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English is sometimes described as the first world languaje or first global lingua franca, is the dominant international language in communications, science, business, aviation, entertainment, radio and diplomacy. By the late nineteenth century its reach was truly global. It is the dominant language in the United States, whose growing economic and cultural influence and status as a global superpower since World War II, have significantly accelerated the language's adoption across the planet.

Some 375 million people speak English as their first language. English today is the third largest language by number of native speakers, after Mandarin Chinese and Spanish. However, when combining native and non-native speakers it is probably the most commonly spoken language in the world, though possibly second to a combination of the Chinese languages, depending on classification of their "languages" or "dialects".

English is also the official language of the United Nations and other international organizations such as the International Olympic Committee.

According to "www2.ignatius.edu":

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The Summer Institute for Linguistics (SIL) 1999 Ethnologue Survey lists the following as the top languages by population (number of native speakers in parentheses):

Chinese* (937,132,000)
Spanish (332,000,000)
English (322,000,000)
Bengali (189,000,000)
Hindi/Urdu (182,000,000)
Arabic* (174,950,000)
Portuguese (170,000,000)
Russian (170,000,000)
Japanese (125,000,000)
German (98,000,000)
French* (79,572,000)

* The totals given for Chinese, Arabic, and French include more than one SIL variety.

The following list is from Dr. Bernard Comrie’s article for the 1998 Encarta Encyclopedia (number of native speakers in parentheses):

Mandarin Chinese (836 million)
Hindi (333 million)
Spanish (332 million)
English (322 million)
Bengali (189 million)
Arabic (186 million)
Russian (170 million)
Portuguese (170 million)
Japanese (125 million)
German (98 million)
French (72 million)

The following list is from George Weber’s article “Top Languages: The World’s 10 Most Influential Languages” in December 1997 Language Today, Vol. 2 (number of native speakers in parentheses):

Mandarin Chinese (1.1 billion)
English (330 million)
Spanish (300 million)
Hindi/Urdu (250 million)
Arabic (200 million)
Bengali (185 million)
Portuguese (160 million)
Russian (160 million)
Japanese (125 million)
German (100 million)
Punjabi (90 million)
Javanese (80 million)
French (75 million)

In terms of secondary speakers, Weber submits the following list (number of speakers in parentheses):

French (190 million)
English (150 million)
Russian (125 million)
Portuguese (28 million)
Arabic (21 million)
Spanish (20 million)
Chinese (20 million)
German (9 million)
Japanese (8 million)

Thus, if you add the secondary speaker populations to the primary speaker populations, you get the following more accurate list (number of speakers in parentheses):

Mandarin Chinese (1.12 billion)
English (480 million)
Spanish (320 million)
Russian (285 million)
French (265 million)
Hindi/Urdu (250 million)
Arabic (221 million)
Portuguese (188 million)
Bengali (185 million)
Japanese (133 million)
German (109 million)

The following is a list of these languages in terms of the number of countries where each is spoken. This is the total number of countries that use that language (from Weber, 1997):

English (115)
French (35)
Arabic (24)
Spanish (20)
Russian (16)
German (9)
Mandarin (5)
Portuguese (5)
Hindi/Urdu (2)
Bengali (1)
Japanese (1)

After weighing six factors (number of primary speakers, number of secondary speakers, number and population of countries where used, number of major fields using the language internationally, economic power of countries using the languages, and socio-literary prestige), Weber compiled the following list of the world's ten most influential languages (number of points given in parentheses):

English (37)
French (23)
Spanish (20)
Russian (16)
Arabic (14)
Chinese (13)
German (12)
Japanese (10)
Portuguese (10)
Hindi/Urdu (9)
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http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cc/English_dialects1997_modified.svg/600px-English_dialects1997_modified.svg.png
English speaking countries percentage chart.
Source(s):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_language

http://www2.ignatius.edu/faculty/turner/languages.htm

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