Mandarin is spoken by 8 million people in the world. Mandarin is considered the official dialect in China with the Cantonese dialect following close behind. The pronunciation of specific words can change the meaning of a word. The Mandarin language follows four tones; an upward inflection, a downward inflection, a neutral tone and a tone that blends both upward and downward inflections.
There are approximately 80,000 characters that make up the Mandarin language, but a reader needs only 1,500 to 2,000 characters to understand a general magazine or newspaper article. Characters do not share a connection to the spoken language. Pinyin, a Romanized version of Chinese dialects, helps learners to understand the relationship between the spoken and written word.
Seventeen countries and more than 300 million people speak Hindi. Native to Central Asia, this language has close connections to the language Urdu, which is the main language of Pakistan. It is an Arabian language with Arabic script. The written version of this language began around the 4th century AD and evolved into a complete spoken language. The basic Hindi language has more than 10 dialects and is commonly spoken in Nepal, South Africa, the United Kingdom and Yemen.
Over 600 million people speak English in almost every corner of the world. The modern version of this language comes in several different dialects, from British to American English. This language has its roots in Celtic, Germanic and Dutch origins. As history dictates, tribes forced from Denmark and Germany moved to Britain. The people that settled there in the 5th century AD began to form a version of Old English. As time went on, spellings of words and the construction of vowels and consonants changed the meanings of vocabulary to become one of the top-spoken languages today.
Around 330 million people speak Spanish in more than 25 different countries. This easy-to-learn language has basic grammar structure and pronunciation is easy for many learners. Two sounds, the rolled "r" and soft "J," give Spanish a melodic sound. All nouns in the Spanish language are either masculine or feminine, which provides for an easy spelling system. Spanish is part of the Romance languages of Europe, which include French Portuguese and Italian.