There are more than 7,000 known languages in the world today, 23 of which have more than 50 million speakers each. That’s a lot of people saying a lot of different things in a lot of different ways.

The big question though, is what’s the biggest language of them all? Who would win in a fight, and what language would be the best to know once the impending apocalypse hits?

The following information is taken from a recent study by SCMP into the languages of the world, with sources including Ethnologue, Unesco, United Nations, University of Dusseldorf and the Washington Post.

Here are the 14 most frequently spoken languages in the world…