Monday 10 December 2018
(din sip saŋ) 2018
২০১৮
(thsasri) 2018
balan mak 
(desember) 2018
(ḋisembaru) 2018
(wintermaand) MMXVIII
(Ærra Gēola) “Before Yule” MMXVIII
[December unknown] ⊕⊕XIIX
2018
(afar jiuleis) MMXVIII
(panglot-daku) 2018
(lah plu) ၂၀၁၈
(thnu) 
(desiembre) 2018
deuan tunva 
(maar lavo) 
(tshi33 aɯ55 ha21) 2018
(žorgon biya) 
(lamtaa) 
арван хоёрдугаар сар (arvan ĥojordugaar sar) 
(lunsam) 
(dekębr) MMXVIII
(kanun qāmāyā) 
(dujanbir) 2018
(tahsas) 2018
(dejamber) 2018
(panlagkat) 2018
(cinyixma) 2018
↑ الهلال المتزايد
Lilian day 2175609.5599
ere’s today’s date in 720 languages and dialects, complete with a profile of each.
I’m favoring languages that are at least a bit off the beaten track, offer Gregorian calendar terms that depart substantially from your run-of-the-mill neo-Latin, or both.
(Spanish? No. Asturian? Yes.)
Heading terms in parentheses ( ) are alternate names for a language, while those in brackets [ ] specify a particular subdivision or dialect shown. Click the language name for its ISO code and profile info.
One of the surprises here is how many non-European languages have Gregorian date terminology like this to dust off, at least for the record, even as their underlying cultures stand foursquare behind Islamic (Hijri), Hindu, Buddhist, or other calendar systems.
For those that expired before the advent of modern place-value numerals I’m using Roman. For Etruscan I’m using Etruscan numerals while pretending those serene, elbow-lounging folks used the Gregorian calendar and reckoned dates sequentially as we do.1 Traditional Chuvash numerals follow a similar scheme, but with the smaller units to the left of the larger ones, a slash for 5, and a star for 1000. Moksha resembled Chuvash but used a lambda for 10 and a kind of reflected sawhorse for 1000.
The only non-Gregorian date2 I’m showing is a rough estimate for the Gaulish, whose calendar was offset by about half a month from that used by their Roman contemporaries and whose months alternated between 29 and 30 days as opposed to 30 and 31.3
Peter
Abaza: Abaza ✧ ABQ ✧ Northwest Caucasian, endangered, 48,000 speakers in Russia and in Turkish diaspora communities. Natively it has 63 consonants but only 2 vowels. Related closely to Abkhaz (q.v.).
10 декабрь (dekabr’) 2018Abenaki [Western]: Abenaki [Western] ✧ ABE ✧ Algonquian family. As of 1991 spoken natively by fewer than 20 in Odanak, Quebec, and others in New York State and Connecticut; by 2006, only six. The English word “skunk” likely derives from Abenaki.
10 Pebonkas “Winter maker” 2018Abkhaz: Abkhaz ✧ ABK ✧ Northwest Caucasian, 190,000 speakers, closely related to Abaza (q.v.). Features six different kinds of K/Q sounds.
10 ҧхынҷкәын (ğžynçkãyn) 2018Abui: Abui ✧ ABZ ✧ Trans-New Guinea family, spoken by 17,000 on Alor Island in Eastern Indonesia, just north of East Timor. Abui has no active/passive distinction.
10 yoku ia 2018Acholi: Acholi ✧ ACH ✧ Nilo-Saharan family, spoken in Uganda and South Sudan. Since Acholi is tonal and since there are several versions of each vowel, a given one-syllable word can have 14 different pronunciations.
10 Dwe me apar aryo 2018Achuar-Shiwiar [Achuar Chicham]: Achuar-Shiwiar [Achuar Chicham] ✧ ACU ✧ From the tiny Jivaroan family, spoken by around 7000 in Peru and Ecuador by the Achuar, Shiwiar and Maina tribes. For numerals greater than four Achuar-Shiwiar borrows from Spanish.
10 puacharamp 2018Achuar-Shiwiar [Shiwiar Chicham]: Achuar-Shiwiar [Shiwiar Chicham] ✧ ACU ✧ The other dialect of Achuar-Shiwiar
10 nunkui 2018Afar: Afar ✧ AAR ✧ Afro-Asiatic, Cushitic. Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia.
10 Kaxxa Garablu 2018Aghem (Wum): Aghem (Wum) ✧ AGQ ✧ Niger-Congo family, Cameroon. Aghem speakers traditionally used leopard-skin carpets.
10 ndzɔ̱ŋèfwòo 2018Aghul (Agul): Aghul (Agul) ✧ AGX ✧ Northeast Caucasian, 30,000 speakers mostly in Southern Dagestan. There is a contrast between “tense” and “weak” consonants.
10 бурем (burem) 2018Ahom: Ahom ✧ AHO ✧ Kra–Dai family, Brahmaputra river valley, extinct by 1800. Unique script.
10 (din sip saŋ) 2018Ahtna [Central]: Ahtna [Central] ✧ AHT ✧ Athabaskan, around 80 speakers (all dialects combined), Alaska’s Copper River. Incorporates about 100 Russian loanwords.
10 denc’ih na’aaye’ “Fourth month [of snow]” 2018Ahtna [Lower]: Ahtna [Lower] ✧ AHT ✧ Another dialect of Ahtna
10 denc’ih na’aaye’ “Fourth month [of snow]” 2018Ahtna [Mentasa]: Ahtna [Mentasa] ✧ AHT ✧ Another dialect of Ahtna
10 unen tic’e’aasi 2018Ainu: Ainu ✧ AIN ✧ Aboriginal language of Japanese archipelago, ancestry unknown, nearly extinct natively. Counts in base 20.
10 チヮルプ (ciwrup) 2018Akan: Akan ✧ AKA ✧ Niger-Congo Language native to Ghana and Ivory Coast, also brought to South America by slaves
10 Mumu-Ɔpɛnimba 2018Akha [Puli/Standard]: Akha [Puli/Standard] ✧ AHK ✧ Sino-Tibetan, Loloish, 600,000 speakers in Burma’s Shan State, northern Laos, and northern Thailand. Four tones shown by hacheks and circumflexes above and below vowels (-̌ -̂ -̬ -̭) but also the letter m, which too can be tonal.
10 leǔ ḵa̬m̌ 2018Alabama: Alabama ✧ AKZ ✧ Muskogean language, distantly related to Choctaw (q.v.), spoken in Texas. Regular versus nasalized vowels, contrastive vowel length.
10 hasiholtina istapókkòolawah tóklo 2018Albanian [Gheg]: Albanian [Gheg] ✧ SQI ✧ Indo-European language with its very own branch. Unlike many languages it uses the “th” sounds (IPA symbol θ, ð).
10 dhjetor 2018Albanian [Tosk] (Arberesh): Albanian [Tosk] (Arberesh) ✧ ALS ✧ Albanian dialect spoken in Italy, partial interintelligibility with Gheg Albanian(q.v.)
10 diçembri 2018Aleut [Atkan]: Aleut [Atkan] ✧ ALE ✧ Eskimo-Aleut family, Aleut branch, native to the Alaskan Peninsula and the Aleutian, Commander, and Pribilof Islands. Aleut in total has around 150 speakers. Two groups survive, Atkan being the smaller.
10 Agalĝalux̂ “Harpooning” -or- Dikaavrax̂ -or- Dikaabrix̂ 2018Algonquin: Algonquin ✧ ALQ ✧ Algonquian family, closely related to (but divergent from) Ojibwe (q.v.). 1800 speakers in Quebec and Ontario.
10 pidjípibun gizis “Winter beginning month” 2018Altai: Altai ✧ ATV ✧ Turkic language spoken by 20,000 natively in Siberia’s Altai Mountains
10 janar 2018Aluku: Aluku ✧ ??? ✧ A creole combining English, Dutch, African languages, and French that arose among escaped African slaves in Suriname and French Guiana. Generations ago Aluku was a pretty big deal, but as of 1980 there were only 33 speakers left.
10 twaalufu mun fu baka yali 2018Alutiiq: Alutiiq ✧ EMS ✧ An Eskimo-Aleut language, indigenous to the Alaska and Kenai Peninsulas and Kodiak Island, with around 200 native speakers. Two chief dialects, Kodiak and Chugach; Kodiak shown here.
10 Qanim Iralua “Snow’s moon” 2018Amharic: Amharic ✧ AMH ✧ Afro-Asiatic. Ethiopia, yes, but the Rastafari also dig it.
10 tahsas 2018Anejom̃ (Aneityum): Anejom̃ (Aneityum) ✧ ATY ✧ Malayo-Polynesian, Southern Oceanic, spoken by several hundred people on Aneityum/Anatom, Vanuatu’s southernmost island. Both vowel and consonant length are contrastive; noun genders are animate versus inanimate.
10 neljatpo “Continue relaxing” 2018Angami (Tenyidie): Angami (Tenyidie) ✧ NJM ✧ Sino-Tibetan family, eight dialects, 130,000 speakers in India’s Nagaland. Angami has five tones plus “breathy.” Listed as vulnerable by UNESCO.
10 Redê o krö 2018Anii: Anii ✧ BLO ✧ A Niger-Congo language spoken by 49,000 in Benin and Togo. Anii observes strict vowel harmony (like Turkic and Uralic languages such as Finnish) and is bitonal.
10 Anɔɔbʊnka kaŋɔrɔ 2018Apache [Jicarilla]: Apache [Jicarilla] ✧ APJ ✧ Athabaskan family, New Mexico, about 500 speakers, tonal. Unusually rich sound inventory (34 consonants, 16 vowels) including ejectives and an N sound which like a vowel can carry tones.
10 Ochoweda -or- Ochowéeda 2018Apache [Western]: Apache [Western] ✧ APW ✧ Athabaskan family, southeast Arizona, 14,000 native speakers. Acute accents indicate a high tone on a vowel.
10 Kǫ’ bąąh Náɬk’as “Cold even by the fire” -or- Zas Nɬt’ees “Frostbiting show” 2018Apatani (Tanii): Apatani (Tanii) ✧ APT ✧ Sino-Tibetan family, eastern Himalayas, 28,400 speakers. Most nouns have 2 syllables.
10 nenke piilo 2018Arabic [Levantine]: Arabic [Levantine] ✧ APC ✧ Afro-Asiatic family, Semitic. Descended from Ancient North Arabian.
١٠ كانون الأول (kānūnu alāwwal) ٢٠١٨Arabic [Libyan]: Arabic [Libyan] ✧ AYL ✧ An alternative terminology established under Muammar Gaddafi. Aside from that, this dialect has been influenced by Maltese and Sicilian.
١٠ الكانون (al kānūn) ٢٠١٨Aragonese: Aragonese ✧ ARG ✧ Indo-European, Romance. Spoken in Northern Aragon, endangered, mutually intelligible with Spanish.
10 abiento 2018Arapaho: Arapaho ✧ ARP ✧ Algonquian, Arapahoan branch, natively spoken by 1000 mostly living on the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming. Closely related to Gros Ventre (q.v.). Uses a 3 for the unvoiced th sound (θ).
10 honou3einiisiis “Christmas month” -or- 3oo3ooncecniisiis “Midwinter month” 2018Arikara: Arikara ✧ ARI ✧ A North American indigenous language from the Caddoan family, related to Pawnee (q.v.) but not mutually intelligible with it. A handful of speakers remain in White Shield, North Dakota.
10 psiikaríkat 2018Aromanian (Vlach): Aromanian (Vlach) ✧ RUP ✧ A Romance language often considered a Romanian dialect, spoken throughout the Balkans, Greece, and Turkey. Aromanian has more Greek influence; Romanian, more Slavic.
10 andreulu -or- dechemvriu 2018Arosi: Arosi ✧ AIA ✧ Malayo-Polynesian, Solomonic, spoken by 6800 on Makira (San Cristobal) Island, east of Guadalcanal in the Solomons.
10 palolo simwa -or- sumwado’o -or- oguraha 2018Arpitan (Franco-Provençal) [Stéphenois]: Arpitan (Franco-Provençal) [Stéphenois] ✧ FRP ✧ Gallo-Romance, spoken around Saint-Étienne in eastern central France
10 déceombrou 2018Arpitan (Franco-Provençal) [Savoyard]: Arpitan (Franco-Provençal) [Savoyard] ✧ FRP ✧ An Arpitan dialect spoken around Savoy in western France
10 decembro 2018Assiniboine 1: Assiniboine 1 ✧ ASB ✧ A Siouan language spoken by 150 or so in the Northern US/Canadian Plains. Like Dalecarlian (q.v.) and Polish it has nasal vowels signaled with ogoneks, in this case Ą, Į, and Ų.
10 wanícogądu -or- witéȟi sųgágu -or- wįcógądu hąwi 2018Assiniboine 2: Assiniboine 2 ✧ ASB ✧ Alternative terminology
10 wótkeyabi hąwi -or- ábawaką tą́ga hą́wi 2018Asturian: Asturian ✧ AST ✧ Indo-European, Romance, Northern Spain (Oviedo/Gijón area). Three genders.
10 avientu 2018Atikamekw: Atikamekw ✧ ATJ ✧ Algonquian family, Cree complex, 5500 speakers in southwestern Quebec
10 pitcipipon pisimw 2018Atong {Sino-Tibetan}: Atong {Sino-Tibetan} ✧ AOT ✧ Unlike many Sino-Tibetan languages, this one is non-tonal. Spoken by 10,000 in northeast India and adjacent regions of Bangladesh, most of whom are bilingual in Garo (q.v.). Not to be confused with the Niger-Congo Atong language.
10 disembyl 2018Atsugewi: Atsugewi ✧ ATW ✧ This [possibly] Hokan, Shasta–Palaihnihan language of California went extinct with the death of Medie Webster in 1988. Atsugewis saw the Big Dipper as Coyote’s cane; the Milky Way, the Devil’s trail.
10 ascui jusi “midwinter” 2018Austro-Bavarian: Austro-Bavarian ✧ BAR ✧ Akin to High German but highly divergent from it, using more Latin. Rural Austria, Bavaria, and South Tyrol. Three main dialects.
10 Dezemba 2018Avar [Premodern/Folk]: Avar [Premodern/Folk] ✧ AVA ✧ Northeast Caucasian language spoken in Dagestan and Azerbaijan. Uses either Cyrillic or Arabic characters.
10 хъвехъарулъ څُېڅارۇڸ (χ″veχ″arul″) 2018Awa Pit (Cuaiquer): Awa Pit (Cuaiquer) ✧ KWI ✧ Barbacoan family, seriously endangered, spoken by 13,000 on the Pacific slopes of the Andes in Colombia and Ecuador by the Awa-Kwaiker people. Most Awa-Kwaiker men also speak Spanish; most women and children, only Awa Pit.
10 wanmukmu 2018Aymara: Aymara ✧ AYM ✧ South American indigenous language from the Aymaran family which has only two members, the other being Jaqaru (q.v.). Unusual time/space conceptualization, uses only a, i, and u for vowels.
10 jallu qallta phaxsi -or- jalluqallta 2018Bafia: Bafia ✧ KSF ✧ Niger-Congo, Bantu, spoken by 60,000 in southwestern Cameroon. Mostly oral, but efforts at establishing a written standard are underway.
10 ŋwíí akǝ ntɛk di bɛ́ɛ 2018Bagirmi: Bagirmi ✧ BMI ✧ Nilo-Saharan family, ≅ 45,000 speakers in Chad and Nigeria. This was the language of the Sultanate of Bagirmi which ruled southeast of Lake Chad between 1523 and 1897.
10 Nap dokkeme kar sab 2018Bagvalal (Bagulal): Bagvalal (Bagulal) ✧ KVA ✧ Northeast Caucasian, seriously endangered, 1500 speakers in Dagestan’s Tsumadinsky District. Features ejectives and nazalized vowels. Used mainly in private; outside the home speakers rely on Avar (q.v.) or Russian.
10 дека́бирбос̄ӏ (dekábirboss̓) 2018Bahasa Banjar: Bahasa Banjar ✧ BJN ✧ Malayo-Polynesian, spoken by the Banjarese of South Kalimantan in Indonesia
10 Disimbir 2018Bakweri (Mokpwe): Bakweri (Mokpwe) ✧ BGM ✧ Niger-Congo, Bantu, spoken in Cameroon
10 Muuli me Sali 2018Baluchi: Baluchi ✧ BAL ✧ Indo-Iranian language related to Kurdish (q.v.). Uses Pashto and Roman script.
10 takšán 2018Bambara: Bambara ✧ BAM ✧ Niger-Congo, Mande. Two tones, many French loans. Same word used for hand and arm.
10 Desanburu 2018Bariai: Bariai ✧ BCH ✧ Austronesian family, Ngero group, 1400 speakers in Papua New Guinea
10 ado imado 2018Basaa: Basaa ✧ BAS ✧ Niger-Congo, Bantu. Four tones, 230,000 speakers in Camaroon.(Not to be confused with Bassa, below.)
10 lïìäuy li nàyeèe 2018Bashkir: Bashkir ✧ BAK ✧ Turkic language spoken in Bashkortostan between the Volga and Urals. Uses no articles.
10 аҡъюлай (aqyulai) 2018Basque [Biscayan]: Basque [Biscayan] ✧ EUS ✧ Basque is a Pre-Indo-European language isolate spoken in the Pyrenees area. This is the dialect heard on the Bay of Biscay.
10 gabonil “Christmas month” -or- lotazil -or- abendu 2018Basque [Guipuzcoan]: Basque [Guipuzcoan] ✧ EUS ✧ Basque dialect spoken in Guipuzcoa, a tiny Northern Spanish province at the eastern extreme of the Cantabrian sea. Originally studied and analyzed by Louis Lucien Bonaparte, Napoleon’s nephew.
10 lotazil 2018Basque [Souletin]: Basque [Souletin] ✧ EUS ✧ Basque dialect spoken in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques département of France. Heavily influenced by Occitan (q.v.) and correspondingly features an additional vowel sound, ü.
10 negila “Winter month” 2018Bassa: Bassa ✧ BSQ ✧ Niger-Congo, Kru. Seven vowels with five tones each, spoken by 400,000 in Liberia and Sierra Leone. (Not to be confused with Basaa, above.)
10 Sè-Bɛ̃ˇ-Ɓàɖàǔn 2018Batak: Batak ✧ BYA ✧ Malayo-Polynesian family. Unique script, spoken in north Sumatra. Each day from 1 through 30 has its own name, shown here in angle quotes.
10 《anggara sampulu》 sipaha sia 2018Bats (Tsova-Tush): Bats (Tsova-Tush) ✧ BBL ✧ Northeast Caucasian, Nakh branch but unintelligible with Chechen or Ingush (q.v.). It exists in a single dialect, ≅ 2500 speakers.
ი კრიშობ (krišob) “Christ month” ციჱBelarusian: Belarusian ✧ BEL ✧ East Slavic, closely related to Ukrainian (q.v.). Though Belarusian is official in Belarus, only about 12% of the population uses it. Unlike Russian, it employs the characters І, Ї, and Ў.
10 снежня (snežnya) -or- сьнежань (s’nežan’) 2018Bemba (Chibemba): Bemba (Chibemba) ✧ BEM ✧ Niger-Congo family, Southern Bantu. Tonal, spoken in Zambia.
10 umupundu 2018Bena: Bena ✧ BEZ ✧ Niger-Congo family, northeast Bantu, spoken in south central Tanzania
10 pa mwedzi gwa kumi na mbili 2018Beothuk: Beothuk ✧ BUE ✧ Spoken by a reclusive indigenous Newfoundland tribe, extinct since 1829 with the death of its last speaker, Shanawdithit.
10 odasweeteeshamut 2018Bété [Eastern/Daloa]: Bété [Eastern/Daloa] ✧ BEV ✧ Niger-Congo, Kru. Bete is spoken by 400,000 in the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire; this is one of its five dialects. The language is tonal and its speakers count in base 20.
10 'napɛ 'kugbïa "sɔ -leyi 2018Beti [Ewondo] (Kolo): Beti [Ewondo] (Kolo) ✧ EWO ✧ Niger-Congo family, Southern Bantu, tonal, with half a million speakers of this dialect in Cameroon. It serves as a lingua franca, though French is gradually displacing it.
10 ngɔn awóm ai bɛ ̌ 2018Bezhta (Kapucha): Bezhta (Kapucha) ✧ KAP ✧ Preliterate Northeast Caucasian language spoken by around 6800 in Southern Dagestan.
10 дёкабер (dyokaber) 2018Biete (Biate): Biete (Biate) ✧ BIU ✧ A Sino-Tibetan, Kuki-Chin language spoken by 30,000 in northeastern India (Meghalaya, Assam, Mizoram, Manipur, and Tripura). Related to Mizo (q.v.).
10 Birip 2018Bishnupriya Manipuri: Bishnupriya Manipuri ✧ BPY ✧ Indo-Aryan, 120,000 native speakers, not to be confused with Sino-Tibetan Meitei, also known as Manipuri (q.v.). Uses the rather uncommon Eastern Nagari script.
১০ ২০১৮Bislama: Bislama ✧ BIS ✧ A creole combining English with Austronesian lanugages. Official in Vanuatu.
10 Disemba 2018Blackfoot (Siksika): Blackfoot (Siksika) ✧ BLA ✧ Algonquian family, unusual pitch system. Montana and Southern Alberta.
10 isstááato’s 2018Blin (Bilen): Blin (Bilen) ✧ BYN ✧ Afro-Asiatic, Cushitic. 70,000 speakers around Keren, Eritrea. Related to Tigrinya (q.v.) and Tigre (Tigrayit).
10 (thsasri) 2018Breton (Armoric): Breton (Armoric) ✧ BRE ✧ Indo-European, Celtic, Brythonic. Spoken in Brittany, related to Welsh and Cornish (q.v.).
10 mis kerzu 2018Bukhori (Judaeo-Tajik): Bukhori (Judaeo-Tajik) ✧ BHH ✧ A Persian dialect with Hebrew, Turkic, and Slavic loans spoken by Bukharan Jews living in central Asia and diaspora communities in Israel and the US. Modifies the Hebrew alphabet to show vowels explicitly.
10 דיֵכּאַבּר (dekabr) 2018Bulgar: Bulgar ✧ XBO ✧ Presumably Turkic, extinct since medieval times, unrelated to modern Bulgarian (which is South Slavic). Bulgar’s modern descendent is Chuvash (q.v.).
X nardu-ghana MMXVIIIBulgarian [Eastern Rup, 19th century]: Bulgarian [Eastern Rup, 19th century] ✧ BUL ✧ South Slavic. From the south-central Bulgarian town of Asenovgrad.
10 никулския (nikulskiya) 2018Bulgarian [Rhodope, pre-1945]: Bulgarian [Rhodope, pre-1945] ✧ BUL ✧ Another Bulgarian, here from the Rhodope Mountains around Smolyan
10 колада или bожеk’’ (kolada ili božeka) 2018Burgundian (Bourguignon-morvandiau): Burgundian (Bourguignon-morvandiau) ✧ ??? ✧ Endangered Langue d’oïl spoken in Burgundy. Not to be confused with East Germanic Burgundian, extinct since the sixth century, though there are historic overlaps.
10 décembe 2018Burmese: Burmese ✧ MYA ✧ Sino-Tibetan. Spoken in Myanmar/Burma, tonal. Unusual sounds such as unvoiced Ms and Ns. Script consists almost entirely of arcs and circles because the ancient Burmese wrote on palm leaves and straight lines would risk splitting them.
၁၀ ဒီဇင်ဘာ ဒီဇင်ဘာ (dizĩbʰa) ၂၀၁၈Burum (Somba-Siawari): Burum (Somba-Siawari) ✧ BMU ✧ Trans-New Guinea family, Finisterre–Huon, Western Huon, spoken by 9000 in Papua New Guinea’s Morobe Province on the Huon Peninsula. Its alternate name cites its two dialects, Somba and Siawari.
10 löŋölö 2018Burushaski: Burushaski ✧ BSK ✧ A language isolate spoken by 87,000 in Northern Pakistan. Actions must often specify how loud something was.
10 pheting baluas -or- ǰad̪i 2018Buryat [Premodern]: Buryat [Premodern] ✧ BUA ✧ Mongolic language related to Mongolian and Oirat (q.v.). China, Mongolia, and eastern Russia.
10 арбан хоёрдугаар һара (arban hojordugaar ḥara) 2018Caddo: Caddo ✧ CAD ✧ Critically endangered member of the Caddoan family, related to Arikara and Pawnee (q.v.), tonal, spoken by about two dozen individuals in Caddo County, Oklahoma.
10 Cho’-ka-see ti-ti 2018Carrier (Dakelh): Carrier (Dakelh) ✧ CRX ✧ Na-Dené family, Athabaskan. A few hundred speakers in British Columbia.
10 satɕo dinʔai 2018Catalan: Catalan ✧ CAT ✧ Indo-European, Romance. Spoken in Catalonia, Valencia, the Balearic Islands, and the country of Andorra where it’s official. Its name comes from the word ‘castle.’
10 de desembre 2018Cayuga: Cayuga ✧ CAY ✧ Iroquoian family, heard on the Six Nations of the Grand River Reserve in Ontario and the Cattaraugus Reservation in New York State. Only 79 fluent speakers. Vowels are lengthened by a colon; some can be nasalzed, others whispered.
10 Jo:to:ʔgó:wah “Cold” 2018Cerma: Cerma ✧ CME ✧ Niger-Congo, Gur, 63,000 speakers in Burkina Faso and Côte d'Ivoire. Three dialects: Banfora, Niangoloko, and Soubakanié Dougou.
10 campiɛ 2018Cham [Eastern]: Cham [Eastern] ✧ CJM ✧ Austronesian, Malayo-Polynesian. 300,000 speakers in Vietnam. Related to Rade (q.v.), oldest-attested Austronesian language with inscriptions dating back to the fourth century ce.
balan mak Chamorro: Chamorro ✧ CHA ✧ Malayo-Polynesian, ≅ 60,000 speakers in the Marianas archipelago. Same word used for hand and arm.
10 disembre 2018Chang (Mochungrr): Chang (Mochungrr) ✧ NBC ✧ Sino-Tibetan, Brahmaputran branch, 62,000 speakers in Nagaland, Northeast India. Uses the Roman alphabet, introduced in 1928.
10 Niitlit 2018Chatino [Zona Alta]: Chatino [Zona Alta] ✧ CLY ✧ Zapotecan language spoken by 23,000 in Southern Oaxaca, Mexico. It has ten tones and uses nasal vowels.
10 ko' ta'a jya'aan 2018Chayahuita: Chayahuita ✧ CBT ✧ One of only two languages belonging to the Cahuapanan family, spoken by 14,000 in the department of Loreto in the Peruvian province of Alto Amazonas. Some education in the area is bilingual Chayahuita/Spanish.
10 nionio yoqui 2018Chechen 1: Chechen 1 ✧ CHE ✧ Northeast Caucasian family, Nakh branch, related to Ingush (q.v.). It features an unusually large vowel inventory for a Caucasian language. Traditionally written with the Georgian alphabet, later the Arabic, finally the Cyrillic.
10 фандукӀ (fanduk̓) 2018Chechen 2: Chechen 2 ✧ CHE ✧ A second alternative terminology for Chechen
10 огой бутт (ogoi butt) 2018Chechen 3: Chechen 3 ✧ CHE ✧ A third alternative terminology for Chechen
10 гӏуран бутт (g̓uran butt) 2018Cherokee [Overhill]: Cherokee [Overhill] ✧ CHR ✧ Iroquoian family, Oklahoma. This is the Cherokee standard upon which Sequoyah based his unique script; further along he pursuaded the Eastern Cherokee speakers of North Carolina to adopt it.
10 ᎥᏍᎩᏱ (Vsgiyi) “Snow” 2018Chewa (Chichewa or Nyanja): Chewa (Chichewa or Nyanja) ✧ NYA ✧ Niger-Congo family, Bantoid. Spoken in Malawi and Zambia. Unusually complex gender system.
10 mwezi wa Decembala 2018Cheyenne (Tsisinstsistots): Cheyenne (Tsisinstsistots) ✧ CHY ✧ Algonquian family. Four principal tones, three principal vowels (a, e, o) which in some cases can can be voiceless. About 2000 native speakers in Montana & Oklahoma.
10 Ma’xêhe’koneneeše’he 2018Chickasaw: Chickasaw ✧ CIC ✧ Muskogean family, ≅ 75 speakers total in Oklahoma, USA. Same word used for hand and arm.
10 Tecimba 2018Chilcotin: Chilcotin ✧ CLC ✧ Athabaskan, ≅ 860 native speakers in Chilcotin Country, central British Columbia. Chilcotin is bitonal and exhibits consonant harmony.
10 Gwelu Za 2018Chimané [Mosetén]: Chimané [Mosetén] ✧ CAS ✧ Language isolate (?) spoken by around 2000 north of La Paz, Bolivia. Same word used for hand and arm.
10 tyak puru’yatyi’ ïwaj 2018Chinook Jargon (Wawa): Chinook Jargon (Wawa) ✧ CHN ✧ A trading language that thrived in the Pacific Northwest during the 19th century. Used both Native American- and Indo-European-derived vocabulary, though evidence suggests it existed in a purely indigenous form before European contact.
10 Disimbir 2018Choctaw: Choctaw ✧ CHO ✧ Muskogean, related to Chickasaw (q.v.). South-central USA, 18,000 speakers.
10 Tisimba -or- Tifliznba 2018Choyo (Queyu): Choyo (Queyu) ✧ QVY ✧ A Sino-Tibetan, Qiangic language of Yajiang and Xinlong Counties in Sichuan with ≅ 7000 speakers. Choyo is closely related to another Qiangic language, Zhaba, spoken by a similar number in Yajiang and Daofu Counties.
10 da35wa55tɕo55ɳi55pa53 2018Chukchi: Chukchi ✧ CKT ✧ About 10,000 speakers in extreme eastern Siberia. Uses vowel harmony. Also, words cannot begin or end with consonant blends.
10 атъылёкэ (at”ylyoke) 2018Chuukese: Chuukese ✧ CHK ✧ Polynesian, spoken by around 50,000 ethnic Chuukese on the Chuuk Islands of the Carolines as well as on Pohnpei and Guam.
10 Tiisamper -or- Tiisémper 2018Chuvash: Chuvash ✧ CHV ✧ Turkic, spoken in the Urals. Features “hard” versus “soft” words. Genderless.
X raštav III/X✳✳Cimbrian: Cimbrian ✧ CIM ✧ A Germanic language spoken by ≅ 400 in northeastern Italy whose grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation render it unintelligible to Standard High German speakers. Italian has largely displaced it.
10 ditzembre -or- kristmånat 2018Circassian (Cherkess) [Adyghe]: Circassian (Cherkess) [Adyghe] ✧ ADY ✧ Northwest Caucasian language. Has 50-60 consonant sounds, mutually intelligible with Circassian [Kabardian] (q.v.).
10 тыгъэгъаз (təġǎġāz) 2018Circassian (Cherkess) [Kabardian]: Circassian (Cherkess) [Kabardian] ✧ KBD ✧ The other major Circassian dialect, also called East Circassian. Mutually intelligible with Circassian [Adyghe] (q.v.).
10 дыгъэгъазэ (dəʁaʁāza) 2018Cofán: Cofán ✧ CON ✧ A seriously endangered language isolate spoken by 2400 Cofán people in Sucumbíos Province in northeast Ecuador and neighboring Colombia. Natively it counts in base 5.
10 un'ma tetukuite 2018Comanche [Eastern]: Comanche [Eastern] ✧ SWB ✧ Uto-Aztecan family; Numic; native to Texas, New Mexico, Kansas, Colorado, and Oklahoma; some two dozen speakers currently. Comanche was one of the languages used by the Code Talkers during World War II.
10 Pia utsuʔi mua “Big cold moon” -or- Wahi mua “Evergreen moon” 2018Comorian [Maore] (Shimaore): Comorian [Maore] (Shimaore) ✧ SWB ✧ Niger-Congo family, Bantu. 80,000 speakers on French islands of Mayotte.
10 desambru 2018Cornish: Cornish ✧ COR ✧ Celtic, Brythonic. Cornwall and Isles of Scilly, natively extinct but nowadays actively studied and taught. Like all Celtic languages, a Cornish noun undergoes mutations which are changes in its initial consonant sound that depend on its role in a sentence.
10 mys Kevardhu 2018Corsican: Corsican ✧ COS ✧ Indo-European, Romance, and unlike Sardinian (q.v.) this language is mutually intelligible with Italian. Spoken on Corsica, endangered.
10 dicembre 2018Cotabato Manobo: Cotabato Manobo ✧ MTA ✧ Malayo-Polynesian, spoken by 30,000 in the Sultan Kudarat and South Cotabato Provinces of Mindinao, Philippines. The Tasaday, once decried as a hoax tribe but now confirmed to be genuine, speak a dialect of Cotabato Manobo.
10 disémbeli 2018Cree: Cree ✧ CRE ✧ Algonquian family. Formerly creolized with French & Scottish Gaelic. Official in Canada’s Northwest Territories, almost 100,000 speakers.
10 papiwatiginashispizun “Youngster spreads the brush” 2018Creek (Muscogee or Seminole): Creek (Muscogee or Seminole) ✧ MUS ✧ Muskogean family, tonal with nazalizations, 5000 speakers in Oklahoma and Florida
10 rvfo-rakko “Big winter” 2018Crimean Tatar: Crimean Tatar ✧ CRH ✧ Half a million speakers. Although Turkic like Tatar, CT is not considered a Tatar dialect and they are not mutually intelligible.
10 ilk qış ayı 2018Croatian [Traditional]: Croatian [Traditional] ✧ HRV ✧ South Slavic, spoken in Croatia, Bosnia Herzegovina, and parts of Serbia. Uses the Roman alphabet as opposed to Serbian which uses Cyrillic.
10 prosinac “Sun shining through” 2018Crow (Apsáalooke): Crow (Apsáalooke) ✧ CRO ✧ Siouan family, Western, as of 2007 spoken by 3500 in the Crow Nation in southeastern Montana. Considered endangered, though schoolchildren are actively learning it and adolescents attend the Apsaalooke language camp for Crow language immersion.
10 báalaannakaake alahó 2018Cuicatec: Cuicatec ✧ CUX ✧ A language of the Oto-Manguean family spoken natively by 13,000 in western Oaxaca, Mexico. Cuicatec is tonal, forms verb tenses by attaching one of four different prefixes.
10 :iyuu nichúbi 2018Cuman (Polovetsian): Cuman (Polovetsian) ✧ QWM ✧ Turkic language spoken by Cuman-Kipchaks in eastern Europe. Extinct by 1800. The invading Polovetsians portrayed in Borodin’s opera Prince Igor would have spoken this language.
10 azuk ay 2018Curonian: Curonian ✧ XCU ✧ Extinct Balto-Slavic language spoken until the 16th century in parts of modern Latvia, Lithuania, and Germany.
10 decêmbirs 2018Czech (Bohemian): Czech (Bohemian) ✧ CZE ✧ West Slavic, distinct from but mutually intelligible with Slovak: Czech borrows more German; Slovak, Ukrainian and Hungarian. In both Czech and Slovak the same word, ruka, can refer to hand or arm.
10 prosinec “pallid (referring to the sky)” 2018Dagaare: Dagaare ✧ DGA ✧ Niger-Congo, Gur branch. Unusual consonant blends such as GB, KP, and MGM.
10 KyuurpienaayisobO 2018Dakota (Dakhota): Dakota (Dakhota) ✧ DAK ✧ Siouan family, mutually intelligible with Lakota. Around 20,000 speakers in an area centered on eastern South Dakota and taking in parts of North Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming, and Montana.
10 Wiiakenoŋpa 2018Dalecarlian: Dalecarlian ✧ OVD ✧ North Germanic, endangered. Unlike Swedish (with which it isn’t mutually intelligible) it uses nasalized vowels (Ą, Ę, Į, Ų, Y̨, Ą̊ ) and like Icelandic uses eth (Ð). Used runes into the 20th century.
10 (desember) 2018Dalmatian: Dalmatian ✧ DLM ✧ Romance language once spoken on the Adriatic east coast. Its last surviving native speaker was marine mail carrier Tuone Udaina, who died in a roadwork accident in 1898.
10 diciembar 2018Danish [Premodern/Folk]: Danish [Premodern/Folk] ✧ DAN ✧ Traditional Danish before it adopted neo-Latin month conventions
10 Kristmåned 2018Dan: Dan ✧ DNJ ✧ Niger-Congo family, Mande, 1.6 million speakers in Côte d'Ivoire and Liberia plus another 800 in Guinea. Tonal. Three dialects, Gweetaawu, Blowo, and Kla; though the latter is often considered a separate language.
10 Desanblö -or- ‒yrü 2018Deg Xinag: Deg Xinag ✧ ING ✧ Athabaskan language, virtually extinct. Area around the lower Yukon River, Alaska.
10 Vinginh q’inodle chux “Big prayer month” 2018Denaakk’e (Koyukon Athabascan): Denaakk’e (Koyukon Athabascan) ✧ KOY ✧ Athabascan, spoken by ≅ 300 in east central Alaska, 3 dialects
10 Be’ooz Kkelyee 2018Dena’ina (Tanaina) [Outer Inlet]: Dena’ina (Tanaina) [Outer Inlet] ✧ TFN ✧ Athabaskan, seriously endangered, Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula. Same word can refer to hand or arm.
10 benen yach’ 2018Denya: Denya ✧ ANV ✧ Niger-Congo family, Bantoid, Mamfe. Spoken in Cameroon by around 11,000
10 desanburu 2018Dhivehi (Maldivian): Dhivehi (Maldivian) ✧ DIV ✧ Indo-European, Indo-Iranian, uses the exclusive right-to-left Thāna script which unlike Arabic explicitly shows all vowels. Republic of Maldives.
10 (ḋisembaru) 2018Digaro Mishmi (Darang/Taraon): Digaro Mishmi (Darang/Taraon) ✧ MHU ✧ “Possibly” Sino-Tibetan, 35,000 speakers in India’s Arunachal Pradesh and China’s Zayü County.
10 xɑ⁵⁵ lo⁵³ xɑ⁵⁵ lɯ⁵⁵ kɑ³¹ n̩⁵⁵ 2018Dinka [Northwestern]: Dinka [Northwestern] ✧ DIW ✧ Nilo-Saharan, spoken in Sudan and by a refugee population in Jacksonville, Florida.
10 kol 2018Ditidaht (Nitinaht): Ditidaht (Nitinaht) ✧ DTD ✧ Wakashan family, Vancouver Island. No nasal consonants, virtually extinct.
10 kʷaƛkʷač 2018Dogrib (Tłı̨chǫ Yatıì): Dogrib (Tłı̨chǫ Yatıì) ✧ DGR ✧ Na-Dené, Athabaskan. Canada Northwest Territories, 2600 speakers.
10 Taati Zaà 2018Duala: Duala ✧ DUA ✧ Niger-Congo, Bantu, spoken natively by 90,000 (and as an acquired language by 2 million) in Cameroon. The language is tri-tonal and first appeared in print in 1862.
10 eláŋgɛ́ 2018Dukhan: Dukhan ✧ DKH ✧ A Turkic amalgam related to Tuvan, Buryat, and Tofalar (all q.v.) spoken, often mixed with Mongolian, by ≅ 500 Dukha reindeer herders in Northernmost Mongolia. (Language code DKH is unofficial.)
10 örgügleer аy 2018Dusun (Bunduliwan): Dusun (Bunduliwan) ✧ DTP ✧ A Malayo-Polynesian language, standardized by the Kadazandusun Cultural Association Sabah, and spoken by 140,000 in Malaysia and Brunei.
10 Tulan Momuhau “Scarecrow month” 2018Dutch [Old]: Dutch [Old] ✧ ODT ✧ Indo-European, Germanic, spoken 9th to 12th centuries ce. Literary examples include The Leiden Willeram, a commentary on the Song of Solomon, and Hebban olla vogala (“Have all birds begun nests…” ), both from ca. 1100.
X (wintermaand) MMXVIIIDzongkha: Dzongkha ✧ DZO ✧ Sino-Tibetan family, ≅ 170,000 native speakers (and an additional 470,000 non-native) in Bhutan where it is the only official language. Dzongkha’s Tibetan script reads from left to right.
10 སྤྱི་ཟླ་བཅུ་གཉིས་པ་ (spyi.zlaw.bču.gñis.pa) 2018Edo (Bini): Edo (Bini) ✧ BIN ✧ Niger-Congo family. Spoken by Benin Empire descendents.
10 uki igue 2018Embu (Kîembu): Embu (Kîembu) ✧ EBU ✧ Niger-Congo family, Bantu. Spoken by 320,000 in two dialects, northeast of Nairobi, Kenya.
10 Mweri wa ikũmi na Kaĩrĩ 2018Emilian-Romagnol (Sammarinese): Emilian-Romagnol (Sammarinese) ✧ EGL/RGN ✧ Romance language spoken in Italy (Emilia-Romagna region, Urbino, and Pesaro) and in San Marino. Its two principal dialects are Emiliano and Romangnolo, both of which separately recognized by UNESCO as “worthy of protection.”
10 dicèmber 2018Enets (Entsy): Enets (Entsy) ✧ ENF and ENH ✧ Moribund Samoyedic language spoken by 43 out of 260 ethnic Enets (as of 2010) living in Russia’s Krasnoyarsk Krai in central Siberia. Uses an unusual destinative noun case that refers to things a person should expect for him- or herself.
10 “Month of great darkness” 2018English [Old] (Anglo-Saxon): English [Old] (Anglo-Saxon) ✧ ANG ✧ Indo-European, Germanic, spoken 5th to 12th centuries ce. Four noun cases, three genders. Literary examples are Beowulf (975-1025) and the Charter of Cnut (c. 1017).
X (Ærra Gēola) “Before Yule” MMXVIIIErromangan (Sie)[Folk/Traditional]: Erromangan (Sie)[Folk/Traditional] ✧ ERG ✧ Malayo-Polynesian, Southern Oceanic, spoken by 1900 on Vanuatu’s Erromango Island. This was traditional before Erromangan borrowed quasi-English month names from Bislama (q.v.).
10 Movcovyog 2018Erromintxela: Erromintxela ✧ EMX ✧ A Basque/Romani hybrid language spoken by around a thousand Pyranees-dwelling Roma
10 abendua 2018Ersu [Ganluo]: Ersu [Ganluo] ✧ ERS ✧ Sino-Tibetan, Qiangic, around 13,000 speakers in western Sichuan. Like Nakhi (q.v.) this language employs a pictographic script for folkloric purposes, though in this case the colors carry additional lexographic meaning.
10 la55i55ɬɑ33 2018Erzya: Erzya ✧ MYV ✧ Uralic, 37,000 speakers, related to [but quite distinct from] Moksha (q.v.). It uses the exact same Cyrillic alphabet as the Russian version though the letters Х, Щ, Ъ, and Ь only occur in loans.
10 ацамков (atsamkov) 2018Eskayan: Eskayan ✧ ESY ✧ Famously obscure Philippine language, extinct but heavily studied. Possibly a Cebuano-based cryptolect.
10 dibi 2018Estonian: Estonian ✧ EST ✧ Uralic, Finnic. Features 3 vowel lengths, 15 noun cases. Among some speakers Estonian and Finnish are mutually intelligible though there are many “false friends,” i.e., words that look and sound identical but carry one meaning in Estonian but a different one in Finnish.
10 jõulukuu 2018Estonian [Southern] (Seto): Estonian [Southern] (Seto) ✧ VRO ✧ In many respects closer to Võro (q.v.) than standard Estonian, spoken by 12,500 in the Setomaa region (Estonia/Russia). Germanic influences.
10 joulukuu “Christmas month” 2018Etruscan: Etruscan ✧ ETT ✧ Assigned to the hypothetical Tyrrhenian family (along with at least two other long-extinct and poorly attested languages), spoken on the Italian peninsula during classical times. Its last recorded use was in 410 ce. Claudius, whose first wife was Etruscan, wrote several books on the language.
X [December unknown] ⊕⊕XIIXEven (Lamut): Even (Lamut) ✧ EVE ✧ Altaic, Tungusic. Endangered, with 7000-odd speakers in Siberia. Doesn’t use articles.
10 ойчири мир (ojčiri mir) 2018Evenki (Solon): Evenki (Solon) ✧ EVN ✧ Tungusic, related to Even (q.v.) but four times as many speakers. In descending order of frequency, Evenki appears in Roman, Cyrillic, and Mongolian characters.
10 hegdyg “Big” -or- otki “Time of severe frosts” 2018Ewe: Ewe ✧ EWO ✧ Niger-Congo family, tonal, spoken by 5 million in western Africa. A tilde nazalizes a vowel: ã, ẽ, ɛ̃, ɔ̃, ĩ, õ, and ũ.
10 Dzome 2018Extremaduran: Extremaduran ✧ EXT ✧ Romance language spoken in west central Spain. Some differences from Spanish/Castilian: Infinitive verbs end in L, questions are reinforced by prepending the particles “lo,” “lu,” “pu,” or “pui.”
10 diziembri -or- diciembri -or- iciembri 2018Fe’fe’ (Nufi or Bafang): Fe’fe’ (Nufi or Bafang) ✧ FMP ✧ Niger-Congo, Bantoid. 120,000 speakers around Bafang, Cameroon.
10 klisimi 2018Flemish [West-Vlams]: Flemish [West-Vlams] ✧ VLS ✧ A highly divergent Dutch dialect with 1.2 million speakers
10 december 2018Fon: Fon ✧ FON ✧ Niger-Congo, Gbe. Spoken by 2.2 million in Togo and Benin in over 50 dialects.
10 wõ sùn 2018Fox (Meskwaki) 1: Fox (Meskwaki) 1 ✧ SAC ✧ Algonquian, endangered, ≅ 2000 speakers distributed through Oklahoma, Kansas, Iowa, and Coahuila (Mexico). It has two indigenous writing systems known as Fox I and Fox II, shown below.
10 tîsênopêha -or- tîsêmipêha 2018Fox (Meskwaki) 2: Fox (Meskwaki) 2 ✧ SAC ✧ Fox as above, written with the Fox I script. This is an abugida — halfway between an alphabet and a syllabary — like the many used in India.
10 tᐧs.n..l. -or- tᐧs.mᐧl. 2018Fox (Meskwaki) 3: Fox (Meskwaki) 3 ✧ SAC ✧ Fox as above, written with the Fox II script, a true alphabet showing consonants and vowels explicitly.
10 2018Frankish (Old Franconian): Frankish (Old Franconian) ✧ FRK ✧ Germanic language spoken in France between the 4th and 9th centuries, evolved into Old Dutch (q.v.). Charlemagne spoke a dialect of Frankish.
X Heilimanoþ MMXVIIIFrisian [West Lauwers]: Frisian [West Lauwers] ✧ FRY ✧ Indo-European, West Germanic, considered to be the closest foreign language to English. 470,000 speakers in the Friesland province of the Netherlands.
10 wintermoanne “Winter month” 2018Frisian [North] (Mooring): Frisian [North] (Mooring) ✧ FRR ✧ About 10,000 speakers in the Schleswig-Holstein region of Germany
10 deetsember -or- jülmoune “Yule month” 2018Frisian [West Schiermonnikoog]: Frisian [West Schiermonnikoog] ✧ FRY ✧ Heard on the Island of Schiermonnikoog off Northern Netherlands, seriously endangered with fewer than 100 speakers
10 frettersmond 2018Friulian: Friulian ✧ FUR ✧ Indo-European, Romance. Spoken in northeastern Italy. When c is followed by anything other than an e or an i in Friulian, but must still retain the soft c sound (č, as in English cherry), it takes a cedilla — ç).
10 decembar 2018Fula: Fula ✧ FUL ✧ Niger-Congo family, western Africa, official in Senegal. Most commonly written with the Roman alphabet, less so with the Arabic, but a unique alphabet for Fula called Adlam arose in the 1980s and has been widely adopted.
10 bowte 2018Fur: Fur ✧ FVR ✧ Tentatively attributed to the Nilo-Saharan family, spoken in south central Darfur in western Sudan.
10 Taadorol 2018Futunan: Futunan ✧ FUT ✧ Malayo-Polynesian language spoken on Futuna Island and New Caledonia. Its words for hand and arm are identical.
10 tesepeli 2018Gaelic [Irish] (Irish): Gaelic [Irish] (Irish) ✧ GLE ✧ Indo-European, Celtic, Goidelic. Spoken as a first language along the western coast of Ireland. It was also once widely spoken in Newfoundland but disappeared there sometime in the early 20th century.
10 Mí na Nollaig {derived from Latin for “birthday”} 2018Gaelic [Scottish]: Gaelic [Scottish] ✧ GLA ✧ Like Irish Gaelic (q.v.), also Celtic, Goidelic. This is Highland Gaelic; Lowland Gaelic is extinct, one of its last known speakers having been Margaret McMurray who died ca. 1760.
10 An Dùbhlachd “The darkness” 2018Gaelic [Scottish Archaic]: Gaelic [Scottish Archaic] ✧ GLA ✧ As Scottish Gaelic above, but older
10 Mìos Meadhanach a' Gheamhraidh 2018Gagauz: Gagauz ✧ GAG ✧ Turkic language spoken in Moldova, Ukraine, Turkey, Russia
10 кыран айы (kıran ayı) 2018Galician: Galician ✧ GLG ✧ Sharply divergent Portuguese spoken in Galicia (Northern Spain). Fidel Castroʼs father was Galician and emigrated to make his sugar cane fortune.
10 decembro 2018Gallong (Galo) [Lare]: Gallong (Galo) [Lare] ✧ ADL ✧ Sino-Tibetan, Tani branch, at least four dialects though likely more, 30,000 speakers. Arunachal Pradesh, northeast India.
10 `ratəə 2018Gallo: Gallo ✧ ROA-GAL ✧ Indo-European, Romance, Langue d’oïl. Approx. 28,000 speakers in the upper Brittany region. Gallo bears some mutual intelligibility with Norman (q.v.) dialects, though it displays Celtic influences as opposed to Old Norse.
10 deleir -or- delaere 2018Garifuna: Garifuna ✧ CAB ✧ Arawakan language with French and Carib loans, Central America, 170,000 speakers. Men’s and women’s speech differ. Men’s Garifuna tends to borrow more heavily from Carib while women’s leans more toward Arawak.
10 dûsu hati 2018Garo: Garo ✧ GRT ✧ Sino-Tibetan family, Brahmaputran, spoken in the Garo Hills of Meghalaya and in parts of Assam and Tripura, India, and also in Bangladesh. In its Roman writing system the letters F, Q, V, X, Y, and Z are non-native and occur only in loans.
10 da·ororo chi·gnigipa ja 2018Gaulish: Gaulish ✧ XTG ✧ Indo-European, Celtic. Pre-Roman France, extinct by 7th century ce. Modern French uses several hundred Gaulish loans, among them the words alouette (lark) and petit (small).
XXVI cvtii MMXVIIIGa: Ga ✧ GAA ✧ Niger-Congo family, Kwa division, first written in 1764. Tonal, three vowel lengths.
10 Afuabee 2018Gciriku (Rumanyo): Gciriku (Rumanyo) ✧ DIU ✧ Niger-Congo, Bantu, 36,000 speakers along the Okavango River in Angola, Botswana, and Namibia. Most Bantu languages don’t have clicks, but Gciriku uses half a dozen. They tend to occur in place names and in words that refer to natural features.
10 Shindîmba 2018Georgian: Georgian ✧ KAT ✧ Kartvelian family, lacks an F sound natively. Related to Svan (q.v.) but completely unintelligible with it.
ი დეკემბერი (dek’emberi) ციჱGeorgian [Old]: Georgian [Old] ✧ KAT ✧ Georgian from approximately 800-1000 ce
ი ქრისტეშობისთვე (krist’ešobistve) “Month of Christmas” ციჱGerman [Alsatian]: German [Alsatian] ✧ GSW ✧ Alsace in eastern France. 100,000 speakers, all bilingual with French. Unlike German, the Alsatian alphabet also includes the letters À and É.
10 Dezamber 2018German [Alsatian Folk]: German [Alsatian Folk] ✧ GSW ✧ Previous to, or aside from, the modern neo-Roman.
10 Christmonat -or- Heiligenmonat -or- Dustermond 2018German [Old High]: German [Old High] ✧ GOH ✧ Earliest attested German language, ca. 500-1050 ce. Old High German appears in the Oaths of Strasbourg, 12 February 842, between Louis the German and Charles the Bald.
X Iulemānōd MMXVIIIGerman [Ripuarian] (Kölsch): German [Ripuarian] (Kölsch) ✧ KSH ✧ Indo-European, West Germanic, Central Franconian. Cologne region.
10 Dezemmber -or- Dezämber 2018German [Walser]: German [Walser] ✧ WAE ✧ Germanic, uppermost Swiss alps. Its CH is very roughly articulated.
10 Chrištmánet 2018German [mid 17th century]: German [mid 17th century] ✧ GER ✧ The High German shown on a 1665 calendar
10 Christmond 2018Gitxsan (Gitksan): Gitxsan (Gitksan) ✧ GIT ✧ Tsimshianic family, British Columbia, < 1000 speakers
10 hlox̱sa hm'mel 2018Gothic: Gothic ✧ GOT ✧ Indo-European, extinct by the 10th century. IE’s Germanic branch splits into West, North, and East; Gothic belonged to the latter, along with Vandalic and Burgundian which are both only poorly attested.
X (afar jiuleis) MMXVIIIGourmantché: Gourmantché ✧ GUX ✧ Niger-Congo, Gur, spoken by 900,000 in Benin, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Togo. Its nouns use a system of circumfixes — prefix-suffix pairs that enclose them. All language names, for example, begin with mi- and end with -ma; thus Gourmantché becomes migourmantchema.
10 cipiiga n cilie 2018Greenlandic (Kalaallisut): Greenlandic (Kalaallisut) ✧ KAL ✧ Language from the Eskimo-Aleut family, now official in Greenland
10 Decemberi 2018Griko (Grecanic Italiot Greek): Griko (Grecanic Italiot Greek) ✧ GRE ✧ Variety of modern Greek with ≅ 50% mutual intelligibility with it. About 28,000 speakers in the toe and heel of Italy.
10 Decèmbri 2018Gros Ventre: Gros Ventre ✧ ATS ✧ Algonquian, Arapahoan language of the Gros Ventre people of Montana, natively extinct since 1981 but currently spoken in revival by 45 individuals. Closely related to Arapaho (q.v.) but with a wider consonant inventory.
10 kécinibáasibétaanííísíisɂi “Winter big holy day” 2018Guahiba: Guahiba ✧ GUH ✧ From the Guahiban family, 34,000 speakers in Colombia and in the Orinoco River area in Venezuela. Unusually complex stress patterns for syllables.
10 mativi juameto “Many iguanas” 2018Guan [Dungan]: Guan [Dungan] ✧ DNG ✧ A Sino-Tibetan language that, unusually, uses the Cyrillic alphabet. Three tones. Spoken by 90,000 ethnic Dungans in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, it evolved from Mandarin Chinese but drew heavy influences from Turkic languages and Russian.
10 шыэрйүә (šəerjyә) -or- лайүә(lаjyә) 2018Guaraní [Paraguayan]: Guaraní [Paraguayan] ✧ GUG ✧ Tupian family. This is the standard Guaraníx spoken in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay. Genderless. Oldest writings date from 1639.
10 jasypakõi 2018Guernésiais: Guernésiais ✧ NRF ✧ Indo-European, Romance, Langue d’oïl. A Norman dialect spoken by ≅ 200 on the Channel Island of Guernsey. Victor Hugo contemporary George Métivier (1790–1881) was a widely celebrated author in Guernésiais.
10 décembre 2018Guhu-Samane: Guhu-Samane ✧ GHS ✧ An isolate related to the Binanderean family, Papua New Guinea, five dialects recognized, 13,000 speakers.
10 Ttseba 2018Guiqiong: Guiqiong ✧ GQI ✧ Sino-Tibetan, Qiangic. A preliterate, poorly documented language spoken in Sichuan and Tibet. Four tones (33, 35, 53, 55), borrows heavily from Chinese. There are ≅ 6000 native speakers who switch to Chinese when they travel outside their villages.
10 bi33li55si33 2018Gullah (Sea Islands Creole): Gullah (Sea Islands Creole) ✧ GUL ✧ English-based, Niger-Congo influences. The word “kumbaya” comes from Gullah.
10 Disembuh 2018Gusii (Ekegusii): Gusii (Ekegusii) ✧ GUZ ✧ Niger-Congo family, Northeast Bantu, spoken by 2.2 million in western Kenya’s Gusii district. Contrastive vowel lengths.
10 Egesunte gia Kabere -or- Egesunte gia Masaba 2018Gusilay: Gusilay ✧ GSL ✧ Niger-Congo family, Jola branch, spoken by 15,000 in southwest Senegal. Its speakers also use other languages such as Wolof (q.v.), Mandinka, and Pulaar but their literacy in Gusilay itself is less than 1%.
10 Furempeteŋ 2018Gutnish (Gotlandic): Gutnish (Gotlandic) ✧ - ✧ Endangered Swedish dialect spoken by between 2000 and 5000 on the islands of Gotland and Fårö (not to be confused with the Faroe Islands). Shows vowel shifts and much vocabulary that differs from Swedish.
10 dessembar -or- dässämbar 2018Gwich’in [Western]: Gwich’in [Western] ✧ GWI ✧ Na-Dené family, Athabaskan. 700 speakers in Alaska + northwest Canada.
10 Veegwaadhat -or- Ch’atsal 2018Haida: Haida ✧ HAI ✧ Language isolate native to the Haida Gwaii archipelago off the coast of British Columbia, with 14 reported speakers. It has no adjectives, getting around that by using verbs to assign qualities.
10 Gáangálang Kungáay “Ripe berries” 2018Haitian Creole: Haitian Creole ✧ HAT ✧ French-derived but borrows from Taíno, Portuguese, African languages
10 desanm 2018Hakha Chin (Lai): Hakha Chin (Lai) ✧ CNH ✧ Sino-Tibetan family, spoken in Burma, Bangladesh, and India. Tonal.
10 Dezimbar thla 2018Hakka: Hakka ✧ HAK ✧ Sino-Tibetan. Taiwan, southeast China, diaspora communities worldwide. Uses NG sounds and final M, unlike, say, Mandarin Chinese.
10 十二月 sip⁶ ŋi⁴ ŋiet⁶ 2018Hani (Ho): Hani (Ho) ✧ HNI ✧ Sino-Tibetan family, Lolo-Burmese branch, spoken by the 760,000 Ho people in Burma, Southern China, Laos, and Vietnam. Tones shown with superscripts: 24 (rising), 31 (low-falling), 33 (mid-level), and 55 (high-level).
10 thaŋ⁵⁵ la³³ 2018Harari: Harari ✧ HAR ✧ Afro-Asiatic family, Semitic, ≅ 25,000 speakers in Ethiopia. Once written with Arabic script, but nowadays with the Ethiopic abugida and the Roman alphabet.
10 kot wá assir-khá warhay 2018Havasupai-Hualapai: Havasupai-Hualapai ✧ YUF ✧ Yuman family, around 550 speakers in northwestern Arizona
10 Kanda Maavya “When eating lollipops” 2018Heiltsuk-Oowekyala [Heiltsuk]: Heiltsuk-Oowekyala [Heiltsuk] ✧ HEI ✧ Wakashan family, spoken natively by 60 people in the vicinity of Bella Bella and Klemtu at the northern coast of British Columbia. Two discourse styles. The Yílístis Society devised this Gregorian terminology in 1978.
10 c̓u̓ṇ́x̌ “Spiritual season” 2018Herero: Herero ✧ HER ✧ Niger-Congo, Southwest Bantu, ≅ 200,000 native speakers in Namimbia, Botswana, and Angola. Roman script was introduced by missionaries in the 19th century; the sounds F, S, and L occur only in foreign loans.
10 ku Tjitarazu 2018Hidatsa: Hidatsa ✧ HID ✧ Western Siouan, spoken by 200 (6 are monoglots) in North and South Dakota and Montana. A relatively modest sound inventory of five vowels, two dipthongs, and ten consonants.
10 Máara Mabixúubaʔihdia Mirísh 2018Hiligaynon (Ilongo): Hiligaynon (Ilongo) ✧ HIL ✧ Malayo-Polynesian, Visaya group, spoken in Philippines.
10 (panglot-daku) 2018Hmong (Miao): Hmong (Miao) ✧ HMN ✧ Hmong-Mien family, native to mountainous areas in southeast Asia. Seven tones, including creaky and breathy. “Miao,” considered pejorative by some, is a larger umbrella term for an ethnicity of which the Hmong are a subgroup.
10 Kaum ob hlis ntuj 2018Holikachuk: Holikachuk ✧ HOI ✧ Athabaskan language, central Alaska. Its last fluent speaker, Wilson “Tiny” Deacon, died in March 2012.
10 Xuyh Tth’exinedz 2018Homshetsi (Hamshen): Homshetsi (Hamshen) ✧ AXM(?) ✧ Archaic Armenian dialect spoken by 14,000 in Turkey, preliterate until 1995. Homshetsi and modern Armenian are not mutually intelligible.
10 գաաքեշ -կամ- քարաքշ (gaakeş -or- karakış) 2018Hopi: Hopi ✧ HOP ✧ Uto-Aztecan family, ≅ 7000 native speakers in northeastern Arizona. Bitonal with four distinct dialects identified by linguist Benjamin Whorf that differ in their consonant inventory.
10 Kyaamuya “Respect Moon” 2018Huichol [Wixarika]: Huichol [Wixarika] ✧ HCH ✧ Uto-Aztecan language with 45,000 speakers, native to west-central Mexico. Creates long “sentence words” with prefixes and suffixes.
10 pasixa -or- tamaamata huta metseeri 2018Hungarian [Premodern religious]: Hungarian [Premodern religious] ✧ OHU ✧ Church-based Hungarian, before it adopted neo-Latin month conventions
10 karácsony hava “Christmas month” 2018Hungarian [Premodern secular]: Hungarian [Premodern secular] ✧ OHU ✧ Secular Hungarian, before it adopted neo-Latin month conventions
10 álom hava “Dream month” 2018Hungarian [Reform Era]: Hungarian [Reform Era] ✧ HUN ✧ Hungarian during the nationalistic fervor of 1825-1848
10 télelő 2018Iaai: Iaai ✧ IAI ✧ Spoken by around 4000 on Ouvéa Island, New Caledonia. Sports a highly unusual set of sounds for a Polynesian language, and stands alone in the world for its voiceless retroflex nasal.
10 driisemba 2018Iatmül: Iatmül ✧ IAN ✧ Sepik family, spoken in four dialects by 8400 in the Sepik River Basin of Papua New Guinea. Iatmüls count in base 5, 10, and 20; their word for 5 translates as “one hand,” for 10, “two hands,” for 20, “one whole man.”
10 bagwin 2018Iban: Iban ✧ IBA ✧ Malayo-Polynesian, spoken natively by 790,000 ethnic Dyak in Malaysia’s state of Sarawak, Indonesia’s province of West Kalimantan, and Brunei. Uses the Roman alphabet, though a syllabary devised during the 1950s is undergoing revival.
10 pangka di labu 2018Idu Mishmi (Chulikata): Idu Mishmi (Chulikata) ✧ CLK ✧ Sino-Tibetan, endangered. India’s Dibang Valley, 3 dialects.
10 थ (tha) 2018Igbo: Igbo ✧ IBO ✧ Niger-Congo, tonal, proverb-heavy, Nigeria. Actor Chiwetel Ejiofor (Amistad, Twelve Years a Slave, etc.) is Igbo.
10 ónwa íri nà àbúon’áfò 2018Ik: Ik ✧ IKX ✧ Nilo-Saharan, Kuliak branch, 7500 speakers in Uganda along the northwest border of Kenya. Severely endangered. Features implosives, an example of which is the way English speakers imitate those cartoonish “glug-glug” sounds.
10 Ìɓùɓù -or- Raraan 2018Ingrian (Izhorian): Ingrian (Izhorian) ✧ IZH ✧ Uralic, Finnic language with only 120 speakers around Gulf of Finland
10 dekabri 2018Ingush 1: Ingush 1 ✧ INH ✧ Northeast Caucasian family, Nakh branch, tonal. Related to Chechen (q.v.) and like that language it went through a Georgian, Arabic, and finally Cyrillic alphabet writing phase.
10 чантар (čantar) 2018Ingush 2: Ingush 2 ✧ INH ✧ Alternative terminology
10 надж-ган-цӏай бутт (nadž-gan-c̓ay butt) 2018Inuktitut [Nunavik]: Inuktitut [Nunavik] ✧ IKU ✧ A dialect of Inuktitut
10 Aagjuliut 2018Inuktitut: Inuktitut ✧ IKU ✧ Eskimo-Aleut family, north of Canada’s tree line. There are some 35,000 speakers and, unlike the case with most “minority” languages, that number is growing. Its syllabary was first conceived by Moravian missionaries in the 19th century.
10 ᑎᓯᒻᐳᕆ (tisimpuri) 2018Inuktitut [Qikiqtaaluk]: Inuktitut [Qikiqtaaluk] ✧ IKU ✧ Inuktitut terminology used in the Baffin Region
10 Tauvigjuaq 2018Inupiaq [North Slope]: Inupiaq [North Slope] ✧ IPK ✧ Eskimo-Aleut family, extreme northwestern Alaska
10 siqiebixaq 2018Isan: Isan ✧ TTS ✧ A group of Lao dialects spoken in northeastern Thailand by ethnic Isans. Isan is often viewed to be of lower prestige than Thai.
10 tanwakom 2018Istriot (Rovignese): Istriot (Rovignese) ✧ IST ✧ Romance language spoken by around 400 on Croatia’s Istrian Peninsula, closely related to extinct Dalmatian (q.v.). Not to be confused with Istro-Romanian (1100 speakers) or the Istrian dialect of Venetian.
10 desenbre 2018Itelmen: Itelmen ✧ ITL ✧ The sole surviving Kamchatkan language, spoken by fewer than 100 in and around the villages Kovran and Verkhnee Khayryuzovo on the Kamchatka Peninsula.
10 ноккоуос набиль (nokkouos nabil’) 2018Jèrriais: Jèrriais ✧ NRF ✧ Indo-European, Romance, Norse influences. A Norman dialect spoken by 3000 on the Channel Island of Jersey. Actress and socialite Lillie Langtry (1853-1929) quite famously spoke Jèrriais.
10 décembe 2018Japanese [Premodern]: Japanese [Premodern] ✧ OJP ✧ Dating from the Heian Period (794-1185)
10 師走 (shiwasu) “Month of running priests” 2018Jaqaru: Jaqaru ✧ JQR ✧ With Aymara (q.v.), the other member of the Aymaran family, natively spoken by 740 in the Yauyos Province of the Lima Region in Peru. Like Aymara its only vowels are a, i, and u.
10 disimbri 2018Jarai: Jarai ✧ JRA ✧ Malayo-Polynesian language related to Cham (q.v.), spoken in Vietnam and Cambodia
10 blan pluh dua 2018Jebero (Shiwilu): Jebero (Shiwilu) ✧ JEB ✧ Cahuapanan family, moribund, spoken by a few dozen elders. The Jeberos number around 2500 and live along the Río Platanayacu and the Río Marañon in the district of Jeberos, in Peru.
10 Niñu-duker 2018Jerba Berber: Jerba Berber ✧ JBN ✧ Afro-Asiatic, Berber, Zenati branch, spoken on the Tunisian island of Jerba — the supposed home of the Lotus Eaters of Greek folklore.
10 dujámber 2018Jingpho (Kachin): Jingpho (Kachin) ✧ KAC ✧ Sino-Tibetan, Bramaputran. Kachin State, Burma, and Yunan Province, China. Five tones, commonly written with the Roman alphabet.
10 măga 2018Jju: Jju ✧ KAJ ✧ Niger-Congo, West Plateau. 300,000 speakers in Nigeria’s Southern Kaduna state.
10 Hywan Swak B’a̱hwa 2018Jola-Fonyi: Jola-Fonyi ✧ DYO ✧ Niger-Congo family, Central Jola group, spoken by 410,000 in Senegal and The Gambia. The 2004 Oscar-nominated short film Binta and the Great Idea, made in collaboration with UNICEF, is in French and Jola.
10 disambar 2018Kabiye: Kabiye ✧ KBP ✧ Niger-Congo, Gur. Spoken by 1.2 million in Togo, Benin, and Ghana.
10 saŋayιŋ 2018Kabuverdianu (Cape Verdean): Kabuverdianu (Cape Verdean) ✧ KEA ✧ The oldest surviving creole, based on 15th century Portuguese
10 dizenbru 2018Kabyle (Taqbaylit): Kabyle (Taqbaylit) ✧ KAB ✧ Afro-Asiatic, Berber, spoken in Algeria. Masculine nouns begin with A (character ⵔ); feminine nouns begin and end with T (character ⵜ).
10 ⴱⵓⴶⴻⵎⴱⴻⵔ (bujembeṛ) 2018Kainji [Piti-Atsam]: Kainji [Piti-Atsam] ✧ CCH/PCN ✧ Niger-Congo family, Platoid. Spoken by around 30,000 in Nigeria.
10 pen kur natat 2018Kalapuya: Kalapuya ✧ KYL ✧ Tiny language family once spoken in Western Oregon, extinct
10 Adshampak 2018Kalenjin (Nandi): Kalenjin (Nandi) ✧ KLN ✧ Nilo-Saharan family, spoken in east Africa’s Rift Valley
10 kipsunde nebo aeng 2018Kamba {Kenya}: Kamba {Kenya} ✧ KAM ✧ Niger-Congo, Bantu, spoken in Kenya and Tanzania. First recorded in audio in 1911. There are several languages called “Kamba,” so this should not be confused with Kamba {Congo}, Kamba {New Guinea}, and Kamba (Chiriguano Guaraní) {Bolivia}.
10 Mwai wa ĩkumi na ilĩ 2018Kanza (Kaw): Kanza (Kaw) ✧ KSK ✧ A language from the Siouan family spoken by the Kaw people of Kansas, nominally extinct. The last native speakers were Maud McCauley Rowe (d. 1978), Ralph Pepper (d. 1982), and Walter Kekahbah (d. 1983).
10 wasábe zhodabe 2018Kapingamarangi (Kirinit): Kapingamarangi (Kirinit) ✧ KPG ✧ Polynesian language with around 3000 speakers on the Kapingamarangi and Pohnpei Islands of Micronesia
10 madangaholu malua malama 2018Kaqchikel: Kaqchikel ✧ CAK ✧ Mayan family, 450,000 speakers in Guatemala’s Central Highlands. Kaqchikel intensifies adjectives by reduplication — in other words, repeating them twice.
10 rukab’laj ik 2018Karachay-Balkar: Karachay-Balkar ✧ KRC ✧ Turkic language spoken in the Kabardino-Balkaria region of the north Caucasus. Closely related to Kumyk (q.v.).
10 эндреуюк ай (endreuyuk ay) 2018Karakalpak: Karakalpak ✧ KAA ✧ Turkic, closely related to Kazakh (q.v.), ≅ 400,000 speakers in Uzbekistan
10 жедди (jeddi) 2018Karang: Karang ✧ KZR ✧ Niger-Congo, Bantu. Four dialects, 18,000 speakers in Camaroon.
10 few-vbą nzak karaŋ 2018Karelian [Standard]: Karelian [Standard] ✧ KRL ✧ Uralic, Finnic. Only non-Karelian spoilsports call it a Finnish dialect. 36,000 speakers.
10 talvekuu “Winter month” 2018Karelian [Livvi/Olonets]: Karelian [Livvi/Olonets] ✧ OLO ✧ About 30,000 speakers, mostly clustered northeast of Saint Petersburg, adjacent to the eastern shore of Lake Ladoga.
10 talvikuudu 2018Karen [S'gaw]: Karen [S'gaw] ✧ KAR ✧ Sino-Tibetan family, spoken by four million in Myanmar and Thailand. Five tones, uses a true alphabet derived from the Burmese script.
၁၀ (lah plu) ၂၀၁၈Karuk: Karuk ✧ KYH ✧ A language isolate native to northwestern California’s Siskiyou, Humboldt, and Del Norte counties. As of 2007 a dozen native speakers remained along with 30 or so who had acquired it, largely through the efforts of the Karuk Language Restoration Committee.
10 áxakhan 2018Kasena (Kasem): Kasena (Kasem) ✧ XSM ✧ Niger-Congo, Gur, 250,000 speakers in Ghana and Burkina Faso.
10 Bɩn-tiim cana 2018Kaska: Kaska ✧ KKZ ✧ Na-Dené, Athabaskan. Fewer than 300 native speakers in towns in the Northwest Territories, Yukon Territory, and Northern British Columbia. Tonal with contrastive vowel length and nazalization.
10 Gah Gōghadzi Sā “Rabbits chewing month” -or- Tēnīdzī Sā “Middle month” 2018Kayan [Baram]: Kayan [Baram] ✧ KCT ✧ A Malayo-Polynesian language spoken in central Borneo, in two dialects of weak interintelligibity: Baram and Rejang
10 bulan pulu dua’ 2018Kazakh: Kazakh ✧ KAZ ✧ Altaic, Turkic. Cyrillic alphabet. In 2017 Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev decreed that the language will switch completely to the Roman alphabet by 2025.
10 желтоқсан (želtoqsan) 2018Keresan: Keresan ✧ KEE/KJQ ✧ Language isolate group spoken in New Mexico. Some vowels are whispered. 10,000 speakers.
10 sina kuuku 2018Ket: Ket ✧ KET ✧ The only surviving language from the Yeniseian family and seriously endangered, with 150 speakers in Siberia’s Yenisei River valley
10 хъня холяӈ экӈ ӄип (χˤnja χoljaŋ ekŋ qip) 2018Khakas [Koybal]: Khakas [Koybal] ✧ KJH ✧ Turkic language spoken by 43,000 (most of whom are bilingual in Russian) in the Khakassia Republic, north of the Altai Mountains
10 al-ai 2018Khakas [Sagay]: Khakas [Sagay] ✧ KJH ✧ Another dialect of Khakas
10 ulugh xïrlas ayï 2018Khanty (Ostyak): Khanty (Ostyak) ✧ KCA ✧ Uralic language related to Mansi (q.v.) and Hungarian. 12,000 speakers in Russia’s Khanty–Mansi and Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrugs and in the Tomsk Oblast. Khanty’s major dialects differ significantly and are not mutually intelligible.
10 әнәл йӫркө тыӆәс(ĕnĕл yø̆rkŏ tyl̦ĕs) 2018Khanty (Ostyak) [Eastern]: Khanty (Ostyak) [Eastern] ✧ KCA ✧ Eastern Khanty terms collected 1956-1957
10 pa:späniki “Finger mitten month” 2018Kharia: Kharia ✧ KHR ✧ Austroasiatic family, Munda branch, about 300,000 speakers in mainland India, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and Nepal. Not closely related to any other Munda language.
10 pu.srel 2018Khasi: Khasi ✧ KHA ✧ Austroasiatic family, spoken by about one million in the Meghalaya state in India. Uses the Roman alphabet, deleting C, F, Q, V, X, and G (by itself) but adding Ng, Ï, and Ñ.
10 'nái-noh prah 2018Khmer (Cambodian): Khmer (Cambodian) ✧ KHM ✧ Austroasiatic family, Mon-Khmer branch, heavy Sanskrit influences. Oldest inscription dates from 611 ce.
(thnu) Khoekhoe (Nama): Khoekhoe (Nama) ✧ NAQ ✧ A language from the Khoe family spoken by ≅ 300,000 in Namibia, Botswana, and South Africa. It’s a tonal language with 20 clicks and 11 other non-click consonants.
10 hôasoreb 2018Khowar (Chitrali): Khowar (Chitrali) ✧ KHW ✧ Indo-European, Indo-Iranian, 450,000 speakers mostly in Pakistan. Five dialects.
10 thungshal 2018K’iche’ (Quiché): K’iche’ (Quiché) ✧ QUC ✧ Mayan family, spoken by 2.3 million in Guatemala, 13 percent of whom are monolingual. The famous Popol Vuh (Book of the people) was written in Classical K’iche’.
10 ukab’laj ik’ 2018Kiga (Rukiga): Kiga (Rukiga) ✧ CGG ✧ Niger-Congo, Central Bantu. Uganda and Rwanda. Prefixes indicate the class of a noun, e.g.: nu- indicates person; ki-, customs; ru-, languages (hence Kiga => Rukiga).
10 Okwaikumi na ibiri 2018Kiliwa: Kiliwa ✧ KLB ✧ Yuman language, 50 speakers, northern Baja California. Word for Pacific Ocean is Kuñím.
10 ja’la’ kekuapet 2018Kiribati (Gilbertese): Kiribati (Gilbertese) ✧ GIL ✧ Malayo-Polynesian, 120,000 speakers. Name pronounced KEER-i-bass, as natively this language has no S and so uses the digraph TI to indicate that sound from foreign loans. Interestingly this includes the name they use for their own land, a local rendering of “Gilberts” after an early European explorer.
10 Ritemb’a 2018Koasati (Coushatta): Koasati (Coushatta) ✧ CKU ✧ A Muskogean language, tonal, spoken by 200 Coushatta people who live just north of Elton, LA and near Livingston, TX. Akin to Alabama (q.v.) though the two aren’t mutually intelligible.
10 tisímba -or- hasí pokkó:l awáh tóklon 2018Kơho: Kơho ✧ KPM ✧ Austroasiatic, Bahnaric, spoken in twelve dialects by 200,000 in Vietnam’s Lâm Đồng Province. Vowel length is contrastive; prefix tön- makes a passive verb active.
10 kəənhaj ɟəət baːr 2018Kokborok (Tripuri): Kokborok (Tripuri) ✧ TRP ✧ Sino-Tibetan language of India and Bangladesh. Uses high and low tones.
10 bisini paithak talni mung 2018Komi (Ziryan): Komi (Ziryan) ✧ KOM ✧ Uralic, Permic. Spoken by 220,000 in Russia’s Komi Republic. Many would follow, but this was the first language to derive its own alphabet from the Cyrillic.
10 ӧшым (öšim) 2018Kom: Kom ✧ BKM ✧ Niger-Congo, Bantu. Tri-tonal, 127,000 speakers in northwest Camaroon
10 njoñ mÏìsingeè 2018Kongo: Kongo ✧ KON ✧ Bantu language spoken in Angola and both Congos. The words zombie and goober, and possibly funky, are Kongo loans.
10 sánza ya zómi na míbalé 2018Konso: Konso ✧ KXC ✧ Afro-Asiatic, Cushitic, spoken by 240,000 South of Lake Chamo in Ethiopia. Serves as a lingua franca in the area.
10 poorinka 2018Korku: Korku ✧ KFQ ✧ Austroasiatic, Munda. 727,133 speakers in rural central and eastern India. UNESCO considers Korku “vulnerable to extinction” as it’s being rapidly displaced by Hindi.
10 agan 2018Kosraean (Kusaiean): Kosraean (Kusaiean) ✧ KOS ✧ Malayo-Polynesian, Micronesian, spoken by 8000 on Kosrae of the Caroline Islands (where it’s the official language) and Nauru. Possessive pronouns (my, your, etc.) vary according to the subject being referenced.
10 tisacmpuh 2018Kposo (Ikposo): Kposo (Ikposo) ✧ KPO ✧ Niger-Congo, Kwa, 160,000 speakers in Togo and Ghana. Consonant blends KP and GB frequently occur, along with ɣL.
10 ɛyɛbuele 2018Ksingmul: Ksingmul ✧ PUO ✧ Austroasiatic, Mon-Khmer, spoken by 27,000 ethnic Ksingmul (Xinh Mul in Vietnamese) in Vietnam and Laos.
10 bluən sip sɔːŋ 2018Kumeyaay (Central Diegueño): Kumeyaay (Central Diegueño) ✧ DIH ✧ Yuman family, spoken by ≅ 400 in Southern California and the Baja
10 halapisu 2018Kumyk: Kumyk ✧ KUM ✧ Turkic language spoken by ≅ 400,000 in Dagestan. Influenced by northeast Caucasian languages (Avar, Dargwa, Chechen) as well as Ossetian and Russian. Not to be confused with Cuman, which is extinct.
10 тунлу (tunlu) 2018Kuna (Cuna or Guna): Kuna (Cuna or Guna) ✧ CUK ✧ Chibchan family, spoken by 60,000 Kuna people of Panama’s San Blas Islands and the Northern coast of Colombia, who launched a successful rebellion in 1925 and won partial autonomy.
10 bardudnii “Bardud [an antipyretic plant] month” 2018Kurdish [Kurmanji/North]: Kurdish [Kurmanji/North] ✧ KMR ✧ Indo-European family, Indo-Iranian. The dialect of 75% of Kurdish speakers.
10 çileya pêşîn 2018Kurdish [Kurmanji/North/Ezdiki]: Kurdish [Kurmanji/North/Ezdiki] ✧ KMR ✧ The Yezidi people speak Kurmanji Kurdish; to distinguish themselves they call their own language Ezdiki. These are the Yezidis' preferred Gregorian month names.
10 k’anûna pêşin 2018Kurdish [Sorani/South]: Kurdish [Sorani/South] ✧ CKB ✧ The Kurdish dialect second in number of speakers to Kurmanji
10 kânûn i yekam 2018Kutenai (Ktunaxa): Kutenai (Ktunaxa) ✧ KUT ✧ Language isolate spoken by 100 (British Columbia, Montana, and Idaho). No distinction between voiced versus unvoiced consonants, word order is flexible.
10 k’usmukusaǂ ¢xamaǂiǂ 2018Kven: Kven ✧ FKV ✧ A seriously endangered Finnic language spoken by a few thousand mostly in the communities of Storfjord and Porsanger in Northern Norway. Kven and Finnish are mutually intelligible.
10 desemperikuu 2018Kwak'wala: Kwak'wala ✧ KWK ✧ A language from the Wakashan family with around 500 speakers, native to the Queen Charlotte Strait off the northeastern tip of Vancouver Island. Uncommonly wide consonant inventory, including ejectives.
10 ło'ya̱nx̱ 2018Kwangali: Kwangali ✧ KWN ✧ Niger-Congo family, Bantu, spoken by 84,000 in the Okavango River area of Namibia and Angola. Unusually for a Bantu language it uses clicks, presumably borrowed from its Khoisan neighbors.
10 Sindimba 2018Kwasio: Kwasio ✧ NMG ✧ Niger-Congo family, Bantu Zone A, Mvumboic, spoken by 26,000 in the coastal area north and south of the Cameroon/Equatorial Guinea border. Tonal.
10 krísimin 2018Kyrgyz: Kyrgyz ✧ KIR ✧ Altaic family, Turkic. Spoken by 4 million in Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, China.
10 beştin ayı 2018Lach: Lach ✧ ??? ✧ Either a dialect of Czech, Polish, or Silesian — depending on whom you believe. Óndra Łysohorsky (1905-1989), arguably the most celebrated Lach poet who resolutely refused to compose in either Polish or Czech, almost singlehandedly set the standard for literary Lach.
10 grudźéń 2018Ladakhi (Bhoti): Ladakhi (Bhoti) ✧ LBJ ✧ A Sino-Tibetan language spoken by around 130,000 in India, Nepal, China, and Pakistan. Ladakhi and Tibetan are closely related but not mutually intelligible.
10 dawa chu nis pa 2018Ladin [Badiotto]: Ladin [Badiotto] ✧ LLD ✧ Ladin is a Romance language related to Romansh (q.v.). This particular dialect is spoken by a few in the South Tyrol.
10 dezëmber 2018Ladin [Cadorean]: Ladin [Cadorean] ✧ LLD ✧ Ladin dialect of a handful of speakers in Cadore in the Italian province of Belluno bordering on Austria
10 dezembre 2018Ladin [Fassa Valley]: Ladin [Fassa Valley] ✧ LLD ✧ Another Ladin dialect, 600 speakers in Trentino in the Italian Alpines
10 dezẹmber 2018Ladin [Gardenese]: Ladin [Gardenese] ✧ LLD ✧ Ladin dialect, 8000 speakers in the Dolomites of South Tyrol in Northern Italy
10 dezëmber 2018Ladin [Nones]: Ladin [Nones] ✧ LLD ✧ Ladin dialect, 30,000 speakers in the Non Valley of Northern Italy. Whether Nones should be considered a dialect of Ladin or simply another Gallo-Italic/Romance language on its own is still open to debate.
10 dizèmber 2018Ladino (Judaeo-Spanish or Judezmo): Ladino (Judaeo-Spanish or Judezmo) ✧ LAD ✧ Medieval Spanish substrate + Hebrew, Arabic, Turkish loans. Spoken by Sephardic Jews worldwide. Ladino has traditionally used the 15th century Hebrew script called Rashi, shown here.
10 (desiembre) 2018Lahu: Lahu ✧ LHU ✧ Sino-Tibetan family, spoken in China, Thailand, Myanmar, and Laos
10 dìyêbà 2018Lakota: Lakota ✧ LKT ✧ Siouan-Catawban family, spoken by ≅ 6000 in the US Dakotas. Heard in the 1990 movie Dances with Wolves.
10 Wanicokan Wi “Moon of mid winter” 2018Lak: Lak ✧ LBE ✧ Northeast Caucasian, ≅ 160,000 speakers in Southern Dagestan. Heavy influences from Russian, Turkish, Arabic, and Persian.
10 ацIния кIилчинмур барз (аtşniya ķilčinmur barz) 2018Lao: Lao ✧ LAO ✧ Kra–Dai family, 6 tones. Many Indo-European loans via Pali/Sanskrit.
deuan tunva Latgalian: Latgalian ✧ LTG ✧ Baltic, 150,000 speakers. Related to Latvian, Samogitian, and Lithuanian (q.v.).
10 zīmys mieness 2018Laz (Lazuri): Laz (Lazuri) ✧ LZZ ✧ A Kartvelian language spoken in five major dialects by ≅ 22,000 on the southeast shore of the Black Sea. Many Greek and Turkic loans; all Laz nouns end with a vowel.
10 xrist’ana 2018Lenape (Delaware): Lenape (Delaware) ✧ DEL ✧ Algonquian, native to the lower Delaware and Hudson Rivers and northern New Jersey in the US. Many Dutch loans from early contact. As of this writing only two speakers remain.
10 Mechakhokque “Cold makes trees crack” 2018Leonese: Leonese ✧ ??? ✧ Endangered Romance language undergoing a revival in northwestern Spain. Oldest writings date from ca. 959-974 ce.
10 diciembre 2018Lepcha: Lepcha ✧ LEP ✧ Sino-Tibetan family, non-tonal, unique script. West Bengal, Nepal, Bhutan.
(maar lavo) Lezgian: Lezgian ✧ LEZ ✧ Northeast Caucasian, uses 54 consonant sounds, numerals 20 to 99 are expressed vigesimally (by 20s). Official in Dagestan, 665,000 speakers.
10 фандукӀ (fanduḳ) 2018Lezgian [Premodern]: Lezgian [Premodern] ✧ LEZ ✧ Conjectured Lezgian terminology of yore
10 авал (aval) -or- фундукI (funduḳ) 2018Lhao Vo (Langsu or Maru): Lhao Vo (Langsu or Maru) ✧ MHX ✧ Sino-Tibetan, Lolo-Burmese, 100,000 speakers in Luxi City, and Lianghe and Longchuan Counties in China; and eastern Kachin State in Myanmar.
10 lɔ̱⁵⁵ tă³¹ tshɛ³¹ ʃi̱k⁵⁵ khjɛʔ⁵⁵ 2018Ligurian [Genoese]: Ligurian [Genoese] ✧ LIJ ✧ Indo-European, Romance, Northern Italy. Endangered. Not to be confused with ancient Ligurian, an extinct Celtic language.
10 dexembre 2018Ligurian [Monégasque]: Ligurian [Monégasque] ✧ LIJ ✧ Ligurian dialect spoken by 5600 in Monaco including Princess Stephanie. Employs the non-Italian ü, œ, and ç.
10 deçembre 2018Limburgish: Limburgish ✧ LIM ✧ Germanic language, Limburg & Rhineland areas. Quite unusually, it’s tonal.
10 December 2018Lingala: Lingala ✧ LIN ✧ Niger-Congo, Bantu, tonal. Spoken in both Congos.
10 sánzá ya zómí na míbalé 2018Lingarak (Neverver): Lingarak (Neverver) ✧ LGK ✧ Malayo-Polynesian, Malekula subgroup, spoken by 500 central Malekula Island natives in Vanuatu. It’s under serious threat from Bislama (q.v.), English, and French.
10 nilavlavarikh 2018Lisu [Northern/Standard]: Lisu [Northern/Standard] ✧ LIS ✧ Sino-Tibetan, related to Lahu (q.v.). There are 940,000 speakers of all dialects of Lisu inclusive in China, India, Myanmar, and Thailand. The Northern dialect is held as the Standard.
10 cinithan 2018Lisu [Southern]: Lisu [Southern] ✧ LIS ✧ Another Lisu dialect. Uses unusual Fraser alphabet from 1915 in which dots, commas, apostrophes, and bars serve to indicate tones. For Roman transcription tones are indicated by superscript numbers, as shown here.
10 (tshi33 aɯ55 ha21) 2018Lithuanian: Lithuanian ✧ LIT ✧ Baltic, 3 million speakers. Unusually, its alphabet places Y after Į.
10 gruodis “Frozen earth/soil” 2018Livonian: Livonian ✧ LIV ✧ Uralic, akin to Finnish and Estonian (q.v.). No native, fluent speakers remain but increasing numbers are acquiring it as a second language and it’s now taught at universities in Estonia, Latvia, and Finland.
10 tólakú “Winter month” 2018Lombard [Eastern]: Lombard [Eastern] ✧ LMO ✧ Romance, spoken in Northern Italy around Bergamo, Brescia, Mantua, Crema, and Trentino. Lombard and its dialects are not mutually intelligible with Italian.
10 dicember 2018Lombard [Eastern Bergamasque]: Lombard [Eastern Bergamasque] ✧ LMO ✧ A subdivision of Eastern Lombard spoken by 700,000
10 desèmber 2018Lombard [Mantuan]: Lombard [Mantuan] ✧ LMO ✧ Lombard dialect spoken in the city and commune of Mantua in Lombardy
10 dsènbar 2018Lombard [Western] (Insubric): Lombard [Western] (Insubric) ✧ LMO ✧ The Lombard spoken in Southern Switzerland and Northern Italy around Milan
10 desember 2018Louisiana Creole: Louisiana Creole ✧ LOU ✧ French-derived, African + other elements. Unlike French, verbs don’t conjugate.
10 désemb 2018Lower Tanana: Lower Tanana ✧ TAA ✧ Endangered Athabaskan language with a dozen or so speakers. Minto, Alaska.
10 tatr’entht’on 2018Lozi: Lozi ✧ LOZ ✧ Niger-Congo family, Bantu, spoken in Zambia, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Botswana, and South Africa. It arose as a hybrid of two other Bantu languages, Luyana and Kololo.
10 Ng'ule -or- Ñulule 2018Luba-Katanga: Luba-Katanga ✧ LUB ✧ Niger-Congo family/Bantu, spoken in the Katanga Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
10 Ciswà 2018Ludic: Ludic ✧ LUD ✧ Uralic, Finnic, critically endangered. 3000 speakers near the northeastern shore of Lake Onega, Republic of Karelia, Russia. Described as a transitional language between Veps and the Livvi/Olonets dialect of Karelian (both q.v.).
10 tal’vkuu 2018Lugbara: Lugbara ✧ LGG ✧ Nilo-Saharan family, Uganda (west Nile region) and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. First written in 1918, uses Roman alphabet except for Q and X.
10 Anyu fi kuma 2018Luo: Luo ✧ LUO ✧ Nilo-Saharan family, Kenya and Tanzania. Barak Obama Sr. was Luo.
10 Dwe mar apar gi ariyo 2018Luxembourgish [Traditional]: Luxembourgish [Traditional] ✧ LTZ ✧ Indo-European, Germanic, French influences. Its CH is pronounced like English SH. “Moselle Franconian” is an umbrella term for Luxembourgish and its related West Germanic dialects.
10 Chrëschtmount 2018Maa [Maasai]: Maa [Maasai] ✧ MAS ✧ Nilo-Saharan family, spoken in Kenya & Tanzania by 1.3 million. Maasai is highly tonal and features implosives, an example of which is the way English speakers imitate those cartoonish “glug-glug” sounds.
10 ntúŋús 2018Maa [Samburu]: Maa [Samburu] ✧ SAQ ✧ Maa dialect of the Northern Kenya highlands, 240,000 speakers
10 Lapa le tomon waare 2018Macassarese [Traditional, before 1605]: Macassarese [Traditional, before 1605] ✧ MAK ✧ Austronesian, Malayo-Polynesian language spoken by 2.1 million, native to the South Sulawesi province of Indonesia. Terminology shown is that of the Pre-Islamic Kindgom of Goa.
X bulang Mangalompai MMXVIIIMacedonian [Archaic/Folk]: Macedonian [Archaic/Folk] ✧ MKD ✧ Indo-European, South Slavic. Lacks the noun case system characteristic of most other Slavic languages. Not to be confused with Macedonian Greek, an unrelated Hellenic language spoken during the first millennium bce.
10 снежник (snežnik) “Snowy” 2018Maguindanao [Pre-Spanish Conquest]: Maguindanao [Pre-Spanish Conquest] ✧ MDH ✧ A Malayo-Polynesian language spoken by 1.1 million descendents of the Sultanate of Maguindanao on southwest Mindanao in the Philippines
10 kaway 2018Makasae: Makasae ✧ MKZ ✧ Trans-New Guinea family, West Bomberai, spoken by 102,000 on the eastern end of East Timor. Though rarely used, this is their Gregorian month terminology.
10 ata-uru “Fire moon” 2018Makhuwa-Meetto: Makhuwa-Meetto ✧ MGH ✧ Niger-Congo, Bantu, spoken by 6.6 million Makua in Malawi, Mozambique, and Tanzania. It uses relatively few vowels but its consonant inventory is rich and includes both English th sounds (IPA θ and ð), a ph (IPA pʰ), as well as the sounds č (cherry) and š (shine).
10 Mweri wo kumi na yel’li 2018Malagasy: Malagasy ✧ MLG ✧ Spoken in Madagascar but non-African (Malayo-Polynesian, from Borneo). For all dialects inclusive there are 25 million speakers.
10 Desambra 2018Malagasy [Antankaraña]: Malagasy [Antankaraña] ✧ XMV ✧ Dialect spoken by ethnic Antankaraña in Northern Madagascar
10 Fampandro 2018Malagasy [Sakalava]: Malagasy [Sakalava] ✧ SKG ✧ Dialect spoken by ethnic Sakalava in Northern Madagascar
10 Asotry 2018Malagasy [Tandroy-Mahafaly]: Malagasy [Tandroy-Mahafaly] ✧ TDX ✧ Dialect spoken by ethnic Mahafaly in southwestern Madagascar
10 Desambra 2018Malecite-Passamaquoddy: Malecite-Passamaquoddy ✧ PQM ✧ Algonquian family, spoken in New Brunswick & Maine, endangered
10 kci-kisuhs 2018Maltese: Maltese ✧ MLT ✧ Unique Arabic/Sicilian hybrid, 370,000 speakers on Malta. Its cadence and inflection reminds many non-natives of Italian.
10 Diċembru 2018Manchu: Manchu ✧ MNC ✧ Tungusic language spoken natively by fewer than 20 in northeast China, but also by several thousand as a second language due to recent revival efforts
(žorgon biya) Mandinka: Mandinka ✧ MNK ✧ Niger-Congo family, Mande branch, Manding group. Bitonal.
10 diisemba karoo 2018Mandinka [Traditional]: Mandinka [Traditional] ✧ MNK ✧ Niger-Congo family, Mande branch, Manding group. Bitonal.
10 banna 2018Mangarevan: Mangarevan ✧ MRV ✧ Malayo-Polynesian, spoken by 600 in French Polynesia’s Mangareva and Gambier Islands. Though many speakers are bilingual with French, Mangarevan itself borrows little from unrelated languages.
10 koune 2018Mang: Mang ✧ ZNG ✧ Austroasiatic family, 3200 speakers in Lai Châu Province, Vietnam and neighboring areas in China. The outside world only discovered this language in 1974.
10 meː⁶ hɔːn⁶ 2018Mankanya: Mankanya ✧ KNF ✧ Niger-Congo family, Bak branch, spoken natively by 75,000 in Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, and Senegal.
10 Pli pwajënţën pi kanjalën 2018Mansi: Mansi ✧ MNS ✧ Uralic, related to Hungarian, 3000 speakers in central Siberia. Word order is fixed.
10 ваи саграпнал этпос (wai sagrapnal etpos) 2018Manx: Manx ✧ GLV ✧ Celtic, Goidelic (related to Irish Gaelic), native to the Isle of Man. Its last native speaker was Ned Maddrell (1877-1974). The local folk band Briskee Brisht performs songs in both English and Manx.
10 Mee ny Nollick 2018Māori (te reo): Māori (te reo) ✧ MRI ✧ Malayo-Polynesian, closely related to Tahitian. Personal pronouns come in singular, dual, and plural. Vowel length is contrastive, the long version signaled with a macron.
10 Hakihea 2018Māori [Cook Islands] (Rarotongan): Māori [Cook Islands] (Rarotongan) ✧ MRI ✧ This is the Māori dialect official in the Cook Islands with ≅ 14,000 speakers there and another 8000 in New Zealand.
10 Tītema 2018Mapudungun (Mapuche): Mapudungun (Mapuche) ✧ ARN ✧ Language isolate spoken in Chile and Argentina, writing system under dispute
10 huevun-cújen 2018Mari [Meadow] (Cheremis): Mari [Meadow] (Cheremis) ✧ MHR ✧ Uralic language spoken in Russia’s Mari Replublic. Nine noun cases, 470,000 speakers. The other chief dialect is Hill Mari, which in contrast to Meadow sticks to Russian/Neo-Latin Gregorian terms.
10 теле (tele) 2018Marshallese: Marshallese ✧ MAH ✧ Malayo-Polynesian, two main dialects, spoken on the Marshall Islands.
10 Tijeṃba 2018Mashi (Kwandu): Mashi (Kwandu) ✧ MHO ✧ A Niger-Congo, Bantu language spoken by 22,000 in parts of Angola, DR Congo, and Zambia.
10 Nyaruzigwe 2018Matlatzinca: Matlatzinca ✧ MAT ✧ From the Oto-Manguean family, spoken by 650 in and around San Francisco Oxtotilpa, Mexico. Matlatzinca is seriously endangered, though with 61 other languages Mexico recognizes it as official.
10 rat՚ amusnobë 2018Maxakalí: Maxakalí ✧ MBL ✧ Language with its own family spoken by a few hundred in Minas Gerais, Brazil
10 neyem 2018Mbuko: Mbuko ✧ MHW ✧ Afro-Asiatic, Chadic. 13,000 speakers in Northern Camaroon. Not to be confused with Mbukushu (q.v.), from the Niger-Congo family.
10 kiya kértek 2018Mbukushu: Mbukushu ✧ MHW ✧ Niger-Congo family, a Bantu language that unlike most uses clicks, spoken by 50,000 along Namibia’s Okavango River and in Batswana, Angola, and Zambia. Not to be confused with Mbuko (q.v.), from the Afro-Asiatic family.
10 dikururonga 2018Mbula: Mbula ✧ MNA ✧ Malayo-Polynesian, spoken by 4500 in Morobe, Papua New Guinea. Many bilingual in Tok Pisin and/or English. Five first-person pronouns: singular (I); dual inclusive (you and I), dual exclusive (we two but not you); plural incl. (we including you), plural excl. (we but not you).
10 Ndaambula -or- Ndaama 2018Meitei (Manipuri): Meitei (Manipuri) ✧ MNI ✧ Sino-Tibetan. Spoken in India, Bangladesh, Burma and not to be confused with Bishnupriya Manipuri (which is Indo-European). Unique script.
(lamtaa) Mele (Atara Imere): Mele (Atara Imere) ✧ MXE ✧ Malayo-Polynesian, one of two interintelligible languages (the other is Fila) spoken natively by 3500 on Vanuatu’s Efate Island. Mele uses a sound that’s rare for a Polynesian language, IPA tɕ, which resembles the ch in cherry.
10 Tisempere 2018Menominee: Menominee ✧ MEZ ✧ Algonquian family, spoken in Northern Wisconsin, nearly extinct
10 Nīpātepaeh kēsoq “Night moon” 2018Meta': Meta' ✧ MGO ✧ This impossible-to-Google Niger-Congo, Bantu language is spoken by 190,000 in Cameroon. There is radio programming in Meta' and it’s used informally in schools there.
10 iməg krizmed 2018Meänkieli: Meänkieli ✧ FIT ✧ Endangered Finnish dialect group spoken in Sweden’s Norrbotten province
10 tesämperi 2018Miami-Illinois: Miami-Illinois ✧ MIA ✧ Algonquian, originally midwestern US. Extinct but under revival.
10 ayaapeensa kiilhswa 2018Michif: Michif ✧ CRG ✧ A French-Cree hybrid, < 1000 speakers. North Dakota, Saskatchewan, Manitoba. It borrows its Gregorian calendar terms from French.
10 disámbr 2018Micmac: Micmac ✧ MIC ✧ Eastern Algonquian family, ≅ 7000 speakers currently. At one time Micmac used a system of Egyptianesque hieroglyphics called Komqwejwi'kasikl.
10 Kesikewiku’s “Winter month” 2018Miju Mishmi (Kaman): Miju Mishmi (Kaman) ✧ MXJ ✧ Either Sino-Tibetan (?) or an isolate (?), spoken by 18,000 Miju Mishmi in India’s Arunachal Pradesh and Zayü County in Tibet. Features both voiced and unvoiced th sounds (IPA ð and θ). It has two tones, shown with acute and grave accent marks; plus level, shown with a macron.
10 lə̄kə̄̀p 2018Min Dong [Fuzhou]: Min Dong [Fuzhou] ✧ CDO ✧ Sino-Tibetan, unintelligible with Mandarin or Cantonese, untra-complex tonality
10 dâ̤ sĕk nê nguŏk 2018Mingrelian: Mingrelian ✧ XMF ✧ An endangered Kartvelian language related to Georgian and Laz (q.v.), with some mutual intelligibility with the latter. Georgian president Zviad Gamsakhurdia spoke Mingrelian.
ი ქირსეთუთა (kirsetuta) ციჱMirandese: Mirandese ✧ MWL ✧ Romance language, at least 1000 years removed from Portuguese.
10 dezembre 2018Miskito: Miskito ✧ MIQ ✧ From the small Misumalpan family, spoken by ≅ 150,000 in Honduras and Nicaragua. English loans are numerous in Miskito; Spanish, less so.
10 trisu kâti -or krismis kâti 2018Mixtec [Magdalena Peñasco]: Mixtec [Magdalena Peñasco] ✧ XTM ✧ Oto-Manguean family, Mixtecan branch, Mixtec subgroup. Magdalena Peñasco is known as “Language of the Rain People” and spoken by 9100 in the Mexican state of Oaxaca.
10 yoo diciembre 2018Mixtec [Tututepec]: Mixtec [Tututepec] ✧ MTU ✧ A Mixtec language spoken natively by 1200 in Santa María Acatepec, Santa Cruz Tututepec, San Pedro Tututepec and other towns in Oaxaca, Mexico. There are at least 30 Mixtec languages total, but Tututepec is highly divergent from most of the others.
10 yòò kaxiin -or- yòò sákee 2018Mizo (Lushai): Mizo (Lushai) ✧ LUS ✧ Sino-Tibetan language spoken in Myanmar, Bangladesh & India. Akin to Biete (q.v.).
10 pawtlak thla 2018Mohawk: Mohawk ✧ MOH ✧ Iroquoian family, 3500 speakers in Ontario, Quebec, and Northern New York State. Curiously, no labial (lip-produced) consonants.
10 Tsothóhrha 2018Moksha: Moksha ✧ MDF ✧ Uralic language, spoken along the central Volga. There are three main dialects, of which the central “ä” is the literary standard.
Λ dekabrjkov III/ΛMongolian: Mongolian ✧ MON ✧ Mongolic, a family whose members include Buryat and Oirat (q.v.). Observes vowel harmony and lacks the standard L sound.
арван хоёрдугаар сар (arvan ĥojordugaar sar) Montagnais Innu: Montagnais Innu ✧ MOE ✧ Algonquian language related to Cree (q.v.), spoken by 11,000 in Labrador and Quebec
10 pishimuss 2018Mossi (Mòoré): Mossi (Mòoré) ✧ MOS ✧ A Niger-Congo language spoken by 5 million, mostly in Burkina Faso
10 yuum-sare 2018Moxo [Trinitario]: Moxo [Trinitario] ✧ TRN ✧ Arawakan family, Southern, native to northeastern Bolivia. The Endangered Languages Project reports 3100 speakers.
10 risyemre 2018Mozarabic (Andalusi Romance): Mozarabic (Andalusi Romance) ✧ MXI ✧ A set of non-standardized, Late Latin-derived languages spoken in the Muslim-controlled areas of the Iberian Peninsula (Al Andalus) between approximately the eighth and sixteenth centuries. Three writing systems.
X דוהנבר دوهنبر dujánbar MMXVIIIMundang: Mundang ✧ MUA ✧ A Niger-Congo language spoken by 250,000 in Southern Chad
10 fĩi yuru 2018Muya: Muya ✧ MVM ✧ Sino-Tibetan family, Northern Qiangic; two chief dialects not mutually intelligible. There are 10,000 speakers, of which 2000 speak only Muya. China’s Sichuan Province, Kangbo and Jiulong, Ganzi Tibetan autonomous prefecture, Simian county, Ya’an district.
10 dε33wε55tɕu55ɳi55pε53 2018Mwotlap [Folk/Traditional]: Mwotlap [Folk/Traditional] ✧ MIV ✧ Malayo-Polynesian, Southern Oceanic, spoken natively by 2100 on Vanuatu'a Mota Lava, Ra, and Banks Islands. Uses four numbers for humans: singular, dual, trial, plural. Non-human subjects are inflected as singular.
10 n-in-wey 2018Myene (Omyene): Myene (Omyene) ✧ MYE ✧ Niger-Congo, Bantu, 45,000 speakers of the Mpongwe, Nkomi, Galwa, and Bongo Pygmy groups in Gabon.
10 fogwɛyesu 2018Nāhuatl: Nāhuatl ✧ NAH ✧ Uto-Aztecan, from the original language group of the Aztecs, presently 1.7 million speakers. Of its many dialects, Huasteca Nāhuatl is the most heavily spoken.
10 tlamactlihuanonti 2018Nafsan (South Efate): Nafsan (South Efate) ✧ ERK ✧ Malayo-Polynesian, native to Efate Island of Northeast Vanuatu with 6000 speakers. They count in base 5.
10 atlag karalim iskei atmat inru 2018Nakhi (Naxi): Nakhi (Naxi) ✧ NXQ ✧ Sino-Tibetan, spoken in Yunnan by 350,000, famous for its Dongba “picture” writing.
10 ddawa -or- sheeq'erlyui 2018Nàmá (Khoekhoe): Nàmá (Khoekhoe) ✧ HQM ✧ Khoisan family, 300,000 speakers. Consonants include 20 clicks. Formerly called Hottentot.
10 ǀga!kani -or- hôasoreǁkhâb 2018Nanai (Gold): Nanai (Gold) ✧ GLD ✧ Tungusic. 4000 speakers, decendents of Manchurian Jurchen
10 гуси биани 2018Naskapi: Naskapi ✧ NSK ✧ Algonquian family, spoken by 1,230 in Quebec and Labrador. Uses the Cree syllabic writing system.
10 ᒥᑯᓴᓐ ᐱᓯᒻ (mikusaan-piisim na) "Feast month” 2018Navajo (Diné bizaad): Navajo (Diné bizaad) ✧ NAV ✧ Athabaskan family, southwest US. Tonal, uses ejectives like the Caucasian languages.
10 Níłchʼitsoh 2018Nawdm: Nawdm ✧ NMZ ✧ A language from the Niger-Congo family, Gur branch, spoken by the Losso people in Togo and Ghana.
10 josɔɦb 2018Ndebele [Northern] (Zimbabwean Ndebele): Ndebele [Northern] (Zimbabwean Ndebele) ✧ NDE ✧ Niger-Congo, Southern Bantu, Nguni. Native to Zimbabwe and part of Botswana, spoken by descendants of Zulu leader Mzilikazi (1790-1868).
10 uMpalakazi 2018Ndebele [Southern] (Transvaal Ndebele): Ndebele [Southern] (Transvaal Ndebele) ✧ NBL ✧ Niger-Congo, Southern Bantu, Nguni. Spoken in South Africa’s provinces of Mpumalanga, Limpopo, Gauteng, and North West.
10 uNobayeni 2018Ndyuka (Aukan): Ndyuka (Aukan) ✧ DJK ✧ English-based creole spoken by the Maroon people of Suriname
10 twalufu mun 2018Neapolitan: Neapolitan ✧ NAP ✧ Romance language named not after the city but the Kingdom of Naples, spoken in central Italy. The term paparazzo from Frederico Fellini’s film La Doce Vita (1960) came from the Abruzzo dialect of Neapolitan spoken by one of his screenwriters.
10 dicēmbr 2018Neapolitan [Tarantine]: Neapolitan [Tarantine] ✧ NAP ✧ A dialect of Neapolitan with Messapic roots, spoken by 300,000 in and around the city of Taranto in the Italian heel area.
10 decèmmre 2018Nenets: Nenets ✧ YRK ✧ Uralic family, Samoyedic. It’s moribund and spoken by hardly anybody in extreme northwest Russia.
10 ngarka pevdey 2018Nez Perce: Nez Perce ✧ NEZ ✧ Plateau Penutian family, Idaho, < 200 speakers, revival underway
10 Ha’óqoy 2018Nganasan: Nganasan ✧ NIO ✧ Uralic family, Samoyedic. Extreme north central Russia, ≅ 1000 speakers.
10 dekabr 2018Ngiemboon: Ngiemboon ✧ NNH ✧ Niger-Congo family, Southern Bantoid, Grassfields. Spoken in Province de l'Ouest and Bamboutos in Cameroon by 250,000.
10 saŋ lùm 2018Ngomba: Ngomba ✧ JGO ✧ A Niger-Congo family, Southern Bantoid, Grassfields language like Ngiemboon above. Spoken in Province de l'Ouest and Bamboutos in Cameroon by 63,000.
10 pɛsaŋ ntsɔ̌ppá 2018Nheengatu: Nheengatu ✧ YRL ✧ Tupi-Guaraní family, spoken by 19,000 in Brazil, Colombia, and Venezuela. The name means “good tongue.”
10 îasypakõîa 2018Nisga’a: Nisga’a ✧ NCG ✧ Tsimshianic family, seriously endangered, British Columbia (Canada)
10 Luut’aa 2018Niuean: Niuean ✧ NIU ✧ Malayo-Polynesian language spoken in Niue. Unlike Hawaiian it uses no glottal stop.
10 Tesemo 2018Nivkh (Gilyak): Nivkh (Gilyak) ✧ NIV ✧ Language isolate spoken on western Sakhalin Island and adjacent mainland by around 1000. Nivkh is genderless and doesn’t have adjectives. It uses a modified Cyrillic alphabet with 46 letters.
10 an’ long 2018Nkore: Nkore ✧ NYN ✧ Niger-Congo, Bantu. Spoken by 2.3 million in southwestern Uganda.
10 museeneene 2018Nogai: Nogai ✧ NOG ✧ Turkic, spoken in southwestern Russia (Tuva area) by Golden Horde descendents
10 караgыс ай (karagys ay) 2018Norman: Norman ✧ NRF ✧ Romance, Langue d’oïl with a substantial Norse element, spoken by ≅ 100,000 in Normandy. The Channel Island languages Guernésiais, Jèrriais, and Sercquiais (q.v.) descended from medieval Norman.
10 décembe 2018Norn (Nynorn) [Shetland]: Norn (Nynorn) [Shetland] ✧ NRN ✧ North Germanic, extinct since ca. 1850 with the death of Walter Sutherland. Orkneys and Shetland Islands off the north coast of Scotland. Currently being revived as “Nynorn.”
10 Desember 2018Northern Paiute (Numu) [Bridgeport]: Northern Paiute (Numu) [Bridgeport] ✧ PAO ✧ Uto-Aztecan family, Numic, 700 native speakers reported (2007) in Idaho, California, Nevada, and Oregon. Shown is the Bridgeport dialect, spoken by the Pogi Dukadu (“rye grass seed eaters” of Bridgeport, California.
10 2018Nuer: Nuer ✧ NUS ✧ Nilo-Saharan. South Sudan, Ethiopia. Breathy vs. non-breathy vowels. Related to Reel (q.v.).
10 Tio̱p in dii̱t 2018Nukuoro: Nukuoro ✧ NKR ✧ Malayo-Polynesian, ≅ 860 speakers on Nukuoro Atoll and Pohnpei Island (Federated States of Micronesia). Five vowels, each of which can be long or short, and ten consonants total.
10 daholaa 2018Nusu (Nu) [Northern] (Wawa-Kongtong dialect): Nusu (Nu) [Northern] (Wawa-Kongtong dialect) ✧ NUF ✧ Sino-Tibetan, Lolo-Burmese, preliterate, 2,000 speakers in China’s Fugong, Wawa, Kongtong, and Youduoluo Counties. Not to be confused with Nuosu/Yi (q.v.).
10 thi⁵⁵ tshe³¹ nɛ̱³¹ ɬa⁵⁵ 2018Nuuchahnulth (Nootka) [Hesquiaht]: Nuuchahnulth (Nootka) [Hesquiaht] ✧ NUK ✧ Of the Southern Wakashan family, Nuuchahnulth as a whole is spoken natively by 130 on Vancouver Island’s west coast. There were at least 15 dialects; this one survives through the efforts of The Hesquiaht Language Program.
10 t̓iʕasumł 2018Nyole [Ugandan]: Nyole [Ugandan] ✧ NUJ ✧ Niger-Congo family, Bantu, 340,000 speakers in the Tororo District of Uganda. It shares ≅ 60% of its vocabulary with Kenyan Nyole.
10 Namboŋa 2018Occitan [Aranese]: Occitan [Aranese] ✧ OCI ✧ Indo-European, Romance, Langue d'òc. Spoken in northeastern Spain’s Aran Valley.
10 deseme 2018Occitan [Gascon]: Occitan [Gascon] ✧ OCI ✧ Indo-European, Romance, Langue d'òc. Spoken in Gascony in Southern France.
10 deseme 2018Occitan [Provençal]: Occitan [Provençal] ✧ OCI ✧ Indo-European, Romance, closely related to Catalan (q.v.). A Langue d'òc spoken in Southern France.
10 desèmbre 2018Occitan [Vivaro-Alpine]: Occitan [Vivaro-Alpine] ✧ OCI ✧ Seriously endangered Occitan dialect spoken in SE France and NW Italy.
10 decembre 2018Oirat [Kalmyk]: Oirat [Kalmyk] ✧ XAL ✧ Mongolic, grammatically genderless, earliest written samples dating from the 11th century. The Ewok speech in Return of the Jedi was inspired by the distinctive sound of Oirat.
10 bar 2018Ojibwe (Chippewa) [Eastern]: Ojibwe (Chippewa) [Eastern] ✧ OJG ✧ Algonquian family, 100,000 speakers (all dialects inclusive) in north-central US and Canada. Ojibwe tends to avoid borrowing terms from other languages.
10 Manidoo Giizisoons “Little Spirit Moon” 2018Ojibwe (Chippewa) [Western]: Ojibwe (Chippewa) [Western] ✧ OJW ✧ The other major dialect division of Ojibwe
10 Manidoo Giizisoons “Little Spirit Moon” 2018Oneida: Oneida ✧ ONE ✧ Iroquoian family, ≅ 250 native speakers in Ontario, New York State, and an area around Green Bay, Wisconsin. Consonant inventory is relatively small: K, L, N, S, T, H, W, Y and a glottal stop signaled by an apostrophe.
10 Wahsu:tés “It's a long night.” 2018Onondaga: Onondaga ✧ ONO ✧ Iroquoian family, ≅ 50 speakers in Ontario and New York State
10 dziotorô ha 2018Oroch: Oroch ✧ OAC ✧ Northern Tongusic language, eight (as of 2010) native speakers in Khabarovsk Krai in eastern Siberia and thus critically endangered, three dialects. Not to be confused with the Southern Tungusic language called Orok.
10 беэ мия (bjey mir) 2018Oromo: Oromo ✧ ORM ✧ Afro-Asiatic, Cushitic. Non-Roman scripts once banned.
10 muddee 2018Ös (Chulym): Ös (Chulym) ✧ CLW ✧ Western Turkic language. Moribund, spoken by a few dozen in southwestern Siberia north of the Altay Mountains. Soviet-era school children were punished when caught speaking Ös.
10 ulu ai 2018Osage: Osage ✧ OSA ✧ This Oklahoma-based Siouan language went natively extinct in 2005 with the death of its last speaker, Lucille Roubedeaux. Like European languages such as Polish, Lithuanian, and Dalecarlian (q.v.), Osage features nasalized vowels.
10 mį́įǫpa álįį ðǫǫpá -or- mį́įǫpa wahkǫ́ta ižį́ke iitáe ékitxą 2018Ossetian [Digor]: Ossetian [Digor] ✧ OSS ✧ Indo-European, Indo-Iranian, spoken mainly by Muslim Ossetians, about 100,000, in the Caucasus.
10 tsæpporse 2018Ossetian [Iron]: Ossetian [Iron] ✧ OSS ✧ Indo-European, Indo-Iranian, spoken mainly by Christian Ossetians in the Caucasus. Pronounced EE-ron, this is the more popular of the two dialects.
10 цыппурсы мæй (tsippursi mæy) 2018Ozolotepec: Ozolotepec ✧ ZAO ✧ Oto-Manguean family, Zapotecan group, spoken by 6500 in Oaxaca, Mexico. Zapotecan languages are tonal.
10 disiembr 2018O’odham (Papago-Pima): O’odham (Papago-Pima) ✧ OOD ✧ From the Uto-Aztecan family, spoken by some 10,000 in south-central Arizona and Northern Sonora. No L sound; word order is extremely fluid.
10 Ge’e S-he:pijig Maṣad “Big Cold Month” 2018Palauan: Palauan ✧ PAU ✧ Austronesian family, ≅ 15,000 speakers. Palau, Guam, Mariana Islands.
10 Ongetruich me a ongeru el buil 2018Palor (Sili): Palor (Sili) ✧ FAP ✧ Niger-Congo family, 9,700 speakers in the Thies area of Senegal
10 deesàmbar 2018Pame (Xi’iui): Pame (Xi’iui) ✧ PBS ✧ From the Oto-Manguean family, tonal, spoken by 11,000 in central Mexico’s state of San Luis Potosí. Pame speakers traditionally count in base 8 (octal), as they use their knuckles rather than their fingers.
10 ngum’au mung kanjé 2018Pashto [Eastern]: Pashto [Eastern] ✧ PUS ✧ Indo-European, Indo-Iranian, spoken in northeastern Pakistan
10 loy achtar 2018Pashto [Western]: Pashto [Western] ✧ PUS ✧ Pashto dialect spoken in western Afghanistan and Iran
10 loy achtar 2018Pawnee [Skiri]: Pawnee [Skiri] ✧ PAW ✧ Caddoan family, north-central Oklahoma, seriously endangered, fewer than a dozen elderly speakers. Along with Arikara (q.v.), we hear Pawnee spoken in the 2015 film The Revenant.
10 [December unknown] 2018Pawnee [South Band]: Pawnee [South Band] ✧ PAW ✧ With Skiri above, the other dialect of Pawnee
10 Kiíwakskucuʾ 2018Pecheneg: Pecheneg ✧ XPC ✧ A mysterious, poorly attested Turkic language with no known descendents, extinct by 1300
10 onikinci 2018Pemon (Arekuna): Pemon (Arekuna) ✧ AOC ✧ From the Cariban family, spoken by 30,000 in southeastern Venezuela, Brazil’s Roraima State, and Guyana. It was preliterate until the 20th century.
10 Pei chiworü kapüyi “Taricaya river turtles month” 2018Penan-Nibong: Penan-Nibong ✧ PEZ ✧ Malayo-Polynesian, North Sarawakan, spoken by 13,000 in Sarawak, Borneo. Two main dialects.
10 laseh jah polo' du'ah 2018Pennsylvania “Dutch” (Deitsch): Pennsylvania “Dutch” (Deitsch) ✧ PDC ✧ A Palatinate German spoken by the Amish, many of whom not named Yoder
10 Disember 2018Penrhyn (Tongarevan): Penrhyn (Tongarevan) ✧ PNH ✧ Seriously endangered Polynesian language spoken by around 200, Northern Cook Islands
10 tīsema 2018Picard (Ch’ti or “Patois”): Picard (Ch’ti or “Patois”) ✧ PCD ✧ Indo-European, Romance, Langue d’oïl. Extreme Northern France.
10 dècinb 2018Picard [Medieval]: Picard [Medieval] ✧ PCD ✧ As seen on the Astrolabe of Berselius (14th century)
X decēbre MMXVIIIPiedmontese: Piedmontese ✧ PMS ✧ Indo-European, Romance; 3 million speakers in Northern Italy. Curiously, Piedmontese lacks ordinal numbers exceeding “sixth” and instead resorts to phrases (“the one that makes seven,” etc.) to express ordinals beyond that.
10 dzèmber 2018Pingelapese: Pingelapese ✧ PIF ✧ Malayo-Polynesian language spoken by < 1000. Micronesia, Pingelap atoll. Like Batak above, each day in the month has its own name, shown here in angle quotes. Another quirk: 1 in 10 Pingelapese are so colorblind they see only in black and white.
10 《medel》 ikehwa 2018Pipil (Nawat): Pipil (Nawat) ✧ PPL ✧ Uto-Aztecan language under revival, El Salvador. There are now over 3000 speakers.
10 metzi majtakti ume 2018Piro [Yine]: Piro [Yine] ✧ PIB ✧ Arawakan family, spoken by the 4000 ethnic Yine who live in the Peruvian Urubamba River Valley and taught in their schools alongside Spanish.
10 tisyempre ksuru 2018Pitcairn-Norfolk: Pitcairn-Norfolk ✧ PIH ✧ An endangered Tahitian/English creole spoken on Pitcairn & Norfolk Islands
10 disemba 2018Plautdietsch (Low German): Plautdietsch (Low German) ✧ PDT ✧ North Sea Germanic, akin to Dutch. Spoken in Northern Germany, eastern areas of the Netherlands, and by Mennonites worldwide.
10 Dezamba -or- December 2018Pnar (Jaintia or Synteng): Pnar (Jaintia or Synteng) ✧ PBV ✧ Austroasiatic language, 320,000 speakers, Meghalaya, northeast India + adjacent areas in Bangladesh. Shares much in common with Khasi (q.v.) though the two are not mutually inteligible.
10 khmaj ʧɔŋlad 2018Pohnpeian: Pohnpeian ✧ PON ✧ Malayo-Polynesian, Micronesian, spoken by ≅ 34,000 on Pohnpei Island in the Caroline Islands. Pohnpeian offers 30 sets of 1-to-9 numerals used when referring to different classes of objects such as stalks, small round things, bundles, gusts of wind, and songs.
10 pohnwahu -or- tihsempe 2018Poitevin-Saintongeais: Poitevin-Saintongeais ✧ ??? ✧ Indo-European, Romance, Langue d’oïl. Earliest known writings from 1400s.
10 décenbre 2018Pökut: Pökut ✧ KLN ✧ Nilo-Saharan family, Kalenjin. 264,000 speakers in Kenya, Uganda.
10 Kwoghe 2018Polabian: Polabian ✧ POX ✧ West Slavic with Germanic influences. Last native speaker died in 1756. The protagonists in the Russian opera-ballet Mlada describe themselves as Polabians.
10 trubnë môn -or- trübnemon 2018Pomeranian [Kashubian]: Pomeranian [Kashubian] ✧ CSB ✧ Indo-European, West Slavic. Some 100,000 speakers living mostly in Germany & Poland.
10 gòdnik 2018Pomeranian [Slovincian]: Pomeranian [Slovincian] ✧ CSB ✧ The other major dialect of Pomeranian, though unfortunately extinct since World War I
10 decèmbĕr 2018Pontic: Pontic ✧ PNT ✧ Indo-European, Hellenic. Spoken actively by 200,000 in Northern Greece, Turkey, and diaspora communities worldwide. Many consider Pontic a Greek dialect, but orally the two are not mutually intelligible.
10 Χριστουγενάρ’τς (Christougenarts) 2018Potawatomi: Potawatomi ✧ POT ✧ Algonquian language of the Great Lakes Area (Michigan, Wisconsin, Southern Ontario). One of its last native speakers, Cecilia Miksekwe Jackson (d. 2011), worked to document and teach Potawatomi. Revival efforts are currently underway.
10 gche-mnedo-gizes “Great spirit month” 2018Proto-Germanic: Proto-Germanic ✧ ??? ✧ Reconstructed ancestor of all Germanic languages, last spoken ca. 250 bce
X Hailagamenoþ MMXVIIIProto-Slavic: Proto-Slavic ✧ ??? ✧ Reconstructed ancestor of all Slavic languages, 5th to 8th centuries ce
X grudn MMXVIIIPukapukan: Pukapukan ✧ PKP ✧ Malayo-Polynesian language from Danger Island (Cook Islands group). Over 4000 speakers.
10 Tītema 2018Pumi [Qingua or Southern]: Pumi [Qingua or Southern] ✧ PMJ ✧ Sino-Tibetan, Qiangic. Spoken by highland ethnic Pumi in Yunnan.
10 uɑ13dʒɛ̃55iɛ̃13 2018Pumi [Taoba or Northern]: Pumi [Taoba or Northern] ✧ PMI ✧ The other chief dialect of Pumi. The two are not mutually intelligible.
10 khǝu13ɕi55ɬe53 2018Purépecha (Tarascan): Purépecha (Tarascan) ✧ TSZ ✧ A language isolate of the descendents of the Purépecha civilization, which rivaled that of the Aztecs up until the European conquest. Still spoken natively by 125,000 in the southwestern Mexican state of Michoacán.
10 disïembri 2018Puroik (Sulung): Puroik (Sulung) ✧ SUV ✧ So far unclassified. Spoken by 20,000 in seven (or so) dialects by the Puroik people of India’s Arunachal Pradesh. Genderless, seven noun cases.
10 tɕa³³ me³³ aŋ³³ bo³³ 2018Q’eqchi’ (Kekchi): Q’eqchi’ (Kekchi) ✧ KEK ✧ Mayan family, half a million speakers in Guatemala and Belize. Q’eqchi’ uses ejectives and accents virtually all its words on the last syllable.
10 tisyemr -or- xkab’lajuhil po 2018Qiang [Horpa/Ergong]: Qiang [Horpa/Ergong] ✧ ERO ✧ Sino-Tibetan family, Qiangic, non-tonal, 50,000 Sichuan-area speakers. Linguists consider it a “living fossil.”
10 vtɕɔ ɳi pa 2018Qiang [Máwō]: Qiang [Máwō] ✧ CNG ✧ Sino-Tibetan, Qiangic, non-tonal, 130,000 speakers in China’s Sichuan
10 ha nəʂ 2018Qiang [Taoping]: Qiang [Taoping] ✧ QXS ✧ Sino-Tibetan, Qiangic, but tonal (unlike Ergong and Máwō above), 80,000 speakers
10 χɑ31ɳi33ʂı33 2018Quechua [Standard]: Quechua [Standard] ✧ QUE ✧ Quechuan family, spoken by Inca Empire descendents. Natively it lacks the vowels E and O.
10 ñiqin qhapaq raymi killapi 2018Quechua [Huallaga]: Quechua [Huallaga] ✧ QUE ✧ Quechua dialect spoken in the Huánuco Province in Peru
10 disimri 2018Quechua [Northern/Ecuadorian]: Quechua [Northern/Ecuadorian] ✧ QUE ✧ Quechua dialect, called Kitchwa, spoken in Ecuador, Colombia, and Peru
10 kapak 2018Quechua [Southern/Cusco]: Quechua [Southern/Cusco] ✧ QUZ ✧ Modern terminology for the Quechua dialect spoken in the Peru’s Cusco region
10 paraqallariy 2018Quechua [Southern/Cusco Imperial]: Quechua [Southern/Cusco Imperial] ✧ QUZ ✧ This is the traditional terminology of the Inca Empire, citing its monthly celebrations
10 cápac raymi “Grand festival” 2018Quileute (Quillayute): Quileute (Quillayute) ✧ QUI ✧ The last language to survive from the Chimakuan family. Natively extinct, undergoing revival at the Quileute Tribal School in La Push, Washington. One quirk of Quileute is that it prefixes words according to the physical traits of the person being spoken to — cross-eyed, hunchbacked, short, lame, etc.
10 bask̕alidix̣ 2018Rade: Rade ✧ RAD ✧ Austronesian, Malayo-Polynesian, Chamic, Highlands, akin to Cham (q.v.), spoken by 180,000 E-de people in southern Vietnam.
10 mlan pluh dua 2018Rangi (Langi): Rangi (Langi) ✧ LAG ✧ Niger-Congo family, Bantu, with between 270,000 and 410,000 speakers in central Tanzania. Nouns divide into 19 classes.
10 Kʉsasatʉ 2018Rapa Nui (Pascuanese): Rapa Nui (Pascuanese) ✧ RAP ✧ Eastern Polynesian, Easter Island, 2700 native speakers. Major differences from other EP languages. Its native writing system, called Rongorongo, remains undeciphered.
10 ana 2018Rawang (Krangku): Rawang (Krangku) ✧ RAW ✧ Sino-Tibetan family, Tibeto-Burman, Nungish, 63,000 speakers in India and Northern Myanmar. Roman alphabet writing system developed by American missionary Robert Morse starting in 1950.
10 séní shvlá 2018Reel (Atuot): Reel (Atuot) ✧ ATU ✧ Presumably Nilo-Saharan, related to Nuer (q.v.), spoken by some 50,000 Atuot people living near Yirol in South Sudan’s Eastern Lakes State.
10 Ɣɔ̈r 2018Rennell-Bellona (Rennellese): Rennell-Bellona (Rennellese) ✧ MNV ✧ Relatively obscure Polynesian language, 2000 speakers, Solomon Islands
10 Tise’eba 2018Rgyalrong [Northwestern]: Rgyalrong [Northwestern] ✧ JYA ✧ Sino-Tibetan. Verbs marked with directional orientation cues. Sichuan.
10 sla wa ptʃǝ ŋɳǝs 2018Rohingya: Rohingya ✧ RHG ✧ Indo-European, Indo-Iranian. Heavily persecuted, the Rohingya are toughing it out in Burma and in refugee camps in Bangladesh.
10 fóon 2018Romani [Balkan Sofia Erli]: Romani [Balkan Sofia Erli] ✧ RMN ✧ Indo-Aryan language spoken by Romani in Bulgaria. There are around 760,000 Balkan Romani speakers as a whole, of which Sofia Erli is a subdivision.
10 decembro 2018Romani [Balkan Ursari]: Romani [Balkan Ursari] ✧ RMN ✧ A Balkan Romani spoken in Moldavia and Romania
10 dečembrija 2018Romani [Kale Finnish]: Romani [Kale Finnish] ✧ RMF ✧ Indo-Aryan language, by way of Scotland, spoken by the Finnish Romani
10 juulako čoon 2018Romani [Kale Iberian] (Caló): Romani [Kale Iberian] (Caló) ✧ RMQ ✧ Indo-Aryan language spoken by Iberian Peninsula Romani. The characters singing the famous “Anvil Chorus” in Verdi’s opera Il trovatori would have likely represented Caló.
10 quendebré 2018Romani [Kale Welsh]: Romani [Kale Welsh] ✧ RMW ✧ Romani variety spoken in Wales until at least 1950, introduced by a group that arrived during the 15th century. The purported last native speaker was Manfri Frederick Wood (d. 1968).
10 me-debleskero -or- me-deblesko munþos 2018Romanian [Meglenitic] (Megleno-Romanian): Romanian [Meglenitic] (Megleno-Romanian) ✧ RUQ ✧ Eastern Romance, native to Greece, Macedonia, Romania, and Turkey. Some consider it a separate language, others a dialect of either Romanian or Aromanian (q.v.). Only 5000 speakers, endangered.
10 nistupati 2018Romanian [Old Church/Traditional]: Romanian [Old Church/Traditional] ✧ RON ✧ Indo-European, Romance. Pre-20th century.
10 undrea 2018Romansh [Grischun]: Romansh [Grischun] ✧ ROH ✧ Indo-European, Rhaeto-Romance. Romansh comes in seven chief dialects. Not included among those is Grischun, a controversial “pan-regional” Romansh standard introduced in 1982.
10 december 2018Romansh [Putèr]: Romansh [Putèr] ✧ ROH ✧ Romansch dialect spoken in the Engadine Valley, Switzerland.
10 december 2018Rotokas: Rotokas ✧ ROO ✧ Spoken by ≅ 4000 in Papua New Guinea. Famous for its tiny sound inventory, its entire alphabet consists of A, E, G, I, K, O, P, R, S, T, U, and V.
10 katai tau eraopa kekira 2018Russian [Ninilchik]: Russian [Ninilchik] ✧ ??? ✧ Seriously endangered but still spoken by descendents of 19th century Russian American Company workers in Ninilchik, Alaska. It has diverged so much from Russian that linguists consider it a separate language.
10 D’ikáp 2018Russian [Premodern]: Russian [Premodern] ✧ RUS ✧ This was Russian before it adopted neo-Latin (more accurately, Byzantine Greek) month conventions. For several centuries starting in the 1100s, both systems coexisted.
10 студень (studen’) “Jelly” 2018Rusyn (Ruthene or Ruthenian): Rusyn (Ruthene or Ruthenian) ✧ RUE ✧ East Slavic, ≅ 60,000 current speakers. Unlike Russian it loses the letter Э but then adds Ґ, Є, І, and Ї and (at least at one time) Ѣ. Andy Warhol and Sandra Dee were of Rusyn extraction.
10 грудень (gruden’) “Frozen earth” 2018Rwanda-Rundi: Rwanda-Rundi ✧ KIN/RUN ✧ Niger-Congo, Bantu. Tonal, official in Rwanda.
10 Ukuboza 2018Sa‘a (South Malaita or Apae‘aa): Sa‘a (South Malaita or Apae‘aa) ✧ APB ✧ Malayo-Polynesian, Southeast Solomonic, spoken by 12,000 in South Malaita, Solomon Islands.
10 oku peine “Palolo worms growing large” 2018Sabaean (Sabaic or Himyarite): Sabaean (Sabaic or Himyarite) ✧ XSA ✧ Afro-Asiatic, Old South Arabian, language of the Queen of Sheba/Saba spoken in Yemen between ca. 1000 bce and the 6th century ce. Some of its successors (Mehri, Soqotri, etc.) still flourish.
X 𐩻𐩥𐩽𐩲𐩡𐩲𐩱𐩡 (ðū ‘l‘āl) MMXVIIISalish, Coastal [Island Halkomelem]: Salish, Coastal [Island Halkomelem] ✧ HUR ✧ A language from the Salishan family spoken by ≅ 200 on the east coast of Vancouver Island
10 Shts’ulwe’sum 2018Salish, Coastal [Klallam]: Salish, Coastal [Klallam] ✧ CLM ✧ Salishan family, heard in the Pacific Northwest on the Northern shore of the Olympic Peninsula. It went natively extinct with the death of Hazel Sampson in 2014, though the high school in Port Angeles, WA, now offers it.
10 xʷsčəl̕kʷeʔsən -or- x̣əp̕sčiʔánəŋ 2018Salish, Coastal [North Straits]: Salish, Coastal [North Straits] ✧ STR ✧ Salishan family, Vancouver area. Six dialects, nearly extinct.
10 x̱əp̕sčiʔánəŋ 2018Salish, Coastal [North Straits Saanich]: Salish, Coastal [North Straits Saanich] ✧ STR ✧ A dialect of North Straits Salish, 5 native speakers reported. Saanich uses no rounded vowels (o, oo, ow, etc.) except in foreign loans.
10 xʷsč̕əl̕kʷéʔsəŋ 2018Salish, Coastal [Puget Sound] (Lushootseed): Salish, Coastal [Puget Sound] (Lushootseed) ✧ LUT ✧ Another Salishan language, spoken by fewer than 100. The word geoduck (elephant clam) derives from Puget Sound Salish.
10 səxʷšic̓əlwaʔs 2018Salish, Coastal [Sechelt] (Shashishalhem): Salish, Coastal [Sechelt] (Shashishalhem) ✧ SEC ✧ This Salishan family language is native to the Sechelt Peninsula area of British Columbia. Fewer than a dozen native speakers remain, all elderly, but it’s being actively taught in local schools. A Sechelt Nation Language Certificate awaits those who pass the course.
10 temskw՚ etuʔ shalshal 2018Salish, Coastal [Squamish]: Salish, Coastal [Squamish] ✧ SQU ✧ Salishan, native to Squamish, North Vancouver, and West Vancouver in British Columbia. Half a dozen native speakers remain; the language is taught at Capilano University.
10 tl՚aḵt lhḵaych 2018Salish, Interior [Colville-Okanagan] (Syilx): Salish, Interior [Colville-Okanagan] (Syilx) ✧ OKA ✧ Southern British Columbia and Northern Washington State. Syilx is spoken natively by ≅ 600 of whom only a quarter are “deeply fluent” and mostly over 50; it’s considered moribund.
10 sʔistkm 2018Salish, Interior [Kalispel–Spokane–Flathead]: Salish, Interior [Kalispel–Spokane–Flathead] ✧ FLA/SPO ✧ Also called Montana Salish, spoken by ≅ 100 elders in the central Montana’s Flathead Nation and in the Kalispel and Spokane Reservations in Washington. Critically endangered.
10 esʔacm̓i spq̓niʔ 2018Salish, Interior [Shuswap]: Salish, Interior [Shuswap] ✧ SHS ✧ The Northernmost Interior Salishan language, spoken natively by around 200 in central and southern British Columbia. Shuswap’s stress is conveniently predictable: the vowels U and I are always stressed, the schwa never is.
10 Pelltetéq̓em “Crossover month” 2018Sami [Inari]: Sami [Inari] ✧ SMN ✧ Finno-Ugric, 300 speakers, seriously endangered. The term “Lapp” for the Sami language group is considered derogatory and no longer used.
10 juovlâmáánu 2018Sami [Kildin]: Sami [Kildin] ✧ SJD ✧ A Sami spoken by ≅ 600 in the Lovozero area of the Kola Peninsula
10 талльвманну (tаll’vmannu) 2018Sami [Lule]: Sami [Lule] ✧ SMJ ✧ Spoken by between 1000 and 2000 around the Lule River in Sweden and in Norway’s Nordland County.
10 javllamánno 2018Sami [Northern]: Sami [Northern] ✧ SME ✧ The most widely spoken Sami, ≅ 20,000 speakers
10 juovlamánu “Christmas month” 2018Sami [Skolt]: Sami [Skolt] ✧ SMS ✧ Seriously endangered, 400 speakers mostly around Sevettijärvi, Finland. Oldest writings date from 1884.
10 rosttovmannu 2018Sami [Southern]: Sami [Southern] ✧ SMA ✧ Seriously endangered, 500 speakers in Norway’s Snåsa and Hattfjelldal districts
10 goeven 2018Samlandish (Old Baltic Prussian): Samlandish (Old Baltic Prussian) ✧ PRG ✧ Indo-European, Balto-Slavic (as opposed to Germanic, the other, entirely unrelated “Prussian”). Extinct by 1800, largely owing to plague epidemics and famines during the period 1709-1711.
10 Sallaws 2018Samogitian: Samogitian ✧ SGS ✧ Indo-European, Baltic, spoken in western Lithuania. A Lithuanian dialect to some, a separate language to others. Related to Curonian and Latgalian (both q.v.).
10 groudis “Freezing” 2018Sango: Sango ✧ SAG ✧ Ubangian-derived creole, 3 tones, central Africa, 450,000 native speakers. Along with French, Sango is an official language of the Central African Republic.
10 kakauka 2018Sanskrit: Sanskrit ✧ SAN ✧ One of the oldest attested Indo-European languages. Modern representatives of its sub-branch include Hindi, Bengali, Nepali, and approximately 220 others, collectively spoken by 800-900 million.
१० द्वादशमास (dvādaśamāsa) २०१८Santali: Santali ✧ SAT ✧ Austroasiatic-Munda language spoken in Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, and Nepal. Uses Ol Chiki alphabet devised in the early 20th century.
᱑᱐ ᱫᱤᱥᱮᱢᱵᱨ ᱒᱐᱑᱘Saramaccan: Saramaccan ✧ SRM ✧ Portuguese/English/Dutch creole + African traits. Suriname.
10 tuwálúfúmú líba “Twelfth month” 2018Sardinian [Campidanese]: Sardinian [Campidanese] ✧ SRD or SRO ✧ 500,000 speakers in Sardinia in the Cagliari metro area and elsewhere in Oristano, South Sardinia, and Nuoro. Proposed as a Sardinan language co-standard along with Logudorese.
10 mesi de idas -or- mesi de paschixedda 2018Sardinian [Gallurese]: Sardinian [Gallurese] ✧ SDN ✧ 100,000 speakers, Sardinia’s Gallura region and elsewhere in the northeast. It has more noticeable Spanish and Catalan influences. Many consider Gallurese to be a dialect of Corsican (q.v.).
10 natali 2018Sardinian [Logudorese]: Sardinian [Logudorese] ✧ SRD or SRC ✧ 500,000 speakers. Central-southern Sardinian Province of Sassari, northern parts of the Provinces of Nuoro and Oristano. Proposed as a Sardinan language co-standard along with Campidanese.
10 nadale 2018Sardinian [Logudorese Nuorese]: Sardinian [Logudorese Nuorese] ✧ SRD or SRC ✧ A subdialect with features found nowhere else on Sardinia including some th (IPA symbol θ) sounds and the simplification of ny (ɲ) and ly (ʎ) sounds into n and l (e.g., Sardinna instead of Sardegna).
10 nadale 2018Sardinian [Sassarese]: Sardinian [Sassarese] ✧ SDC ✧ 100,000 speakers tending toward the north of the island. Heavy Corsican (q.v.) influences.
10 naddari 2018Saxwe (Tsáphɛ): Saxwe (Tsáphɛ) ✧ SXW ✧ Niger-Congo family, Gbe group, spoken by 170,000 in Benin
10 Ɖanutotwesun 2018Secoya (Pai Coca): Secoya (Pai Coca) ✧ SEY ✧ Tucanoan family, spoken by 1200 in Peru and Ecuador along the Putumayo and Vaupés Rivers. Nouns can be animate, inanimate, personal, or supernatural/spiritual. Secoya culture and language are under serious threat from the petroleum industry.
10 koou 2018Sedang: Sedang ✧ SED ✧ Austroasiatic language native to Laos & Vietnam, 100,000 speakers. Famously huge vowel inventory.
10 khế môi chat péa 2018Seediq [Truku/Taroko]: Seediq [Truku/Taroko] ✧ TRV ✧ Formosan, Atayalic. Indigenous language from Northern Taiwan.
10 maxal dha idas 2018Sekani [Fraser Lake]: Sekani [Fraser Lake] ✧ SEK ✧ Athabaskan language spoken by a few dozen in British Columbia. Bitonal. The name Sekani comes from Tse’Khene meaning “people of the rock.”
10 Dzen Dilhdukw 2018Sekani [McLeod Lake]: Sekani [McLeod Lake] ✧ SEK ✧ Another Sekani variant
10 Meh tun tun chi 2018Selkup: Selkup ✧ SEL ✧ Uralic, Samoyedic. Yamalo-Nenets region in Siberia, 1500 speakers. Distinguishes between long and short vowels.
10 ўуаpгъ кандак иррет (wuapg” kandak irret) “Big frost month” 2018Serbian [Orthodox]: Serbian [Orthodox] ✧ SRP ✧ Serbian Orthodox Church tradition
10 божићни (božidzny) 2018Serbian [Premodern/Folk]: Serbian [Premodern/Folk] ✧ SRP ✧ Serbian folk tradition, pre-19th century
10 коледар (koledar) 2018Sercquiais (Sarkese): Sercquiais (Sarkese) ✧ NRF ✧ Indo-European, Romance. A Norman dialect spoken by ≅ 20 on the Channel Island of Sark.
10 dezãb 2018Seri: Seri ✧ SEI ✧ Indigenous language isolate spoken by < 1000 in Mexico. Uses nine definite articles that depend on the relative movement of the object.
10 naapxa yao 2018Seychellois Creole (Seselwa): Seychellois Creole (Seselwa) ✧ CRS ✧ French-based creole of the Seychelles, around 70,000 speakers
10 desanm 2018Shan: Shan ✧ SHN ✧ Kra–Dai language, tonal. Spoken in Burma, Thailand, and China. It has a trill [IPA r] but uses it only rarely, mostly for loans. Many speakers can’t make it and substitute an L sound.
(lunsam) Shawiya Berber: Shawiya Berber ✧ SHY ✧ Afro-Asiatic, Berber, spoken in and around the Awras Mountains of eastern Algeria. Preliterate until recently.
10 jember 2018Shawnee: Shawnee ✧ SJW ✧ An Algonquian language with fewer than 200 speakers in Oklahoma. Two genders, animate and inanimate.
10 Washilatha kiishthwa “Eccentric Moon” 2018Sherpa: Sherpa ✧ XSR ✧ Sino-Tibetan. Spoken by 150,000 in Nepal, Tibet, and Kashmir. Tonal.
10 dāwā čiṅīwā 2018Shinasha (Borna or Boro): Shinasha (Borna or Boro) ✧ BWO ✧ Afro-Asiatic, either North or South Omotic (depending on whose paper you take to heart) dialect cluster with 37,500 speakers in Ethiopia.
10 jalga 2018Shixing: Shixing ✧ SXG ✧ A scantily documented Sino-Tibetan language of the Sichuan and the Tibet Autonomous Regions. Spoken by fewer than 2000, two thirds of whom are quite inconveniently monolingual in Shixing.
10 qε55ɳi55ɬɯ55 2018Shona: Shona ✧ SNA ✧ Bantu language spoken by over 8 million, official in Zimbabwe
10 Zvita 2018Shor: Shor ✧ CJS ✧ Turkic, 10,000 speakers in Siberia’s Kemerovo Province. Mongolian and Russian loans, preliterate until 1885.
10 kichig au 2018Shoshone [Panamint]: Shoshone [Panamint] ✧ SHH ✧ Uto-Aztecan family, natively spoken by 1000 in Idaho, Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming. Features some whispered vowels. Lewis and Clark’s translator, Sacagawea, was Shoshone.
10 wahattüm ma 2018Shuar: Shuar ✧ JIV ✧ Jivaroan family, 35,000 jungle-dwelling speakers in Ecuador’s Morona-Santiago and Pastaza Provinces. Not to be confused with Shiwiar, though they’re of the same family. The Shuar used to take heads and shrink them.
10 yânkuam 2018Sicilian: Sicilian ✧ SCN ✧ Indo-European, Romance. Arabic and Greek influences with pre-Indo-European roots. One departure from Italian is that Sicilian uses the vowels E and O far less frequently.
10 decèmmiru 2018Sikaiana: Sikaiana ✧ SKY ✧ Malayo-Polynesian, spoken by 750 on the small, isolated atol Sikaina in the Solomon Islands. Features two vowel lengths, so two words that differ only by that feature can have unrelated meanings.
10 Tisepa 2018Silesian: Silesian ✧ SZL ✧ West Slavic, spoken in Poland and the Czech Republic. Some authorities consider it a dialect of Polish, others don't. In any case about a dozen sub-dialects of Silesian are cited, one unique to Panna Maria, Texas.
10 grudźyń 2018Siona (Bai Coca): Siona (Bai Coca) ✧ SNN ✧ Tucanoan family, spoken by 500 Siona people in Colombia and Ecuador along the Putumayo River. They are akin to the Secoya Pai Coca speakers (q.v.) and under similar threat.
10 tariñañẽ 2018Slavey [South]: Slavey [South] ✧ XSL ✧ Na-Dené, Athabaskan. Slavey as a whole has 2120 speakers among the Slavey and Sahtu people in the Northwest Territories. This is the South dialect, 1000 speakers.
10 Toeyatį zá 2018Slavonic [Old Church]: Slavonic [Old Church] ✧ CHU ✧ Indo-European, Slavic, dating from the 9th century. The original model for the Cyrillic alphabet, it called itself словѣ́ньскъ ѩꙁꙑ́къ (slověnĭskŭ językŭ).
X (dekębr) MMXVIIISlavonic [New Church]: Slavonic [New Church] ✧ CHU ✧ The current liturgical language used in conservative Slavic European Orthodox churches as well as the American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese. Descended from Old Church Slavonic (below).
10 деке́мврїй (dekémvryi) 2018Slovene [Standard Premodern]: Slovene [Standard Premodern] ✧ SLV ✧ Indo-European, South Slavic, standardized from various dialects during the 18th century. Unlike other Slavics, Slovene offers three numbers — singular, dual, and plural. Not to be confused with Slovak, which is WEST Slavic and close to Czech (q.v.).
10 gruden “Biting cold” 2018Slovene [Prekmurian Premodern]: Slovene [Prekmurian Premodern] ✧ SLV ✧ Prekmurian is a Slovene dialect spoken in northeastern Slovenia and western Hungary. It’s sufficiently divergent both culturally and linguistically that many consider it a separate language.
10 prosinec 2018Somali: Somali ✧ SOM ✧ Afro-Asiatic family, Cushitic. Employs vowel harmony and three tones, spoken in the horn of Africa and in diaspora communities by 15 million.
10 bisha laba iyo tobnaad -or- cifadda -or- lixkor 2018Sorbian (Lusatian or Wendish) [Lower]: Sorbian (Lusatian or Wendish) [Lower] ✧ WEN ✧ Indo-European, West Slavic, spoken by 10,000 in lower Saxony (Brandenburg)
10 zymski 2018Sorbian (Lusatian or Wendish) [Upper]: Sorbian (Lusatian or Wendish) [Upper] ✧ WEN ✧ Indo-European, West Slavic, spoken by 40,000 in upper Saxony
10 hodownik 2018Sotho (Sesotho): Sotho (Sesotho) ✧ SOT ✧ Niger-Congo, Southern Bantu, spoken in Lesotho (where it’s the official language) and South Africa. It’s tonal, and its novel sound inventory includes ejectives, clicks, and a uvular trill.
10 Tšitoe 2018Sotho [Northern] (Pedi): Sotho [Northern] (Pedi) ✧ SOT ✧ Another dialect of Sotho, South Africa.
10 Manthole 2018Southern Luo [Lango]: Southern Luo [Lango] ✧ LAJ ✧ Nilo-Saharan family, Uganda. All numerals under 20 begin with A.
10 Kʉsasatʉ 2018Southern Min (Minnan): Southern Min (Minnan) ✧ NAN ✧ Sino-Tibetan, spoken in China’s Fujian province
10 十二月 cha̍p-jı̄-go̍eh 2018Standard Moroccan Berber (Tamazight): Standard Moroccan Berber (Tamazight) ✧ ZGH ✧ Afro-Asiatic, Berber. This language was standardized in 2011 through amendments to the Moroccan Constitution.
10 ⴷⵓIⴰⵏⴱⵉⵔ (dujanbir) 2018Sudovian (Yotvingian): Sudovian (Yotvingian) ✧ XSV ✧ Indo-European, Baltic, unfortunately extinct by 1600. It was mutually intelligible with Samlandish (q.v.).
10 grōdis -or- decemberis 2018Sumo [Northern, Mayangna]: Sumo [Northern, Mayangna] ✧ SUM ✧ Like Miskito (q.v.), from the small Misumalpan family. There are ≅ 9000 speakers of Sumo languages in the Huaspuc River area in Nicaragua and Hoinduras; shown here is the Mayangna dialect.
10 wîwanak wainku “Lianas flower month” 2018Sumo [Northern, Tawakha]: Sumo [Northern, Tawakha] ✧ YAN ✧ Misumalpan family, Sumo group. Tawakha and Miskito (q.v.) are closely related and many Tawakha in the area (at the mouth of the river Wampú on the Atlantic side of Honduras) are trilingual between Tawakha, Miskito, and Spanish.
10 kurih saran waiku 2018Sumo [Southern, Ulwa]: Sumo [Southern, Ulwa] ✧ ULW ✧ Misumalpan family, Sumo group, Southern. About 400 speakers in eastern Nicaragua.
10 pâpanghni sâwang waikaku 2018Svan: Svan ✧ SVA ✧ Kartvelian family (Like Georgian, Mingrelian, and Laz), spoken in the Svaneti region of Georgia by around 30,000, who call it lushnu nin. It has no written standard.
ი ქრისტეშობ (χrist̓ešob) ციჱSwazi: Swazi ✧ SSW ✧ Niger-Congo, Bantu. Swaziland (official), Lesotho, Mozambique, and South Africa.
10 iNgongoni 2018Swedish [Traditional/Folk]: Swedish [Traditional/Folk] ✧ SWE ✧ North Germanic, descended from Old Norse. This is the premodern terminology.
10 julmånad 2018Syriac Aramaic: Syriac Aramaic ✧ SYC ✧ Northwest Semitic, spoken by Syrian Christians in Turkey, Iraq, and Syria. Its script shares its ancestry with the Arabic and maps to it almost one-to-one; the style shown here is called Serṭā.
(kanun qāmāyā) Tabasaran: Tabasaran ✧ TAB ✧ Northeast Caucasian language notable for its vast noun case inventory. Natively it lacks the vowel O; the palochka character (Ӏ) makes preceding consonant an ejective.
10 имсул (imsul) 2018Tacana: Tacana ✧ TNA ✧ Western Tacanan family, 1800 speakers along the Beni & Madre de Dios rivers in Bolivia
10 badhi tunka beta 2018Tachelhit (Shilha or Sussian): Tachelhit (Shilha or Sussian) ✧ SHI ✧ Afro-Asiatic, Berber, Southern Morocco. Writings date from 16th century ce.
10 (dujanbir) 2018Tagalog [Pre-colonial]: Tagalog [Pre-colonial] ✧ TGL ✧ Malayo-Polynesian, Central Philippine, spoken by ≅ 70 million (28 million fluently). This endemic terminology derives from the first Tagalog dictionary, published by Franciscan priest Pedro de San Buenaventura in 1613.
10 pangalan nang buan katapusan nang taon 2018Taita (Daw'ida): Taita (Daw'ida) ✧ DAV ✧ Niger-Congo family, Bantu. 400,000 speakers in Kenya’s Taita Hills.
10 Mori ghwa ikumi na iwi 2018Taki Taki (Sranan Tongo): Taki Taki (Sranan Tongo) ✧ SRN ✧ An English/Dutch/Portuguese/West African Creole spoken in Suriname. The second verse of Suriname’s national anthem is sung in Taki Taki.
10 Twarfumun 2018Talinga (Lubwisi): Talinga (Lubwisi) ✧ TLJ ✧ Niger-Congo family, Bantu, 99,000 speakers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (where they call it Talinga) and Uganda (where they call it Lubwisi)
10 Kwekumi Naabili 2018Tamahaq: Tamahaq ✧ THV ✧ Afro-Asiatic, Berber, Northern Tuareg language spoken in Algeria, western Libya, and Northern Niger. Three dialects, 77,000 speakers.
10 dejanbar 2018Tamil: Tamil ✧ TAM ✧ Dravidian family, India. Split off from Malayalam 9th century ce. Pronouns offer several levels of politeness.
௰ டிசம்பர் (ṯičampar) ௲௲௰௮Tanacross: Tanacross ✧ TCB ✧ Athabaskan language with ≅ 30 speakers (middle Tanana River, Alaska)
10 wunenh nach’ehjedh “Month we hook something” 2018Tasawaq (Ingelshi): Tasawaq (Ingelshi) ✧ TWQ ✧ Tentatively assigned to Nilo-Saharan, Songhay, though heavily influenced by Berber languages. 8000 speakers, Niger.
10 deesanbur 2018Tatar [Kazan]: Tatar [Kazan] ✧ TAT ✧ Turkic, spoken in Tatarstan. Has used Arabic, Roman, & Cyrillic alphabets.
10 dekäber 2018Telugu: Telugu ✧ TEL ✧ Dravidian family, Andhra Pradesh, India. Oldest text, 575 ce.
౧౦ డిసెంబర్ ౨౦౧౮Temne: Temne ✧ TEM ✧ Bantu language spoken in Sierra Leone, 4 tones.
10 Tranántia 2018Teso (Ateso): Teso (Ateso) ✧ TEO ✧ Nilo-Saharan language spoken in Kenya, Uganda
10 Opoo 2018Tetum (Tetun): Tetum (Tetun) ✧ TET ✧ Malayo-Polynesian language with Portuguese influences, East Timor.
10 dezembru 2018Thadou: Thadou ✧ TCZ ✧ An endangered Sino-Tibetan language spoken by 230,000 in Manipur and Assam in northeast India and in Myanmar. There are about a dozen mutually intelligible dialects.
10 aawllha 2018Thai: Thai ✧ THA ✧ Now assigned to the Kra–Dai family, previously considered Sino-Tibetan. Through Buddhism, Thai inherited lots of Indo-European Sanskrit and Pali. Its script is an abugida, i.e., halfway between an alphabet and a syllabary.
๑๐ ธันวาคม (thanwaakhom) “bow” ๒๐๑๘Tibetan [Standard or Lhasa]: Tibetan [Standard or Lhasa] ✧ BOD ✧ Sino-Tibetan, bitonal, three speech registers: Phal-skad (informal), Zhe-sa (polite/respectful), Chos-skad (religious, as it appears in scriptures).
༡༠ ta13wa13tɕuŋ55ɳiʔ53pa53 ༢༠༡༨Tibetan [Dégé]: Tibetan [Dégé] ✧ BOD ✧ The Tibetan dialect spoken in China’s Sichuan Province
༡༠ da13wa53tɕuŋ53ɳiʔ35 ༢༠༡༨Tibetan [Written]: Tibetan [Written] ✧ BOD ✧ Written Tibetan quite famously diverges from its spoken form. Writing conventions had fossilized while the speech evolved over many centuries, such that the oral version of a word can be entirely different from the written.
༡༠ zla ba btɕu gɳig pa ༢༠༡༨Ticuna: Ticuna ✧ TCA ✧ Possibly a language isolate, spoken by 50,000 in Brazil, Peru, and Colombia. Six vowels (A, E, I, O, U and Ü), nine tones, glottal stops indicated by X.
10 nataruarü tauemacü “nativity month” 2018Tigrinya: Tigrinya ✧ TIR ✧ Afro-Asiatic, South Semitic. Ethiopia & Eritrea, 9 million speakers. Like English and unlike many of its close relatives, Tigrinya uses phrasal verbs.
10 (tahsas) 2018Tiwa [Southern]: Tiwa [Southern] ✧ TIX ✧ A language from the Tanoan family spoken by 1600 at Isleta Pueblo and Sandia Pueblo, New Mexico; and Ysleta del Sur Pueblo (adjacent to El Paso), Texas. Its sound inventory is relatively large: 26 consonants and six vowels with contrastive nasal versions.
10 Nufe Pa 2018Tlingit: Tlingit ✧ TLI ✧ Na-Dené family, USA Pacific northwest, nearly extinct
10 Shanáx Dís 2018Tocharian B (Kuchean): Tocharian B (Kuchean) ✧ TXB ✧ Tocharian was an early branch of Indo-European, extinct since the ninth century. Tocharian A and B scripts have been unearthed in Xinjiang, northwest China. Tocharian B reckoned the months as ordinals — first through twelfth; so aside from some idiomatic exceptions, that’s what you see here.
X rapaññe meñe MMXVIIITofalar (Karagas): Tofalar (Karagas) ✧ KIM ✧ A moribund, mildly tonal Turkic language closely related to Tuvan (q.v.) with ≅ 90 speakers in the Irkutsk region. Uses a modified Cyrillic alphabet of 42 characters.
10 сооӄ ай (sōq ay) 2018Tokelauan [Traditional]: Tokelauan [Traditional] ✧ TKL ✧ Malayo-Polynesian, ≅ 4300 speakers in American Samoa (on Tokelau and Swains Island) and New Zealand. Tokelauan and Tuvaluan are mutually intelligible.
10 Uluaki Palolo 2018Tolowa (Siletz Dee-ni): Tolowa (Siletz Dee-ni) ✧ TOL ✧ Na-Dené, Pacific Coast Athabaskan, nominally extinct. Linguist Loren Bommelyn teaches Tolowa in Crescent City, CA. Tolowa features ejectives, contrastive vowel length and nasality.
10 Nee-san-naa-xee-ch’aa-ta num-nii-man’s 2018Tonga (Nyasa) [Traditional]: Tonga (Nyasa) [Traditional] ✧ TOG ✧ Niger-Congo, Bantu, Botatwe (according to some) language spoken by 170,000 in The Republic of Malawi. Tonal. Not to be confused with Malayo-Polynesian Tongan below.
10 Nalupale 2018Tongan: Tongan ✧ TON ✧ Malayo-Polynesian. Only one vowel per syllable, no blended consonants. Not to be confused with the Bantu language Tonga above.
10 Tisema 2018Trique [Copala]: Trique [Copala] ✧ TRC ✧ Oto-Manguean family, Mixtecan branch, spoken by ethnic Trique in San Juan Copala, Oaxaca, Mexico and migrants in San Quintín valley, Baja California. There are 26,000 speakers of Trique in general, 15,000 of the Copala dialect.
10 yavii sandrese̱ 2018Trique [Chicahuaxtla]: Trique [Chicahuaxtla] ✧ TRC ✧ Dialect of Trique heard in San Andrés Chicahuaxtla, Oaxaca, Mexico. 6000 speakers.
10 yabii ahngaa yahanj 2018Tsafiki (Tsachila or Colorado): Tsafiki (Tsachila or Colorado) ✧ COF ✧ Barbacoan family, spoken by 2300 ethnic Tsachilas in Ecuador. Natively Tsafiki only had concise terms for the numbers 1 through 5; for higher numbers it has since borrowed from Spanish.
10 pichu pipoka lun pe 2018Tsez (Dido): Tsez (Dido) ✧ DDO ✧ Northeast Caucasian, endangered, 15,000 speakers in Southern Dagestan. Heavy influences from Russian, Avar, Arabic, Georgian, and Turkic languages. Rich consonant inventory but lacks an F sound.
10 декабер (dekaber) 2018Tshangla (Sharchop): Tshangla (Sharchop) ✧ TSJ ✧ Sino-Tibetan, Bodish, spoken by 170,000 in Bhutan’s Trashigang district, Tibet, and Arunachal Pradesh in India. Tshangla derives much of its vocabulary from Classical Tibetan and the two evolved from a common ancestor.
10 dawa tɕuŋȵipa -or- jøda 2018Tsimshian [Coast]: Tsimshian [Coast] ✧ TSI ✧ Indigenous language spoken by around 240 in British Columbia and Alaska. Possibly an isolate.
10 Ha’lilikluulgyit “Time to feast” 2018Tsonga: Tsonga ✧ TSO ✧ Niger-Congo family, Bantu. Uses whistling sounds and a single click.
10 N’wendzamhala 2018Tswana (Setswana): Tswana (Setswana) ✧ TSN ✧ Niger-Congo family, Bantu; official in Botswana, Zimbabwe, and South Africa. In a manner similar to Gourmantché (q.v.), Tswana nouns divide into classes (nine in this case) and each noun takes a prefix corresponding to that class, providing a clue to its meaning.
10 Sedimonthole/Sedimothule -or- Morule 2018Tuareg [Tamasheq]: Tuareg [Tamasheq] ✧ TAQ ✧ Afro-Asiatic, Berber. Complex “avoidance” behavior in communication.
10 (dejamber) 2018Tujia [Southern]: Tujia [Southern] ✧ TJS ✧ Sino-Tibetan, but unclassified within that family due to its extensive borrowing from neighboring languages. Tonal, spoken by 70,000 in China’s northwestern Hunan Province.
10 la²¹ jye²¹ 2018Tumbuka: Tumbuka ✧ TUM ✧ Niger-Congo, Bantu. Speakers in Malawi, Zambia, & Tanzania.
10 Disembala 2018Tunica: Tunica ✧ TUN ✧ Language isolate native to central Louisiana, extinct since the 1948 death of Mr. Sesostrie Youchigant (who worked with linguist Mary Haas) but now spoken as an acquired language by 32 people through the efforts of the Tunica-Biloxi tribe. Tonal.
10 Tahch’asap’ara 2018Turkish [Standard]: Turkish [Standard] ✧ TUR ✧ Altaic family, earliest Old Turkic inscriptions found in Mongolia
10 aralık -or- karakış -or- kiraz ayı 2018Turkish [Meskhetian]: Turkish [Meskhetian] ✧ TUR ✧ Dialect spoken by Meskheti disapora throughout Russia
10 каракыш (karakyš) 2018Turkish [Ottoman]: Turkish [Ottoman] ✧ TUR ✧ Turkish of the Ottoman Empire before 20th century reforms. Ottoman Turkish borrowed over 80% of its vocabulary from Arabic and Persian; Atatürk’s 1928 reforms restored the native Turkish.
10 кануни-әүвәл (kanuni-ıüvıl) 2018Turkmen 1 [Pre-Niyazov]: Turkmen 1 [Pre-Niyazov] ✧ TUK ✧ Altaic family, Turkic. Largely intelligible with Azeri and Turkish, 9 million speakers.
10 dekabr 2018Turkmen 2 [Post-Niyazov]: Turkmen 2 [Post-Niyazov] ✧ TUK ✧ As decreed by dictator Saparmurat Niyazov (1940-2006)
10 Bitaraplyk {Turkmenistan's Neutrality Day} 2018Turkmen 3 [Post-Post-Niyazov]: Turkmen 3 [Post-Post-Niyazov] ✧ TUK ✧ Back by popular demand!
10 dekabr 2018Tuscarora: Tuscarora ✧ TUS ✧ There were only 3 reported speakers of this Northern Iroquoian language in 2007, so it may well be extinct or nearly so. Nominally its range is the Six Nations Reserve in Southern Ontario and the Lewiston Tuscarora (“hemp people”) reserve in New York State.
10 kuhserhęhé∙θuʔ 2018Tutchone [Northern]: Tutchone [Northern] ✧ TTM ✧ Na-Dené family, North Athabascan, about 350 native speakers of Tutchone as a whole. This subgroup: Yukon communities of Mayo, Pelly and Stewart Crossing, Carmacks, and Beaver Creek.
10 Nahdzyän cho ze “Big Day month” 2018Tutchone [Southern, Aishihik]: Tutchone [Southern, Aishihik] ✧ TCE ✧ Southern Aishihik Tutchone is spoken in the Yukon communities of Aishihik, Burwash Landing, Champagne, Haines Junction, Kloo Lake, Klukshu, Lake Laberge, and Whitehorse.
10 Dzenų̄ ukay kwädäk’wän zhā “Shortest day month” 2018Tuvan: Tuvan ✧ TYV ✧ A Turkic language with Mongolian loans spoken in the Russian Republic of Tuva in southern Siberia. Nobel laureate Richard Feynman popularized Tuva and its language among western readers in his posthumously published book Tuva or Bust.
10 он ийи ай (on yiy ay) 2018Tyap (Katab): Tyap (Katab) ✧ KCG ✧ Niger-Congo, West Plateau. 200,000 speakers, Nigeria.
10 Zwat Swag-Ma-Suyang 2018Tzotzil: Tzotzil ✧ TZO ✧ Mayan family, Cholan-Tzeltalan branch, spoken by 400,000 in Chiapas, Mexico
10 disyempre 2018Uab Meto: Uab Meto ✧ AOZ ✧ Malayo-Polynesian family, unusual gender distinctions, spoken by 800,000 Atoni people in Indonesian West Timor
10 fun-boes-am-nua’ 2018Ubykh: Ubykh ✧ UBY ✧ Extinct Northwest Caucasian language notable for its staggering consonant inventory and richness in idioms. Its last native speaker was Circassian exile Tevfik Esenç (1904-1992).
10 χan 2018Udmurt (Votyak): Udmurt (Votyak) ✧ UDM ✧ Uralic family, related to Komi (q.v.). 500,000 speakers in the central Urals. Natively lacks an F sound, which it uses only for names and Russian loans.
10 толсур (tolsur) 2018Ukrainian: Ukrainian ✧ UKR ✧ Indo-European, East Slavic, Polish affinities. Unlike Russian, it employs the characters Ґ, Є, І, and Ї but not Ы or Ъ.
10 грудень (gruden’) “Frozen” 2018Ukrainian [Premodern]: Ukrainian [Premodern] ✧ UKR ✧ Older Ukrainian
10 лютень (luyten’) -or- хмурень (χmuren’) “Frown” 2018Unami [Lenape]: Unami [Lenape] ✧ UNM ✧ Nominally extinct Algonquian language of the New Jersey area Lenape people
10 Muxkotae Kishux “Mistletoe Month” 2018Upper Chinook [Clackamas]: Upper Chinook [Clackamas] ✧ WAC ✧ From the Chinookan family of northwestern Oregon. Upper Chinook went extinct with the death of its last fluent speaker Gladys Thompson in 2012. There were about half a dozen dialects; this one was spoken along the Clackamas and Sandy Rivers.
10 gugwa’lx 2018Upper Kuskokwim: Upper Kuskokwim ✧ KUU ✧ Athabaskan, only 40 speakers (Alaska). Features a voiceless N sound.
10 kwdaheyetuts’eshts’inaye 2018Upper Tanana [Tetlin]: Upper Tanana [Tetlin] ✧ TAU ✧ Athabaskan, related to Tanacross (q.v.), fewer than 100 speakers. Tetlin, Alaska.
10 Ch’ich’ǫǫ’ Saa 2018Urhobo: Urhobo ✧ URH ✧ Niger-Congo, Edoid, spoken by a half million living near the Niger River or in boats on it. They worship ancestors and also the water spirit Ohworhu.
10 urúrúvwen 2018Uyghur: Uyghur ✧ UIG ✧ Turkic, loans from Persian, Russian, Chinese. Spoken in China’s Xinjiang region.
10 on ikkinchi ay 2018Vai: Vai ✧ VAI ✧ Niger-Congo family, Mande. Tonal, 75,000 speakers, Liberia. Its syllabary writing system was invented by Momolu Duwalu Bukele during the early 19th century.
10 ꖨꕪꕱ ꗏꕮ (luukao lɔma) 2018Venda: Venda ✧ VEN ✧ Niger-Congo family, Bantu branch. 800,000 speakers in Southern Africa
10 Nyendavhusiku 2018Venetian: Venetian ✧ VEC ✧ Spoken in and around Venice and also in Brazil’s Rio Grande do Sul and the Mexican city of Chipilo. Has un-Italian sounds ç (like Greek θ) and, as also in Polish, ł (like English w).
10 diçenbre 2018Veps: Veps ✧ VEP ✧ Finno-Ugric, ≅ 6300 speakers mostly near the Gulf of Finland. It has 23 noun cases, the most of any Finnic language.
10 tal’vku 2018Vietnamese (Annamese): Vietnamese (Annamese) ✧ VIE ✧ Austroasiatic family, at one time written with Chinese-derived script called Chữ nôm. Five tones, shown by diacritics (example: á, à, ã, ả, and ạ), plus neutral.
10 tháng mười hai 2018Vosgien [La Bresse]: Vosgien [La Bresse] ✧ ??? ✧ Romance, Langue d’oïl, Lorraine subgroup. Vosgien dialects were spoken in France in Vosges, St. Quirin, eastern Badonviller, and two Alsace Departments. Extinct, though much of its unique vocabulary lives on.
10 dècembe 2018Vosgien [La Haye]: Vosgien [La Haye] ✧ ??? ✧ Another Vosgien dialect
10 dêsamb 2018Vosgien [Ville sur Illon]: Vosgien [Ville sur Illon] ✧ ??? ✧ And yet another
10 dêsamp 2018Votic (Votian or Vote): Votic (Votian or Vote) ✧ VOT ✧ Uralic, Finnic, < 20 speakers in two villiages near Narva, Estonia. Like other Finnic languages it uses vowel harmony, where “back” vowels and “front” vowels cannot coexist within the same word.
10 dekaabri 2018Võro: Võro ✧ VRO ✧ Finno-Ugric, related to Veps (q.v.), seriously endangered
10 joulukuu 2018Wa [Parauk]: Wa [Parauk] ✧ PRK ✧ Austroasiatic, Mon-Khmer, spoken by 820,000 hilltop-dwelling ethnic Wa in Thailand, Myanmar, southern China. Wa’s scripts have long been in a state of flux; shown here is Parauk Wa’s Yaong Soi dialect, expressed in IPA.
10 kʰiʔ kau ɹa 2018Wallisian (East Uvean): Wallisian (East Uvean) ✧ WLS ✧ Polynesian, spoken by around 10,000 on Wallis Island of Wallis and Futuna. Related to Rennellese and Tongan (q.v.).
10 tesepeli 2018Walloon: Walloon ✧ WLN ✧ Indo-European, Romance, Langue d’oïl, native to Belgium’s Wallonia region. Its writings date back to 1500s. Despite its traditional label as a French dialect, Walloon and French show little mutual intelligibility.
10 decimbe 2018Waorani (Sabela or Auishiri): Waorani (Sabela or Auishiri) ✧ AUC ✧ A language isolate spoken by 2000 mostly Huaorani natives in Ecuador’s Napo, Orellana and Pastaza Provinces plus possibly some “uncontacted” people nearby
10 ongaytede 2018Warao: Warao ✧ WBA ✧ This is an endangered language isolate spoken by 32,000 on Trinidad and along the northeast coast of South America in a thin strip ranging over Guyana, Suriname, and Venezuela. The 2015 Venezuelan film Gone with the River is in Warao.
10 waniku mojoreko arai manamo 2018Waray-Waray [Premodern]: Waray-Waray [Premodern] ✧ WAR ✧ Malayo-Polynesian, Central Visayan. Philippines.
10 (panlagkat) 2018Wayuu (Goajiro): Wayuu (Goajiro) ✧ GUC ✧ Arawakan family, Northern, spoken by 305,000 in northwestern Venezuela and northeastern Colombia. Vowels can be short or long (a => aa, etc.), as can the consonants m, n, and t.
10 tisiempüre 2018Welsh (Cymric): Welsh (Cymric) ✧ CYM ✧ Indo-European, Celtic, Brythonic. Many speakers not named Jones.
10 Rhagfyr 2018Winnebago (Ho-Chunk): Winnebago (Ho-Chunk) ✧ WIN ✧ Siouan family, native to an area stretching from the Lake Michigan’s southwestern shore to east central Minnesota. As in some European languages like Polish and Lithuanian, nasalized vowels are contrastive and marked with ogoneks (a/ą, i/į, u/ų).
10 Caa hee wakšų wiira 2018Woleaian: Woleaian ✧ WLE ✧ A Malayo-Polynesian language spoken by 1700 in the Federated States of Micronesia, principally on the Woleai atoll. While the language uses foreign loans, Woleaians are otherwise serious about preserving their culture and enforce strict rules against wearing western clothing.
10 gaseigeli-me-ruwouweli merame 2018Wolof: Wolof ✧ WOL ✧ Niger-Congo language. Senegal, Gambia, Mauritania. The terms “okay” and “hep cat” may possibly have come from Wolof.
10 tabaski 2018Wymysorys (Wilamowicean/Vilamovian): Wymysorys (Wilamowicean/Vilamovian) ✧ WYM ✧ Germanic language with a few dozen mostly elderly speakers in Wilamowice, Poland. A graduate student at the University of Warsaw named Tymoteusz Król works to revive and promote the language.
10 december 2018Xhosa: Xhosa ✧ XHO ✧ Niger-Congo, many unusual consonants including 15 clicks
10 eyoMnga 2018Xincan [Jutiapa]: Xincan [Jutiapa] ✧ XIN ✧ From a family of moribund/extinct language isolates, spoken by a handfull in Guatamala though no longer fluently. Lots of Mayan loans.
10 pakin piʔ ʔawa 2018Yakut (Sakha): Yakut (Sakha) ✧ SAH ✧ Northern Turkic, grammatically genderless, spoken by 450,000 in the Sakha Republic in Northern Siberia
10 ахсынньы (aχsɯnnyɯ) 2018Yanesha’ (Amuesha): Yanesha’ (Amuesha) ✧ AME ✧ Arawakan family. Spoken by ≅ 7000 Yanesha’ in the Peruvian Amazon. Vowels are A, E, and O, each of which can be long, short, or glottalized. (U only occurs with QU, a Spanish holdover to signal a K sound.)
10 huancahuallquëm̃ 2018Yangben (Central Yambasa): Yangben (Central Yambasa) ✧ YAV ✧ Niger-Congo family, Southern Bantoid, spoken by 17,000 in Cameroon
10 pilɔndɔ́ 2018Yaqui (Hiaki): Yaqui (Hiaki) ✧ YAQ ✧ Uto-Aztecan family, 17,500 speakers in Sonora, Mexico; another 430 in Arizona. Seven noun cases. Special feature: a word with an L can be pronounced instead with an R to indicate a speaker’s disapproval.
10 lu’umet 2018Yi (Nuosu): Yi (Nuosu) ✧ III ✧ Tibeto-Burman language spoken by ethnic Yi in China and southeast Asia
10 (cinyixma) 2018Yi (Nuosu) [Northern Shengza, Xide]: Yi (Nuosu) [Northern Shengza, Xide] ✧ III ✧ A dialect of Yi spoken by the Shuitian people of Sichuan’s Liangshan Prefecture
10 ʂɿ³³ ɬɯ⁴⁴ “Snake month” 2018Yiddish (Judaeo-German): Yiddish (Judaeo-German) ✧ YID ✧ Arose from Old High German (q.v.) during the ninth century. It uses Hebrew script adapted to indicate vowels explicitly. There are currently ≅ 3 million speakers worldwide.
10 דעצעמבער (detsember) 2018Yoruba: Yoruba ✧ YOR ✧ Niger-Congo family, spoken in Nigeria and Benin. Heavy Arabic influences. Yoruba also sees liturgical use in Santaría and other Afro-American religions in the Americas and the Caribbean.
10 Oṣù Ọ̀pẹ̀ -or- Oṣù Kejìlá 2018Yuchi: Yuchi ✧ YUC ✧ Native American language of unknown ancestry, virtually extinct, Oklahoma
10 Hoctadakya “Midwinter” 2018Yukaghir [Tundra]: Yukaghir [Tundra] ✧ YKG ✧ A moribund two-language family, spoken by a few dozen in the Russian Far East
10 χand’eme serbedamun 2018Yupik [Pacific Gulf]: Yupik [Pacific Gulf] ✧ YPK ✧ Eskimo-Aleut family, 2 dialects, ≅ 500-1000 speakers
10 Qanim Iralua 2018Yupik [St Lawrence]: Yupik [St Lawrence] ✧ YPK ✧ Eskimo-Aleut family, Bering Strait area, < 300 speakers
10 Kaneghyengesiq 2018Yupi’k [Chevak Cup’ik]: Yupi’k [Chevak Cup’ik] ✧ YPK ✧ Seriously endangered Yupi’k (q.v.) sub-dialect. Hooper Bay, Alaska.
10 Angunquyugtuun 2018Yupi’k [Mid-Alaskan]: Yupi’k [Mid-Alaskan] ✧ YPK ✧ Eskimo-Aleut family, ≅ 13,000 speakers
10 Uivik 2018Zapotec, Isthmus (Juchitán Zapotec): Zapotec, Isthmus (Juchitán Zapotec) ✧ ZAI ✧ Oto-Manguean, Central Zapotec, 85,000 speakers in Tehuantepec and Juchitán in Mexico’s State of Oaxaca. Rich inventory of vowels that come in plain, creaky, and checked (cut off at the end with a glottal stop).
10 beu' r'aale niñúu “childbirth [Jesus] month” 2018Zapotec, Western Tlacolula Valley [Teotitlán del Valle]: Zapotec, Western Tlacolula Valley [Teotitlán del Valle] ✧ ZAB ✧ Documented in 2014 by linguist Brook Danielle Lillehaugen. Of WTV Zapotec’s six dialects, this one is the most divergent. Some 100 elderly speakers remain, in the village of Teotitlán del Valle, Oaxaca, southern Mexico.
10 disiembr 2018Zarma (Dyerma): Zarma (Dyerma) ✧ DJE ✧ Nilo-Saharan family, Songhay group. Spoken in southwest Niger.
10 cibsi 2018Zaza (Zazaki or Dimli): Zaza (Zazaki or Dimli) ✧ ZZA ✧ Indo-European, Indo-Iranian. 2,000,000 speakers, mostly in Turkey.
10 kanune -or- gağan 2018Zhuang: Zhuang ✧ ZHA ✧ Kra–Dai family, 6 tones, spoken in China’s Guangxi region
10 nin cwbx yeih 2018Zou (Zo) [India]: Zou (Zo) [India] ✧ ZOM ✧ Sino-Tibetan, Kuki-Chin, spoken by 82,000 in Myanmar, India, and by the Bom people in Bangladesh. This is the particular Zou spoken in India.
10 àwl hà 2018Zou (Zomi) [Chin Hills]: Zou (Zomi) [Chin Hills] ✧ ZOM ✧ This is the Zou spoken in those areas other than India.
10 thamàn hlà 2018Zulu: Zulu ✧ ZUL ✧ Bantu language widely spoken in Southern Africa. Uses clicks.
10 uZibandlela 2018Zuni: Zuni ✧ ZUN ✧ An isolate spoken by 9500 in New Mexico. Strangely, there may be a 13th-century Japanese connection.
10 ik’ohbu yachunne “Turning” 2018
Illustration: The Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, mid-15th century French Gothic illuminations produced in the Low Countries.
Months captioned in two common vernaculars of that time and place, Medieval Picard and Old Dutch.
Notes
1. They didn't, though, not to mention the fact Pope Gregory wouldn’t enter the picture for several more centuries. Etruscans marked dates pretty much like the Romans did; i.e., so many days leading up to the nones or ides, or preceding the start of the next month. The very word “ides,” as a matter of fact, likely derives from an Etruscan term for “divide.”
2. In some cases, especially with indigenous languages, the month-to-month correspondence between their own systems and the modern Gregorian one was less than definitive but at least strongly implied in the listings I’ve used as sources. This is a self-correcting situation anyway, since as time goes by more and more of them map themselves to it formally for the sake of modern convenience. Of course the month names of many languages bear no such correspondence so you won’t see them displayed here.
3. Our source for the Gaulish system is the Coligny calendar dating from the 2nd century ce, discovered in France in 1897.
1. They didn't, though, not to mention the fact Pope Gregory wouldn’t enter the picture for several more centuries. Etruscans marked dates pretty much like the Romans did; i.e., so many days leading up to the nones or ides, or preceding the start of the next month. The very word “ides,” as a matter of fact, likely derives from an Etruscan term for “divide.”
2. In some cases, especially with indigenous languages, the month-to-month correspondence between their own systems and the modern Gregorian one was less than definitive but at least strongly implied in the listings I’ve used as sources. This is a self-correcting situation anyway, since as time goes by more and more of them map themselves to it formally for the sake of modern convenience. Of course the month names of many languages bear no such correspondence so you won’t see them displayed here.
3. Our source for the Gaulish system is the Coligny calendar dating from the 2nd century ce, discovered in France in 1897.
↑ الهلال المتزايد
Special thanks:
Douglas Q. Adams (Tocharian B)
Lorraine Allen and John Ritter (Tutchone varieties)
Ansuharijaz (Frankish and Proto-Germanic reconstructions)
Mira Bergelson, Andrej A. Kibrik, Wayne Leman, and Marina Raskladkina (Ninilchik Russian)
William Bright and Susan Gehr (Karuk)
Can Dai Quang (Cham)
Bernard Comrie of UC Santa Barbara and Timur Maisak (Bagvalal)
Eliza Jones, James Kari, Mildred Buck, plus others of the Alaska Native Language Center
Paul Lewis (Akha)
Lin Ying-Chin, Institute of Linguistics, Academia Sinica, Taipei (Tibetan, Pumi, Qiangic languages)
Patsou’s Des Mots et des Langues
Peace Corps language handbooks
Le Projet Babel (Vosgien)
Ma Seng Mai of Payap University (Wa)
Antoninu Rubattu (Sardinian)
Apay Tang (Truku dialect of Seediq)
Tomedes — Smart Human Translation (Homshetsi)
Suzanne Weryackwe of Arizona State University (Havasupai-Hualapai)
Qinglian Zhao (Naxi)
… and literally hundreds of other sources
Douglas Q. Adams (Tocharian B)
Lorraine Allen and John Ritter (Tutchone varieties)
Ansuharijaz (Frankish and Proto-Germanic reconstructions)
Mira Bergelson, Andrej A. Kibrik, Wayne Leman, and Marina Raskladkina (Ninilchik Russian)
William Bright and Susan Gehr (Karuk)
Can Dai Quang (Cham)
Bernard Comrie of UC Santa Barbara and Timur Maisak (Bagvalal)
Eliza Jones, James Kari, Mildred Buck, plus others of the Alaska Native Language Center
Paul Lewis (Akha)
Lin Ying-Chin, Institute of Linguistics, Academia Sinica, Taipei (Tibetan, Pumi, Qiangic languages)
Patsou’s Des Mots et des Langues
Peace Corps language handbooks
Le Projet Babel (Vosgien)
Ma Seng Mai of Payap University (Wa)
Antoninu Rubattu (Sardinian)
Apay Tang (Truku dialect of Seediq)
Tomedes — Smart Human Translation (Homshetsi)
Suzanne Weryackwe of Arizona State University (Havasupai-Hualapai)
Qinglian Zhao (Naxi)
… and literally hundreds of other sources
