language that is spoken by Jews of Russia and Germany. | *regional language | Russia, Ukraine, Romania, Poland, Netherlands, Sweden, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Germany |