Figure 3
Annual average rank of the most used languages on Twitter between 2009 and 2019. English and Japanese show the most consistent rank time series. Spanish, and Portuguese are also relatively stable over time. Undefined—which covers a wide variety of content such as emojis, links, pictures, and other media—also has a consistent rank time series. The rise of languages on the platform correlates strongly with international events including Arab Spring and K-pop, as evident in both the Arabic and Korean time series, respectively. Russian, German, Indonesian, and Dutch moved down in rank. This shift is not necessarily due to a dramatic drop in the rate of usage of these languages, but is likely an artifact of increasing growth of other languages on Twitter such as Thai, Turkish, Arabic, Korean, etc