Study carried out by experts from the University of Southampton

The study, published in the journal Cognition, finds the same amount of time is needed for a person, from for example from China, to read and understand a text in Mandarin, as it takes a person from Britain to read and understand a text in English - assuming both are reading their native language.

Simon Liversedge, a professor of experimental psychology at the University of Southampton, said: ''It has long been argued by some linguists that all languages have common or universal underlying principles, but it has been hard to find robust experimental evidence to support this claim.

''Our study goes at least partway to addressing this by showing there is universality in the way we process language during the act of reading.

''It suggests no one form of written language is more efficient in conveying meaning than another.''

The study, carried out by the University of Southampton in the UK, Tianjin Normal University (China) and the University of Turku (Finland), compared the way three groups of people in the UK, China and Finland read their own languages.

The 25 participants in each group - one group for each country - were given eight short texts to read which had been carefully translated into the three different languages.

A rigorous translation process was used to make the texts as closely comparable across languages as possible.

English, Finnish and Mandarin were chosen because of the stark differences they display in their written form. The researchers used sophisticated eye-tracking equipment to assess the cognitive processes of the participants in each group as they read.

A University of Southampton spokesman said: ''The results of the study showed significant and substantial differences between the three language groups in relation to the nature of eye movements of the readers and how long participants spent reading each individual word or phrase.

''For example, the Finnish participants spent longer concentrating on some words compared to the English readers.

''However, most importantly and despite these differences, the time it took for the readers of each language to read each complete sentence or paragraph was the same.''

Professor Liversedge said: ''This finding suggests that despite very substantial differences in the written form of different languages, at a basic propositional level, it takes humans the same amount of time to process the same information regardless of the language it is written in.

''We have shown it doesn't matter whether a native Chinese reader is processing Chinese, or a Finnish native reader is reading Finnish, or an English native reader is processing English.

''In terms of comprehending the basic propositional content of the language, one language is as good as another.''