TOP 10

LANGUAGES
FAMILIES BY
NUMBER OF
SPEAKERS
Data source: Ethnologue: Languages of the
World, 15th ed. (2005)
JULIANNA ANTOINETTE B. VILLEGAS
BSED- ENGLISH 1A
MAJOR
FAMILIES OF
LANGUAGES
SPOKEN IN
THE WORLD
There are over 6 900 languages currently
spoken in the world. These languages belong
to 94 different language families whose share
their origins. Indo-European languages are
the most widely spoken languages: 44% of
the the world population or 2.5 billion people
speak the language in the Indo-European
family. Over 96% of the Earth’s inhabitants or
5.5 billion people speak a language in the top
10 language families, meaning the languages
in the remaining 84 groups are spoken by
only 4% of the world population.
INDO- EUROPEAN
Indo-European is a large language family that
includes many European languages and others
around the world.
It is the largest language family in terms of the
number of speakers.
The Proto-Indo-European language gave rise to all
Indo-European languages.
The family is highly diverse and includes over 600
living languages.
The family has spread through colonization and is
geographically dispersed.
SINO- TIBETAN
Sino-Tibetan (ST) is one of the largest
language families in the world.
Sinitic (Chinese dialects) has the most first-
language speakers in the world, with over 1.1
billion speakers.
ST includes both the Sinitic and Tibeto-Burman
languages.
ST is highly complex, differentiated, and covers
a vast geographical area across China, India,
the Himalayan region, and peninsular Southeast
Asia.
NIGER-CONGO
Niger-Congo is the largest language family in Africa.
It comprises over 1000 languages and is spoken by about
60% of the population of Africa.
It dominates in sub-Saharan Africa and extends from
Senegal in the west to Kenya in the east and south up to
South Africa.
Niger-Congo comprises 9 families or sub-families,
including Atlantic, Mander, Kru, Gur, Voltaic, Kwa,
Adamawa-Ubangi, Benue-Congo (including Bantu
languages), and Ijoid and Kordofanian
Dogon, a major language, is debated in its classification.
AFRO-ASIATIC
Afro-Asiatic is the largest language family of northern
Africa.
With a total number of speakers of over 300 million, it's
spread throughout North Africa, the Arabian Peninsula,
and the Middle East.
It includes Arabic, Hebrew, Coptic, and Syriac, languages
of Islam, Judaism, and two sects of Christianity.
Afro-Asiatic consists of 375 genetically related languages
and traces back to a common ancestral language.
No agreement exists on the location of the speakers of
the ancestral Afro-Asiatic language, but most scholars
agree it originated in Northeast Africa.
AUSTRONESIAN
Austronesian is among the world's largest language family.
It includes approximately 1,200 members, one-fifth of the
world's languages.
Only the Niger-Congo language family in Africa approaches
Austronesian in number of languages, but Indo-European
and Sino-Tibetan families have more speakers.
Before European colonialism, Austronesian languages were
widely distributed and extended from Madagascar to Easter
Island in South America.
Most Austronesian languages are spoken within 10 degrees
of the Equator, but extend as far north as 25° N latitude in
Taiwan and as far south as 47° S latitude on New
Zealand's South Island.
DRAVIDIAN
Dravidian is a family of about 70 languages predominantly
spoken in South Asia.
They're spoken by more than 215 million people in India,
Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.
The Dravidian languages are divided into 24 subgroups,
including South, South-Central, Central, and North.
The four major literary languages - Telugu, Tamil,
Malayalam, and Kannada - are official languages of the
states of Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and
Karnataka (formerly Mysore) respectively.
ALTAIC
Altaic is a group of languages that includes Turkic,
Mongolian, and Manchu-Tungus language families.
Altaic contains more than 50 languages and is spoken by
more than 135 million people across Asia, from the Arctic
Ocean to the latitude of Beijing.
Turkic languages are predominantly spoken in Central Asia
and China.
Mongolian languages are concentrated in Mongolia and its
surrounding region.
Manchu-Tungus languages are spoken across Siberia in
Russia and in the northeast of China.
 JAPANESE
Japonic languages are a group of languages that include
Japanese and Ryukyuan languages.
The languages are spoken in the main islands of Japan
and the Ryukyuan Islands.
Japonic languages are believed to have originated from a
common proto-Japonic language.
The relationship between these languages and other
languages around the world is not universally accepted.
Dialects of the Japonic languages likely split by the 7th
century.
Japonic languages are spoken by more than 128 million
people in Japan and the Ryukyuan Islands.
AUSTRO-ASIATIC
Austroasiatic languages are a superfamily of around 150
languages spoken by about 90 million people in South and
Southeast Asia.
The superfamily is subdivided into two families - Munda
and Mon-Khmer.
The present distribution of the Austroasiatic languages is
possibly a result of relatively recent incusions by other
languages.
The Austroasiatic languages likely extended over a much
broader and more continuous area, including parts of
southeastern China in prehistoric times.
Other than Vietnamese and Khmer, no Austroasiatic
language is an official national language.
TAI- KADAI
Tai-Kadai is a language family that includes 76 languages.
It originated in the area between northern Vietnam and
southeastern China around 2,000 years ago.
Today, Tai-Kadai languages are spoken by an estimated 85
million people in Southeast Asia.
Thai and Lao are the two national languages of the group,
accounting for over half of all Tai-Kadai speakers.
Tai-Kadai languages are highly complex and widely distributed
throughout Southeast Asia, with much map overlap.
The total number of first-language speakers of Tai-Kadai
languages is estimated to be around 85 million people, with the
largest number of speakers living in Thailand.
Smaller numbers of Tai-Kadai speakers live in China, Vietnam,
Assam, Burma, Laos, France, Europe, the UK, the US, and
Canada, as well as other countries.
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