The Spanish Language

Spanish is spoken as a first language by approximately 330 million people and by about 50 million as a second language. It is the official language of 20 nations as well as one of the official languages of the United Nations and the European Union. Spanish is a romance language with roots in Latin, with influences from Arabic, French and Italian, a result of centuries of language contact. There are a number of dialects and the Spanish spoken in Latin America is very different from that which is spoken in Spain.
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The Chinese Language

Chinese is one of three subfamilies of the Sino-Tibetan group of languages, which also includes Thai and Tibeto-Burman. Over one billion people in Asia speak languages belonging to this family. Spoken languages in this family are tonal - different tones differentiate words otherwise pronounced alike. The most widely spoken form of Chinese in the world is Mandarin, originating in the Beijing area, of which the various dialects are spoken by 867 million people.
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The French Language

French is a romance language originating from Latin that has come under influence from other languages, including Arabic and German through centuries of contact. French is spoken as a first language by approximately 77 million people and by a total of 128 million if one includes second language speakers. It is the official language of France and about 20 nations as well as one of the official languages of the European Union.
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The German Language

German is a member of the western group of Germanic languages (which also includes English), a subset of the Indo-European language family and is spoken by about 120 million people. It has been influenced by surrounding languages through centuries of language contact. It is the official language of Germany and Austria, an official language of Switzerland and is spoken widely in Belgium, Italy and Denmark. It is an official language of the European Union.
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The Russian Language

Russian is the most widely spoken language in Europe and the most widespread of the Slavic languages. It is the first language to about 145 million people and the second language to an additional 110 million. Russian is the official language of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan as well as one of the official languages of the United Nations. It belongs to the family of Indo-European languages, and is therefore related to Sanskrit, Greek, and Latin, as well as the modern Germanic, Romance, and Celtic languages including English, French, and Irish, respectively.
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