eng
EnglishAnglic
English
Script
1.13 bn speakerseng
Open-data index · 6,506 languages
Every language, ISO 639-3 · 6,506one shelf
Family trees, speaker numbers, scripts, countries and vitality for the world’s languages — from Mandarin and Swahili to Ainu and Basque — each on its own page.
6,506languages
130top-level families
110scripts
214countries
Specimen · Sylhetisyl
ꠘꠣꠉꠞꠤ ꠜꠣꠡꠣSylheti · 14 m speakers
Family tree 5
- Indo-European414
- Indo-Iranian215
- Indo-Aryan127
- Eastern Indo-Aryan18
- Bengali–Assamese8
Sylheti Q2044560
- 639-3
- syl
- 639-1
- —
- Ctry
- 16
- Wiki
- 199
Status3 · Wider Communication
ScriptBengLatn
find by kind
Start from what you are curious about
zhoChineseSino-Tibetan · 1.30 bnengEnglishIndo-European · 1.13 bn0 · InternationalcmnMandarin ChineseSino-Tibetan · 1.07 bn1 · National
The largest languages by total speakers; L1 and L2 figures are on each page.
fslFrench Sign Languageunclassified · 283,0005 · DevelopingaseAmerican Sign Languageunclassified · 250,0005 · DevelopinguklUkrainian Sign Languageunclassified · 219,0006a · Vigorous
Sign languages are full languages with their own grammar and families.
ociOccitanIndo-European · 30,0006b · ThreatenedbreBretonIndo-European · 107,0007 · ShiftingmriMāoriAustronesian · 213,8496b · Threatened
Rated 6b to 8b on EGIDS: children are no longer learning them in every family.
epoEsperantounclassified · 2 m3 · Wider CommunicationesyEskayanunclassified · 5509 · DormantidoIdounclassified · 150
Designed rather than inherited — from auxiliary languages to fiction.
pcmNigerian Pidginunclassified · 47.5 m3 · Wider CommunicationhatHaitian Creoleunclassified · 9.6 m1 · NationalgpeGhanaian Pidgin EnglishIndo-European · 5 m3 · Wider Communication
Languages born from contact, often with a European lexifier.
latLatinIndo-European · 3,5009 · Second language onlysanSanskritIndo-European · 14,1354 · EducationalgrcAncient GreekIndo-European9 · Second language only
Known from texts and inscriptions — some still used in liturgy and scholarship.
130 top-level families · 939 branches
Browse by family
writing systems
Scripts at a glance
The writing systems used by the most languages in the index, with their ISO 15924 code and direction.
| Script | Code | Type | Direction | Languages | For example |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Latin script | Latn | writing system | left-to-right | 1044 | spalatporfas |
| Cyrillic | Cyrl | writing system | left-to-right | 124 | rusfasukrbul |
| Arabic script | Arab | abjad | right-to-left | 109 | arafasazetam |
| Devanagari | Deva | abugida | left-to-right | 83 | hinsansylnep |
| Geʽez script | Ethi | abugida | left-to-right | 35 | amhtiraarorm |
| Hebrew alphabet | Hebr | abjad | right-to-left | 26 | hebyidtgklad |
| Chinese characters | Hani | logographic writing system | left-to-right | 19 | zhocmnwuuhak |
| Tibetan alphabet | Tibt | abugida | left-to-right | 17 | boddzobftlbj |
| Bangla–Assamese script | Beng | abugida | left-to-right | 16 | bensylsatbpy |
| Odia | Orya | abugida | left-to-right | 16 | orysathocsck |
| Tifinagh | Tfng | natural writing system | right-to-left | 14 | tmhtzmshygnc |
| Persian alphabet | Arabic-script alphabet | right-to-left | 13 | fasazetgkkas |
Script assignments from Wikidata (P282, “writing system”). A language can use several scripts.
most documented
Featured languages
With their distribution maps — 746 languages in the index have one on Wikimedia Commons (authors and licences on each page and in the image credits).
deu
GermanWest Germanic
Deutsch
ScriptGerm
135 m speakersdeu
fra
FrenchOïl
français
ScriptFren
285.4 m speakersfra
spa
SpanishCastilian
español
ScriptLatn
555.6 m speakersspa
rus
RussianEast Slavic
русский язык
ScriptCyrl
110 m speakersrus
ara
ArabicSemitic
اللُّغَة العَرَبِيّة
ScriptArab
315.4 m speakersara
ita
ItalianItalo-Romance
italiano
Script
67.8 m speakersita
jpn
JapaneseJaponic
日本語
ScriptkanjHrktKana
128 m speakersjpn
vitality
How safe is each family?
EGIDS levels grouped in four bands, for the largest families. Grey means Wikidata has no rating yet.
46%endangered or silent
6140 languages in the index carry an EGIDS rating. Of those, 2266 are endangered and 561 have no fluent first-language speakers left.
Source: Wikidata, EGIDS (P3823)
UNESCO Atlas levels
Languages on the edge
UNESCO grades endangerment by how a language passes between generations — from vulnerable to extinct. 2136 languages in the index carry a UNESCO level.
Vulnerable493languagesDefinitely endangered527languagesSeverely endangered409languagesCritically endangered458languagesExtinct171languages
by country
Where the most languages live
Indonesia691 languages · 1 officialPapua New Guinea630 languages · 4 officialNigeria415 languages · 1 officialIndia395 languages · 2 officialAustralia351 languages · 1 officialChina247 languages · 1 officialUnited States245 languages · 5 officialCameroon243 languages · 2 officialBrazil207 languages · 1 officialMexico169 languages · 2 official