World Language Map

Tupian languages map

51 Tupian languages are on the map, most of them in Brazil. It divides into 4 main branches, the largest being Eastern Tupian (39 languages). The best-known members include Paraguayan Guaraní, Sateré-Mawé and Nhengatu. 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 Tupian family at a glance

  • 51languages
  • 44drawn as areas
  • 7shown as points
  • 4main branches

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

Biggest Tupian languages

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

  1. Where is Paraguayan Guaraní spoken? (about 4.9 million speakers)
  2. Where is Sateré-Mawé spoken? (about 9,200 speakers)
  3. Where is Nhengatu spoken? (about 8,000 speakers)
  4. Where is Mundurukú spoken? (about 7,000 speakers)
  5. Where is Western Bolivian Guaraní spoken? (about 7,000 speakers)
  6. Where is Suruí spoken? (about 2,000 speakers)
  7. Where is Kamayurá spoken? (about 600 speakers)
  8. Where is Sirionó spoken? (about 400 speakers)
  9. Where is Teko spoken? (about 400 speakers)
  10. Where is Yudja spoken? (about 280 speakers)

Branches of Tupian

The second level of the Glottolog family tree.

  • Eastern Tupian (39)
  • Arikem-Tupari (6)
  • Monde (4)
  • Purubora-Ramarama (2)

Where Tupian languages are spoken

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

All 51 Tupian languages, A to Z

Questions about Tupian languages

How many Tupian languages are there?

51 living Tupian languages are on this map, in the Glottolog classification. They fall into 4 main branches, the biggest being Eastern Tupian (39 languages). Other classifications group languages differently, so totals vary.

Where are Tupian languages spoken?

Brazil (42), Bolivia (10), Paraguay (8), Argentina (7), Colombia (2) and France (2) have the most Tupian languages, with the number of languages in brackets.

What are the biggest Tupian languages?

By the approximate speaker counts Wikidata holds: Paraguayan Guaraní (about 4.9 million), Sateré-Mawé (about 9,200) and Nhengatu (about 8,000). These figures differ between sources and years.

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