There are about 40 phonetic sounds in the English language.  How many are there in spanish and chinese?
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There are about 25 in Spanish and about 50-75 in Chinese
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my brother speaks seven. Portuguese, Spanish, Germain, french, Italian, English and Russian. (he is a diplomat)
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If you round off the population of the earth to about 6.6 billion* and then figure the number of English speakers (includes non-native speakers) at about 500 million**, that comes to about 7.6%.  I imagine this estimate must be adjusted for different levels of fluency, but this seems like a pretty good approximation for fluent speakers of English.  Hope it helps.
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Russian at 5th place\nRussia's vast geographic reach and populous nation makes it sit at number 5 with 275 million speakers. But given the low life expectancy among men there and Arabic's accelerated growth, Russia looks like it will slip in ranking over the next decade.\n\nNumber 4\n\nSpanish\nWith anywhere from 350 to 400 million speakers, many lists have Spanish surpassing English, and by most standards, that is right. The official language in just over 20 nations including Andorra, Belize, Colombia, Cuba, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Spain, U.S., and Venezuela, Spanish weighs in at numero cuatro .\n\nNumber 3\n\nEnglish\nThe "lowest common denominator," if one were to exist, English is the universal language with 500 million speakers worldwide. The language is officially spoken in over 50 countries, a record. Examples include: Australia, Brunei, Cameroon, Canada, Fiji, New Zealand, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, South Africa, U.K., and U.S., not to mention many Caribbean states.\n\nNumber 2\n\nHindi/Urdu\nIronically, Hindi and Urdu are essentially the same language. In Pakistan, Hindi is modified and written in Arabic script, whereas in India, it is written in the Devanagari script and called Hindi. Combined, 600 million human beings speak Hindi. While every expert would assert that India's population will surpass China's, chances are that there will always be more Mandarin-speaking people because English is widely spoken in India, but not in China.\n\nNumber 1\n\nMandarin Chinese\nMandarin is spoken by over 1 billion people; making it the most widely spoken language on Earth. Besides China, Mandarin is spoken in Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia, Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, Taiwan, and Thailand. Mandarin is fairly sophisticated because it can be spoken in four tones. But once you begin, you'll have a billion people to chat with... \nIt is interesting to note that both German and Japanese are spoken by over 100 million people as well, but failed to register on the Top 10 list.\n\nResources:\nwww.infoplease.com/ipa/A0774735.html\nwww.soyouwanna.com/site/toptens/languages/languages.html\nTop 10 of Everything 2002, by Russell Ash
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What an odd question. Please remember that we share the English langauge with many other countries (U.K., Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africam, Canada, etc.) and therefore share the same alphabet.\n\nAdditionaly, many other languages have both more letters (or characters when talking about the various Chinese Dialects as well as Japanese) and more phonemes (different sounds). \n\nSo to answer your question, no.
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Spanish, english, French, some German
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They have 6 official languages:\nArabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, Spanish
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With over one billion people in China, it's no wonder that Chinese (I mean Mandarin Chinese)is spoken by more people than any language in the world.Though, the next most common language is English. 470 million people speak English, and \nit's the official language of 45 different nations. Both Chinese and English are used by the United Nations.
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In Japanese, there is a phonetic character set (two, actually) called kana, consisting of 46 symbols each. There are only 46 distinct syllable sounds in the Japanese language. Japanese computers typically have a keyboard with each of these 46 characters mapped out. Alternatively, you can use the Roman alphabet to spell out these 46 sounds.\n\nChinese can also be entered phonetically. There are also some input methods that involve entering a character piece by piece, since complex Chinese characters are often composed of smaller, distinct pieces. This entry method can be supported with a relatively simple keyboard of 24 keys, each of which represents one or more of these pieces.
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LanguageApprox. number\nof speakers\n 1. Chinese (Mandarin)             1,075,000,000\n 2. English                          514,000,000\n 3. Hindustani                       496,000,000\n 4. Spanish                          425,000,000\n 5. Russian                          275,000,000\n 6. Arabic                           256,000,000\n 7. Bengali                          215,000,000\n 8. Portuguese                       194,000,000\n 9. Malay-Indonesian                 176,000,000\n10. French                           129,000,000
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About a quarter of Californians speak mainly Spanish at home.\n\nFrom Wikipedia:\n"As of 2000, 60.5% of California residents age 5 and older speak English at home and 25.8% speak Spanish. Chinese is the third most spoken language at 2.6%, followed by Tagalog at 2.0% and Vietnamese at 1.3%."\n\nThis should give you an idea of how many Californians are at least inclined to speak Spanish when given the option.
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It depends on how you separate languages from dialects.  There are many different counts, but the range is between 4000 and 8000.  A number of 6000 is probably about right for most purposes.  If there were 6 people in the world and each spoke 1000 languages, one person would live in the Americas, one person would live in Europe and Asia, two people would live in Africa, one person would live on all the islands of Asia and the Pacific, and one person would live on the island of New Guinea.\n\nEDIT:  Ethnologue is a good source for some regions of the world, but not so good for others.  The best thing to say about the "number" in Ethnologue is "Ethnologue lists 6,912 languages", but even Ethnologue does not claim to be exhaustive and does not claim that its number is accurate.  Indeed, for some varieties, Ethnologue lists only one language, where most linguists list two, and for some languages, Ethnologue lists multiple varieties as if they were different languages.
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In all  there are 6,912 known living languages:\n\nsome of them are as follows:\n\n\nAari\nAariya\nAasáx\nAbadi\nAbaga\nAbai Sungai\nAbanyom\nAbar\nAbau\nAbaza\nAbé\nAbidji\nAbinomn\nAbipon\nAbishira\nAbkhaz\nAbnaki, Eastern\nAbnaki, Western\nAbom\nAbon\nAbron\nAbu\nAbua\nAbui\nAbun\nAbung\nAbure\nAbureni\nAceh\nAchagua\nAchang\nAché\nAcheron\nAchi', Cubulco\nAchi', Rabinal\nAcholi\nAchterhoeks\nAchuar-Shiwiar\nAchumawi\nAcipa, Eastern\nAcipa, Western\nAcroá\nAdabe\nAdamorobe Sign Language\nAdang\nAdangbe\nAdap\nAdele\nAdhola\nAdi\nAdi, Galo\nAdioukrou\nAdonara\nAduge\nAdyghe\nAdynyamathanha\nAdzera\nAekyom\nAer\nAfade\nAfar\nAfitti\nAfrikaans\nAfro-Seminole Creole\nAgarabi\nAgariya\nAgatu\nAgavotaguerra\nAghem\nAghu\nAghu Tharnggalu\nAghul\nAgi\nAgob\nAgoi\nAgta, Alabat Island\nAgta, Camarines Norte\nAgta, Casiguran Dumagat\nAgta, Central Cagayan\nAgta, Dicamay\nAgta, Dupaninan\nAgta, Isarog\nAgta, Mt. Iraya\nAgta, Mt. Iriga\nAgta, Remontado\nAgta, Umiray Dumaget\nAgta, Villa Viciosa\nAguano\nAguaruna\nAguna\nAgutaynen\nAgwagwune\nÀhàn\nAhanta\nAhe\nAheu\nAhirani\nAhom\nAhtena\nAi-Cham\nAigon\nAiklep\nAiku\nAimaq\nAimele\nAimol\nAinbai\nAinu\nAinu\nAiome\nAiroran\nAiton\nAizi, Aproumu\nAizi, Mobumrin\nAizi, Tiagbamrin\nAja\nAja\nAjawa\nAjië\nAjyíninka Apurucayali\nAk\nAka\nAka\nAka-Bea\nAka-Bo\nAka-Cari\nAka-Jeru\nAka-Kede\nAka-Kol\nAka-Kora\nAkan\nAkar-Bale\nAkaselem\nAkateko\nAkawaio\nAke\nAkebu\nAkei\nAkha\nAkhvakh\nAklanon\nAkolet\nAkoose\nAkoye\nAkpa\nAkpes\nAkposo\nAkrukay\nAkuku\nAkum\nAkurio\nAkwa\nAlaba\nAlabama\nAlago\nAlagwa\nAlak\nAlamblak\nAlangan\nAlatil\nAlawa\nAlbanian, Arbëreshë\nAlbanian, Arvanitika\nAlbanian, Gheg\nAlbanian, Tosk\nAlege\nAlekano\nAlemannisch\nAleut\nAleut, Mednyj\nAlgerian Sign Language\nAlgonquin\nAli\n Alladian\nAllar\nAlngith\nAlor\nAlsea\nAlta, Northern\nAlta, Southern\nAltai, Northern\nAltai, Southern\nAlumu-Tesu\nAlune\nAlur\nAlutor\nAlviri-Vidari\nAlyawarr\nAma\nAma\nAmahai\nAmahuaca\nAmaimon\nAmal\nAmami-Oshima, Northern\nAmami-Oshima, Southern\nAmanab\nAmanayé\nAmapá Creole\nAmara\nAmarag\nAmarakaeri\nAmarasi\nAmba\nAmba\nAmbae, East\nAmbae, West\nAmbai\nAmbakich\nAmbelau\nAmbele\nAmblong\nAmbo\nAmbrym, North\nAmbrym, Southeast\nAmbulas\nAmdang\nAmele\nAmerax\nAmerican Sign Language\nAmharic\nAmi\nAmikoana\nAmis\nAmis, Nataoran\nAmo\nAmpanang\nAmri\nAmto\nAmundava\nAmuzgo, Guerrero\nAmuzgo, Ipalapa\nAmuzgo, San Pedro Amuzgos\nAnaang\nAnakalangu\nAnal\nAnam\nAnambé\nAnamgura\nAnasi\nÁncá\nAndaman Creole Hindi\nAndaqui\nAndarum\nAndegerebinha\nAndh\nAndi\nAndio\nAndoa\nAndoque\nAndra-Hus\nAneityum\nAnem\nAneme Wake\nAnfillo\nAngaatiha\nAngal\nAngal Enen\nAngal Heneng\nAngika\nAngloromani\nAngolar\nAngor\nAngoram\nAnguillan Creole English\n||Ani\nAnii\nAnimere\nAnindilyakwa\nAnjam\nAnkave\nAnmatyerre\nAnor\nAnserma\nAnsus\nAntakarinya\nAntigua and Barbuda Creole English\nAnu\nAnuak\nAnufo\nAnuki\nAnus\nAnuta\nAnyin\nAnyin Morofo\nAoheng\nAore\nAp Ma\nApache, Jicarilla\nApache, Kiowa\nApache, Lipan\nApache, Mescalero-Chiricahua\nApache, Western\nApalaí\nApali\nApalik\nApatani\nApiacá\nApinayé\nApma\nA-Pucikwar\nApurinã\nAputai\nArabana\nArabela\nArabic, Algerian Saharan Spoken\nArabic, Algerian Spoken\nArabic, Babalia Creole\nArabic, Baharna Spoken\nArabic, Chadian Spoken\nArabic, Cypriot Spoken\nArabic, Dhofari Spoken\nArabic, Eastern Egyptian Bedawi Spoken\nArabic, Egyptian Spoken\nArabic, Gulf Spoken\nArabic, Hadrami Spoken\nArabic, Hasanya\nArabic, Hassaniyya\nArabic, Hijazi Spoken\nArabic, Judeo-Iraqi\nArabic, Judeo-Moroccan\nArabic, Judeo-Tripolitanian\nArabic, Judeo-Tunisian\nArabic, Judeo-Yemeni\nArabic, Levantine Bedawi Spoken\nArabic, Libyan Spoken\nArabic, Mesopotamian Spoken\nArabic, Moroccan Spoken\nArabic, Najdi Spoken\nArabic, North Levantine Spoken\nArabic, North Mesopotamian Spoken\nArabic, Omani Spoken\nArabic, Sa`idi Spoken\nArabic, Sanaani Spoken\nArabic, Shihhi Spoken\nArabic, Shuwa\nArabic, South Levantine Spoken\nArabic, Standard\nArabi
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The numbers vary in scientific counts from 3000 to 8000. Most linguists use 6000 as a good number for how many languages there are in the world.\n\nTo give you an idea of the language diversity in the world, if we took six people and each of them represented 1000 languages, one of them would live in the Americas, one of them would live in Eurasia, two of them would live in Africa, one of them would live in Australia and all the islands of the Pacific and Asia, and one of them would live on the island of New Guinea.
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Arabic,Spanish or Mandrian Chinese
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Spanish and English are in a virtual dead heat to be the second most spoken language in the world. As of 1999, Spanish had 332 million speakers, while English had 322 million\n\nIf mostly English is spoken here, then Spanish is number 2.
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about 30 fluently, mostly from the last Juz.\n\nwish I could learn more.  *sigh*