World Language Map

Pama-Nyungan languages map

80 Pama-Nyungan languages are on the map, most of them in Australia. It divides into 10 main branches, the largest being Desert Nyungic (24 languages). The best-known members include Pitjantjatjara, Djambarrpuyngu and Warlpiri. 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 Pama-Nyungan family at a glance

  • 80languages
  • 1drawn as areas
  • 79shown as points
  • 10main branches

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

Biggest Pama-Nyungan languages

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

  1. Where is Pitjantjatjara spoken? (about 4,000 speakers)
  2. Where is Djambarrpuyngu spoken? (about 2,766 speakers)
  3. Where is Warlpiri spoken? (about 2,507 speakers)
  4. Where is Kala Lagaw Ya spoken? (about 957 speakers)
  5. Where is Guugu Yimidhirr spoken? (about 780 speakers)
  6. Where is Yankunytjatjara spoken? (about 600 speakers)
  7. Where is Kuku-Yalanji spoken? (about 388 speakers)
  8. Where is Yindjibarndi spoken? (about 377 speakers)
  9. Where is Dhangu spoken? (about 310 speakers)
  10. Where is Warumungu spoken? (about 200 speakers)

Branches of Pama-Nyungan

The second level of the Glottolog family tree.

  • Desert Nyungic (24)
  • Paman (14)
  • Yuulngu (10)
  • South-West Pama-Nyungan (10)
  • Arandic-Thura-Yura (7)
  • Southeastern Pama-Nyungan (5)
  • Yimidhirr-Yalanji-Yidinic (4)
  • Karnic (2)
  • Yarli-Baagandji (1)
  • Ngarna (1)

Where Pama-Nyungan languages are spoken

Countries with the most Pama-Nyungan languages, with the number of languages in brackets.

All 80 Pama-Nyungan languages, A to Z

Questions about Pama-Nyungan languages

How many Pama-Nyungan languages are there?

80 living Pama-Nyungan languages are on this map, in the Glottolog classification. They fall into 10 main branches, the biggest being Desert Nyungic (24 languages). Other classifications group languages differently, so totals vary.

Where are Pama-Nyungan languages spoken?

Australia (80) have the most Pama-Nyungan languages, with the number of languages in brackets.

What are the biggest Pama-Nyungan languages?

By the approximate speaker counts Wikidata holds: Pitjantjatjara (about 4,000), Djambarrpuyngu (about 2,766) and Warlpiri (about 2,507). These figures differ between sources and years.

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