Isolates
Languages with no known relatives. Rare, and interesting precisely because they have none.
23 languages are emphasised in this view
A view only decides what starts lit. Every language is still drawn and still clickable — hiding the rest would be making a claim about what is there.
One language, one family. 23 languages on this map have no demonstrated relative. Each is a family of one.
Use the arrow keys to pan the map, plus and minus to zoom, and zero to return to the full view. To select a language, use the family tree or the index of families below the map.
Selection cleared
Families
+44 families
- Coverage
- 421 of 726 languages have a territory (58%); the rest are points only.
- The rest are not unfinished work. The speaker areas on this map come from two published atlases, each with its own regional scope; a language outside that scope has no recorded territory to draw, so it is drawn as a point.
Distribution as described by atlas sources, 1990–2020
Language boundaries are gradients rather than lines. Boundaries are drawn as hairlines to keep that in view.
Sources: Glottolog 5.3 (CC-BY-4.0), Glottography (CC-BY-4.0), Natural Earth (public domain), ABVD (CC-BY-4.0), Grambank (CC-BY-4.0).
Endangerment status
- not endangered134
- threatened270
- shifting224
- moribund60
- nearly extinct14
- extinct24
Endangerment is drawn as hatch density over the family colour rather than as a colour of its own: hue already carries family, so the two layers stay readable at once. Status follows Glottolog AES for all 726 languages.