How many speakers of English are there

[eagleye]

how many people speak english in the world today

 

[Rover_KE]

How many people speak English in the world today?

I don't know.

Please let us know when you find out.

Rover

 

[TheParser]

how many people speak english in the world today

NOT A TEACHER


DEAR FELLOW MEMBER EAGLEYE:


(1) You have asked a great question.

(2) On the Web, you can find out the number of speakers for all the

major languages.

(3) I'm looking at a 2008 book of facts (an almanac), and it says that

both English and Mandarin (the official language in China) each have about

1,000,000,000 speakers. (There are about 7,000,000,000 human

beings now.)

(4) Of course, you need to remember that there are different

varieties of English. In other words, there are many Englishes.

(5) You know that American and British English have some

differences. But then people speak English in India, some

African countries, and some islands in the Carribean. In fact, there

is a country in Latin American called Belize, where English is the

official language. All these Englishes have differences

when it comes to grammar, vocabulary, accent, etc.

(6) I have also read that there is a special kind of English

(I forget its name) that has been developed so that business people

can know enough English to conduct international business!!! In other

words, some people do not wish to become fluent. They just

want to know enough English in order to make money.

(7) As you know, many years ago, people in Europe spoke Latin.

Then little by little, the people in different countries started to

speak Latin in their own special way. That is how we got Spanish,

French, Italian, Portuguese, and Romanian. Some are asking:

Someday will the same thing happen to English? That is, someday

maybe an "English" speaker in country X will not understand an

"English" speaker in country Y.

THANK YOU so much for your interesting question.


Respectfully yours,


James

 

[nyota]

You've already asked this question in this thread - Number of speaking English.

 

[eagleye]

I don't know.

Please let us know when you find out.

Rover

Ok I got the answer, and I wish it will be correct.

The latest estimated number of speaking English around the world was 510 million by Gordon 2005.
Yaisr A.M.Ridha

 

[eagleye]

You've already asked this question in this thread - Number of speaking English.

Thank you for your answer, :up:

 

[Tdol]

(6) I have also read that there is a special kind of English

(I forget its name) that has been developed so that business people

can know enough English to conduct international business!!! In other

words, some people do not wish to become fluent. They just

want to know enough English in order to make money.

I've seen International English and Offshore English used for this.

 

[eagleye]

NOT A TEACHER


DEAR FELLOW MEMBER EAGLEYE:


(1) You have asked a great question.

(2) On the Web, you can find out the number of speakers for all the

major languages.

(3) I'm looking at a 2008 book of facts (an almanac), and it says that

both English and Mandarin (the official language in China) each have about

1,000,000,000 speakers. (There are about 7,000,000,000 human

beings now.)

(4) Of course, you need to remember that there are different

varieties of English. In other words, there are many Englishes.

(5) You know that American and British English have some

differences. But then people speak English in India, some

African countries, and some islands in the Carribean. In fact, there

is a country in Latin American called Belize, where English is the

official language. All these Englishes have differences

when it comes to grammar, vocabulary, accent, etc.

(6) I have also read that there is a special kind of English

(I forget its name) that has been developed so that business people

can know enough English to conduct international business!!! In other

words, some people do not wish to become fluent. They just

want to know enough English in order to make money.

(7) As you know, many years ago, people in Europe spoke Latin.

Then little by little, the people in different countries started to

speak Latin in their own special way. That is how we got Spanish,

French, Italian, Portuguese, and Romanian. Some are asking:

Someday will the same thing happen to English? That is, someday

maybe an "English" speaker in country X will not understand an

"English" speaker in country Y.

THANK YOU so much for your interesting question.


Respectfully yours,


James

Thank you very much my friend