Common Languages in Asia

15 Common 

Languages 

in Asia

With over 2,000 dialects known on the 

continent, we're focusing on some of 

the biggest in the Asian and Pacific 

Islander communities. 

The largest continent in the world and home to nearly five billion people, Asia has around 2,300 languages that can be grouped in language families like Altaic, Austroasiatic, Austronesian, Caucasian, Dravidian, Indo-European, Afro-Asiatic, Siberian, Sino-Tibetan and Kra–Dai. In some Asian countries, English is ta

The largest continent in the world 

and home to nearly five billion 

people, Asia has around 2,300 

languages that can be grouped in 

language families like Altaic, 

Austroasiatic, Austronesian, 

Caucasian, Dravidian, 

Indo-European, Afro-Asiatic, 

Siberian, Sino-Tibetan and 

Kra–Dai. In some Asian countries, 

English is taught in the academic 

curriculum or through 

professional training and many 

Asians speak English as a 

second language.

In the United States, Asian 

American and Pacific Islander 

(AAPI) is the umbrella term used 

to describe people of Asian and 

Pacific Islander descent who are 

part of nearly 50 ethnic groups 

from East, Southeast, Central, and 

South Asia, and the Pacific Islands 

of Melanesia, Micronesia and 

Polynesia. According to the Pew 

Research Center, Asian Americans 

are projected to be the nation’s 

largest immigrant group by the 

middle of the 21st century.

Here, we will focus on some of the 

most common Asian languages 

spoken by the AAPI population in 

the United States. The Asian and 

Pacific Islander communities are 

beautifully complex and unique, 

and this list should only be 

considered a beginner’s guide to 

learning more about these 

languages and the cultures that 

speak them. 

Khmer

Also known as Cambodian, 

Khmer is the official language 

of the Southeast Asian country, 

Cambodia. 1.3 million people in 

Southeast Thailand and 

Southern Vietnam also speak 

Khmer. Used in the ancient 

Khmer empire, the Khmer 

language has been written since 

the 7th century and uses a 

script system based on those in 

South India. 

Russian 

Central Asian countries, 

including Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz 

Republic, Tajikistan, 

Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, 

speak Russian in addition to the 

languages of their respective 

countries. Because of the 

political and cultural influence 

of Russia in the region, Russian 

is the main common language 

used in Central Asia for 

literature, diplomacy and trade. 

Cantonese 

Cantonese is a variety of 

Chinese that is spoken in Hong 

Kong, Macau, and Canton, along 

with other cities in the 

Guangdong and southern 

Guangxi provinces of China. 

Compared to Mandarin, 

Cantonese has more features of 

Old, or Archaic, Chinese, the 

language ancestor to all modern 

varieties of Chinese. While 

Mandarin has 1.3 billion 

speakers, Cantonese is used 

comparatively less with around 

75 million speakers worldwide. 

Laotian

Laotian, or the Lao language, 

is the official language of Laos, 

the Southeast Asian country 

that is geographically bound by 

China, Vietnam, Cambodia, 

Thailand, and Myanmar. 

Laotian is primarily mono

syllabic and uses tones to 

differentiate words that are 

pronounced similarly. The 

language has influences from 

Cambodian and Thai. 

Tibetan

The Tibetan language is spoken 

in Tibet, Bhutan, Nepal, and in 

parts of India. The most 

common dialect of the Tibetan 

language is Lhasa Tibetan, 

which is spoken in Lhasa, the 

capital of Tibet. Because of the 

spread of Tibetan Buddhism, 

the language is also spoken and 

read in the Western world and 

is commonly found in Buddhist 

publications and prayers. 

Chinese Mandarin 

Mandarin is the official 

language of China, and it's 

actually the most natively 

spoken language in the world, 

with 1.3 billion speakers. 

Speakers use four tones to 

speak Mandarin, and the 

written language uses over 

100,000 special characters 

called "logograms." 

Hindi

Hindi, an Indo-Aryan derived 

language, is the most widely 

spoken language in India, 

though you'll find that most 

national business is done in 

English. It's spoken as a first 

language by nearly 425 million 

people, including those in Fiji. 

Malay

Malay, or Bahasa Melayu, is 

comprised of two major 

dialects, northern (spoken in 

Malaysia, Singapore and 

Brunei) and southern (spoken 

in Indonesia). It's spoken by 

more than 33 million people as 

a first language, as well as 

widely used as a second 

language. 

Indonesian 

The Indonesian language, also 

called Bahasa Indonesia, is 

very similar to Malay — a 

standardized version if you will 

— though natives can definitely 

distinguish between the two. 

Indonesian uses the Latin script, 

making it one of the easiest 

Asian languages for foreigners 

to learn. 

Thai 

Yes, it's the national language 

of Thailand and the the first 

language for most Thai people, 

but you'll hear people speak 

Thai in Laos, Myanmar, 

Malaysia and Cambodia. The 

language is spoken by 60 

million people, or 2% of Asia's 

total population. 

Burmese 

မြန်မာ myanmar

In Myanmar, (formerly Burma), 

Burmese is the official language. 

It's spoken by more than 32 

million people worldwide. The 

Burmese script uses rounded 

letters and is called "ca-lonh," 

which means "round script." 

မြန်မာနိုင်ငံတွင် (ယခင်မြန်မာပြည်)၊ 

 မြန်မာသည် ရုံးသုံးဘာသာစကားဖြစ်သည်။ 

 ၃၂ဝ ကျော်က ပြောတာ။ 

 ကမ္ဘာတစ်ဝှမ်းရှိလူသန်းပေါင်းများစွာ။ ဟိ 

 မြန်မာစာအက္ခရာကို လုံးဝန်းအောင်သုံးသည်။ 

 စာလုံးများကို "ca-lonh" ဟုခေါ်သည်။ 

 ဆိုလိုသည်မှာ "အဝိုင်းဇာတ်ညွှန်း" ဖြစ်သည်။

myanmarninengantwin ( yahkain myanmarpyi) , 

myanmarsai rone sone bharsarhcakarr hpyitsai . 

 3 2w kyawk pyawwtar . 

 kambhar tait wham shi luusaannpaunggmyarrhcwar . hi 

 myanmarhcar aakhkararko lone waann aaung sonesai . 

 hcarlonemyarrko "ca-lonh" huhkawsai . 

solosaimhar " aawine jaratnywhaann" hpyitsai .

Filipino

Filipino

Filipino, a standardized version 

of Tagalog, is the national 

language of the Philippines, 

while English follows as an 

official language of the country. 

While Filipino and Tagalog 

share the same grammar and 

conjugations and are nearly the 

same, Filipino is spoken nation

-wide while Tagalog is spoken 

mainly in Central Luzon. 

Filipino, isang standardized na 

bersyon ng Tagalog, ay ang 

pambansa wika ng Pilipinas, 

habang ang Ingles ay 

sumusunod bilang isang 

opisyal na wika ng bansa. 

Habang Filipino at Tagalog 

magbahagi ng parehong 

grammar at conjugations at ay

halos ang same, Filipino is 

spoken nation

 -malawak habang Tagalog ang sinasalita 

 pangunahin sa Gitnang Luzon.

Ang Filipino, isang standardized na bersyon ng Tagalog, ay ang pambansa 

  wika ng Pilipinas, habang ang Ingles ay sumusunod bilang isang 

  opisyal na wika ng bansa.  Habang Filipino at Tagalog 

  magkapareho ang grammar at conjugations at halos magkapareho, ang Filipino ay sinasalita sa buong bansa habang ang Tagalog ay sinasalita pangunahin sa Central Luzon.

Japanese 

日本語 Nihongo

The Japanese language is 

spoken by 121 million people, 

spoken in Japan and small 

Japanese communities across 

American Samoa, Hawaii, 

Europe, Australia and the 

Americas. There are three 

Japanese writing scripts, 

including Hiragana, Katakana, 

and Kanji. 

日本語は、日本国内およびアメリ

カ領サモア、ハワイ、ヨーロッパ、

オーストラリア、南北アメリカ大

陸各地の小規模な日本人コミュニ

ティで話されており、1億2100万

人が話しています。日本語には、

ひらがな、カタカナ、漢字の3種

類の文字体系があります。

Nihongo wa, nipponkokunai 

oyobi amerikaryōsamoa, Hawai, 

yōroppa, ōsutoraria, nanboku 

Amerikatairiku kakuchi no 

shōkibona nihonjin komyuniti 

de hanasa rete ori, 1 oku 2100 

man hito ga hanashite imasu. 

Nihongo ni wa, hira gana, 

katakana, kanji no 3 shurui no 

moji taikei ga arimasu.

Vietnamese 

Tiếng Việt

The Vietnamese language 

belongs to the Viet-Muong 

branch of the Mon-Khmer 

language family and is spoken 

by about 75 million people. 

Because Vietnam was ruled by 

the Chinese Empire in 111 BC, 

a lot of Vietnamese words are 

adopted from Chinese. 

Tiếng Việt thuộc nhóm ngôn 

ngữ Việt-Mường, thuộc ngữ 

hệ Môn-Khmer và được 

khoảng 75 triệu người sử 

dụng.

Do Việt Nam bị Đế quốc 

Trung Hoa cai trị vào năm 

111 TCN, rất nhiều từ tiếng 

Việt được vay mượn từ tiếng 

Hán.

Korean 

한국인 hangug-in

About 75 million people speak 

Korean, or Kugo. Korean is the 

official language of both South 

and North Korea, and the two 

countries differ in minor 

spelling or vocabulary choice.

약 7천 5백만 명이 한국어(쿠고어)

를 사용합니다. 한국어는 남한과 

북한의 공용어이며, 두 나라는 

철자나 어휘 선택에서 약간의 

차이가 있습니다. 

yag 7cheon 5baegman myeong-

i hangug-eo(kugo-eo)leul 

sayonghabnida. hangug-eoneun 

namhangwa bughan-ui gong-

yong-eoimyeo, du nalaneun 

cheoljana eohwi seontaeg-eseo 

yaggan-ui chaiga issseubnida.