Is English or Mandarin the Leading Language For 2030? (2024)

Which language do you speak? Do you know that there are ranking for languages as well? On which rank does your tongue lie? As every language has its own place but how will people intact if English to Mandarin language event occurs in near future.

Well, these questions will determine how well people will understand you. It is no doubt that language is a vital part that establishes human connections. Through languages, we can share our feelings, thoughts, and ideas with others. It has the power to build and break societies.

Now, for linguists and philosophers, it is very crucial to determine the dominant languages of the world. Some recent studies are pointing towards English and Mandarin to be the largest spoken languages. Well, the discussion is still ongoing and there is no confirmation yet. But, looking at the diverse number of speakers, there remains no doubt. If you are also curious to know the truth, let’s explore both languages to determine language dominance. Let’s start!

Mandarin

Mandarin language, also known as Northern Chinese (Pinyin) is the official language of China. According to research, it is the largest language only when the first native speakers are counted. Some people would say that the credit goes to the significant population of China. But the studies state that it is the official language not only in China but also in Taiwan and Singapore.

China has around 1.3 billion native speakers out of which roughly 1.1 billion speak Mandarin which makes it the widely spoken language. The forms of this language spoken in and around Beijing forms the basis for Modern Standard Chinese – Guoyu, “National Language,” usually called Putonghua “common language” by the Chinese. It becomes the Chinese language in Singapore and Malaysia.

Mandarin is divided into four groups. Firstly, Northern Mandarin centers on Beijing and extends from Northern China to the Northeast provinces. The second group is Northwestern extending northward from the city of Baoji and through most of northwestern China. Southwestern Mandarin, centering on the area around Chongqing and spoken in Sichuan and adjoining parts of southwestern China. And lastly Southern or Lower Yangtze, Mandarin, in an area centered on Nanjing.

Where Mandarin Is Widely Spoken?

The Chinese population constitutes about one-fifth of the world’s population and the area is rapidly expanding its presence everywhere. Modern Standard Chinese is the official language of the United Nations. Even the nationalists in Taiwan and Communists in Taiwan and Singapore believe in this matter. In Singapore, it is one of the four official languages by Singapore’s Ministry of Health Singapore General Hospital.

In Singapore, when a child is born, he is brought up as a bilingual speaker especially because about 74% population of Singapore speak Mandarin Chinese. Irrespective of the fact of language dominance, there is a spatial distinction in the pronunciation and word usage in Mandarin Chinese people speak in Singapore. Chinese Singaporeans could see the expense of other Chinese varieties. Hokkien as a lingua franca is common among Chinese Singaporeans.

Being a child in Singapore, if you study Mandarin from Chinese and Taiwanese teachers, then probably your vocabulary and pronunciation will adopt the mainland style. But the Mandarin Chinese you will hear in the streets of Singapore is pretty different. Unlike Taiwan and Hong Kong, Singapore is using the most simplified types of Mandarin Chinese characters.

It is a preferred language to learn right from the start i.e. from child age. And as a native Chinese speaker, it may be your luck because you know the basic pattern of Mandarin for the Chinese Singaporeans. The Ministry of Health Singapore General Hospital has signage in the four official languages. You should also know the Mandarin noun-verb types to get more familiar with the noun-privileged and verb-privileged languages.

Check our latest blog here about tips for doing business in Singapore!

English

Instead of Chinese, the previous studies referred to English as the largest spoken language in the world. The pattern of ranking changes with time and according to the language dominance. English belongs to the Germanic, a sub-family of the Indo-European languages. If you count both native and non-native speakers, sometimes English gets the first rank from Google research.

The main reason behind this well-established international language goes to the historical dominance of the British Empire and more recently, the economic and cultural clout of the United States. The vocabulary and sentence structure of the English language hardly has the spatial distinction to other modern languages like Dutch and German.

This lingo developed in Europe in the Middle Ages. It is a surprising fact that English is not the official language of the United States. The reason is that it consists of various colonies of multiple lingoes. But there are several other countries where English has the official status including Australia, Bermuda, England, Canada, Wales, and the list goes on.

Why English Is Widely Famous?

English is not only famous but it is the preferred language to learn according to the pattern of ranking. It is a global language but for beginners, learning it may be a hard task. There is not much spatial distinction when it comes to the structure and pronunciation of this lingo in different areas. It is a common lingo all around the world.

People traveling to other foreign countries often need English translation of their documents to make them comprehendible for the consular officers. You can hire a professional translator to provide professional translation services.

Although the Malay language is one of the main languages Singapore English is also necessary because it enables a child to communicate on an international level. The grammar of Singapore English is somewhat different.

The early dominance of nouns in children’s vocabulary is language-specific, and then bilinguals should demonstrate a noun bias in their noun-privileged language and a verb bias in their verb-privileged language. The toddlers who receive noun-privileged language input are also the toddlers whose parents are more culturally Western-natives. There are several noun-verb types.

Toddler’s individual bilingual lexical bias patterns of noun-verb ratios for type production. People should get familiar with the norming study of the English types to accurately do a legal translation of the documents. It is because the current study is changing with time.

Is English or Mandarin the Leading Language For 2030?

As we have mentioned the importance of English and Mandarin, it is clear that these languages will be leading in 2030. A Chinese speaker has a different value among speakers of other lingoes. A dependent variable shows the effect of both tongues. Although English and Mandarin are widely spoken but yet it is not known how stuttering manifests in English-Mandarin bilinguals.

But this can be found by studying the severity and types of stuttering that are different in English-Mandarin bilinguals. The English and Mandarin sentences are translations of each other. This proves how English is similar to Chinese Singaporean Mandarin. As a native speaker of English, it becomes easy to handle international business affairs. Since there are noncontact distinctions between the lexical patterns of English, Chinese translation becomes easy.

You should refer to a native speaker who has exclusive knowledge about the pattern of the dependent variable, spatial language, and language effects. Singapore Chinese and Chinese translations have become more common according to the current study regarding Levey.

Even the noun types are adjustable when the topic is about reference objects. Some other studies like (reference Chan, reference Xuan, reference Bao2001, reference Choi2000, reference Ozcan, reference Bornstein, reference Choi, reference Gentner, reference Tardif) have talked about the leading languages i.e. English and Mandarin.

To conclude, some languages consider Chinese as the number one widely spoken language while some call English the largest spoken lingo. But to an extent, both languages will be leading in the future.