One word, across the archipelago
How does anyone know these languages are related? Part of the evidence is in basic words: forms that share an origin, their sounds corresponding regularly. Pick a word and see where the forms that share an origin are used.
- Examples, west to east
- limaSimeulue
- limoJambi Malay
- lɛmaMadurese
- mauʔModang
- limaBuginese
- olimaMoronene
- lemaLamaholot
- ewehKlon
- mafoyWest Makian
- rimeWandamen
106 of the 132 recorded languages use a form from one cognate set — those are lit on the map.
Cognate means descended from the same word in an ancestral language, as judged by ABVD's compilers — not merely similar in sound.
ABVD focuses on the Austronesian family: 132 of the 726 languages on this map have an entry for this word. No entry does not mean no word — only that this source does not record 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.