World Language Map

Cariban languages map

24 Cariban languages are on the map, most of them in Brazil, Venezuela and Guyana. It divides into 7 main branches, the largest being Venezuelan Cariban (7 languages). The best-known members include Galibi Carib, Macushi and Yukpa. 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 Cariban family at a glance

  • 24languages
  • 20drawn as areas
  • 4shown as points
  • 7main branches

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

Biggest Cariban languages

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

  1. Where is Galibi Carib spoken? (about 10,000 speakers)
  2. Where is Macushi spoken? (about 9,600 speakers)
  3. Where is Yukpa spoken? (about 7,500 speakers)
  4. Where is Ye'kwana spoken? (about 6,000 speakers)
  5. Where is Panare spoken? (about 3,500 speakers)
  6. Where is Trió spoken? (about 2,100 speakers)
  7. Where is Wayana spoken? (about 1,700 speakers)
  8. Where is Kuikúro-Kalapálo spoken? (about 1,000 speakers)
  9. Where is Bakairí spoken? (about 950 speakers)
  10. Where is Apalaí spoken? (about 650 speakers)

Branches of Cariban

The second level of the Glottolog family tree.

  • Venezuelan Cariban (7)
  • Guianan (5)
  • Parukotoan (3)
  • Pekodian (3)
  • Kuikuroan (2)
  • Opon-Yukpan (2)
  • Yawaperi (1)

Where Cariban languages are spoken

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

All 24 Cariban languages, A to Z

Questions about Cariban languages

How many Cariban languages are there?

24 living Cariban languages are on this map, in the Glottolog classification. They fall into 7 main branches, the biggest being Venezuelan Cariban (7 languages). Other classifications group languages differently, so totals vary.

Where are Cariban languages spoken?

Brazil (18), Venezuela (10), Guyana (6), Suriname (5), France (3) and Colombia (3) have the most Cariban languages, with the number of languages in brackets.

What are the biggest Cariban languages?

By the approximate speaker counts Wikidata holds: Galibi Carib (about 10,000), Macushi (about 9,600) and Yukpa (about 7,500). These figures differ between sources and years.

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