World Language Map

Languages spoken in the Northern Mariana Islands

5 living languages are mapped in the Northern Mariana Islands. The most widely spoken, by Unicode CLDR’s estimate, is English (97% of the population). They belong to 2 language families, the largest being Austronesian (4 languages).

Tap or scroll to load the interactive map

The filter only changes what is drawn. Tap the map to list every language at a spot, whichever family is shown. You can also pick any family from its own page.

Key

Language families (largest ten)

  • Atlantic-Congo
  • Austronesian
  • Sino-Tibetan
  • Indo-European
  • Afro-Asiatic
  • Nuclear Trans New Guinea
  • Otomanguean
  • Austroasiatic
  • Tai-Kadai
  • Pama-Nyungan

Everything else

  • All other families Smaller families, isolates and unclassified languages.
  • Point A language with no area map. The dot sits at its Glottolog position, in its family colour.

How to read the map. Each colour is a language family: a group of languages that share a common ancestor. The ten largest families have their own colour and every other family is grey. Areas are see-through, so where two languages share a place the colours mix. Tap anywhere to list every language whose area covers that spot. Areas are generalisations drawn from published atlases, many of them decades old, and cities are multilingual, so an area never says that everyone there speaks the language. A dot marks a language that has no area map. The family name is always given in words, because colour alone is hard to tell apart for some people.

Languages of the Northern Mariana Islands at a glance

  • 5living languages
  • 2language families
  • 51,000people (CLDR estimate)
  • 2with a CLDR share

Tap the map to list every language whose area covers a spot in the Northern Mariana Islands. Areas are generalisations from published atlases and overlap, and a language that is mapped here is not necessarily spoken everywhere inside its area.

Languages spoken in the Northern Mariana Islands

Languages with a Unicode CLDR share come first, biggest first by estimated speakers; the rest follow A to Z. Estimated speakers are the share applied to CLDR’s own population figure for the country.

LanguageFamilyShare of populationEstimated speakersStatus
EnglishIndo-European97%49,584Not endangered
ChamorroAustronesian18%9,201Shifting
CarolinianAustronesianShifting
SonsorolAustronesianShifting
TanapagAustronesianShifting

Read more: where is English spoken?

Language families in the Northern Mariana Islands

About these numbers

The list of languages in the Northern Mariana Islands comes from the overlap of Glottography and Glottolog language areas and positions with the country outline, together with the languages Glottolog assigns to the country. The shares come from Unicode CLDR release 48 and are estimates. See every source and licence.

Questions about languages in the Northern Mariana Islands

How many languages are spoken in the Northern Mariana Islands?

5 living languages are mapped in the Northern Mariana Islands, from 2 families. The number depends on how a catalogue decides where one language ends and another begins, so other sources give other totals.

What is the most spoken language in the Northern Mariana Islands?

By Unicode CLDR's estimate, English is spoken by 97% of the population, about 49,584 people, followed by Chamorro (18%). Shares are approximate, can add up to more than 100% because many people speak several languages, and only cover languages CLDR has a figure for.

Which language families are found in the Northern Mariana Islands?

Austronesian (4 languages) and Indo-European (1 language).

Embed this map

Copy this code into your web page. It is free to use. Please keep the link under the map, as it is how people find where the map comes from.