Contents: Most Spoken | Classification | Classical Written Languages | Printing/Writing

Ethnologue: Languages of the World from The Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) lists 7,200 primary language names and 39,491 alternate names and dialects.

Most Spoken

Rank	Language Name		Speakers (M)		Official Language in [1]
	English	Native	Native	Total
1/1	Mandarin, ex.	(simp) (trad)	885	1051	PRC, ROC, [2] Singapore,
2/5	Spanish	Español ex.	332	480	Spain, Andorra, Central and South America (except Brazil), Cuba, Dominican Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Mexico, Puerto Rico
3/2	English	English	322	980	United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, United States, Canada, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, Botswana, Brunei, Dominica, The Gambia, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Liberia, The Bahamas. Non-exclusive: Cameroon, Canada, Hong Kong, India, Kenya, Kiribati, Kosovo, Lesotho, Malaysia, Malta, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, Zimbabwe
4/6	Arabic	ex.	206	323 [3]	Algeria, Bahrain, Comoros, Chad, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestinian Authority, Qatar, Western Sahara (SADR), Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Yemen;
5	Bengali		189		Bangladesh, India
6/3	Hindi	ex.	182	948	India, Fiji
7/8	Portuguese	Português	177	223	Portugal, Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, East Timor, European Union, Guinea Bissau, Chinese S.A.R. of Macau, Mozambique, São Tomé and Príncipe
8/7	Russian Cyrillic	ex.	170	255	Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Transnistria, and Gagauzia.
9/10	Japanese	4ex.	125	130	Japan, Angaur (Palau)
10/11	German	Deutsch ex.	95	122	Germany, Austria, European Union, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Switzerland,
11	Punjabi or Panjabi	[5]	89		Western Panjabi - Punjab area of Pakistan 61M Eastern Panjabi - Punjab (India), Haryana, Amritsar, Chandigarh and Delhi - 28 M
12	Wu		77		vernacular language of Shanghai is a dialect of Wu
13/4	French	Français Ex.	77	500	France, Switzerland, parts of Belgium, Luxembourg, Monaco, Canada (Quebec), French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Saint Barthelemy, St. Martin, Saint-Pierre, Hati, NW Africa (Cameroon, Chad, Congo, Djibouti, Guinea, Madagascar, Mali, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, ...), Laos, Lebanon, Vanuatu, French Polynesia
14	Javanese		70		Java (Indonesia)
15	Korean		70		N. & S. Korea
16	Vietnamese		67	86	Vietnam
17	Telugu		66	86	India
18/12	Cantonese		66	100	Hong Kong SAR and Macau
19	Marathi		64	71	Maharashtra & Goa State, India
20	Tamil		63	72	India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Singapore
21	Italian	Italiano Ex.	61		Italy, Switzerland, European Union, San Marino, Slovenia, Somalia
22	Min		59		Fujian province in China and migrants in Guangdong, Hainan, Taiwan and other areas.
23	Turkish	Türkçe	59	75	Turkey, Cyprus, Kosovo, Republic of Macedonia
24/11	Urdu		58	104	Pakistan; India (Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh)
25	Persian: (Farsi, Dari, ...)	ex.	49		Iran, Tajikistan, Afghanistan
26	Polish		44		Poland, European Union
27	Gujarati		44		India
28	Ukrainian		41		Ukraine
29	Nepali		40		Nepal, Sikkim (India)
35	Thai		20		Thailand
37	Pashto		27		Afghanistan
/9	Indonesian		17	200	Indonesia
52	Greek		12		Greece, Cyprus
	Swedish ex.			10	Sweden
80	Tibetan		6		Tibet (China)
81	Hebrew	alphabet wikipedia	5		Israel
87	Armenian		5		Armenia

2. PRC - Peoples Republic of China (Mainland) - Simplified characters
  ROC - Taiwan - Traditional characters
3. 323 million people in Arab countries
4. combination of three different types of scripts: Chinese characters, kanji, and two syllabic scripts, hiragana and katakana.
5. Panjabi has two writing systems Gurmukhi and Shahmukhi.

See also: Alphabets at omniglot.com
and Languages supported by google

Classification

* Indo-European
   Indo_Iranian
    Hindi , Urdu (Pakistan, India, Afghanistan) , Farsi (Iran) ,
    Kurdish, Bengali (Bangladesh, India), Punjabi , Pashto (Afghanistan), Marathi, ...
   Hellenic
     Greek 
   Germanic
      Deutsch (German), English, Afrikaans (South Africa and Namibia)
     Romance
      Español (Spanish), Français (French), Italiano (Italian), Português (Portuguese)
      
     Northern Germanic - Scandinavian Causasian
      Svenska (Swedish), Danish, Norwegian, ...
     Norse - Old Norse
     Caucasian 
     (classified into several language families,
       with little or no discernible affinity to each other.)
        Georgian, Chechen, ...
        
  Slavic and Balto-Slavic
     Russian  (Cyrillic),
    Polska, Czech, Slovak, Croatian, Ukrainian...
     
* Uralic
      Finnish, Estonian, Hungarian
      
* Afro-Asiatic
        
      Semitic
        Arabic (Iraq) , Hebrew ,  Amharic (Ethopia),
        Aramaic, Coptic
      Chadic
        Hausa (Niger)
      Cushitic
        Oromo (Ethopia),
        
      Ancient Egyptian (The language of modern day Egypt is Egyptian Arabic)
       

* Niger-Congo-Kordofanian and Nilo-Saharan
     Yoruba (Nigeria), Swahili, Chichewa (south-central Africa), Somali, ...
        
* Dravidian (Southern Asia)
     Tamil, Telugu (India), Malayalam,

* Altaic languages
     Türkçe (Turkic, Turkish), Mongolic, sometimes includes Japonic
    
* Japonic
     Japanese 
    
* Sino-Tibetan
     Chinese: Mandarin, Cantonese, Wu (Shanghai), Hakka, Xiang, Gan
       Min (A group of dialects of the Chinese language spoken in the southeastern
                 Chinese province of Fujian as well as by migrants from this area)
     Taiwanese (dialect of Min Nan)
     Written: Chinese Traditional , Chinese Simplified 
     
     Tibetan 

*Sino-Xenic
    Sometimes Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese are listed in this category
* Tai-Kadai
    Thai 

* Austronesian 
   Indonesian, Filipino (based on Tagalog), Malay , Javanese, 


* Isolates (Cannot be classified)
  Asia
    Korean  (Sino-Xenic)
  Europe
     Euskara - Basque - unknown origin.
          it shows no ressemblance to languages in neighbouring countries.
          Many think it is a very old language because there are words,
          such as that for axe ("aizkora" or "haizkora") for example,
          that have the same root as the word rock.

Classical and Ancient

Cuneiform - 3,500 BCE 1,000 glyphs Earliest known form of written expressiion. Created by the Sumerians and continued through the end of the Babylonian and Assyrian empires. 300–600 cuneiform symbols. In 1933 25,000 clay tablets in Akkadian language written in cuneiform were discovered in Syria. They were dated to the last 50 years of Mari's independence (ca. 1800-1750 BC). Mari (modern Tell Hariri, Syria) was an ancient Sumerian and Amorite city, located on the Euphrates river near the Iraqi border. Cuneiform script underwent considerable changes over a period spanning three millennia. In the course of the 3rd millennium BC the script became successively more cursive, and the pictographs developed into conventionalized linear drawings, the number of characters in use also refined from around 1,000 unique characters in the 3,000 BCI to around 400 characters in 1,000 BCE (Hittite cuneiform). See Cuneiform at wikipedia.
Egyptian Hieroglyphics - 3,200 BCE - 400 CE 700 glyphs. Replaced by coptic. See: Ancient Egyptian scripts at omniglot
Writing instruments - 2,000 BCE Writing was originally done by chiseling pictures into stone or wedging pictographs into wet clay. 2,000 BCE - Egyptian "Prisse Papyrus" oldest parchment / pypyrus 1200 BCE - Chinese invented and perfected 'Indian Ink'; Originally designed for blacking the surfaces of raised stone-carved hieroglyphics. Dead Sea Scrolls 150 BCE - 68 CE See more writing/printing/word processing below.
Akkadian - 2,500 BCE - 100 CE. Spoken in ancient Mesopotamia, particularly by the Assyrians and Babylonians.
Sanskrit - 1,700 BCE-Present A classical language of India, a liturgical language of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism, and one of the 23 official languages of India.
Alphabets replaced pictographs 1700 = 1500 BCE
Old Chinese - 1,500 BCE See: Chinese at omniglot
Greek - 1,400 BCE	Α Β Γ Δ Ε Ζ Η Θ Ω α β γ δ ε ζ η θ ω
Hebrew - 900 BCE - The first written evidence of distinctive Hebrew, the Gezer calendar, dates back to the 10th century BCE. One of the Semitic languages. It is the main language of the "Old Testiment" or Hebrew Bible. The Dead Sea Scrolls were written mainly in Hebrew, but some are in Aramaic. See: Hebrew alphabet at omniglot
Aramaic - 900 BCE - The Early Aramaic or Proto-Hebrew alphabet was developed sometime during the late 10th or early 9th century BC and replaced Assyrian cuneiform as the main writing system of the Assyrian empire. One of the Semitic languages. This language appears in the Old Testament of the Bible in five places: Ezra 4:8-6:18, Ezra 7:12-26, Daniel 2:4-7:28, Jer. 10:11 and Gen. 31:47, and is the main language of the Talmud (Record of Jewish law, ethics, ...). Aramaic was the native language of Jesus. See: Aramaic alphabet at omniglot.
Celtic - 1,000 BCE - During the 1st millennium BC, variations were spoken across Europe; Today, Celtic languages are limited to a few areas in the British Isles, eastern Canada and Patagonia. Divided into sub-families: Gaulish, Celtiberian, Goidelic and Brythonic (Welsh, Breton, Cornish, possibly Pictish and others.
Goidelic (Gaelic) - A type of Celtic language 100 BCE - 1,800 CE Goidelic-speaking Milesians invaded Ireland in the 1st or 2nd century BC. Goidelic is generally divided into: Irish (Gaeilge), Scottish Gaelic (Gàidhlig), and Manx (Gaelg), in the Isle of Man. Classical Gaelic, was used as a literary language in Ireland until the 17th century and in Scotland until the 18th century. In Scottish English, Gaelic is pronounced [ˈgaːlɪk]; outside Scotland, it is usually pronounced /ˈgeɪlɪk/. See: Gaelic at WorldLanguage.com Written text in old and current font.
Latin - 800 BCE The formal language of the Roman Republic and Roman Empire. See: Latin alphabet at omniglot
Coptic - 600 BC - 1,600 CE Replacement for ancient Egyptian around 600 BC until it gave way to Arabic in the 17th century. The Coptic alphabet is a slightly modified form of the Greek alphabet used in Egypt. See: Coptic at omniglot
Etruscan - 600 BCE A Western variety of the Greek alphabet brought to Italy by Euboean Greeks, who lived in Etruria (current area around Tuscany).
Ethiopic (Ge'ez alphabet) - 500 BCE - present. The classical language of Ethiopia which is still used as a liturgical language by Ethiopian christians and the Beta Israel Jewish community of Ethiopia. See: Ethiopic alphabet at omniglot
Mayan 300 BCE - 1,500 CE See: Mayan Script at omniglot

3,500 BCE - Sumerian Cuneiform glyphs on clay tablets
3,200 BCE = Egyptian Hieroglyphics glyphs on clay tablets
2,000 BCE - Egyptian "Prisse Papyrus" oldest parchment / pypyrus
1200 BCE - Chinese invented and perfected 'Indian Ink'; Originally designed for blacking the surfaces of raised stone-carved hieroglyphics.
105 A.D. Wood-fiber paper was invented by Tsai, Lun in China.
1040 - printing with wooden and ceramic movable type - China.
late 14th century - Paper mills in Europe increase use of paper.
1436 Gutenberg develops the printing press.
1714 The first patent for a 'writing machine' was given to Henry Mill of England
1868 Christopher Sholes, Carlos Glidden and Samuel Soule patent a type writing machine.
1872 Thomas Alva Edison builds first electric typewriter.
1873 Christopher Latham Sholes builds typewriter that Remington & Son puts into production.
1886 - Linotype typesetting machine. Uses a process known as "hot metal" typesetting.
1964 IBM brought out the MT/ST (Magnetic Tape/Selectric Typewriter)
1964 RUNOFF markup language for computer typesetting developed for MIT's CTSS OS
1970's - Phototypsetting "cold type" replaces "hot metal". It uses photographic paper. 1972 Lexitron and Linolex develop a word processing system, with video display screens
1974 WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) word processing program Bravo developed at Xerox PARC.
1979 - Rob Barnaby wrote WordStar for CP/M to run on personal computers.
1983 - Microsoft word for DOS. Showed bold and italics, but not multiple typefaces. 1984 - MacWrite WYSIWYG word processor released with the first Macintosh.
1993 - First popular HTML (Hypertext markup language) web browser, NCSA Mosaic, developed by Marc Andreessen at UIUC.

Examples from Google:
List of languages in 2009:
Deutsch, Español, Français, Italiano, Chinese Traditional , Chinese Simplified , Japanese , Korean , Hindi , Arabic , Hebrew , Russian , Nederlands, Polska, Svenska, ...

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