Gujarati: 48,171,000 native speakers
Basemap modified from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Human_Language_Families_%28wikicolors%29.png
This small map removes the countries where Gujarati is dominant.
This map therefore only shows 2.7% of all speakers of Gujarati.
The territory omitted is India.
GUJARATI
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Gujarati
The Gujarati language is centred on the state of Gujarat in western India. Mahatma Gandhi was
born in this part of India, and spoke and wrote in Gujarati.
Gujarati is spoken by roughly 48 million speakers in around 18 territories. Outside of India, there
are significant numbers of speakers in United Republic of Tanzania, the United States, the United
Kingdom, Uganda, Pakistan and Malaysia, and smaller numbers in several countries in southern
and eastern Africa.
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Thai: 61,301,000 native speakers
Basemap modified from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Human_Language_Families_%28wikicolors%29.png
This small map removes the countries where Thai is dominant. This
map therefore only shows 0.5% of all speakers of Thai. The
territories omitted are Thailand and China.
THAI
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Thai
Thai is the national language of Thailand. It is spoken by roughly 61 million people in around 13
territories. After Thailand, the largest number of speakers is in China. There are also significant
numbers in the United States and the United Kingdom.
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Italian: 61,815,000 native speakers
Basemap modified from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Human_Language_Families_%28wikicolors%29.png
This small map removes the countries where Italian is dominant.
This map therefore only shows 11.7% of all speakers of Italian. The
territories omitted are Italy, Holy See and San Marino.
ITALIAN
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Italian
Italian is spoken by roughly 62 million people in at least 30 territories. Due to a harsh economic
climate, many Italians migrated to the Americas in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, resulting
in large Italian-speaking populations in the United States, Canada, and much of South America,
notably Argentina and Brazil.
Within Italy, a large number of dialects continue to thrive. Friulian and Sardinian are generally
recognised as distinct languages, with large numbers of speakers .
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Turkish: 66,277,000 native speakers
Basemap modified from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Human_Language_Families_%28wikicolors%29.png
This small map removes the countries where Turkish is dominant.
This map therefore only shows 6.7% of all speakers of Turkish. The
territory omitted is Turkey.
TURKISH
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Turkish
Turkish is spoken as a first language by around 66 million people in at least 34 territories. It has
spread widely across Europe, especially in countries that were part of the Ottoman Empire, such as
Bulgaria, Cyprus and Greece. There are around 2 million speakers in Germany, many of whom
moved to West Germany in the 1960s and 1970s to fill a labour shortage during the
Wirtschaftswunder (German for 'economic miracle').
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Urdu: 66,764,000 native speakers
Basemap modified from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Human_Language_Families_%28wikicolors%29.png
This small map removes the countries where Urdu is dominant.
This map therefore only shows 5% of all speakers of Urdu. The
territories omitted are India and Pakistan.
URDU
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Urdu
Spoken Urdu is very similar to Hindi. Urdu is spoken as a first language by roughly 67 million
speakers in at least 24 territories. It is the official language of Pakistan, although only spoken as a
first language by around 7% of the population there. There are large numbers of speakers in the
northern states of India, and also significant populations in Bangladesh, United Arab Emirates,
Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan. Emigration to North America and Europe, especially the UK, has
meant that there are also a good number of speakers in those territories.
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Tamil: 68,437,000 native speakers
Basemap modified from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Human_Language_Families_%28wikicolors%29.png
This small map removes the countries where Tamil is dominant.
This map therefore only shows 3.3% of all speakers of Tamil. The
territories omitted are Sri Lanka and India.
TAMIL
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Tamil
Tamil is spoken by most of the population of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is spoken in total by
roughly 68 million people, in around 16 territories. There are roughly 4.7 million speakers in Sri
Lanka, and over a million in Singapore. Other speakers are spread far and wide, in Asia, Africa,
Europe and the United States.
Tamil is an ancient language; cave inscriptions in Tamil are dated to somewhere between third and
first centuries BC.
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French: 69,053,000 native speakers
Basemap modified from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Human_Language_Families_%28wikicolors%29.png
This small map removes the countries where French is dominant.
This map therefore only shows 30.3% of all speakers of French.
The territories omitted are France and Monaco.
FRENCH
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French
French is spoken as a first language by around 70 million people in at least 46 territories. It is
derived from Latin, the language of ancient Rome, and by the seventeenth century French was the
dominant language of Europe in politics and culture. It also moved further afield, to the Caribbean,
and with European settlers in Canada, where it remains a major language, most notably in the
province of Quebec. There was also a large French empire in Africa in the nineteenth century, and
hence is still used there as an official language in some countries, and by an educated elite.
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Javanese: 72,468,000 native speakers
Basemap modified from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Human_Language_Families_%28wikicolors%29.png
This small map removes the countries where Javanese is
dominant. This map therefore only shows 0.7% of all speakers of
Javanese. The territory omitted is Indonesia.
JAVANESE
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Javanese
Javanese is spoken by around 72 million people, the vast majority of them living around the central
and eastern parts of the Indonesian island of Java.
Outside of Indonesia, the largest populations are in Malaysia and Suriname (where Javanese
people were taken by the Dutch as plantation workers). Speakers are also present in smaller
numbers in the Netherlands, France, Singapore, the United States.
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Vietnamese: 72,533,000 native speakers
Basemap modified from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Human_Language_Families_%28wikicolors%29.png
This small map removes the countries where Vietnamese is
dominant. This map therefore only shows 3.2% of all speakers of
Vietnamese. The territory omitted is Viet Nam.
VIETNAMESE
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Vietnamese
Vietnamese is spoken as a first language by approximately 73 million people in around 12
territories. It is spoken by nearly 90% of the population of Viet Nam, and by more than a million
people in the United States. It is also spoken in large numbers in Australia, Canada and Cambodia
(where it has similarities to the official language, Khmer).
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Korean: 74,174,000 native speakers
Basemap modified from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Human_Language_Families_%28wikicolors%29.png
This small map removes the countries where Korean is dominant.
This map therefore only shows 5.9% of all speakers of Korean. The
territories omitted are Republic of Korea and DPR Korea.
KOREAN
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Korean
Korean is spoken by roughly 74 million people, in at least 21 territories. It is spoken by almost
everyone in the Republic of Korea (South Korea) and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea
(North Korea). It is also spoken by around 1.9 million people in China, mostly in the North-East of
the country. There are also large numbers of speakers in the United States (especially in Los
Angeles' Koreatown district), and Japan, where Koreans make up the largest ethnic minority group.
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Panjabi: 96,342,000 native speakers
Basemap modified from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Human_Language_Families_%28wikicolors%29.png
This small map removes the countries where Panjabi is dominant.
This map therefore only shows 1.1% of all speakers of Panjabi. The
territories omitted are India and Pakistan.
PANJABI
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Panjabi
Panjabi means 'the language of the Punjab', a state in northern India. There are roughly 96 million
speakers, in at least 14 territories. The vast majority of these are in India and Pakistan, although
Panjabi has no official status in Pakistan. There are also significant numbers of speakers in
Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom.
The language is sometimes known in English as 'Punjabi', but this is generally accepted to be a
mispronunciation of 'Panjabi'.
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German: 96,910,000 native speakers
Basemap modified from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Human_Language_Families_%28wikicolors%29.png
This small map removes the countries where German is dominant.
This map therefore only shows 11.1% of all speakers of German.
The territories omitted are Switzerland, Austria, Germany and
Liechtenstein.
GERMAN
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German
As well as Germany, German is the main (or one of the main) languages in Austria, Switzerland,
Liechtenstein and Belgium. There are roughly 97 million first-language speakers, in at least 44
different territories. It has the most first-language speakers in Western Europe. There are sizeable
populations in the United States, France, Brazil, Kazakhstan, Russian Federation, Namibia, Poland,
Canada, Hungary, and Argentina. The variety of German dialects is ranging from High German
(Hochdeutsch) in South Germany and Austria, to Low German (Plattdeutsch) in North Germany.
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Japanese: 126,736,000 speakers
Basemap modified from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Human_Language_Families_%28wikicolors%29.png
This small map removes the countries where Japanese is
dominant. This map therefore only shows 0.9% of all speakers of
Japanese. The territory omitted is Japan.
JAPANESE
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Japanese
Japanese is spoken by roughly 126 million people in around 18 territories. Around 99% of firstlanguage Japanese speakers live in Japan. Most of the remainder live in the United States (notably
California and Hawaii), and Brazil (mostly in the states of São Paulo and Paraná).
The history of Japanese is something of a mystery, partly because its relationships with other
languages remains poorly understood.
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Russian: 152,000,000 speakers
Basemap modified from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Human_Language_Families_%28wikicolors%29.png
This small map removes the countries where Russian is dominant.
This map therefore only shows 19.8% of all speakers of Russian.
The territory omitted is Russian Federation.
RUSSIAN
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Russian
Russian is spoken as a first language by around 154 million people, in at least 41 territories. It was
the language of the former Soviet Union, and still has significant numbers of speakers in former
Soviet states, and further afield across Europe and Asia. It was the first language to be spoken in
space (by Yuri Gagarin in 1961).
Russian uses the Cyrillic alphabet, which was based on the Greek uncial script.
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Portugese: 186,846,000 speakers
Basemap modified from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Human_Language_Families_%28wikicolors%29.png
This small map removes the countries where Portuguese is
dominant. This map therefore only shows 2.9% of all speakers of
Portuguese. The territories omitted are Portugal and Brazil.
PORTUGESE
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Portugese
Portuguese is spoken by roughly 188 million people in around 31 territories. It is derived from Latin,
and shares many similarities with Spanish. The territory with the largest number of Portuguese
speakers is Brazil, which was a Portuguese colony until 1822. Portuguese is also the official
language of Mozambique, although it is only spoken as a first language by around 8% of the
population. It is also spoken by significant numbers in Paraguay, South Africa, the United States,
India, Canada, France and several other West European territories.
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Bengali: 207,648,000 speakers
Basemap modified from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Human_Language_Families_%28wikicolors%29.png
This small map removes the countries where Bengali is dominant.
This map therefore only shows 0.3% of all speakers of Bengali. The
territories omitted are India and Bangladesh.
BENGALI
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Bengali
The name Bengali (or Bangla) is derived from the area of Bengal, which is made up of what is now
Bangladesh, and also West Bengal in India. It is believed to have evolved from the Sanskrit, Pali,
and Prakrit languages, becoming a distinct language around 1000 CE. There are around 208 million
speakers, in at least 11 territories.
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Arabic: 260,895,000 speakers
Basemap modified from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Human_Language_Families_%28wikicolors%29.png
This small map removes the countries where Arabic is dominant.
This map therefore only shows 4.5% of all speakers of Arabic.
The territories omitted are Bahrain, Kuwait, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Jordan,
Tunisia, Gaza Strip & West Bank, Syrian Arab Republic, Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Sudan, Yemen, Mauritania,
Iraq and Western Sahara.
ARABIC
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Arabic
Arabic is a collection of distinct dialects, spoken largely in the Middle East (northern Africa and
western Asia), but also by smaller numbers in territories throughout the world. It is spoken as a first
language by around 260 million people in at least 65 different territories.
Standard Arabic is widely use in education, business and the media, and bridges the gaps between
the various dialects that may not always be mutually intelligible.
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English: 347,118,000 speakers
Basemap modified from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Human_Language_Families_%28wikicolors%29.png
This small map removes the countries where English is dominant.
This map therefore only shows 2.6% of all speakers of English. The
territories omitted are Australia, Canada, United States, Ireland, United Kingdom,
New Zealand, Barbados and Trinidad & Toba.
ENGLISH
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English
English has grown and spread to become the most widely-used language in the world. There are
around 350 million first-language speakers in nearly one hundred territories, and there are probably
a similar number of people for whom it is a second language. This spread, starting from Britain, has
happened over the course of 400 years, and English has become the main language of the United
States, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. English is a member of the West Germanic family
of languages.
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Spanish: 360,441,000 speakers
Basemap modified from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Human_Language_Families_%28wikicolors%29.png
This small map removes the countries where Spanish is dominant.
This map therefore only shows 0.4% of all speakers of Spanish.
The territories omitted are United States, Spain, Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, Uruguay, Cuba, Mexico, Panama,
Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Bolivia, Honduras,
Nicaragua, Guatemala and Puerto Rico.
SPANISH
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Spanish
Spanish is a Romance language (derived from Latin), and there are roughly 362 million firstlanguage speakers in at least 39 territories. As well as being the primary language of Spain, it has
been established since the 16th century as the dominant language of most of southern and central
America, and there are also 28 million first-language speakers in the United States.
Modern Spanish originated from the region of Castile, hence the alternative name of Castilian.
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Hindi: 424,168,000 speakers
Basemap modified from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Human_Language_Families_%28wikicolors%29.png
This small map removes the countries where Hindi is dominant.
This map therefore only shows 0.5% of all speakers of Hindi. The
territory omitted is India.
HINDI
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Hindi
The majority of Hindi speakers are in India, where it is the official language, and especially popular
in northern and central India. The 2001 Indian census puts the number of first-language speakers of
Hindi at 422 million, although this is a broader definition of Hindi than is used elsewhere, and
includes dialects that would be considered by many linguists to be distinct languages. The Indian
figure, plus speakers numbering hundreds of thousands in South Africa, Fiji, the United States,
Bangladesh, Yemen, Nepal and Malaysia, makes the total around 424 million people.
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Chinese (total): 1,261,883,000 speakers
Basemap modified from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Human_Language_Families_%28wikicolors%29.png
This smaller map removes the countries where Chinese is
dominant. This map therefore only shows 1.4% of all speakers of
Chinese. The territories omitted are Hong Kong, Singapore, China
and Taiwan.
CHINESE (TOTAL)
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Chinese (total)
Chinese is a collection of languages that are mutually unintelligible, but use a common written form.
By far the largest of these is Mandarin. Also shown in subsequent maps on the worldmapper
website are Yue Chinese (Cantonese), Min Chinese, and Hakka Chinese. These varieties tend to
be spoken in regions of the south and south-east of China. Chinese has spread far and wide; the
largest numbers of speakers outside of China are in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia.
Chinese belongs to the Sino-Tibetan family of languages.
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The preceding maps are only a fraction of the nearly 7000
languages that are spoken in the world. The languages that we
have not mapped tend to be confined to just a few often
neighbouring countries; many are spoken by members of just one
tribe.
ADDENDUM
The 1,036,218,000 people we missed
India, Indonesia, The Philippines, and much of Africa all have many people speaking languages that
are not widely spoken outside their own country. Some of the largest of the languages included
here are Telugu and Marathi, both have high numbers in speakers in certain regions of India; the
Sunda language, spoken by around 27 million people on the Indonesian island of Java; and Yoruba
and Igbo, both spoken in and around Nigeria.
(c) www.worldmapper.org
Images courtesy of...
• Front slide: Painting by Lucas Van Valckenborch
Taken from Wikimedia Commons
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tour_de_babel.jpeg
• Language Families Map: Wikimedia Commons
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Human_Language_Families_%28wikicolors%29.png
• All other maps: Worldmapper
http://www.worldmapper.org
Special thanks go to John Pritchard for his work on the
language data and all the related graphics!
Slides created by Benjamin Hennig