World Language Map

Japonic languages map

16 Japonic languages are on the map, most of them in Japan. It divides into 2 main branches, the largest being Ryukyuan (11 languages). The best-known members include Japanese, Central Okinawan and Yaeyama. 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 Japonic family at a glance

  • 16languages
  • 1drawn as areas
  • 15shown as points
  • 2main branches

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

Biggest Japonic languages

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

  1. Where is Japanese spoken? (about 128 million speakers)
  2. Where is Central Okinawan spoken? (about 984,000 speakers)
  3. Where is Yaeyama spoken? (about 48,000 speakers)
  4. Where is Kikai spoken? (about 13,000 speakers)
  5. Where is Northern Amami-Oshima spoken? (about 10,000 speakers)
  6. Where is Kunigami spoken? (about 5,000 speakers)
  7. Where is Southern Amami-Oshima spoken? (about 1,800 speakers)
  8. Where is Yonaguni spoken? (about 400 speakers)

Branches of Japonic

The second level of the Glottolog family tree.

  • Ryukyuan (11)
  • Japanesic (4)

Where Japonic languages are spoken

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

All 16 Japonic languages, A to Z

Questions about Japonic languages

How many Japonic languages are there?

16 living Japonic languages are on this map, in the Glottolog classification. They fall into 2 main branches, the biggest being Ryukyuan (11 languages). Other classifications group languages differently, so totals vary.

Where are Japonic languages spoken?

Japan (15), Brazil (1), Canada (1), China (1) and Taiwan (1) have the most Japonic languages, with the number of languages in brackets.

What are the biggest Japonic languages?

By the approximate speaker counts Wikidata holds: Japanese (about 128 million), Central Okinawan (about 984,000) and Yaeyama (about 48,000). These figures differ between sources and years.

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