World Language Map

Nakh-Daghestanian languages map

35 Nakh-Daghestanian languages are on the map, most of them in Russia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. It divides into 2 main branches, the largest being Daghestanian (32 languages). The best-known members include Chechen, Avar and Lezgian. 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 Nakh-Daghestanian family at a glance

  • 35languages
  • 26drawn as areas
  • 9shown as points
  • 2main branches

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

Biggest Nakh-Daghestanian languages

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

  1. Where is Chechen spoken? (about 1.4 million speakers)
  2. Where is Avar spoken? (about 767,000 speakers)
  3. Where is Lezgian spoken? (about 634,000 speakers)
  4. Where is Ingush spoken? (about 323,000 speakers)
  5. Where is Lak spoken? (about 155,000 speakers)
  6. Where is Tabasaran spoken? (about 75,000 speakers)
  7. Where is Rutul spoken? (about 47,000 speakers)
  8. Where is Aghul spoken? (about 29,000 speakers)
  9. Where is Kajtak spoken? (about 25,000 speakers)
  10. Where is Tsakhur spoken? (about 23,000 speakers)

Branches of Nakh-Daghestanian

The second level of the Glottolog family tree.

  • Daghestanian (32)
  • Nakh (3)

Where Nakh-Daghestanian languages are spoken

Countries with the most Nakh-Daghestanian languages, with the number of languages in brackets.

All 35 Nakh-Daghestanian languages, A to Z

Questions about Nakh-Daghestanian languages

How many Nakh-Daghestanian languages are there?

35 living Nakh-Daghestanian languages are on this map, in the Glottolog classification. They fall into 2 main branches, the biggest being Daghestanian (32 languages). Other classifications group languages differently, so totals vary.

Where are Nakh-Daghestanian languages spoken?

Russia (31), Azerbaijan (12), Georgia (11), Kazakhstan (5), Ukraine (3) and Turkey (1) have the most Nakh-Daghestanian languages, with the number of languages in brackets.

What are the biggest Nakh-Daghestanian languages?

By the approximate speaker counts Wikidata holds: Chechen (about 1.4 million), Avar (about 767,000) and Lezgian (about 634,000). These figures differ between sources and years.

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