Georgian: 3,579,000 native speakers
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Georgian is a language of Georgia. Roughly 71% of the population
there speak it as a first language.
GEORGIAN
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Georgian
Georgian is spoken by roughly 3.5 million people in at least 15 territories. Outside of Georgia, most
of the speakers are in Russia, Iran and Turkey.
The Georgian language has many dialects, which are divided into two main groups: eastern and
western.
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Kirghiz: 3,702,000 native speakers
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Kirghiz is a language of Kyrgyzstan. Roughly 48% of the population
there speak it as a first language.
KIRGHIZ
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Kirghiz
Kirghiz (or Kyrgyz) is one of the two official languages of Kyrgyzstan, where the majority of the
roughly 3.2 million speakers live. Kirghiz is spoken in at least 8 territories. Most of the speakers
outside Kyrgyzstan are in China, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.
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Ewe: 3,735,000 native speakers
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Ewe is a language of Ghana. Roughly 11% of the population there
speak it as a first language.
EWE
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Ewe
Ewe is spoken by roughly 3.7 million people, mostly in a contiguous region stretching over southeast Ghana, the southern half of Togo, and a small part of south-west Benin. There are also a small
number of speakers in the United Kingdom.
Ewe belongs to the Gbe group of closely-related languages.
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Bambara: 3,860,000 native speakers
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Bambara is a language of Mali. Roughly 21% of the population
there speak it as a first language.
BAMBARA
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Bambara
Bambara is spoken by roughly 3 million people. The majority are in Mali; the other territories with
recorded Bambara speaking populations are Senegal, Gambia, Côte d'Ivoire and Burkina Faso.
Bambara is closely related to Dioula, which is spoken in Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, and Gambia.
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Maninkakan: 3,910,000 native speakers
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Maninkakan is a language of Guinea. Roughly 23% of the
population there speak it as a first language.
MANINKAKAN
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Maninkakan
Maninkakan is the language of the Malinké people. It is spoken by nearly 4 million people, in at
least six territories. The majority of speakers are in Guinea, Mali and Senegal, with smaller
numbers in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Gambia.
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Wolof: 3,973,000 native speakers
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Wolof is a language of Senegal. Roughly 36% of the population
there speak it as a first language.
WOLOF
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Wolof
Wolof is spoken by nearly 4 million first-language speakers, in at least six territories. The vast
majority are in Senegal, and most of those who don't speak it as a first language in Senegal speak
it as a second language.
Thereafter, the greatest concentration of speakers are in Gambia, where it is popular in the capital
Banjul. It is also spoken around the southern coastal regions of Mauritania. It has spread further
afield; being spoken in France, the United Kingdom and Canada.
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Hebrew: 4,151,000 native speakers
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Hebrew is a language of Israel. Roughly 77% of the population
there speak it as a first language.
HEBREW
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Hebrew
Hebrew is notable as a language that was all but dead as a regularly spoken language, but was
revived in the 19th and 20th centuries, and Modern Hebrew is now spoken by roughly 5 million
people in at least 7 territories. Hebrew is the language of Judaism, and Classical Hebrew is still
used for prayer or study in Jewish communities. The vast majority of speakers are in Israel, where it
is an official language. Large numbers are also found in the Palestinian territories and the United
States. Smaller numbers live in Canada, the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates.
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Norwegian: 4,258,000 native speakers
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Norwegian is a language of Norway. Roughly 96% of the
population there speak it as a first language.
NORWEGIAN
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Norwegian
There are two forms of Norwegian, with equal official status in Norway; Bokmål ('book language',
modern Norwegian, influenced by Danish) and Nynorsk (based on older Norwegian which survived
in rural areas). In total there are roughly 4.4 million speakers of Norwegian, the vast majority being
in Norway.
There are also Norwegian-speaking communities numbering tens of thousands in the United
States, Sweden, and the United Kingdom, and smaller numbers in Canada and Iceland.
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Hmong: 4,294,000 native speakers
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Hmong is a language of China. Roughly 0.2% of the population
there speak it as a first language.
HMONG
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Hmong
Hmong is the language of the Hmong ethnic group, who live in mountainous regions from southern
China, through Vietnam and Laos to Thailand. The two main dialects are White Hmong (Hmong
Daw) and Green Mong (Mong Njua). J. Lemoine estimated the total population of Hmong speakers
to be between 4 and 5 million, in 10 territories; the largest number (roughly 2.8 million) are in
southern China, the remainder are found, in order of descending size, in Viet Nam, Lao People's
Dem. Republic, the United States, Thailand, France, Myanmar, Australia, Argentina and Canada.
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Slovak: 4,565,000 native speakers
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Slovak is a language of Slovakia. Roughly 84% of the population
there speak it as a first language.
SLOVAK
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Slovak
There are almost 5 million first-language speakers of Slovak, in at least 130 territories. The vast
majority are in Slovakia, around 200 thousand are in the Czech Republic, and the remainder are in
other European territories and the United States.
Slovak and Czech are mutually intelligible, and might be considered to be dialects of the same
language. Their influence on each other predates the creation of Czechoslovakia.
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Kanuri: 4,975,000 native speakers
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Kanuri is a language of Nigeria. Roughly 3% of the population there
speak it as a first language.
KANURI
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Kanuri
Kanuri is mainly spoken in the area around lake Chad, in the territories of Nigeria, Niger, Chad,
Cameroon and Sudan. The number of speakers is somewhere between 4 and 5 million.
Most Kanuri now speak Hausa and/or Arabic as in addition to Kanuri, and the influence of Kanuri is
gradually declining due to the expansion of these two languages.
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Tswana: 5,114,000 native speakers
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Tswana is a language of Botswana. Roughly 78% of the population
there speak it as a first language.
TSWANA
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Tswana
Tswana (or Setswana) is spoken by roughly 5 million people. The largest concentration of speakers
is over an area that covers northern South Africa and southern Botswana (where it is the national
language, and spoken by most of the population). There are much smaller numbers of speakers in
Zimbabwe and Namibia, and also a small number in the UK.
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SeSotho: 5,140,000 native speakers
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SeSotho is a language of Lesotho. Roughly 98% of the
population there speak it as a first language.
SESOTHO
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SeSotho
We estimate that Sesotho (Southern Sotho) is spoken by just over 5 million people. Most of these
speakers are in South Africa and Lesotho; it is a national language in both territories. There are also
small numbers of speakers in Botswana and the United Kingdom.
Sesotho is strongly related to Northern Sotho and Tswana.
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Finnish: 5,201,000 native speakers
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This small map removes the countries where Finnish is dominant.
This map therefore only shows 7.3% of all speakers of Finnish. The
territory omitted is Finland.
FINNISH
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Finnish
Finnish is closely related to Estonian. It is one of two official languages in Finland, and spoken by
the majority of the population, and also by a sizeable population in Sweden. It is spoken in total by
roughly 5.1 million speakers, in at least 9 territories, the others being the United States, Canada,
Russia, the United Kingdom, Norway and Estonia.
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Armenian: 5,277,000 native speakers
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This small map removes the countries where Armenian is
dominant. This map therefore only shows 47.8% of all speakers of
Armenian. The territory omitted is Armenia.
ARMENIAN
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Armenian
Although estimates of Armenian are put at just over 5 million speakers, it has spread throughout
eastern Europe and the Middle East, and is spoken in at least 32 territories; many speakers are
descendents of people forced to flee Armenia after the First World War.
Armenian has its own written alphabet, known in the Armenian language as Hayeren.
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Danish: 5,356,000 native speakers
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This small map removes the countries where Danish is dominant.
This map therefore only shows 3% of all speakers of Danish. The
territory omitted is Denmark.
DANISH
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Danish
Danish is spoken as a first language by roughly 5.3 million people, in at least 11 territories. It is the
de facto language of Denmark, and until 2009 was an official language in Greenland, where it is
spoken by most of the population as either a first or second language. Danish has many similarities
with Norwegian and Swedish; in fact, all three are largely mutually intelligible, and are often
considered as dialects of a Scandinavian continuum. There is a community of Danish speakers in
northern Germany. There are also Danish speakers in the United States and the United Kingdom.
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Tajiki: 5,378,000 native speakers
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Tajiki is a language of Tajikistan. Roughly 65% of the population
there speak it as a first language.
TAJIKI
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Tajiki
Tajik (or Tajiki) is a language that has evolved from Persian, and is spoken mainly in Tajikistan
(where it is the official language) and Uzbekistan. It is closely related to the Dari version of Persian
spoken in Afghanistan, and some would consider the Persian languages of Tajikistan, Iran and
Afghanistan to be dialects of one language.
There are roughly 5.3 million first-language speakers, in at least 7 territories. Political instability had
led to the Tajik people moving into Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Ukraine and Turkmenistan.
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Mongolian: 5,634,000 native speakers
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Mongolian is a language of Mongolia. Roughly 90% of the
population there speak it as a first language.
MONGOLIAN
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Mongolian
Mongolian is spoken by roughly 5.6 million people, mostly in Mongolia and the Inner Mongolia part
of China, although estimates of the Mongolian-speaking population in China vary, partly due to the
increasing influence of Mandarin Chinese in the area.
Small numbers of speakers are found in Taiwan, the United Kingdom, the United States and
Russia.
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Albanian: 5,683,000 native speakers
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This small map removes the countries where Danish is dominant.
This map therefore only shows 3% of all speakers of Danish. The
territory omitted is Denmark.
ALBANIAN
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Albanian
Danish is spoken as a first language by roughly 5.3 million people, in at least 11 territories. It is the
de facto language of Denmark, and until 2009 was an official language in Greenland, where it is
spoken by most of the population as either a first or second language. Danish has many similarities
with Norwegian and Swedish; in fact, all three are largely mutually intelligible, and are often
considered as dialects of a Scandinavian continuum. There is a community of Danish speakers in
northern Germany. There are also Danish speakers in the United States and the United Kingdom.
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Tigrigna: 5,913,000 native speakers
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Tigrigna is a language of Ethiopia. Roughly 6% of the population
there speak it as a first language.
TIGRIGNA
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Tigrigna
Tigrinya is a Semitic language, spoken by between 5 and 6 million speakers, most of them in Tigray
in northern Ethiopia, and most of the remainder in central Eritrea. There are also some emigrants
speakers, including some of the 'Beta Israel' living in Israel, and small numbers in Germany and
Canada.
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Afrikaans: 6,215,000 native speakers
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Afrikaans is a language of South Africa. Roughly 13% of the
population there speak it as a first language.
AFRIKAANS
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Afrikaans
Afrikaans is a language spoken mainly in South Africa (where it is one of the official languages) and
the southern part of Namibia. It developed from Dutch, which had been taken there by settlers in
the late 17th Century. Afrikaans had developed into a distinct language by the 19th century,
although Afrikaans and Dutch are still largely mutually intelligible.
There are around 6 million speakers in total, in at least 12 territories.
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Turkmen: 6,316,000 native speakers
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This small map removes the countries where Turkmen is dominant.
This map therefore only shows 45.4% of all speakers of Turkmen.
The territory omitted is Turkmenistan.
TURKMEN
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Turkmen
Turkmen is spoken by roughly 6 million people in around 13 territories. It is spoken by the vast
majority of people in Turkmenistan, and also by significant numbers in Iran, Afghanistan,
Uzbekistan and Iraq.
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