10 Most Spoken Languages in the World

By siliconindia   |   Saturday, 19 November 2011, 00:25 IST   |    15 Comments
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Hindi-Urdu
Hindi-Urdu
Hindi-Urdu is a member of the Indo-Aryan family, alongside Bengali. It is a pluricentric language and has two official forms, Standard Hindi and Standard Urdu, although the two forms are nearly indistinguishable from each other. Hindi is the official language of India, whilst Urdu is the official language of Pakistan. Urdu and Hindi are also spoken in parts of Europe and North America with heavy Indian and Pakistani immigrant populations. It is written in both the Hindi alphabet and the Arabic alphabet (for Urdu due to Islamic influence). The speakers who communicate with this language are 242 million.