World Language Map

Algic languages map

30 Algic languages are on the map, most of them in Canada and United States. The best-known members include Plains Cree, Montagnais and Severn Ojibwa. Only this family is drawn; tap the map to list every language at a spot.

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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.

The Algic family at a glance

  • 30languages
  • 9drawn as areas
  • 21shown as points

Colours on the map mark the ten largest families; this page’s filter shows Algic alone. Areas are generalisations from published atlases and overlap with the areas of other families.

Biggest Algic languages

By approximate speaker counts from Wikidata, each with its source and year on its own page.

  1. Where is Plains Cree spoken? (about 34,000 speakers)
  2. Where is Montagnais spoken? (about 11,000 speakers)
  3. Where is Severn Ojibwa spoken? (about 11,000 speakers)
  4. Where is Western Ojibwa spoken? (about 10,000 speakers)
  5. Where is Mi'kmaq spoken? (about 8,270 speakers)
  6. Where is Atikamekw spoken? (about 6,160 speakers)
  7. Where is Siksika spoken? (about 5,000 speakers)
  8. Where is Algonquin spoken? (about 2,430 speakers)
  9. Where is Cheyenne spoken? (about 2,400 speakers)
  10. Where is Arapaho spoken? (about 1,000 speakers)

Where Algic languages are spoken

Countries with the most Algic languages, with the number of languages in brackets.

All 30 Algic languages, A to Z

Questions about Algic languages

How many Algic languages are there?

30 living Algic languages are on this map, in the Glottolog classification. Other classifications group languages differently, so totals vary.

Where are Algic languages spoken?

Canada (24), United States (17) and Mexico (1) have the most Algic languages, with the number of languages in brackets.

What are the biggest Algic languages?

By the approximate speaker counts Wikidata holds: Plains Cree (about 34,000), Montagnais (about 11,000) and Severn Ojibwa (about 11,000). These figures differ between sources and years.

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