Sunday 20 January 2019
(din chiŋ) 2019 ▭
২০১৯ ▭
(ldetri) 2019
balan sa 
▭
(januari -or- januwari) 2019 ▭
(jenuʔarī) 2019 ▭
(louwmaand) MMXVIIII ▭
(Æfterra Gēola) “After Yule” MMXVIIII ▭
[January unknown] ⊕⊕XIX ▭
2019
(sulamenoþs) MMXVIIII ▭
(ulalong) 2019
(tha lay) ၂၀၁၉ ▭
(makara) 
▭
(enero) 2019 ▭
deuan mungon 
▭
(kurnit lavo) 
▭
(ti55 ha21) 2019
(aniya biya) 
▭
(shajibu) 
▭
нэгдүгээр сар (nägdügäär sar) 
▭
(lunsi) 
▭
(yanuari) MMXVIIII
(kanun khārāyā) 
(innayr) 2019
(tiree) 2019 ▭
(innar) 2019 ▭
(paniniyahan) 2019 ▭
(cypma) 2019 ▭
↑ البدر
Lilian day 2175649.9184
ere’s today’s date in 748 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 displaying 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. I’ve also fudged Tocharian a bit by pulling its 12-month year about two weeks back to synchronize its first month, naimaññe meñe, with our February.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.).
20 гъынчыльа (γənčəlža) 2019 ▭Abenaki [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.
20 Alamikos “Greetings maker” 2019Abkhazian (Abkhaz): Abkhazian (Abkhaz) ✧ ABK ✧ Northwest Caucasian, closely related to Abaza (q.v.). 100,000 speakers in Georgia’s heavily contested Abkhazia region, many more in diaspora communities elsewhere. Abkhazian has 58 consonants, six of which are various types of K/Q sounds.
20 ажьырныҳәа (až’yrnyẖãa) 2019 ▭Abui: 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.
20 foho ia 2019Acholi: 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.
20 Dwe me acel 2019Achuar-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.
20 shuya 2019Achuar-Shiwiar [Shiwiar Chicham]: Achuar-Shiwiar [Shiwiar Chicham] ✧ ACU ✧ The other dialect of Achuar-Shiwiar
20 esat 2019Adele (Gidire): Adele (Gidire) ✧ ADE ✧ Niger-Congo family, Kwa, geographically of the Ghana Togo Mountain languages, 37,000 speakers in Togo and Ghana. Most are bilingual in Ewe (q.v.).
20 amɔrɔ-lili 2019Afar: Afar ✧ AAR ✧ Afro-Asiatic, Cushitic. Spoken in Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia by 1.5 million. Ethiopic and Arabic scripts have been used to write Afar, though a Roman alphabet standard, shown here, was formalized in 1970.
20 Qunxa Garablu 2019Aghem (Wum): Aghem (Wum) ✧ AGQ ✧ Niger-Congo family, Cameroon. Aghem speakers traditionally used leopard-skin carpets.
20 ndzɔ̱ŋɔ̱nùm 2019Aghul (Agul): Aghul (Agul) ✧ AGX ✧ Northeast Caucasian, 30,000 speakers mostly in Southern Dagestan. There is a contrast between “tense” and “weak” consonants.
20 экнагь (ėknag̓) 2019Ahom: Ahom ✧ AHO ✧ Kra–Dai family, Brahmaputra river valley, nearly extinct though widely studied. Unique script.
20 (din chiŋ) 2019 ▭Ahtna [Central]: Ahtna [Central] ✧ AHT ✧ Athabaskan, around 80 speakers (all dialects combined), Alaska’s Copper River. Incorporates about 100 Russian loanwords.
20 ts’akae tl’aa na’aaye’ “Animals become lazy” 2019Ahtna [Lower]: Ahtna [Lower] ✧ AHT ✧ Another dialect of Ahtna
20 ‘ałts’eni na’aaye’ “Fifth month [of snow]” 2019Ahtna [Mentasa]: Ahtna [Mentasa] ✧ AHT ✧ Another dialect of Ahtna
20 c’edzak saa 2019Ainu: Ainu ✧ AIN ✧ Aboriginal language of Japanese archipelago, ancestry unknown, nearly extinct natively. Counts in base 20.
20 トエタッネチュプ (toetannechup) 2019 ▭Akan: Akan ✧ AKA ✧ Niger-Congo Language native to Ghana and Ivory Coast, also brought to South America by slaves
20 Sanda-Ɔpɛpɔn 2019Akha [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.
20 leǔt sǎmt 2019Alabama: Alabama ✧ AKZ ✧ Muskogean language, distantly related to Choctaw (q.v.), spoken in Texas. Regular versus nasalized vowels, contrastive vowel length.
20 hasiholtina aɬɬámmòona 2019Albanian [Gheg]: Albanian [Gheg] ✧ SQI ✧ Indo-European language with its very own branch. Unlike many languages it uses both the unvoiced and voiced “th” sounds (IPA symbols θ, ð).
20 janar 2019 ▭Albanian [Tosk] (Arberesh): Albanian [Tosk] (Arberesh) ✧ ALS ✧ Albanian dialect spoken in Italy, partial interintelligibility with Gheg Albanian(q.v.)
20 jinar 2019 ▭Aleut [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.
20 Tugidiigamax̂ -or- Yanvaarix̂ -or- Ginvaarix̂ 2019 ▭Algonquin: Algonquin ✧ ALQ ✧ Algonquian family, closely related to (but divergent from) Ojibwe (q.v.). 1800 speakers in Quebec and Ontario.
20 kenózitch gizis “Long moon month” 2019Altai: Altai ✧ ATV ✧ Turkic language spoken by 20,000 natively in Siberia’s Altai Mountains
20 çagan 2019 ▭Aluku: 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.
20 wan mun fu baka yali 2019Alutiiq: 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.
20 Cuqllirpaaq Iraluq “First moon” 2019Amharic: Amharic ✧ AMH ✧ Afro-Asiatic. Ethiopia, yes, but the Rastafari also dig it. Not to be confused with Aramaic (q.v.).
20 tarr 2019 ▭Anejom̃ (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.
20 nefiag “Big wild sugar cane” 2019Angami (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.
20 Doshü o krö 2019Anii: 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.
20 ɭjikawǝrka kaŋɔrɔ 2019Apache [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.
20 Koghanee 2019Apache [Western]: Apache [Western] ✧ APW ✧ Athabaskan family, SE Arizona, 14,000 native speakers. Acute accents indicate a high tone on a vowel.
20 Dziɬ Bilátahgai “White mountain-tops” -or- Shashké’ “Bear tracks” 2019Apatani (Tanii): Apatani (Tanii) ✧ APT ✧ Sino-Tibetan family, eastern Himalayas, 28,400 speakers. Most nouns have 2 syllables.
20 murun piilo 2019Arabic [Levantine]: Arabic [Levantine] ✧ APC ✧ Afro-Asiatic family, Semitic. Descended from Ancient North Arabian.
٢٠ كانون الثاني (kānūnu alθāni) ٢٠١٩ ▭Arabic [Libyan]: Arabic [Libyan] ✧ AYL ✧ An alternative terminology established under Muammar Gaddafi. Aside from that, this dialect has been influenced by Maltese and Sicilian.
٢٠ أين النار (aynu alnār) ٢٠١٩ ▭Aragonese: Aragonese ✧ ARG ✧ Indo-European, Romance. Spoken in Northern Aragon, endangered, mutually intelligible with Spanish.
20 chinero 2019Arapaho: 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 ȝ, rendered either as a Roman letter yogh or a numeral 3, for the unvoiced th sound (IPA θ).
20 niikoxooɂoteɂ -or- heecoxooxeiht 2019 ▭Arikara: 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.
20 kaxtaanoórit 2019Aromanian (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.
20 gulugeu -or- yinaru 2019 ▭Arosi: Arosi ✧ AIA ✧ Malayo-Polynesian, Solomonic, spoken by 6800 on Makira (San Cristobal) Island, east of Guadalcanal in the Solomons.
20 arida aba 2019Arpitan (Franco-Provençal) [Savoyard]: Arpitan (Franco-Provençal) [Savoyard] ✧ FRP ✧ An Arpitan dialect spoken around Savoy in western France
20 janvyér 2019 ▭Arpitan (Franco-Provençal) [Stéphenois]: Arpitan (Franco-Provençal) [Stéphenois] ✧ FRP ✧ Gallo-Romance, spoken around Saint-Étienne in eastern central France
20 janvîe 2019Assiniboine 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.
20 witéȟi -or- witéȟiga -or- ąmhą́ska hą́wi 2019Assiniboine 2: Assiniboine 2 ✧ ASB ✧ Alternative terminology
20 ą́ba hą́ska hą́wi -or- ómakateja hą́wi 2019Asturian: Asturian ✧ AST ✧ Indo-European, Romance, Northern Spain (Oviedo/Gijón area). Three genders.
20 xineru 2019 ▭Atikamekw: Atikamekw ✧ ATJ ✧ Algonquian family, Cree complex, 5500 speakers in southwestern Quebec
20 kenositc pisimw 2019Atong {Sino-Tibetan}: Atong {Sino-Tibetan} ✧ AOT ✧ Unlike many Sino-Tibetan languages, this one is non-tonal. Spoken by 10,000 in NE 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.
20 januari 2019Atsugewi: 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.
20 rápahas “when the ice cracks” 2019Austro-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.
20 Jänna 2019 ▭Avar [Premodern/Folk]: Avar [Premodern/Folk] ✧ AVA ✧ Northeast Caucasian language spoken in Dagestan and Azerbaijan. Uses either Cyrillic or Arabic characters.
20 гьуразулъ هۇرازۇڸ (g’urazul″) 2019 ▭Awa 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.
20 akal masamtu 2019Aymara: 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.
20 chichu phaxsi -or- chinuqa 2019 ▭Bafia: Bafia ✧ KSF ✧ Niger-Congo, Bantu, spoken by 60,000 in southwestern Cameroon. Mostly oral, but efforts at establishing a written standard are underway.
20 ŋwíí a ntɔ́ntɔ 2019Bagirmi: 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.
20 Nap keɗe 2019Bagvalal (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.
20 йанвáрбос̄ӏ (yanvárboss̓) 2019Bahasa Banjar: Bahasa Banjar ✧ BJN ✧ Malayo-Polynesian, spoken by the Banjarese of South Kalimantan in Indonesia
20 Januari 2019 ▭Bakweri (Mokpwe): Bakweri (Mokpwe) ✧ BGM ✧ Niger-Congo, Bantu, spoken in Cameroon
20 Mbanje 2019Baluchi (Balochi): Baluchi (Balochi) ✧ BAL ✧ Indo-Iranian language related to Kurdish (q.v.). Uses Pashto and Roman script.
20 baharán 2019 ▭Bambara: Bambara ✧ BAM ✧ Niger-Congo, Mande. Two tones, many French loans. Same word used for hand and arm.
20 Zanwuyé 2019 ▭Bariai: Bariai ✧ BCH ✧ Austronesian family, Ngero group, 1400 speakers in Papua New Guinea
20 dalele 2019Basaa: Basaa ✧ BAS ✧ Niger-Congo, Bantu. Four tones, 230,000 speakers in Camaroon. (Not to be confused with Bassa, below.)
20 kóndóñ 2019Bashkir: Bashkir ✧ BAK ✧ Turkic language spoken in Bashkortostan between the Volga and Urals. Uses no articles.
20 һыуығай (hɯwɯɣai) -or- ғинуар (ğinyar) 2019Basque [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.
20 urtarril 2019 ▭Basque [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.
20 ilbeltz “Black month” -or- urtarril 2019Basque [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.
20 urtarila 2019Bassa: 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.)
20 Dǔà-Dù 2019Batak: 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.
20 《singkora mora turun》 sipaha sampulu 2019 ▭Bats (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.
კ ჲანვარ (ianvar) ცით ▭Belarusian: 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.
20 студзеня (studzenya) 2019 ▭Bemba (Chibemba): Bemba (Chibemba) ✧ BEM ✧ Niger-Congo family, Southern Bantu. Tonal, spoken in Zambia.
20 akabengele kanono 2019Bena: Bena ✧ BEZ ✧ Niger-Congo family, Northeast Bantu, spoken in south central Tanzania
20 pa mwedzi gwa hutala 2019Beothuk: Beothuk ✧ BUE ✧ Possibly Algonquian, spoken by a reclusive indigenous Newfoundland tribe, extinct since 1829 with the death of its last speaker, Shanawdithit. Information on Beothuk month names, shown here, is sketchy.
20 kobshuneesamut 2019 ▭Bété [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.
20 'napɛ -bhlʋ -leyi 2019Beti [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.
20 ngɔn osú 2019Bezhta (Kapucha): Bezhta (Kapucha) ✧ KAP ✧ Preliterate Northeast Caucasian language spoken by around 6800 in Southern Dagestan.
20 йана (yana) 2019Biete (Biate): Biete (Biate) ✧ BIU ✧ A Sino-Tibetan, Kuki-Chin language spoken by 30,000 in NE India (Meghalaya, Assam, Mizoram, Manipur, and Tripura). Related to Mizo (q.v.).
20 Tualbual 2019Bishnupriya 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.
২০ ২০১৯ ▭Bislama: Bislama ✧ BIS ✧ A creole combining English with Austronesian lanugages. Official in Vanuatu.
20 Januari 2019 ▭Blackfoot (Siksika): Blackfoot (Siksika) ✧ BLA ✧ Algonquian family, unusual pitch system. Montana and Southern Alberta.
20 áisstoyiimsstaa 2019 ▭Blin (Bilen): Blin (Bilen) ✧ BYN ✧ Afro-Asiatic, Cushitic. 70,000 speakers around Keren, Eritrea. Related to Tigrinya (q.v.) and Tigre (Tigrayit).
20 (ldetri) 2019Bonggi (Kamus Bonggi): Bonggi (Kamus Bonggi) ✧ BDG ✧ Malayo-Polynesian, North Bornean, 1400 speakers on the Banggi and Balambangan islands in Malaysia’s Kudat District.
20 buaidn satu 2019Breton (Armoric): Breton (Armoric) ✧ BRE ✧ Indo-European, Celtic, Brythonic. Spoken in Brittany, related to Welsh and Cornish (q.v.).
20 mis genver 2019 ▭Bukhori (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.
20 יאַנבאַר (yanvar) 2019Bulgar: Bulgar ✧ XBO ✧ Presumably Turkic, extinct since medieval times, unrelated to modern Bulgarian (which is South Slavic). Bulgar’s modern descendent is Chuvash (q.v.).
XX ulug kyrlach ae MMXVIIIIBulgarian [Eastern Rup, 19th century]: Bulgarian [Eastern Rup, 19th century] ✧ BUL ✧ South Slavic. From the south-central Bulgarian town of Asenovgrad.
20 гулямил (gulyamil) 2019Bulgarian [Rhodope, pre-1945]: Bulgarian [Rhodope, pre-1945] ✧ BUL ✧ Another Bulgarian, here from the Rhodope Mountains around Smolyan
20 галѣмьетъ мѣсецъ (galemyeta mesetsa) 2019 ▭Burgundian (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.
20 janvier 2019Burmese: 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.
၂၀ ဇန်နဝါရီ (zãnáwaẏi) ၂၀၁၉ ▭Burum (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.
20 samkit 2019Burushaski: Burushaski ✧ BSK ✧ A language isolate spoken by 87,000 in Northern Pakistan. Actions must often specify how loud something was.
20 thambokus -or- d̪alo 2019 ▭Buryat [Premodern]: Buryat [Premodern] ✧ BUA ✧ Mongolic language related to Mongolian and Oirat (q.v.). China, Mongolia, and eastern Russia.
20 нэгэдүгээр һара (negedügeer ḥara) 2019 ▭Caddo: 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.
20 Chay’-kah’-day 2019Carrier (Dakelh): Carrier (Dakelh) ✧ CRX ✧ Na-Dené family, Athabaskan. A few hundred speakers in British Columbia.
20 satɕo uzʔ 2019Catalan: 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.’
20 de gener 2019 ▭Cayuga: 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.
20 Ga·yaʔda·gó:wah “Dolls” 2019Cerma: Cerma ✧ CME ✧ Niger-Congo, Gur, 63,000 speakers in Burkina Faso and Côte d'Ivoire. Three dialects: Banfora, Niangoloko, and Soubakanié Dougou.
20 gelegelegele 2019Cham [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 sa ▭Chamorro: Chamorro ✧ CHA ✧ Malayo-Polynesian, ≅ 60,000 speakers in the Marianas archipelago. Same word used for hand and arm.
20 ineru 2019Chang (Mochungrr): Chang (Mochungrr) ✧ NBC ✧ Sino-Tibetan, Brahmaputran branch, 62,000 speakers in Nagaland, NE India. Uses the Roman alphabet, introduced in 1928.
20 Lümlit 2019Chatino [Zona Alta]: Chatino [Zona Alta] ✧ CLY ✧ Zapotecan language spoken by 23,000 in Southern Oaxaca, Mexico. It has ten tones and uses nasal vowels.
20 ko' yijan kwi 2019Chayahuita: 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.
20 huara'po yoqui 2019Chechen 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.
20 гьер (her) 2019 ▭Chechen 2: Chechen 2 ✧ CHE ✧ A second alternative terminology for Chechen
20 нажи бутт (nazhi butt) 2019Chechen 3: Chechen 3 ✧ CHE ✧ A third alternative terminology for Chechen
20 дечкен бутт (dyečkyen butt) 2019Cherokee [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.
20 ᎤᏃᎸᏔᏂ (Unolvtani) “Cold” 2019 ▭Chewa (Chichewa or Nyanja): Chewa (Chichewa or Nyanja) ✧ NYA ✧ Niger-Congo family, Bantoid. Spoken in Malawi and Zambia. Unusually complex gender system.
20 mwezi wa Januwale 2019Cheyenne: Cheyenne ✧ 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.
20 Hohtseeše’he 2019 ▭Chickasaw: Chickasaw ✧ CIC ✧ Muskogean family, ≅ 75 speakers total in Oklahoma, USA. Same word used for hand and arm.
20 Hushi Ummona 2019Chilcotin: Chilcotin ✧ CLC ✧ Athabaskan, ≅ 860 native speakers in Chilcotin Country, central British Columbia. Chilcotin is bitonal and exhibits consonant harmony.
20 Tiŝel ʔIza 2019Chimané [Mosetén]: Chimané [Mosetén] ✧ CAS ✧ Language isolate (?) spoken by around 2000 north of La Paz, Bolivia. Same word used for hand and arm.
20 jirityyatyi’ ïwaj 2019 ▭Chinook Jargon (Wawa): Chinook Jargon (Wawa) ✧ CHN ✧ A trading language that thrived in the Pacific Northwest during the 19th century. Used both Native American- and European-derived vocabulary, though evidence suggests it existed in a purely indigenous form before European contact.
20 Shanwari 2019Choctaw: Choctaw ✧ CHO ✧ Muskogean, related to Chickasaw (q.v.). South-central USA, 18,000 speakers.
20 Chanueli 2019Choyo (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.
20 da35wa55tã35bu53 2019Chukchi: Chukchi ✧ CKT ✧ About 10,000 speakers in extreme eastern Siberia. Uses vowel harmony. Also, words cannot begin or end with consonant blends.
20 эмйирык (emjiryk) 2019 ▭Chuukese: Chuukese ✧ CHK ✧ Polynesian, spoken by around 50,000 ethnic Chuukese on the Chuuk Islands of the Carolines as well as on Pohnpei and Guam.
20 Sanéweri 2019Chuvash: Chuvash ✧ CHV ✧ Turkic, spoken in the Urals. Features “hard” versus “soft” words. Genderless.
XX kărlač IIII/X✳✳ ▭Cimbrian: Cimbrian ✧ CIM ✧ A Germanic language spoken by ≅ 400 in NE Italy whose grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation render it unintelligible to Standard High German speakers. Italian has largely displaced it.
20 djenaro 2019 ▭Circassian (Cherkess) [Adyghe]: Circassian (Cherkess) [Adyghe] ✧ ADY ✧ Northwest Caucasian language. Has 50-60 consonant sounds, mutually intelligible with Circassian [Kabardian] (q.v.).
20 щылэ (šəlǎ) 2019 ▭Circassian (Cherkess) [Kabardian]: Circassian (Cherkess) [Kabardian] ✧ KBD ✧ The other major Circassian dialect, also called East Circassian. Mutually intelligible with Circassian [Adyghe] (q.v.).
20 щIымахуэку (š’əmāχwakʷ) -or- щIышылэ (š’əšəla) 2019 ▭Cofán: Cofán ✧ CON ✧ A seriously endangered language isolate spoken by 2400 Cofán people in Sucumbíos Province in NE Ecuador and neighboring Colombia. Natively it counts in base 5.
20 khuvû ashaen'chu 2019Comanche [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.
20 Toh mua “Year moon” -or- Ukurooma mua “Middle moon” 2019Comorian [Maore] (Shimaore): Comorian [Maore] (Shimaore) ✧ SWB ✧ Niger-Congo family, Bantu. 80,000 speakers on French islands of Mayotte.
20 janvye 2019Coptic: Coptic ✧ COP ✧ Afro-Asiatic, from Late Egyptian. Extinct as a living language but used for liturgy by the Coptic Church. Its alphabet derives from the Greek with modifications pulled from Egyptian hieroglyphics. (The 13-month Coptic calendar is non-Gregorian but these are the language’s Gregorian terms.)
20 Ⲓⲁⲛⲟⲩⲁ̄ⲣⲓⲟⲥ 2019Cornish: 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.
20 mys Genver 2019 ▭Corsican: Corsican ✧ COS ✧ Indo-European, Romance, and unlike Sardinian (q.v.) this language is mutually intelligible with Italian. Spoken on Corsica, endangered.
20 ghjennaghju 2019 ▭Cotabato Manobo [Dulangan Manobo]: Cotabato Manobo [Dulangan 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.
20 inilu 2019Cree: Cree ✧ CRE ✧ Algonquian family. Formerly creolized with French & Scottish Gaelic. Official in Canada’s Northwest Territories, almost 100,000 speakers.
20 gishepapiwatekimumpizun “Oldster spreads the brush” 2019 ▭Creek (Muscogee or Seminole): Creek (Muscogee or Seminole) ✧ MUS ✧ Muskogean family, tonal with nazalizations, 5000 speakers in Oklahoma and Florida
20 rv’fo cusee “Winter's younger brother” 2019Crimean 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.
20 qara qış ayı 2019 ▭Croatian [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.
20 siječanj “Wood cutting month” 2019Crow (Apsáalooke): Crow (Apsáalooke) ✧ CRO ✧ Siouan family, Western, as of 2007 spoken by 3500 in the Crow Nation in SW Montana. Considered endangered, though schoolchildren are actively learning it and adolescents attend the Apsaalooke language camp for Crow language immersion.
20 báalaaheelape 2019 ▭Cuicatec: Cuicatec ✧ CUX ✧ A language of the Oto-Manguean family spoken natively by 13,000 in western Oaxaca, Mexico. Cuicatec is tonal (shown with superscript numerals) and forms verb tenses by attaching one of four different prefixes.
20 e3ne2ro4 -or- iyuu ama 2019Cuman (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.
20 safar ay 2019 ▭Curonian: Curonian ✧ XCU ✧ Extinct Balto-Slavic language spoken until the 16th century in parts of modern Latvia, Lithuania, and Germany.
20 januars 2019Czech (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.
20 leden “ice” 2019 ▭Dagaare: Dagaare ✧ DGA ✧ Niger-Congo, Gur branch. Unusual consonant blends such as GB, KP, and MGM.
20 KyuudengdengsobO 2019Dakota (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.
20 Witeȟi 2019Dalecarlian (Elfdalian): Dalecarlian (Elfdalian) ✧ 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). The Swedish-developed video game Minecraft features Dalecarlian.
20 (januari -or- januwari) 2019 ▭Dalmatian: 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.
20 januar 2019 ▭Danish [Premodern/Folk]: Danish [Premodern/Folk] ✧ DAN ✧ Traditional Danish before it adopted neo-Latin month conventions
20 Glugmåned 2019Dan: 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.
20 Zanvie -or- ‒buufaa -or- ‒buugaa 2019 ▭Deg Xinag: Deg Xinag ✧ ING ✧ Athabaskan language, virtually extinct. Area around the lower Yukon River, Alaska.
20 Vinginh srosr ilighidl “The month the drum is beaten” 2019Denaakk’e (Koyukon Athabascan): Denaakk’e (Koyukon Athabascan) ✧ KOY ✧ Athabascan, spoken by ≅ 300 in east central Alaska, 3 dialects
20 Benenh Neełkk’aayedelaayee 2019Dena’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.
20 heyi ni’u 2019Denya: Denya ✧ ANV ✧ Niger-Congo family, Bantoid, Mamfe. Spoken in Cameroon by around 11,000
20 zanwuyé 2019Dhivehi (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.
20 (jenuʔarī) 2019 ▭Digaro Mishmi (Darang/Taraon): Digaro Mishmi (Darang/Taraon) ✧ MHU ✧ “Possibly” Sino-Tibetan, 35,000 speakers in India’s Arunachal Pradesh and China’s Zayü County.
20 xɑ55 lo53 khɯn55 2019Dinka [Northwestern]: Dinka [Northwestern] ✧ DIW ✧ Nilo-Saharan, spoken in Sudan and by a refugee population in Jacksonville, Florida.
20 akonydit 2019Ditidaht (Nitinaht): Ditidaht (Nitinaht) ✧ DTD ✧ Wakashan family, Vancouver Island. No nasal consonants, virtually extinct.
20 baab’iiqs 2019Dogrib (Tłı̨chǫ Yatıì): Dogrib (Tłı̨chǫ Yatıì) ✧ DGR ✧ Na-Dené, Athabaskan. Canada Northwest Territories, 2600 speakers.
20 Edàidzêëtso Zaà 2019 ▭Duala: 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.
20 dimɔ́di 2019Dukhan: 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.)
20 bаşkı sооk аy 2019Duru [Dii]: Duru [Dii] ✧ DUR ✧ Niger-Congo, Leko-Nimbari, Duru, between 50,000 and 60,000 speakers in Cameroon. Dii Duru divides further into eight recognized dialects.
20 hò̧ò̧m waa 2019Dusun (Bunduliwan): Dusun (Bunduliwan) ✧ DTP ✧ A Malayo-Polynesian language, standardized by the Kadazandusun Cultural Association Sabah, and spoken by 140,000 in Malaysia and Brunei.
20 Tulan Milatok “Green month” 2019Dutch [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.
XX (louwmaand) MMXVIIII ▭Dzongkha: 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.
20 སྤྱི་ཟླ་དངཔ་ (spyi.zlaw.daṅ.pa) 2019 ▭Edo (Bini): Edo (Bini) ✧ BIN ✧ Niger-Congo family. Spoken by Benin Empire descendents.
20 uki ague 2019Embu (Kîembu): Embu (Kîembu) ✧ EBU ✧ Niger-Congo family, Bantu. Spoken by 320,000 in two dialects, northeast of Nairobi, Kenya.
20 Mweri wa mbere 2019Emilian-Romagnol (Sammarinese): Emilian-Romagnol (Sammarinese) ✧ EGL/RGN ✧ Romance language spoken in Italy (Emilia-Romagna region, Urbino, and Pesaro) and in San Marino. Recognized by UNESCO as “worthy of protection,” E-R is said to be entirely unintelligible with Italian.
20 żnêr 2019 ▭Emilian-Romagnol [Ferrarese]: Emilian-Romagnol [Ferrarese] ✧ EGL/RGN ✧ E-R dialect heard in the Province of Ferrara which includes the city of Comacchio.
20 źnàr 2019Enets (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.
20 “Month of the axe handle” 2019 ▭English [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).
XX (Æfterra Gēola) “After Yule” MMXVIIII ▭Erromangan (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.).
20 Uyor 2019Erromintxela: Erromintxela ✧ EMX ✧ A Basque/Romani hybrid language spoken by around a thousand Pyranees-dwelling Roma
20 otarila 2019Ersu [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.
20 tʃı33i55ɬɑ33 2019Erzya: Erzya ✧ MYV ✧ Uralic, Mordvinic, 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.
20 якшамков (yakšamokov) 2019 ▭Eskayan: Eskayan ✧ ESY ✧ Famously obscure Philippine language, extinct but heavily studied. Possibly a Cebuano-based cryptolect.
20 emio 2019Estonian: 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.
20 näärikuu 2019 ▭Estonian [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.
20 vahtsõaastakuu “New Year month” 2019Etruscan: 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.
XX [January unknown] ⊕⊕XIX ▭Even (Lamut): Even (Lamut) ✧ EVE ✧ Altaic, Tungusic. Endangered, with 7000-odd speakers in Siberia. Doesn’t use articles.
20 тугэни хэе (tugėni ḣėje) 2019 ▭Evenki (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.
20 mire “Shoulder” 2019 ▭Ewe: 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.
20 Dzove 2019Extremaduran: 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.”
20 jeneru 2019 ▭Fe’fe’ (Nufi or Bafang): Fe’fe’ (Nufi or Bafang) ✧ FMP ✧ Niger-Congo, Bantoid. 120,000 speakers around Bafang, Cameroon.
20 màñu ngu’fi 2019Flemish [West-Vlams]: Flemish [West-Vlams] ✧ VLS ✧ A highly divergent Dutch dialect with 1.2 million speakers
20 januoari 2019 ▭Fon: Fon ✧ FON ✧ Niger-Congo, Gbe. Spoken by 2.2 million in Togo and Benin in over 50 dialects.
20 alun sùn 2019Fox (Meskwaki or Sauk) 1: Fox (Meskwaki or Sauk) 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.
20 chênawêha -or- chêniwêha 2019 ▭Fox (Meskwaki or Sauk) 2: Fox (Meskwaki or Sauk) 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.
20 tt.nw. -or- tt.n·w. 2019Fox (Meskwaki or Sauk) 3: Fox (Meskwaki or Sauk) 3 ✧ SAC ✧ Fox as above, written with the Fox II script, a true alphabet showing consonants and vowels explicitly.
20 2019Frankish (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.
XX Wintarmanoþ MMXVIIIIFrisian [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.
20 foarmoanne “Fore month” 2019 ▭Frisian [North] (Mooring): Frisian [North] (Mooring) ✧ FRR ✧ About 10,000 speakers in the Schleswig-Holstein region of Germany
20 janewoore -or- ismoune “Ice month” 2019 ▭Frisian [West Schiermonnikoog]: Frisian [West Schiermonnikoog] ✧ FRY ✧ Heard on the Island of Schiermonnikoog off Northern Netherlands, seriously endangered with fewer than 100 speakers
20 feurmond 2019Friulian: Friulian ✧ FUR ✧ Indo-European, Romance. Spoken by half a million in NE Italy near the Slovenian border. 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).
20 genâr 2019 ▭Fula: 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.
20 siilo 2019 ▭Fur: Fur ✧ FVR ✧ Tentatively attributed to the Nilo-Saharan family, spoken in south central Darfur in western Sudan.
20 Taanɨ̂lɨ́ŋ 2019Futunan: Futunan ✧ FUT ✧ Malayo-Polynesian language spoken on Futuna Island and New Caledonia. Its words for hand and arm are identical.
20 sanualio 2019Gaelic [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.
20 Mí Eanáir 2019 ▭Gaelic [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.
20 Am Faoilleach “Time of the wolf” 2019 ▭Gaelic [Scottish Archaic]: Gaelic [Scottish Archaic] ✧ GLA ✧ As Scottish Gaelic above, but older
20 Mìos Deireannach a' Gheamhraidh 2019Gagauz: Gagauz ✧ GAG ✧ Turkic language spoken in Moldova, Ukraine, Turkey, Russia
20 бӱӱк ай (büyük ay) 2019Galician: Galician ✧ GLG ✧ Sharply divergent Portuguese spoken in Galicia (Northern Spain). Fidel Castroʼs father was Galician and emigrated to make his sugar cane fortune.
20 xaneiro 2019 ▭Gallong (Galo) [Lare]: Gallong (Galo) [Lare] ✧ ADL ✧ Sino-Tibetan, Tani branch, at least four dialects though likely more, 30,000 speakers. Arunachal Pradesh, NE India.
20 deecɨɨ -or- hwwlo 2019Gallo: 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.
20 jaunvier 2019 ▭Garifuna: 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.
20 furumeti hati 2019 ▭Garo: 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.
20 bilsini skanggipa ja 2019Gaulish: 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).
VI simivisonnaci MMXVIIII ▭Ga: Ga ✧ GAA ✧ Niger-Congo family, Kwa division, first written in 1764. Tonal, three vowel lengths.
20 Aharabata 2019Gciriku (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.
20 Muróngona 2019Georgian: Georgian ✧ KAT ✧ Kartvelian family, lacks an F sound natively. Closely related to Svan (q.v.) but completely unintelligible with it. Nouns are classed not as masculine and feminine, but intelligent and unintelligent.
კ იანვარი (ianwari) ცით ▭Georgian [Old]: Georgian [Old] ✧ KAT ✧ Georgian from approximately 800-1000 ce
კ აპნისი -or- აპანი (ap̓nisi / ap̓ani) ცითGerman [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.
20 Janner 2019 ▭German [Alsatian Folk]: German [Alsatian Folk] ✧ GSW ✧ Previous to, or aside from, the modern neo-Roman.
20 Wintermonat -or- Hartmonat -or- Hartung -or- Eismond 2019German [Brazilian Pomeranian]: German [Brazilian Pomeranian] ✧ NDS ✧ Not to be confused with West Slavic Pomeranian, this is a Low German dialect spoken in the southern Brazilian State of Santa Catarina, chiefly in Pomerode by 90% of its residents.
20 im Januar 2019German [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.
XX Hartimānōd MMXVIIII ▭German [Plautdietsch]: German [Plautdietsch] ✧ PDT ✧ North Sea Germanic, Low German, akin to Dutch. Spoken in Northern Germany, eastern areas of the Netherlands, and by Mennonites worldwide.
20 Jaunwoa -or- Jannewaori 2019 ▭German [Ripuarian] (Kölsch): German [Ripuarian] (Kölsch) ✧ KSH ✧ Indo-European, West Germanic, Central Franconian. Cologne region.
20 Jannowaa -or- Jannewa 2019German [Walser]: German [Walser] ✧ WAE ✧ Germanic, uppermost Swiss alps. Its CH is quite roughly articulated.
20 Jenner 2019 ▭German [mid 17th century]: German [mid 17th century] ✧ GER ✧ The High German shown on a 1665 calendar
20 Jenner 2019Gitxsan (Gitksan): Gitxsan (Gitksan) ✧ GIT ✧ Tsimshianic family, British Columbia, < 1000 speakers
20 hlox̱sa gwlneeḵw 2019Gothic: 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.
XX (sulamenoþs) MMXVIIII ▭Gourmantché: 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.
20 cile 2019Greenlandic (Kalaallisut): Greenlandic (Kalaallisut) ✧ KAL ✧ Language from the Eskimo-Aleut family, now official in Greenland
20 Jannuaari 2019 ▭Griko (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.
20 Jennàri 2019 ▭Gros 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.
20 ɂóhuunɔ́kɔɔɔtɔɔh “When it's very cold” 2019Guahibo: Guahibo ✧ GUH ✧ From the Guahiban family, 34,000 speakers in Colombia and in the Orinoco River area in Venezuela. Unusually complex stress patterns for syllables.
20 pitsuni juameto “Yellow-spotted river turtles” 2019 ▭Guan [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.
20 җынйүә (ʂənjyә) 2019Guaraní [Paraguayan]: Guaraní [Paraguayan] ✧ GUG ✧ Tupian family. This is the standard Guaraníx spoken in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay. Genderless. Oldest writings date from 1639.
20 jasyteï 2019 ▭Guernésiais: 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.
20 janvier 2019 ▭Guhu-Samane: Guhu-Samane ✧ GHS ✧ An isolate related to the Binanderean family, Papua New Guinea, five dialects recognized, 13,000 speakers.
20 Dzanuba 2019Guiqiong: Guiqiong ✧ GQI ✧ Sino-Tibetan, Qiangic. A preliterate, poorly documented language spoken in Sichuan and Tibet. Four tones (33, 35, 53, 55). There are ≅ 6000 native speakers, who switch to Chinese when they travel outside their villages.
20 dↄ̃33bu55li53 2019Gullah (Sea Islands Creole): Gullah (Sea Islands Creole) ✧ GUL ✧ English-based, Niger-Congo influences. The word “kumbaya” comes from Gullah.
20 Jinnywerry 2019 ▭Gungu (Lugungu): Gungu (Lugungu) ✧ RUB ✧ Niger-Congo family, Bantoid, Great Lakes Bantu, 49,000 speakers in Buliisa, Hoima, and Masindi districts in North Western Uganda. No dictionary existed until 2012.
20 Mweri̱ Gwakubanza 2019Gusii (Ekegusii): Gusii (Ekegusii) ✧ GUZ ✧ Niger-Congo family, Northeast Bantu, spoken by 2.2 million in western Kenya’s Gusii district. Contrastive vowel lengths.
20 Esagati 2019Gusilay: 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%.
20 Fúwaagen 2019Gutnish (Gotlandic): Gutnish (Gotlandic) ✧ - ✧ Endangered North Germanic language some assign to its own sub-branch, spoken by between 2000 and 5000 on the islands of Fårö (not to be confused with the Faroe Islands) and Gotland. Shows vowel shifts and much vocabulary differing significantly from Swedish.
20 janvari -or- januvare 2019Gwere (Lugwere): Gwere (Lugwere) ✧ GWR ✧ Niger-Congo, Great Lakes Bantu, 410,000 speakers in Uganda.
20 Gusooka -or- Nankungu 2019Gwich’in [Western]: Gwich’in [Western] ✧ GWI ✧ Na-Dené family, Athabaskan. 700 speakers in Alaska + NW Canada.
20 Tr'ookit Shree Nan -or- Ahtr'aii Shree Choo -or- Ch’anjaa 2019 ▭Haida: 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.
20 Táan Kungáay “Bear hunting moon” 2019Haitian Creole: Haitian Creole ✧ HAT ✧ French-derived but borrows from Taíno, Portuguese, African languages
20 janvie 2019 ▭Hakha Chin (Lai): Hakha Chin (Lai) ✧ CNH ✧ Sino-Tibetan family, spoken in Burma, Bangladesh, and India. Tonal.
20 Januari thla 2019Hakka: Hakka ✧ HAK ✧ Sino-Tibetan. Taiwan, SE China, diaspora communities worldwide. Uses NG sounds and final M, unlike, say, Mandarin Chinese.
20 一月 yit5 ŋiet6 2019 ▭Hani (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).
20 xm̩31 ø55 2019Harari: 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.
20 ahad-khá warhay 2019Havasupai-Hualapai: Havasupai-Hualapai ✧ YUF ✧ Yuman family, around 550 speakers in NW Arizona. About 200 Havasupai (“people of the blue-green waters”) live in the Grand Canyon village of Supai, Arizona, accessible only by foot, mule, or helicopter.
20 Hamsii Gadiiya “Shining stars” 2019Heiltsuk-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.
20 n̓úláǧṃi “First born of the family” 2019Herero: 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.
20 ku Rozonḓu 2019Hidatsa: 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.
20 Awá Arugíhahge Mirísh 2019Hiligaynon (Ilongo): Hiligaynon (Ilongo) ✧ HIL ✧ Malayo-Polynesian, Visaya group, spoken in Philippines.
20 (ulalong) 2019Hmong (Miao): Hmong (Miao) ✧ HMN ✧ Hmong-Mien family, native to mountainous areas in SE 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.
20 Ib hlis ntuj 2019 ▭Holikachuk: Holikachuk ✧ HOI ✧ Athabaskan language, central Alaska. Its last fluent speaker, Wilson “Tiny” Deacon, died in March 2012.
20 Mits’in Niłtogidziłghul 2019Homshetsi (Hamshen): Homshetsi (Hamshen) ✧ AXM(?) ✧ Archaic Armenian dialect spoken by 14,000 in Turkey, preliterate until 1995. Homshetsi and modern Armenian are not mutually intelligible.
20 նորդայի (nordayi) 2019 ▭Hopi: Hopi ✧ HOP ✧ Uto-Aztecan family, ≅ 7000 native speakers in NE Arizona. Bitonal with four distinct dialects identified by linguist Benjamin Whorf that differ in their consonant inventory.
20 Paamuya “Joyful Moon” 2019 ▭Hrê: Hrê ✧ HRE ✧ Austroasiatic family, Bahnaric, Sedang-Todrah, 94,000 speakers among the Hrê/H’re people of Vietnam’s Binh Dinh, Gia Lai, Kon Tum, and Quang Ngai provinces. Its closest living relative is Sedang (q.v.).
20 khê mòiq 2019Huichol [Wixarika]: Huichol [Wixarika] ✧ HCH ✧ Uto-Aztecan language with 45,000 speakers, native to west-central Mexico. Creates long “sentence words” with prefixes and suffixes.
20 tasunasi -or- xei metseeri 2019Hungarian [Premodern religious]: Hungarian [Premodern religious] ✧ OHU ✧ Church-based Hungarian, before it adopted neo-Latin month conventions
20 boldogasszony hava “Happy woman month” 2019Hungarian [Premodern secular]: Hungarian [Premodern secular] ✧ OHU ✧ Secular Hungarian, before it adopted neo-Latin month conventions
20 fergeteg hava “Whirlwind month” 2019 ▭Hungarian [Reform Era]: Hungarian [Reform Era] ✧ HUN ✧ Hungarian during the nationalistic fervor of 1825-1848
20 télhó 2019Iaai: Iaai ✧ IAI ✧ Spoken by around 4000 on Ouvéa Island, New Caledonia. Sports a highly unusual set of sounds for a Polynesian (or any) language, and stands alone in the world for its voiceless retroflex (tongue curled backwards) nasal.
20 jenuare 2019Iatmül: 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.”
20 kwekwelakwa 2019Iban: 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.
20 empalai rubai 2019Idu Mishmi (Chulikata): Idu Mishmi (Chulikata) ✧ CLK ✧ Sino-Tibetan, endangered. India’s Dibang Valley District of Arunachal Pradesh, 3 dialects.
20 तच्यि (tacyi) -or- ló àlà 2019 ▭Igbo: Igbo ✧ IBO ✧ Niger-Congo, tonal, proverb-heavy, Nigeria. Actor Chiwetel Ejiofor (Amistad, Twelve Years a Slave, etc.) is Igbo.
20 ónwa ḿbun’áfò 2019Ik: 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.
20 Kùpòn -or- Lomuka 2019Ingrian (Izhorian): Ingrian (Izhorian) ✧ IZH ✧ Uralic, Finnic language with only 120 speakers around Gulf of Finland
20 janvari 2019 ▭Ingush 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.
20 нижгамсхой (nižgamsχoi) 2019 ▭Ingush 2: Ingush 2 ✧ INH ✧ Alternative terminology
20 агӏой бутт (ag̓oy butt) 2019Inuktitut: 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.
20 ᔭᓐᓄᐊᓕ (january) 2019 ▭Inuktitut [Nunavik]: Inuktitut [Nunavik] ✧ IKU ✧ A dialect of Inuktitut
20 ᓇᓕᕐᒃ (Nalliqaittuq) 2019Inuktitut [Qikiqtaaluk]: Inuktitut [Qikiqtaaluk] ✧ IKU ✧ Inuktitut terminology used in the Baffin Region
20 Qaummagia 2019Inupiaq [North Slope]: Inupiaq [North Slope] ✧ IPK ✧ Eskimo-Aleut family, extreme NW Alaska
20 siqieaatchiaq 2019 ▭Iraqw: Iraqw ✧ IRK ✧ Afro-Asiatic, Cushitic, spoken by 600,000 in the Tanzania’s Arusha Region. Three genders, sentences end with a verb. An apostrophe indicates a glottal stop; a slash, a throaty hiss with a creaky voice.
20 axwaarír tlaakw 2019Isan: Isan ✧ TTS ✧ A group of Lao dialects spoken in NE Thailand by ethnic Isans. Isan is often viewed to be of lower prestige than Thai.
20 moggarakom 2019Istriot (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.
20 genàro 2019Itelmen: 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.
20 сюсакоач (syusakoač) 2019Iu Mien (Yao): Iu Mien (Yao) ✧ IUM ✧ From the Hmong-mien family, spoken by 840,000 of a Yao subgroup called the Iu Mien in China, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, and diaspora communities in the US. Tonal, uses several voiceless nasals as well as a voiceless L.
20 zih hlaax 2019Jèrriais: 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.
20 jaunvyi 2019 ▭Japanese [Premodern]: Japanese [Premodern] ✧ OJP ✧ Dating from the Heian Period (794-1185)
20 睦月 (mutsuki) “Month of harmony” 2019Japhug [Kamnyu Village]: Japhug [Kamnyu Village] ✧ OJP ✧ Sino-Tibetan, Qiangic, Rgyalgrongic, as spoken in Mbarkham County in Sichuan, China. Borrows heavily from Chinese, but non-tonal.
20 taŋbu jamar 2019Jaqaru: 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.
20 iniru 2019Jarai: Jarai ✧ JRA ✧ Malayo-Polynesian language related to Cham (q.v.), spoken in Vietnam and Cambodia
20 blan sa 2019Jebero (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.
20 Wala'apu'-duker 2019Jerba 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.
20 yennár 2019Jingpho (Kachin): Jingpho (Kachin) ✧ KAC ✧ Sino-Tibetan, Bramaputran. Kachin State, Burma, and Yunan Province, China. Five tones, commonly written with the Roman alphabet.
20 hkru 2019 ▭Jju: Jju ✧ KAJ ✧ Niger-Congo, West Plateau. 300,000 speakers in Nigeria’s Southern Kaduna state.
20 Hywan A̱urnig 2019Jola-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.
20 sanvie 2019Kabiye: Kabiye ✧ KBP ✧ Niger-Congo, Gur. Spoken by 1.2 million in Togo, Benin, and Ghana.
20 kɔlaɣ 2019Kabuverdianu (Cape Verdean): Kabuverdianu (Cape Verdean) ✧ KEA ✧ The oldest surviving creole, based on 15th century Portuguese
20 janeru 2019Kabyle (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).
20 ⵢⴻⵏⵏⴰⵢⴻⵔ (yennayer) 2019 ▭Kainji [Piti-Atsam]: Kainji [Piti-Atsam] ✧ CCH/PCN ✧ Niger-Congo family, Platoid. Spoken by around 30,000 in Nigeria.
20 pen dyon 2019Kalapuya: Kalapuya ✧ KYL ✧ Tiny language family once spoken in Western Oregon, extinct
20 Atalka 2019Kalenjin (Nandi): Kalenjin (Nandi) ✧ KLN ✧ Nilo-Saharan family, spoken in east Africa’s Rift Valley
20 mulgul 2019 ▭Kalinga [Lubuagan]: Kalinga [Lubuagan] ✧ KNB ✧ Malayo-Polynesian, Philippine, Central Cordilleran. Kalinga is spoken by 110,000 Igorot people, 12,000 of whom speak this particular dialect in Kalinga Province. The special letter y with a bar (y̶) is pronounced with the tongue extending further forward.
20 kiyang 2019 ▭Kamba {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 {Bolivia} ᴀᴋᴀ Chiriguano Guaraní.
20 Mwai wa mbee 2019Kankanaey [Northern]: Kankanaey [Northern] ✧ XNN ✧ A Malayo-Polynesian language spoken on Luzon in the Philippines. Kankanaey proper has 240,000 speakers, though this Northern variety is usually classed as a separate language.
20 opol 2019Kanza (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).
20 miⁿok’aⁿ yíⁿge 2019Kapingamarangi (Kirinit): Kapingamarangi (Kirinit) ✧ KPG ✧ Polynesian language with around 3000 speakers on the Kapingamarangi and Pohnpei Islands of Micronesia
20 dahi malama 2019Kaqchikel: Kaqchikel ✧ CAK ✧ Mayan family, 450,000 speakers in Guatemala’s Central Highlands. Kaqchikel intensifies adjectives by reduplication — in other words, repeating them twice.
20 nab’ey ik’ 2019Karachay-Balkar: Karachay-Balkar ✧ KRC ✧ Turkic language spoken in the Kabardino-Balkaria region of the north Caucasus. Closely related to Kumyk (q.v.).
20 башил ай (bašil ay) 2019 ▭Karakalpak: Karakalpak ✧ KAA ✧ Turkic, closely related to Kazakh (q.v.), ≅ 400,000 speakers in Uzbekistan
20 дәлиў (da’liw) 2019 ▭Karang: Karang ✧ KZR ✧ Niger-Congo, Bantu. Four dialects, 18,000 speakers in Camaroon.
20 few gel tel 2019Karelian [Standard]: Karelian [Standard] ✧ KRL ✧ Uralic, Finnic. Only non-Karelian spoilsports call it a Finnish dialect. 36,000 speakers.
20 pakkaskuu “Freezing month” 2019 ▭Karelian [Livvi/Olonets]: Karelian [Livvi/Olonets] ✧ OLO ✧ About 30,000 speakers, mostly clustered northeast of Saint Petersburg, adjacent to the eastern shore of Lake Ladoga.
20 pakkaskuudu 2019Karen [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.
၂၀ (tha lay) ၂၀၁၉ ▭Karuk: Karuk ✧ KYH ✧ A language isolate native to NW 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.
20 kuyráakhan -or- kuyrakhánkuusrah 2019Kasena (Kasem): Kasena (Kasem) ✧ XSM ✧ Niger-Congo, Gur, 250,000 speakers in Ghana and Burkina Faso.
20 Bɩn-dʋʋrɩ cana 2019Kaska: 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.
20 Tlįʼ Kʼané Sā “Dog spark month” 2019Kayan [Baram]: Kayan [Baram] ✧ KCT ✧ A Malayo-Polynesian language spoken in central Borneo, in two dialects of weak interintelligibity: Baram and Rejang
20 bulan ji 2019Kazakh: 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.
20 қаңтар (qangtar) 2019 ▭Kemedzung (Dumbo): Kemedzung (Dumbo) ✧ DMO ✧ Niger-Congo family, Southern Bantoid, 3500 speakers in western Cameroon
20 kɨŋfaŋ 2019Keresan: Keresan ✧ KEE/KJQ ✧ Language isolate group spoken in New Mexico. Some vowels are whispered. 10,000 speakers.
20 nadzi kisraiti 2019 ▭Ket: Ket ✧ KET ✧ The only surviving language from the Yeniseian family and seriously endangered, with 150 speakers in Siberia’s Yenisei River valley
20 ӄяӷып (qjaɣyp) 2019 ▭Khakas [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
20 kürgän 2019Khakas [Sagay]: Khakas [Sagay] ✧ KJH ✧ Another dialect of Khakas
20 çil ayï 2019Khanty (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.
20 тӱӆәҳ йӓҷә тыӆәс (tül̦ĕx̌ yäç̌ĕ tyl̦ĕs) 2019 ▭Khanty (Ostyak) [Eastern]: Khanty (Ostyak) [Eastern] ✧ KCA ✧ Eastern Khanty terms collected 1956-1957
20 já:vat pútuv ké:tym “Seven boilers cook” 2019Kharia: 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.
20 ma.kʰrel 2019Khasi: 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.
20 kylla-lyngkot 2019 ▭Khmer (Cambodian): Khmer (Cambodian) ✧ KHM ✧ Austroasiatic family, Mon-Khmer branch, heavy Sanskrit influences. Oldest inscription dates from 611 ce.
(makara) ▭Khowar (Chitrali): Khowar (Chitrali) ✧ KHW ✧ Indo-European, Indo-Iranian, 450,000 speakers mostly in Pakistan. Five dialects.
20 pheting 2019K’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’.
20 nab’e ik’ 2019 ▭Kiga (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).
20 Okwokubanza 2019Kiliwa: Kiliwa ✧ KLB ✧ Yuman language, 50 speakers, northern Baja California. Word for Pacific Ocean is Kuñím.
20 ja’la’ kekuapñal 2019Kiowa: Kiowa ✧ KIO ✧ One of seven languages belonging to the Tanoan family, seriously endangered, 100 speakers in western Oklahoma. Uses aspirated and ejective consonants; vowels can be oral or nasal, long or short.
20 Khaun hehn p’aw “Month of geese” 2019Kiribati (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.
20 Tianuare 2019 ▭Koasati (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.
20 cinowí:ri -or- ohayhahpasí -or- hasí himá:kan 2019Kơho: 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.
20 kəənhaj duːl 2019Kokborok (Tripuri): Kokborok (Tripuri) ✧ TRP ✧ Sino-Tibetan language of India and Bangladesh. Uses high and low tones.
20 bisini swkang talni mung 2019Komi (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.
20 тӧв шӧв (töv šöv) 2019 ▭Kom: Kom ✧ BKM ✧ Niger-Congo, Bantu. Tri-tonal, 127,000 speakers in NW Camaroon
20 njoñ ïìbíyn 2019Kongo: Kongo ✧ KON ✧ Bantu language spoken in Angola and both Congos. The words zombie and goober, and possibly funky, are Kongo loans.
20 sánza ya libosó 2019Konso: Konso ✧ KXC ✧ Afro-Asiatic, Cushitic, spoken by 240,000 South of Lake Chamo in Ethiopia. Serves as a lingua franca in the area.
20 oypa 2019Korku: 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.
20 puso 2019Kosraean (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.
20 sacnwuhri 2019Kposo (Ikposo): Kposo (Ikposo) ✧ KPO ✧ Niger-Congo, Kwa, 160,000 speakers in Togo and Ghana. Consonant blends KP and GB frequently occur, along with ƔL.
20 ulatu 2019Ksingmul: Ksingmul ✧ PUO ✧ Austroasiatic, Mon-Khmer, spoken by 27,000 ethnic Ksingmul (Xinh Mul in Vietnamese) in Vietnam and Laos.
20 bluən mot 2019Kumeyaay (Central Diegueño): Kumeyaay (Central Diegueño) ✧ DIH ✧ Yuman family, spoken by ≅ 400 in Southern California and the Baja
20 halamrtinya 2019Kumyk: 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.
20 аювъятгъан (ayuvyatgan) 2019 ▭Kuna (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.
20 yornii “Rainless month” 2019Kurdish [Kurmanji/North]: Kurdish [Kurmanji/North] ✧ KMR ✧ Indo-European family, Indo-Iranian. The dialect of 75% of Kurdish speakers.
20 çileya paşîn 2019 ▭Kurdish [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.
20 çile -or- k’anûna paşin 2019Kurdish [Sorani/South]: Kurdish [Sorani/South] ✧ CKB ✧ The Kurdish dialect second in number of speakers to Kurmanji
20 kânûn i dûham 2019 ▭Kutenai (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.
20 kmitxaǂtitnam 2019Kven: 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.
20 januaarikuu 2019 ▭Kwak'wala: Kwak'wala ✧ KWK ✧ A language from the Wakashan family with around 500 speakers, native to the Queen Charlotte Strait off the NE tip of Vancouver Island. Uncommonly wide consonant inventory, including ejectives.
20 wa'ya̱nx̱ 2019Kwangali: 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.
20 Murongagona 2019Kwasio: 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.
20 ngwɛn matáhra 2019Kyrgyz: Kyrgyz ✧ KIR ✧ Altaic family, Turkic. Spoken by 4 million in Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, China.
20 üçtün ayı 2019 ▭Lach: 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.
20 styčéń 2019Ladakhi (Bhoti or Balti): Ladakhi (Bhoti or Balti) ✧ 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.
20 dawa chik pa 2019 ▭Ladin [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.
20 jená 2019Ladin [Cadorean]: Ladin [Cadorean] ✧ LLD ✧ Ladin dialect of a handful of speakers in Cadore in the Italian province of Belluno bordering on Austria
20 denei 2019Ladin [Fassa Valley]: Ladin [Fassa Valley] ✧ LLD ✧ Another Ladin dialect, 600 speakers in Trentino in the Italian Alpines
20 jené 2019Ladin [Gardenese]: Ladin [Gardenese] ✧ LLD ✧ Ladin dialect, 8000 speakers in the Dolomites of South Tyrol in Northern Italy
20 jené 2019 ▭Ladin [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.
20 zenar 2019Ladino (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.
20 (enero) 2019 ▭Lahu: Lahu ✧ LHU ✧ Sino-Tibetan family, spoken in China, Thailand, Myanmar, and Laos
20 jànàvālī 2019Lakota: Lakota ✧ LKT ✧ Siouan-Catawban family, spoken by ≅ 6000 in the US Dakotas. Heard in the 1990 movie Dances with Wolves.
20 Canopopa Wi “Moon when the trees crack” 2019 ▭Lak: Lak ✧ LBE ✧ Northeast Caucasian, ≅ 160,000 speakers in Southern Dagestan. Heavy influences from Russian, Turkish, Arabic, and Persian.
20 цалчинмур барз (tsаlčinmur barz) 2019Lao: Lao ✧ LAO ✧ Kra–Dai family, 6 tones. Many Indo-European loans via Pali/Sanskrit.
deuan mungon ▭Latgalian: Latgalian ✧ LTG ✧ Baltic, 150,000 speakers. Related to Latvian, Samogitian, and Lithuanian (q.v.).
20 jaunagods mieness 2019Laz (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.
20 ჟანაღანი (žanaɣani) 2019 ▭Lenape (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.
20 Anixigischuch “Marmots start running” 2019Leonese: Leonese ✧ ??? ✧ Endangered Romance language undergoing a revival in NW Spain. Oldest writings date from ca. 959-974 ce.
20 xineiru 2019 ▭Lepcha: Lepcha ✧ LEP ✧ Sino-Tibetan family, non-tonal, unique script. West Bengal, Nepal, Bhutan.
(kurnit 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.
20 гьер (her) 2019 ▭Lezgian [Premodern]: Lezgian [Premodern] ✧ LEZ ✧ Conjectured Lezgian terminology of yore
20 суьл (sul) 2019Lhao Vo (Langsu or Maru): Lhao Vo (Langsu or Maru) ✧ MHX ✧ Sino-Tibetan, Lolo-Burmese, 100,000 speakers. Heard in Luxi City, Lianghe and Longchuan Counties in China, and eastern Kachin State in Myanmar.
20 lɔ̱55 tă31 khjɛʔ55 2019Ligurian [Genoese]: Ligurian [Genoese] ✧ LIJ ✧ Indo-European, Romance, Northern Italy. Endangered. Not to be confused with ancient Ligurian, an extinct Celtic language.
20 zenná 2019 ▭Ligurian [Monégasque]: Ligurian [Monégasque] ✧ LIJ ✧ Ligurian dialect spoken by 5600 in Monaco including Princess Stephanie. Employs the non-Italian ü, œ, and ç.
20 zena 2019 ▭Limburgish: Limburgish ✧ LIM ✧ Germanic language, Limburg & Rhineland areas. Quite unusually, it’s tonal.
20 Jannewarie 2019 ▭Lingala: Lingala ✧ LIN ✧ Niger-Congo, Bantu, tonal. Spoken in both Congos.
20 sánzá ya libosó 2019Lingarak (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.
20 [No correspondence for January] 2019Lisu [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.
20 tithan 2019Lisu [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.
20 (ti55 ha21) 2019Lithuanian: Lithuanian ✧ LIT ✧ Baltic, 3 million speakers. Unusually, its alphabet places Y after Į.
20 sausis “Dry” 2019Livonian: 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.
20 údáigastkú “New Year month” 2019 ▭Lombard [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.
20 genar 2019Lombard [Eastern Bergamasque]: Lombard [Eastern Bergamasque] ✧ LMO ✧ A subdivision of Eastern Lombard spoken by 700,000
20 jenér 2019Lombard [Mantuan]: Lombard [Mantuan] ✧ LMO ✧ Lombard dialect spoken in the city and commune of Mantua in Lombardy
20 snèr -or- znár 2019Lombard [Western] (Insubric): Lombard [Western] (Insubric) ✧ LMO ✧ The Lombard spoken in Southern Switzerland and Northern Italy around Milan
20 genee 2019 ▭Louisiana Creole: Louisiana Creole ✧ LOU ✧ French-derived, African + other elements. Unlike French, verbs don’t conjugate. Not to be confused with Louisiana French, ᴀᴋᴀ Cajun, a dialect of Metropolitan (Standard) French.
20 janviyé 2019 ▭Lower Tanana: Lower Tanana ✧ TAA ✧ Endangered Athabaskan language with a dozen or so speakers. Minto, Alaska.
20 neeɬdrasradedakhden 2019Loxrlavu [Yao'an] (Lolopo): Loxrlavu [Yao'an] (Lolopo) ✧ YCL ✧ Sino-Tibetan, Tibeto-Burman, Ngwi-Burmese, Ngwi. Spoken by 60,000 Loxrlapor people in southwestern China (Chuxiong Prefecture and Xiangyun County in Midian Township).
20 guxlsixlxiu 2019Lozi: 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.
20 Sope 2019Luba-Katanga: Luba-Katanga ✧ LUB ✧ Niger-Congo family/Bantu, spoken in the Katanga Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
20 Ciongo 2019Ludic: 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.).
20 pakažkuu 2019 ▭Luganda (Ganda): Luganda (Ganda) ✧ LUG ✧ Niger-Congo, Northeast Bantu, 4 million speakers mostly in the Baganda area of Uganda. Tonal (high, low, falling), both consonants and vowels can be long, shown by doubling the letter, or short.
20 Gatonya -or- omwezi ogusooka 2019 ▭Lugbara: 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.
20 Oco ‘dupa sere 2019Luo: Luo ✧ LUO ✧ Nilo-Saharan family, Kenya and Tanzania. Barak Obama Sr. was Luo.
20 Dwe mar achiel 2019Luxembourgish [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.
20 Haartmount 2019 ▭Maa [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.
20 oladalú 2019Maa [Samburu]: Maa [Samburu] ✧ SAQ ✧ Maa dialect of the Northern Kenya highlands, 240,000 speakers
20 Lapa le obo 2019Macassarese [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.
XX bulang Naagai MMXVIIIIMacedonian [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.
20 коложег (koložeg) “Burning trunks” 2019 ▭Maguindanao [Pre-Spanish Conquest]: Maguindanao [Pre-Spanish Conquest] ✧ MDH ✧ A Malayo-Polynesian language spoken by 1.1 million descendents of the Sultanate of Maguindanao on SW Mindanao in the Philippines
20 katparasan 2019Makasai [Makalero]: Makasai [Makalero] ✧ MJB ✧ From the Trans-New Guinea family, Makasai itself is spoken by 100,000 in the Baucau and Viquequ districts of East Timor; of those, 6000 speak the Makalero dialect. This is their rarely used Gregorian month terminology.
20 uilal-bailiur “When pigs go raiding gardens” 2019Makhuwa-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).
20 Mweri wo kwanza 2019Malagasy: Malagasy ✧ MLG ✧ Spoken in Madagascar but non-African (Malayo-Polynesian, from Borneo). For all dialects inclusive there are 25 million speakers.
20 Janoary 2019 ▭Malagasy [Antankaraña]: Malagasy [Antankaraña] ✧ XMV ✧ Dialect spoken by ethnic Antankaraña in Northern Madagascar
20 Fanempoka 2019Malagasy [Sakalava]: Malagasy [Sakalava] ✧ SKG ✧ Dialect spoken by ethnic Sakalava in Northern Madagascar
20 Atsia 2019Malagasy [Tandroy-Mahafaly]: Malagasy [Tandroy-Mahafaly] ✧ TDX ✧ Dialect spoken by ethnic Mahafaly in SW Madagascar
20 Zanvie 2019Malecite-Passamaquoddy: Malecite-Passamaquoddy ✧ PQM ✧ Algonquian family, spoken in New Brunswick & Maine, endangered
20 apolahsomuwehsuwi-kisuhs 2019Maltese: Maltese ✧ MLT ✧ Unique Arabic/Sicilian hybrid, 370,000 speakers on Malta. Its cadence and inflection reminds many non-natives of Italian.
20 Jannar 2019 ▭Manchu: Manchu ✧ MNC ✧ Tungusic language spoken natively by fewer than 20 in NE China, but also by several thousand as a second language due to recent revival efforts
(aniya biya) ▭Mandinka: Mandinka ✧ MNK ✧ Niger-Congo family, Mande branch, Manding group. Bitonal.
20 januwaari karoo 2019Mandinka [Traditional]: Mandinka [Traditional] ✧ MNK ✧ Niger-Congo family, Mande branch, Manding group. Bitonal.
20 musukoto 2019Mangarevan: 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.
20 igaia 2019Mang: 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.
20 meː6 θuam6 2019Mankanya: Mankanya ✧ KNF ✧ Niger-Congo family, Bak branch, spoken natively by 75,000 in Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, and Senegal.
20 Pli pŧeek pi kanuur 2019Mansi: Mansi ✧ MNS ✧ Uralic, related to Hungarian, 3000 speakers in central Siberia. Word order is fixed.
20 тал котиль этпос (tal kotil’ etpos) 2019Manx: 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.
20 Jerrey Geuree 2019 ▭Māori [New Zealand]: Māori [New Zealand] ✧ 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.
20 Kohi tātea 2019 ▭Māori [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.
20 Tiānuare 2019 ▭Māori [Moriori]: Māori [Moriori] ✧ MRI ✧ A Māori dialect of the Chatham Islands, east of New Zealand’s South Island. In 1835 two waves of Māori invaded the Moriori and within a few decades virtually annihilated them. Their language went extinct with the death of its last speaker Hirawanu Tapu in 1898.
20 Poapoarangi 2019 ▭Mapudungun (Mapuche): Mapudungun (Mapuche) ✧ ARN ✧ Language isolate spoken in Chile and Argentina, writing system under dispute
20 avun-cújen 2019 ▭Mari [Meadow or Eastern] (Cheremis): Mari [Meadow or Eastern] (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.
20 шорыкйол (shorǝkyol) 2019 ▭Marshallese: Marshallese ✧ MAH ✧ Malayo-Polynesian, two main dialects, spoken on the Marshall Islands.
20 Jānwōde 2019Mashi (Kwandu): Mashi (Kwandu) ✧ MHO ✧ A Niger-Congo, Bantu language spoken by 22,000 in parts of Angola, DR Congo, and Zambia.
20 Kasi-kiru karhanzi 2019Matlatzinca: 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.
20 ranbë 2019 ▭Maxakalí: Maxakalí ✧ MBL ✧ Language with its own family spoken by a few hundred in Minas Gerais, Brazil
20 yanêm 2019Mbuko: Mbuko ✧ MHW ✧ Afro-Asiatic, Chadic. 13,000 speakers in Northern Camaroon. Not to be confused with Mbukushu (q.v.), from the Niger-Congo family.
20 kiya cew 2019Mbukushu: 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.
20 mwenge 2019Mbula: 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).
20 Mbu -or- Ŋgeze 2019Meitei (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.
(shajibu) 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.
20 Janiwari 2019Menominee: Menominee ✧ MEZ ✧ Algonquian family, spoken in Northern Wisconsin, nearly extinct
20 Anāmaehkatwan kēsoq “Shaking hands moon” 2019Meta': 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.
20 iməg mbegtug 2019Meänkieli: Meänkieli ✧ FIT ✧ Endangered Finnish dialect group spoken in Sweden’s Norrbotten province. Unlike Finnish, it borrows neo-Roman terms for the months.
20 janyaari 2019 ▭Miami-Illinois (Myaamia): Miami-Illinois (Myaamia) ✧ MIA ✧ Algonquian, originally midwestern US. Extinct but under revival.
20 ayaapia kiilhswa 2019 ▭Michif: Michif ✧ CRG ✧ A French-Cree hybrid, < 1000 speakers. North Dakota, Saskatchewan, Manitoba. It borrows its Gregorian calendar terms from French.
20 zháñvyé 2019Micmac: Micmac ✧ MIC ✧ Eastern Algonquian family, ≅ 7000 speakers currently. At one time Micmac used a system of Egyptianesque hieroglyphics called Komqwejwi'kasikl.
20 Punamujuiku’s “Frost fish runs” 2019 ▭Miju 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.
20 lāŋgòŋ 2019Min Dong [Fuzhou]: Min Dong [Fuzhou] ✧ CDO ✧ Sino-Tibetan, unintelligible with Mandarin or Cantonese, untra-complex tonality
20 ciăng nguŏk 2019Mingrelian: 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.
კ ღურთუთა (ɣurtuta) ცით ▭Mirandese: Mirandese ✧ MWL ✧ Romance language, at least 1000 years removed from Portuguese.
20 janeiro 2019 ▭Miskito: Miskito ✧ MIQ ✧ From the small Misumalpan family, spoken by ≅ 150,000 in Honduras and Nicaragua. English loans are numerous in Miskito; Spanish, less so.
20 siakwa kâti 2019 ▭Mixtec [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.
20 yoo eneru 2019Mixtec [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.
20 yòò xàá -or- yòò kí"in kuìyà -or- yòò nàá 2019Mizo (Lushai): Mizo (Lushai) ✧ LUS ✧ Sino-Tibetan language spoken in Myanmar, Bangladesh & India. Akin to Biete (q.v.).
20 pawlkut thla 2019Moba [Ben]: Moba [Ben] ✧ MFQ ✧ Niger-Congo family, Gur, Oti-Volta, Gurma, spoken by 300,000 in extreme northwest Togo concentrated in the city of Dapaong, then extending further west to Ghana and northward to Burkina Faso.
20 fawaaɔg 2019Moba [Bimoba or Moar]: Moba [Bimoba or Moar] ✧ BIM ✧ This is the rarer Moba dialect spoken by 30,000 of the ethnic Moba Gurma living in Ghana, and by 2000 more in Burkina Faso.
20 ŋmaayemir -or- daatoori 2019Mohawk: Mohawk ✧ MOH ✧ Iroquoian family, 3500 speakers in Ontario, Quebec, and Northern New York State. Curiously, no labial (lip-produced) consonants.
20 Tsothohrhkó:wa 2019 ▭Moksha: Moksha ✧ MDF ✧ Uralic language, Mordvinic, spoken along the central Volga. There are three main dialects, of which the central “ä” is the literary standard.
ΛΛ janvarjgov IIII/Λ ▭Mongolian: Mongolian ✧ MON ✧ Mongolic, a family whose members include Buryat and Oirat (q.v.). Observes vowel harmony and lacks the standard L sound.
нэгдүгээр сар (nägdügäär sar) ▭Monguor: Monguor ✧ MJG ✧ Mongolic family, Shirongolic branch, 150,000 speakers in China’s Qinghai and Gansu provinces. Two chief dialects are Mongghul and Mangghuer; speakers of the latter count in Chinese. Unlike other languages of the family, Monguor uses the Roman alphabet.
20 xni sara 2019Montagnais Innu: Montagnais Innu ✧ MOE ✧ Algonquian language related to Cree (q.v.), spoken by 11,000 in Labrador and Quebec
20 tshishe-pishimu 2019Mossi (Mòoré): Mossi (Mòoré) ✧ MOS ✧ A Niger-Congo language spoken by 5 million, mostly in Burkina Faso
20 yũun-vekre 2019Moxo [Trinitario]: Moxo [Trinitario] ✧ TRN ✧ Arawakan family, Southern, native to NE Bolivia. The Endangered Languages Project reports 3100 speakers.
20 enero 2019Mozarabic (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.
XX ינניר يننير yannáyr MMXVIIII ▭Mundang: Mundang ✧ MUA ✧ A Niger-Congo language spoken by 250,000 in Southern Chad
20 fĩi loo 2019Muya: 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.
20 dε33wε55tɑ̃35bu55 2019Mwotlap [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.
20 nē-wētgoy 2019Myene (Omyene): Myene (Omyene) ✧ MYE ✧ Niger-Congo, Bantu, 45,000 speakers of the Mpongwe, Nkomi, Galwa, and Bongo Pygmy groups in Gabon.
20 fogwɛnonga 2019Nāhuatl: 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.
20 tlacenti 2019 ▭Nafsan (South Efate): Nafsan (South Efate) ✧ ERK ✧ Malayo-Polynesian, native to Efate Island of NE Vanuatu with 6000 speakers. They count in base 5.
20 atlag pei 2019Nakhi (Naxi): Nakhi (Naxi) ✧ NXQ ✧ Sino-Tibetan, spoken in Yunnan by 350,000, famous for its Dongba “picture” writing.
20 yeqbeiq -or- yifyui 2019Nàmá (Khoekhoe): Nàmá (Khoekhoe) ✧ HQM ✧ Khoisan family, 300,000 speakers. Consonants include 20 clicks. Formerly called Hottentot.
20 kei!kani -or- !khanni 2019 ▭Nanai (Gold): Nanai (Gold) ✧ GLD ✧ Tungusic. 4000 speakers, decendents of Manchurian Jurchen
20 āгдима биа 2019 ▭Naskapi: Naskapi ✧ NSK ✧ Algonquian family, spoken by 1,230 in Quebec and Labrador. Uses the Cree syllabic writing system.
20 ᐅᒐᒥᑐᓇᓐ ᐱᓯᒻ (uchaamitunaan-piisim na) “Kissing month” 2019Navajo (Diné bizaad): Navajo (Diné bizaad) ✧ NAV ✧ Athabaskan family, southwest US. Tonal, uses ejectives like the Caucasian languages.
20 Yas Niłtʼees 2019 ▭Nawdm: Nawdm ✧ NMZ ✧ Niger-Congo, Gur, Northern, 150,000 speakers in Togo plus more in Ghana. Nawdm’s alphabet includes six digraphs: gw, gb, kw, kp, ny, ŋm. To distinguish paired consonants as not part of a digraph, the first takes an umlaut (g̈w as opposed to gw).
20 hò̧ò̧m waa -or- kwɛkpaŋkpaŋa 2019Ndebele [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).
20 uZibandlela 2019Ndebele [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.
20 uTjhirhweni 2019Ndyuka (Aukan): Ndyuka (Aukan) ✧ DJK ✧ English-based creole spoken by the Maroon people of Suriname
20 fosi mun 2019Neapolitan: 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.
20 gg’nnāih 2019 ▭Neapolitan [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.
20 scennàre 2019Nenets: Nenets ✧ YRK ✧ Uralic family, Samoyedic. It’s moribund and spoken by hardly anybody in extreme NW Russia.
20 limbya yriy 2019 ▭Nez Perce: Nez Perce ✧ NEZ ✧ Plateau Penutian family, Idaho, < 200 speakers, revival underway
20 Wiluupup 2019Nganasan: Nganasan ✧ NIO ✧ Uralic family, Samoyedic. Extreme north central Russia, ≅ 1000 speakers.
20 sätyagata 2019Ngiemboon: Ngiemboon ✧ NNH ✧ Niger-Congo family, Southern Bantoid, Grassfields. Spoken in Province de l'Ouest and Bamboutos in Cameroon by 250,000.
20 saŋ tsetsɛ̀ɛ lùm 2019Ngomba: 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.
20 nduŋmbi saŋ 2019Nheengatu: Nheengatu ✧ YRL ✧ Tupi-Guaraní family, spoken by 19,000 in Brazil, Colombia, and Venezuela. The name means “good tongue.”
20 îasypy 2019 ▭Nisga’a: Nisga’a ✧ NCG ✧ Tsimshianic family, seriously endangered, British Columbia (Canada)
20 K’aliiyee 2019Niuean: Niuean ✧ NIU ✧ Malayo-Polynesian language spoken in Niue. Unlike Hawaiian it uses no glottal stop.
20 Ianuali 2019Nivkh (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.
20 cham long 2019 ▭Nkore: Nkore ✧ NYN ✧ Niger-Congo, Bantu. Spoken by 2.3 million in southwestern Uganda.
20 biruuru 2019Nogai (Alabugat Tatar): Nogai (Alabugat Tatar) ✧ NOG ✧ Turkic, spoken in southwestern Russia’s Tuva region by Golden Horde descendents
20 канътар ай (kañtar ay) 2019 ▭Norman: 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.
20 jaunvyi 2019Norn (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.”
20 Januar 2019Northern 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.
20 Kwedatsogoba'a 2019Nuer: Nuer ✧ NUS ✧ Nilo-Saharan. South Sudan, Ethiopia. Breathy vs. non-breathy vowels. Related to Reel (q.v.).
20 Tiop thar pɛt 2019Nukuoro: 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.
20 madaligi “Little dipper” -or- tahi-malama “First month” 2019 ▭Nusu (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.).
20 thi55 ɬa55 2019Nuuchahnulth (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.
20 c̓um̓ aasumł 2019Nyole [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.
20 Luŋiira 2019Nzime (Badweʼe): Nzime (Badweʼe) ✧ PAC ✧ Niger-Congo, Bantu, spoken by 40,000 Dweʼe and Nzime people in Cameroon. Two dialects, Koonzime and Bajue.
20 dwehe 2019Occitan [Aranese]: Occitan [Aranese] ✧ OCI ✧ Indo-European, Romance, Langue d'òc. Spoken in NE Spain’s Aran Valley, official in Catalonia alongside Catalan (q.v.) and Spanish.
20 gèr 2019 ▭Occitan [Gascon]: Occitan [Gascon] ✧ OCI ✧ Indo-European, Romance, Langue d'òc. Spoken in Gascony in Southern France. Widely considered among linguists to be a separate language as it’s far less influenced by Spanish and Catalan.
20 genèr 2019 ▭Occitan [Provençal]: Occitan [Provençal] ✧ OCI ✧ Indo-European, Romance, closely related to Catalan (q.v.). A Langue d'òc spoken in Southern France.
20 janvié 2019Occitan [Vivaro-Alpine]: Occitan [Vivaro-Alpine] ✧ OCI ✧ Seriously endangered Occitan dialect spoken by 200,000 in SE France and NW Italy. The term “Vivaro-Alpine” was coined in the 1970s.
20 genier 2019Oirat [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.
20 tuula 2019 ▭Ojibwe (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.
20 Manidoo Giizis “Spirit Moon” 2019 ▭Ojibwe (Chippewa) [Western]: Ojibwe (Chippewa) [Western] ✧ OJW ✧ The other major dialect of Ojibwe
20 Gichi Manidoo Giizis “Great Spirit Moon” 2019Oneida: Oneida ✧ ONE ✧ Iroquoian family, ≅ 250 native speakers in Ontario, New York State, and an area around Green Bay, Wisconsin. Consonant inventory is relatively spare: K, L, N, S, T, H, W, Y and a glottal stop signaled by an apostrophe.
20 Teyakohúhtya’ks “Someone's ears are freezing.” 2019 ▭Onondaga: Onondaga ✧ ONO ✧ Iroquoian family, ≅ 50 speakers in Ontario and New York State. Like Oneida (q.v.) and other Iroquoian languages its consonant inventory is small, but its five vowels can be long or short as well as nasal or non-nasal.
20 dziotaragona 2019Oroch: 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.
20 беэ ича (bjey iča) 2019Oromo: Oromo ✧ ORM ✧ Afro-Asiatic, Cushitic. Non-Roman scripts were once banned. Oromo’s modern Roman standard, called Qubee, was formalized in 1991.
20 amajjii 2019Ös (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.
20 jel serta 2019Osage: 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.
20 mį́įǫpa hpąhą́le 2019Ossetian [Digor]: Ossetian [Digor] ✧ OSS ✧ Indo-European, Indo-Iranian, spoken mainly by Muslim Ossetians, about 100,000, in the Caucasus.
20 basylty 2019Ossetian [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.
20 тъæнджы мæй (tjændži mæy) 2019 ▭Ozolotepec: Ozolotepec ✧ ZAO ✧ Oto-Manguean family, Zapotecan group, spoken by 6500 in Oaxaca, Mexico. Zapotecan languages like Ozolotepec are tonal.
20 ener 2019O’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.
20 Gakimdag maşad “Month animals lose their fat” 2019Palauan: Palauan ✧ PAU ✧ Austronesian family, ≅ 15,000 speakers. Palau, Guam, Mariana Islands.
20 Kot el buil 2019 ▭Palor (Sili-Sili): Palor (Sili-Sili) ✧ FAP ✧ Niger-Congo family, Cangin, 9,700 speakers in the Thies area of Senegal.
20 saawiye 2019Pame (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.
20 ngum’au viñjiu niñgyije’ 2019Pashto [Northern/Eastern]: Pashto [Northern/Eastern] ✧ PUS ✧ Indo-European, Indo-Iranian, spoken by the Pashtuns of NE Pakistan
20 hasan wa huseyn 2019 ▭Pashto [Southern/Western]: Pashto [Southern/Western] ✧ PUS ✧ Pashto dialect spoken in western Afghanistan and Iran
20 hasan huseyn 2019Pawnee [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.
20 Rikátihaahtiiraraʾ 2019Pawnee [South Band]: Pawnee [South Band] ✧ PAW ✧ With Skiri above, the other dialect of Pawnee
20 Kaáta -or- Káʾat 2019Pecheneg: Pecheneg ✧ XPC ✧ A mysterious, poorly attested Turkic language with no known descendents, extinct by 1300
20 birim 2019Pemon (Arekuna): Pemon (Arekuna) ✧ AOC ✧ From the Cariban family, spoken by 30,000 in SE Venezuela, Brazil’s Roraima State, and Guyana. It was preliterate until the 20th century.
20 Ada maka chiworü kapüyi “Iguanas month” 2019Penan-Nibong: Penan-Nibong ✧ PEZ ✧ Malayo-Polynesian, North Sarawakan, spoken by 13,000 in Sarawak, Borneo. Two main dialects.
20 laseh jah 2019Pennsylvania “Dutch” (Deitsch): Pennsylvania “Dutch” (Deitsch) ✧ PDC ✧ A Palatinate German spoken by the Amish, many of whom not named Yoder
20 Yenner 2019Penrhyn (Tongarevan): Penrhyn (Tongarevan) ✧ PNH ✧ Seriously endangered Polynesian language spoken by around 200, Northern Cook Islands
20 tianuare 2019Picard (Ch’ti or “Patois”): Picard (Ch’ti or “Patois”) ✧ PCD ✧ Indo-European, Romance, Langue d’oïl. Extreme Northern France.
20 jinvié 2019Picard [Medieval]: Picard [Medieval] ✧ PCD ✧ As seen on the Astrolabe of Berselius (14th century)
XX jenuier MMXVIIIIPiedmontese: 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.
20 gené 2019 ▭Pingelapese: 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.
20 《edemen koahmwaloa》 epwelap 2019Pipil (Nawat): Pipil (Nawat) ✧ PPL ✧ Uto-Aztecan language under revival, El Salvador. There are now over 3000 speakers.
20 metzi se 2019Piro [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.
20 genero ksuru 2019Pitcairn-Norfolk: Pitcairn-Norfolk ✧ PIH ✧ An endangered Tahitian/English creole spoken on Pitcairn & Norfolk Islands
20 jaenyuweri 2019Pnar (Jaintia or Synteng): Pnar (Jaintia or Synteng) ✧ PBV ✧ Austroasiatic language, 320,000 speakers, Meghalaya, NE India + adjacent areas in Bangladesh. Shares much in common with Khasi (q.v.) though the two are not mutually inteligible.
20 dujtara 2019 ▭Pohnpeian: 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.
20 daliaram -or- senweri 2019Poitevin-Saintongeais: Poitevin-Saintongeais ✧ ??? ✧ Indo-European, Romance, Langue d’oïl. Earliest known writings from 1400s.
20 jhanvràe 2019Pökut: Pökut ✧ KLN ✧ Nilo-Saharan family, Kalenjin. 264,000 speakers in Kenya, Uganda.
20 Mu 2019Polabian: 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.
20 lede môn -or- rüzac -or- rüsatz 2019Pomeranian [Kashubian]: Pomeranian [Kashubian] ✧ CSB ✧ Indo-European, West Slavic. Some 100,000 speakers living mostly in Germany & Poland.
20 stëcznik 2019 ▭Pomeranian [Slovincian]: Pomeranian [Slovincian] ✧ CSB ✧ The other major dialect of Pomeranian, though unfortunately extinct since World War I
20 janʉãr 2019Pontic: 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.
20 Καλαντάρ’τς (Kalantarts) 2019Potawatomi: 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.
20 gche-mko-gizes “Great bear month” 2019Proto-Germanic: Proto-Germanic ✧ ??? ✧ Reconstructed ancestor of all Germanic languages, last spoken ca. 250 bce
XX Wentrumenoþ MMXVIIII ▭Proto-Slavic: Proto-Slavic ✧ ??? ✧ Reconstructed ancestor of all Slavic languages, 5th to 8th centuries ce
XX prosinc MMXVIIII ▭Pukapukan: Pukapukan ✧ PKP ✧ Malayo-Polynesian language from Danger Island (Cook Islands group). Over 4000 speakers.
20 Tiānuale 2019Pumi [Qingua or Southern]: Pumi [Qingua or Southern] ✧ PMJ ✧ Sino-Tibetan, Qiangic. Spoken by highland ethnic Pumi in Yunnan.
20 ɣu13ʂi13ɬi55 2019Pumi [Taoba or Northern]: Pumi [Taoba or Northern] ✧ PMI ✧ The other chief dialect of Pumi. The two are not mutually intelligible.
20 tǝ55li55mei35 2019Purépecha (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.
20 enerhu 2019Puroik (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.
20 da33 tə33 aŋ33 bo33 2019Q’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.
20 eneer -or- xb’en po 2019 ▭Qiang [Horpa/Ergong]: Qiang [Horpa/Ergong] ✧ ERO ✧ Sino-Tibetan family, Qiangic, non-tonal, 50,000 Sichuan-area speakers. Linguists consider it a “living fossil.”
20 to mbo 2019Qiang [Máwō]: Qiang [Máwō] ✧ CNG ✧ Sino-Tibetan, Qiangic, non-tonal, 130,000 speakers in China’s Sichuan
20 aʂ 2019 ▭Qiang [Taoping]: Qiang [Taoping] ✧ QXS ✧ Sino-Tibetan, Qiangic, but tonal (unlike Ergong and Máwō above), 80,000 speakers
20 χpe55ʂı33 2019Quechua [Standard]: Quechua [Standard] ✧ QUE ✧ Quechuan family, spoken by Inca Empire descendents. Natively it lacks the vowels E and O.
20 ñiqin qhulla puquy killapi 2019 ▭Quechua [Huallaga]: Quechua [Huallaga] ✧ QUE ✧ Quechua dialect spoken in the Huánuco Province in Peru
20 enïru 2019Quechua [Northern/Ecuadorian]: Quechua [Northern/Ecuadorian] ✧ QUE ✧ Quechua dialect, called Kitchwa, spoken in Ecuador, Colombia, and Peru
20 kamay 2019 ▭Quechua [Southern/Cusco]: Quechua [Southern/Cusco] ✧ QUZ ✧ Modern terminology for the Quechua dialect spoken in the Peru’s Cusco region
20 qhapaq raymi 2019 ▭Quechua [Southern/Cusco Imperial]: Quechua [Southern/Cusco Imperial] ✧ QUZ ✧ This is the traditional terminology of the Inca Empire, citing its monthly celebrations
20 huchuy pocoy “Small maturation” 2019Quileute (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: it prefixes words according to the physical traits of the person being spoken to — cross-eyed, hunchbacked, short, lame, etc.
20 kʷaʔwiyaʔaliḳtiyat 2019 ▭Rade: Rade ✧ RAD ✧ Austronesian, Malayo-Polynesian, Chamic, Highlands, akin to Cham (q.v.), spoken by 180,000 E-de people in southern Vietnam.
20 mlan sa 2019Rangi (Langi): Rangi (Langi) ✧ LAG ✧ Niger-Congo family, Bantu, with between 270,000 and 410,000 speakers in central Tanzania. Nouns divide into 19 classes.
20 Kʉfúngatɨ 2019Rapa 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.
20 ko koro 2019 ▭Rawang (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.
20 tiq shvlá 2019Reel (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.
20 Kön 2019Rennell-Bellona (Rennellese): Rennell-Bellona (Rennellese) ✧ MNV ✧ Relatively obscure Polynesian language, 2000 speakers, Solomon Islands
20 Lanuali 2019rGyalrong [Northwestern] (Sidaba): rGyalrong [Northwestern] (Sidaba) ✧ JYA ✧ rGyalrong is a group of Sino-Tibetan languages; Sidaba, one of its three major dialects. Verbs are marked with directional orientation cues. Sichuan.
20 zla wa ta mbo 2019Rohingya: Rohingya ✧ RHG ✧ Indo-European, Indo-Iranian. Heavily persecuted, the Rohingya are toughing it out in Burma and in refugee camps in Bangladesh.
20 soit 2019 ▭Romani [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.
20 baro masek -or- januaro 2019Romani [Balkan Ursari]: Romani [Balkan Ursari] ✧ RMN ✧ A Balkan Romani spoken in Moldavia and Romania
20 januarija 2019 ▭Romani [Kale Finnish]: Romani [Kale Finnish] ✧ RMF ✧ Indo-Aryan language, by way of Scotland, spoken by the Finnish Romani
20 xielosko čoon 2019Romani [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.
20 inerín 2019Romani [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).
20 iveskero -or- ivesko munþos 2019Romanian [Meglenitic] (Megleno-Romanian): Romanian [Meglenitic] (Megleno-Romanian) ✧ RUQ ✧ Eastern Romance, native to Greece, Macedonia, Romania, and Turkey. Some consider Meglenitic a separate language, others a dialect of either Romanian or Aromanian (q.v.). Only 5000 speakers, endangered.
20 culujéṷ 2019Romanian [Old Church/Traditional]: Romanian [Old Church/Traditional] ✧ RON ✧ Indo-European, Romance. Pre-20th century.
20 gerar “Frost” 2019Romansh [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.
20 schaner 2019 ▭Romansh [Putèr]: Romansh [Putèr] ✧ ROH ✧ Romansch dialect spoken in the Engadine Valley, Switzerland.
20 schner 2019Rotokas: 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. There are no nasal sounds like M, N, or NG.
20 kataipa kekira 2019Russian [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.
20 In’wár 2019 ▭Russian [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.
20 перезимье (perezim’e) “Trans-winter” 2019Rusyn (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. Lemko is a Rusyn dialect. Andy Warhol and Sandra Dee were of Rusyn extraction.
20 сѣчень (sičen’) “Touching year” 2019 ▭Rwanda-Rundi: Rwanda-Rundi ✧ KIN/RUN ✧ Niger-Congo, Bantu. Tonal, official in Rwanda.
20 Mutarama 2019Sa‘a (South Malaita or Apae‘aa): Sa‘a (South Malaita or Apae‘aa) ✧ APB ✧ Malayo-Polynesian, SE Solomonic, spoken by 12,000 in South Malaita, Solomon Islands.
20 uhi mwaka “Yams unripe” -or- raa “Sun and rain” 2019Sabaean (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.
XX 𐩻𐩥𐩽𐩲𐩡𐩵𐩺𐩲𐩱𐩲 (ðū ‘lxrāf) MMXVIIII ▭Salish, Coastal [Island Halkomelem]: Salish, Coastal [Island Halkomelem] ✧ HUR ✧ A language from the Salishan family spoken by ≅ 200 on the east coast of Vancouver Island
20 Pune’q 2019Salish, 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.
20 siʔsət -or- x̣ə́w̕əsčiʔánəŋ 2019Salish, Coastal [North Straits]: Salish, Coastal [North Straits] ✧ STR ✧ Salishan family, Vancouver area. Six dialects, nearly extinct.
20 x̱ə́w̕əsčiʔánəŋ 2019Salish, 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.
20 síʔsət 2019Salish, 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.
20 ƛ̕iq̓s 2019 ▭Salish, 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.
20 temḵ՚ aykw shalshal 2019Salish, 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.
20 mím̓na lhḵaych՚ 2019Salish, 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.
20 sq̓ʷsus 2019Salish, 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.
20 sčn̓čłtu spq̓niʔ -or- st̕apsqé spq̓niʔ 2019 ▭Salish, 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.
20 Pellkwetḿ ín “Stay at home month” 2019Sami [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.
20 uđđâivemáánu 2019 ▭Sami [Kildin]: Sami [Kildin] ✧ SJD ✧ A Sami spoken by ≅ 600 in the Lovozero area of the Kola Peninsula
20 одтыгьманну (odtɨg’mannu) 2019Sami [Lule]: Sami [Lule] ✧ SMJ ✧ Spoken by between 1000 and 2000 around the Lule River in Sweden and in Norway’s Nordland County.
20 ådåjakmánno 2019 ▭Sami [Northern]: Sami [Northern] ✧ SME ✧ The most widely spoken Sami, ≅ 20,000 speakers
20 oððajagemánu “New Year month” 2019 ▭Sami [Skolt]: Sami [Skolt] ✧ SMS ✧ Seriously endangered, 400 speakers mostly around Sevettijärvi, Finland. Oldest writings date from 1884.
20 oððee’jjmannu 2019 ▭Sami [Southern]: Sami [Southern] ✧ SMA ✧ Seriously endangered, 500 speakers in Norway’s Snåsa and Hattfjelldal districts
20 tsïengelen 2019 ▭Samlandish (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.
20 Rags 2019 ▭Samogitian: 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.).
20 sausis “Dry” 2019Sango: 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.
20 sepë 2019Sanskrit: 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.
२० प्रथममास (prathamamāsa) २०१९ ▭Santali: Santali ✧ SAT ✧ Austroasiatic-Munda language spoken in Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, and Nepal. Uses Ol Chiki alphabet devised in the early 20th century.
᱒᱐ ᱡᱟᱱᱩᱣᱟᱨᱤ ᱒᱐᱑᱙Saramaccan: Saramaccan ✧ SRM ✧ Portuguese/English/Dutch creole + African traits. Suriname.
20 jái líba “New Year’s Day month” 2019Sardinian [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.
20 zannarju -or- gennaxu 2019Sardinian [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 a dialect of Corsican (q.v.).
20 ghjnnagghju 2019 ▭Sardinian [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.
20 bennarzu 2019Sardinian [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).
20 cennalzu -or- gennàgliu 2019Sardinian [Sassarese]: Sardinian [Sassarese] ✧ SDC ✧ 100,000 speakers tending toward the north of the island. Heavy Corsican (q.v.) influences.
20 ginnàggiu 2019Satawalese: Satawalese ✧ STW ✧ Malayo-Polynesian, Micronesian, Trukic, spoken by 500 on Satawal, Yap, and other islands + atolls of the Federated States of Micronesia. Features loans from other Micronesian languages such as Woleaian (q.v.) and Ulithian as well as English, Japanese, Spanish.
20 Tumwur 2019Saxwe (Tsáphɛ): Saxwe (Tsáphɛ) ✧ SXW ✧ Niger-Congo family, Gbe group, spoken by 170,000 in Benin
20 Wɔhungbosun 2019Secoya (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.
20 ome 2019Sedang: Sedang ✧ SED ✧ Austroasiatic language native to Laos & Vietnam, 100,000 speakers. Famously huge vowel inventory.
20 khế môi 2019Seediq [Truku/Taroko]: Seediq [Truku/Taroko] ✧ TRV ✧ Formosan, Atayalic. Indigenous language from Northern Taiwan.
20 kingal idas 2019Sekani [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.”
20 Sacho Nun 2019Sekani [McLeod Lake]: Sekani [McLeod Lake] ✧ SEK ✧ Another Sekani variant
20 Tli che usdats 2019Selkup: Selkup ✧ SEL ✧ Uralic, Samoyedic. Yamalo-Nenets region in Siberia, 1500 speakers. Distinguishes between long and short vowels.
20 лымбъкет иррет (lymb″ket irret) “Eagle month” 2019Serbian [Orthodox]: Serbian [Orthodox] ✧ SRP ✧ Serbian Orthodox Church tradition
20 богојављенски (bogoyavl'ensky) 2019Serbian [Premodern/Folk]: Serbian [Premodern/Folk] ✧ SRP ✧ Serbian folk tradition, pre-19th century
20 коложег (koložeg) 2019Sercquiais (Sarkese): Sercquiais (Sarkese) ✧ NRF ✧ Indo-European, Romance. A Norman dialect spoken by ≅ 20 on the Channel Island of Sark.
20 djãvi 2019Seri: Seri ✧ SEI ✧ Indigenous language isolate spoken by < 1000 in Mexico. Uses nine definite articles that depend on the relative movement of the object.
20 azoj imal cmizj 2019Seychellois Creole (Seselwa): Seychellois Creole (Seselwa) ✧ CRS ✧ French-based creole of the Seychelles, around 70,000 speakers
20 zanvye 2019Shan: 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.
(lunsi) ▭Shawiya Berber: Shawiya Berber ✧ SHY ✧ Afro-Asiatic, Berber, spoken in and around the Awras Mountains of eastern Algeria. Preliterate until recently.
20 yennar 2019Shawnee: Shawnee ✧ SJW ✧ An Algonquian language with fewer than 200 speakers in Oklahoma. Two genders, animate and inanimate.
20 Ha'kwi kiishthwa “Severe Moon” 2019Sheko: Sheko ✧ SHE ✧ Afro-Asiatic, Omotic, Dizoid, spoken natively between the towns of Tepi and Mizan Teferi in western Ethiopia by 39,000. Distinctive is its reliance on consonants pronounced retroflex — i.e., with the tongue curled backwards.
20 sagǹ ʔyatsʼn 2019 ▭Sherpa: Sherpa ✧ XSR ✧ Sino-Tibetan, Bodic, Tibetic. Spoken by 150,000 in Nepal, Tibet, and Kashmir. Tonal.
20 dāwā taṅbu 2019 ▭Shilluk [Cøllø]: Shilluk [Cøllø] ✧ SHK ✧ Possibly Nilo-Saharan, Northern Luo, spoken by 175,000 Shilluk people in Sudan and South Sudan. Three tones (low, mid, high) and four contours for them (rising, falling, high falling, late falling), all shown with various accent marks.
20 Aköny-dwøng 2019Shinasha (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.
20 jaana 2019Shixing: 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.
20 dʑĩ35ɬɯ55 2019Shona: Shona ✧ SNA ✧ Bantu language spoken by over 8 million, official in Zimbabwe
20 Ndira 2019 ▭Shor: Shor ✧ CJS ✧ Turkic, 10,000 speakers in Siberia’s Kemerovo Province. Mongolian and Russian loans, preliterate until 1885.
20 chal au 2019Shoshone [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.
20 sümüm müattsi 2019Shuar: 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.
20 etsa 2019Sicilian: 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.
20 innàru 2019 ▭Sikaiana: 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.
20 Tienuali 2019Silesian: 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.
20 styćyń 2019 ▭Siona (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.
20 omerẽ 2019Slavey [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.
20 Edáidzéneo zá 2019 ▭Slavonic [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).
XX (yanuari) MMXVIIIISlavonic [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).
20 і҆аннꙋа́рїй (yannwáryi) 2019Slovene [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.).
20 prosinec “Sun shining through” 2019 ▭Slovene [Prekmurian Premodern]: Slovene [Prekmurian Premodern] ✧ SLV ✧ Prekmurian is a Slovene dialect spoken in NE Slovenia and western Hungary. It’s sufficiently divergent both culturally and linguistically that many consider it a separate language.
20 sečén 2019Somali: 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.
20 bisha koobaad -or- bilkowaad -or- toddob 2019Sorbian (Lusatian or Wendish) [Lower]: Sorbian (Lusatian or Wendish) [Lower] ✧ WEN ✧ Indo-European, West Slavic, spoken by 10,000 in lower Saxony (Brandenburg)
20 wezymski 2019 ▭Sorbian (Lusatian or Wendish) [Upper]: Sorbian (Lusatian or Wendish) [Upper] ✧ WEN ✧ Indo-European, West Slavic, spoken by 40,000 in upper Saxony
20 wulki róžk 2019 ▭Sotho (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.
20 Pherekhong 2019Sotho [Northern] (Pedi): Sotho [Northern] (Pedi) ✧ SOT ✧ Another dialect of Sotho, South Africa.
20 Sedimothole -or- Pherekgong 2019Southern Luo [Lango]: Southern Luo [Lango] ✧ LAJ ✧ Nilo-Saharan family, Uganda. All numerals under 20 begin with A.
20 Kʉfúngatɨ 2019Southern Min (Minnan): Southern Min (Minnan) ✧ NAN ✧ Sino-Tibetan, spoken in China’s Fujian province
20 一月 it-go̍eh 2019 ▭Standard Moroccan Berber (Tamazight): Standard Moroccan Berber (Tamazight) ✧ ZGH ✧ Afro-Asiatic, Berber. This language was standardized in 2011 through amendments to the Moroccan Constitution.
20 ⵉⵏⵏⴰⵢⵔ (innayr) 2019 ▭Sudovian (Yotvingian): Sudovian (Yotvingian) ✧ XSV ✧ Indo-European, Baltic, unfortunately extinct by 1600. It was mutually intelligible with Samlandish (q.v.).
20 sausis -or- janvaris 2019 ▭Sumo [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.
20 kuskus wainku “Box turtle month” 2019Sumo [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.
20 kuskus waiku “Box turtle month” 2019Sumo [Southern, Ulwa]: Sumo [Southern, Ulwa] ✧ ULW ✧ Misumalpan family, Sumo group, Southern. About 400 speakers in eastern Nicaragua.
20 kurasi waikaku 2019Svan: 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.
კ ქვა̈ხ (χväx) ცით ▭Swazi: Swazi ✧ SSW ✧ Niger-Congo, Bantu. Swaziland (official), Lesotho, Mozambique, and South Africa.
20 Bhimbidvwane 2019Swedish [Traditional/Folk]: Swedish [Traditional/Folk] ✧ SWE ✧ North Germanic, descended from Old Norse. This is the premodern terminology.
20 torsmånad 2019Syriac 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 khārāyā) 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.
20 цӀиж (ts̓iž) 2019 ▭Tacana: Tacana ✧ TNA ✧ Western Tacanan family, 1800 speakers along the Beni & Madre de Dios rivers in Bolivia
20 badhi piadha 2019Tachelhit (Shilha or Sussian): Tachelhit (Shilha or Sussian) ✧ SHI ✧ Afro-Asiatic, Berber, Southern Morocco. Writings date from 16th century ce.
20 (innayr) 2019Tagalog [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.
20 pangalan nang buan nangunguna sa pasok nang taon 2019 ▭Taita (Daw'ida): Taita (Daw'ida) ✧ DAV ✧ Niger-Congo family, Bantu. 400,000 speakers in Kenya’s Taita Hills.
20 Mori ghwa imbiri 2019Taki 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.
20 Fosimun 2019 ▭Talinga (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)
20 Kwokubanja 2019Tamahaq: Tamahaq ✧ THV ✧ Afro-Asiatic, Berber, Northern Tuareg language spoken in Algeria, western Libya, and Northern Niger. Three dialects, 77,000 speakers.
20 innar 2019Tamil: Tamil ✧ TAM ✧ Dravidian family, India. Split off from Malayalam 9th century ce. Pronouns offer several levels of politeness.
௰௰ சனவரி (jaṉvari) ௲௲௰௯Tanacross: Tanacross ✧ TCB ✧ Athabaskan language with ≅ 30 speakers (middle Tanana River, Alaska)
20 saa xts’i’indeex de’ “When the sun divides” 2019 ▭Tasawaq (Ingelshi): Tasawaq (Ingelshi) ✧ TWQ ✧ Tentatively assigned to Nilo-Saharan, Songhay, though heavily influenced by Berber languages. 8000 speakers, Niger.
20 žanwiye 2019Tatar [Kazan]: Tatar [Kazan] ✧ TAT ✧ Turkic, spoken in Tatarstan. Has used Arabic, Roman, & Cyrillic alphabets.
20 ğinwar 2019 ▭Telugu: Telugu ✧ TEL ✧ Dravidian family, Andhra Pradesh, India. Oldest text, 575 ce.
౨౦ జనవరి ౨౦౧౯Tem [Kotokoli]: Tem [Kotokoli] ✧ KDH ✧ Niger-Congo family, Gur, Gurunsi, 340,000 speakers in Togo, Ghana, and Benin. Tonal, vowel length is contrastive (the long version shown by doubling the letter).
20 fudujɛsɩrɛ 2019Temne: Temne ✧ TEM ✧ Niger-Congo, Bantu language spoken in Sierra Leone, 4 tones.
20 Po̱lpo̱l 2019Teso (Ateso): Teso (Ateso) ✧ TEO ✧ Nilo-Saharan language spoken in Kenya, Uganda
20 Orara 2019Tetum (Tetun): Tetum (Tetun) ✧ TET ✧ Malayo-Polynesian language with Portuguese influences, East Timor.
20 janeiru 2019Thadou: Thadou ✧ TCZ ✧ An endangered Sino-Tibetan language spoken by 230,000 in Manipur and Assam in NE India and in Myanmar. There are about a dozen mutually intelligible dialects.
20 tuolbuol 2019Thai: 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.
๒๐ มกราคม (mákàraakhom) “sea-monster” ๒๐๑๙ ▭Tibetan [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).
༢༠ ta13wa13thaŋ13ko53 ༢༠༡༩ ▭Tibetan [Dégé]: Tibetan [Dégé] ✧ BOD ✧ The Tibetan dialect spoken in China’s Sichuan Province
༢༠ da13wa53tɑŋ13bo53 ༢༠༡༩Tibetan [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.
༢༠ zla ba daŋ po ༢༠༡༩Ticuna: 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.
20 añu nuébuarü tauemacü 2019Tigrinya: Tigrinya ✧ TIR ✧ Afro-Asiatic, South Semitic. Ethiopia & Eritrea, 9 million speakers. Like English and unlike many of its close relatives, Tigrinya uses phrasal verbs.
20 (tiree) 2019 ▭Tiwa [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.
20 Eneru 2019Tlingit: Tlingit ✧ TLI ✧ Na-Dené family, USA Pacific northwest, nearly extinct
20 T’aawak Dís 2019 ▭Tocharian B (West or Kuchean): Tocharian B (West or Kuchean) ✧ TXB ✧ Tocharian was a branch of Indo-European, extinct since the ninth century. There are three members known: A (Agnean), B, and C (Kroränian). Tocharians reckoned the months as ordinals; so aside from some idiomatic exceptions that’s what you’d see here if they were alive today and counted February as their first month.
XX rapaññe meñe MMXVIIII ▭Tofa (Tofalar or Karagas): Tofa (Tofalar or 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.
20 аӄ ай (аq ay) 2019 ▭Tokelauan [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.
20 Toe Palolo 2019Tolowa (Siletz Dee-ni): Tolowa (Siletz Dee-ni) ✧ TOL ✧ Na-Dené, Pacific Coast Athabaskan, nominally extinct. Linguist Loren Bommelyn teaches Tolowa in Crescent City, CA. It features ejectives, contrastive vowel length and nasality.
20 Lha’num-nii-man’s 2019Tonga (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.
20 Mukazimaziba 2019Tongan: Tongan ✧ TON ✧ Malayo-Polynesian. Only one vowel per syllable, no blended consonants. Not to be confused with the Bantu language Tonga above.
20 Sanuali 2019 ▭Trique [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.
20 yavii caya’anj -or- yavii naca̱ 2019Trique [Chicahuaxtla]: Trique [Chicahuaxtla] ✧ TRC ✧ Dialect of Trique heard in San Andrés Chicahuaxtla, Oaxaca, Mexico. 6000 speakers.
20 néruu 2019Tsafiki (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.
20 pichu na'la pe 2019Tsez (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.
20 йанвар (yanwar) 2019 ▭Tshangla (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.
20 dawa daŋ pa -or- bruʔda 2019Tsimshian [Coast]: Tsimshian [Coast] ✧ TSI ✧ Indigenous language spoken by around 240 in British Columbia and Alaska. Possibly an isolate.
20 Ha’li suwiliinsk “Time to trap” 2019Tsonga: Tsonga ✧ TSO ✧ Niger-Congo family, Bantu. Uses whistling sounds and a single click.
20 Sunguti 2019 ▭Tswana (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.
20 Ferikgong 2019Tuareg [Tamasheq]: Tuareg [Tamasheq] ✧ TAQ ✧ Afro-Asiatic, Berber. Complex “avoidance” behavior in communication.
20 (innar) 2019 ▭Tujia [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 NW Hunan Province.
20 tsẽ33 jye21 2019Tumbuka: Tumbuka ✧ TUM ✧ Niger-Congo, Bantu. Speakers in Malawi, Zambia, & Tanzania.
20 Janyuwali 2019Tunica: 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.
20 Tahch’awɛka 2019 ▭Turkish [Standard]: Turkish [Standard] ✧ TUR ✧ From the Altaic family, Turkish’s earliest inscriptions have been found in Mongolia
20 ocak -or- zemheri 2019 ▭Turkish [Crimean]: Turkish [Crimean] ✧ TUR ✧ From the Altaic family, Turkish’s earliest inscriptions have been found in Mongolia
20 ocak -or- zemheri 2019 ▭Turkish [Meskhetian]: Turkish [Meskhetian] ✧ TUR ✧ Dialect spoken by Meskheti disapora throughout Russia
20 земхери (zemheri) 2019Turkish [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.
20 кануни-сәни (kanuni-sıni) 2019Turkmen 1 [Pre-Niyazov]: Turkmen 1 [Pre-Niyazov] ✧ TUK ✧ Altaic family, Turkic, Oghuz. Nine million speakers, largely intelligible with Azeri and Turkish. But unlike Turkish, Turkmen uses the th sounds, both voiced (IPA ð) spelled with an S, and unvoiced (IPA θ) spelled with a Z. Interestingly, Turkmen has no S sound.
20 ýanwar 2019 ▭Turkmen 2 [Post-Niyazov]: Turkmen 2 [Post-Niyazov] ✧ TUK ✧ As decreed by dictator Saparmurat Niyazov (1940-2006)
20 Türkmenbaşy {refers to Niyazov} 2019 ▭Turkmen 3 [Post-Post-Niyazov]: Turkmen 3 [Post-Post-Niyazov] ✧ TUK ✧ Back by popular demand!
20 ýanwar 2019 ▭Tuscarora: 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.
20 θkawéʔrkye 2019Tutchone [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.
20 Nahdzyän etsyáwa “New start” 2019Tutchone [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.
20 Kwäk’ǜ nzhā “Coldest month” -or- Mänän k’ä̀shakwį̀tth’et “Turning back toward spring” 2019 ▭Tuvan: 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.
20 бир ай (bir ay) 2019 ▭Tyap (Katab): Tyap (Katab) ✧ KCG ✧ Niger-Congo, West Plateau. 200,000 speakers, Nigeria.
20 Zwat Juwung 2019Tzotzil: Tzotzil ✧ TZO ✧ Mayan family, Cholan-Tzeltalan branch, spoken by 400,000 in Chiapas, Mexico
20 ʔenero 2019 ▭Uab Meto: Uab Meto ✧ AOZ ✧ Malayo-Polynesian family, unusual gender distinctions, spoken by 800,000 Atoni people in Indonesian West Timor
20 fun-mese’ 2019Ubykh: Ubykh ✧ UBY ✧ Extinct Northwest Caucasian language notable for its staggering consonant inventory and many other complexities. Its last native speaker was Circassian exile Tevfik Esenç (1904-1992) who worked extensively with linguists to document his language.
20 çr’en (ʈʂʼan) 2019 ▭Udmurt (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.
20 толшор (tolšor) 2019 ▭Ukrainian: Ukrainian ✧ UKR ✧ Indo-European, East Slavic, Polish affinities. Unlike Russian, it employs the characters Ґ, Є, І, and Ї but not Ы or Ъ.
20 січень (sičen’) “Cutting” 2019 ▭Ukrainian [Premodern]: Ukrainian [Premodern] ✧ UKR ✧ Older Ukrainian
20 студень (studen’) “Prayer ”-or- просинець (prosynets’) “Slander” 2019Unami [Lenape]: Unami [Lenape] ✧ UNM ✧ Nominally extinct Algonquian language of the New Jersey area Lenape people
20 Enikwsi Kishux “Ground Squirrel Month” 2019Upper Chinook [Clackamas]: Upper Chinook [Clackamas] ✧ WAC ✧ From the Chinookan family of NW 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.
20 watca’gun 2019 ▭Upper Kuskokwim: Upper Kuskokwim ✧ KUU ✧ Athabaskan, only 40 speakers (Alaska). Features a voiceless N sound.
20 nots’inye 2019Upper Tanana [Tetlin]: Upper Tanana [Tetlin] ✧ TAU ✧ Athabaskan, related to Tanacross (q.v.), fewer than 100 speakers. Tetlin, Alaska.
20 Saa choh 2019Urhobo: 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.
20 ọ́vuikpe 2019Uyghur: Uyghur ✧ UIG ✧ Turkic, loans from Persian, Russian, Chinese. Spoken in China’s Xinjiang region.
20 birinchi ay 2019Vai: 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.
20 ꖨꕪꖃ ꔞꕮ (luukao kemã) 2019 ▭Venda: Venda ✧ VEN ✧ Niger-Congo family, Bantu branch. 800,000 speakers in Southern Africa
20 Phando 2019Venetian: 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).
20 zenaro 2019 ▭Veps: Veps ✧ VEP ✧ Finno-Ugric, ≅ 6300 speakers mostly near the Gulf of Finland. It has 23 noun cases, the most of any Finnic language.
20 viliku 2019Vietnamese (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.
20 tháng một 2019 ▭Vosgien [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. Essentially extinct, though much of its influence and unique vocabulary lives on.
20 djanvié 2019Vosgien [La Haye]: Vosgien [La Haye] ✧ ??? ✧ Another Vosgien dialect
20 janvié 2019Vosgien [Ville sur Illon]: Vosgien [Ville sur Illon] ✧ ??? ✧ And yet another
20 janvî 2019Votic (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.
20 janvaari 2019Võro: Võro ✧ VRO ✧ Finno-Ugric, related to Veps (q.v.), seriously endangered
20 vahtsõaastakuu 2019Wa [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.
20 kʰiʔ tiʔ 2019Wallisian (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.).
20 sanualio 2019Walloon: 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.
20 djanvî 2019 ▭Waorani (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
20 ontokatede 2019Warao: 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.
20 waniku jisaka 2019Waray-Waray [Premodern]: Waray-Waray [Premodern] ✧ WAR ✧ Malayo-Polynesian, Central Visayan. Philippines.
20 (paniniyahan) 2019 ▭Wayuu (Goajiro): Wayuu (Goajiro) ✧ GUC ✧ Arawakan family, Northern, spoken by 305,000 in NW Venezuela and NE Colombia. Vowels can be short or long (a => aa, etc.), as can the consonants m, n, and t.
20 eneero 2019Welsh (Cymric): Welsh (Cymric) ✧ CYM ✧ Indo-European, Celtic, Brythonic. Many speakers not named Jones.
20 Ionawr 2019 ▭Winnebago (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).
20 Hųųc wiconįra wiira 2019 ▭Woleaian: 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.
20 gaseewali merame 2019Wolof: Wolof ✧ WOL ✧ Niger-Congo language. Senegal, Gambia, Mauritania. The terms “okay” and “hep cat” may possibly have come from Wolof.
20 tamxarit 2019 ▭Wymysorys (Wilamowicean/Vilamovian): Wymysorys (Wilamowicean/Vilamovian) ✧ WYM ✧ Germanic language with a few dozen mostly elderly speakers in Wilamowice, Poland. University of Warsaw graduate student Tymoteusz Król works to revive and promote the language.
20 jenner 2019 ▭Xhosa: Xhosa ✧ XHO ✧ Niger-Congo, many unusual consonants including 15 clicks
20 uMdumba 2019 ▭Xincan [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.
20 ʔika ʔawa 2019Yakut (Sakha): Yakut (Sakha) ✧ SAH ✧ Northern Turkic, grammatically genderless, spoken by 450,000 in the Sakha Republic in Northern Siberia
20 тохсунньу (toχsunyu) 2019 ▭Yanesha’ (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.)
20 yoncayanequëm̃ 2019Yangben (Central Yambasa): Yangben (Central Yambasa) ✧ YAV ✧ Niger-Congo family, Southern Bantoid, spoken by 17,000 in Cameroon
20 pikítíkítie -or- oólí ú kutúan 2019Yaqui (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.
20 ke’esamet 2019Yawa: Yawa ✧ YVA ✧ A language from the West Papuan family (perhaps), spoken by 10,000 at Yapen Island’s Cenderawasih Bay, Indonesia.
20 januarije 2019Yi (Nuosu): Yi (Nuosu) ✧ III ✧ Tibeto-Burman language spoken by ethnic Yi in China and SE Asia
20 (cypma) 2019 ▭Yi (Nuosu) [Northern Shengza, Xide]: Yi (Nuosu) [Northern Shengza, Xide] ✧ III ✧ A dialect of Yi spoken by the Shuitian people of Sichuan’s Liangshan Prefecture
20 m̩(u)33 ɬɯ21 “Horse month” 2019Yiddish (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.
20 יאַנואַר (yanuar) 2019 ▭Yoruba: 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.
20 Oṣù Ṣẹ́rẹ́ 2019 ▭Yuchi: Yuchi ✧ YUC ✧ Native American language of unknown ancestry, virtually extinct, Oklahoma
20 Salatcpi “Frozen ground” 2019Yukaghir [Tundra]: Yukaghir [Tundra] ✧ YKG ✧ A moribund two-language family, spoken by a few dozen in the Russian Far East
20 χand’eme yuo devče 2019 ▭Yupik [Pacific Gulf]: Yupik [Pacific Gulf] ✧ YPK ✧ Eskimo-Aleut family, 2 dialects, ≅ 500-1000 speakers
20 Cuqllirpaaq Iraluq 2019Yupik [St Lawrence]: Yupik [St Lawrence] ✧ YPK ✧ Eskimo-Aleut family, Bering Strait area, < 300 speakers
20 Qaluvik 2019 ▭Yupi’k [Chevak Cup’ik]: Yupi’k [Chevak Cup’ik] ✧ YPK ✧ Seriously endangered Yupi’k (q.v.) sub-dialect. Hooper Bay, Alaska.
20 Agayuulek 2019Yupi’k [Mid-Alaskan]: Yupi’k [Mid-Alaskan] ✧ YPK ✧ Eskimo-Aleut family, ≅ 13,000 speakers
20 Iralull’er 2019Zapotec, 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).
20 beu' I'zaa Kubi “New year” 2019Zapotec, 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.
20 eneer 2019Zarma (Dyerma): Zarma (Dyerma) ✧ DJE ✧ Nilo-Saharan family, Songhay group. Spoken in southwest Niger.
20 dabab beri 2019 ▭Zaza (Zazaki or Dimli): Zaza (Zazaki or Dimli) ✧ ZZA ✧ Indo-European, Indo-Iranian. 2,000,000 speakers, mostly in Turkey.
20 çele 2019 ▭Zhuang: Zhuang ✧ ZHA ✧ Kra–Dai family, 6 tones, spoken in China’s Guangxi region
20 nin wtj 2019Zou (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.
20 gângpí hà 2019Zou (Zomi) [Chin Hills]: Zou (Zomi) [Chin Hills] ✧ ZOM ✧ This is the Zou spoken in those areas other than India.
20 gângpí hlà 2019 ▭Zulu: Zulu ✧ ZUL ✧ Bantu language widely spoken in Southern Africa. Uses clicks.
20 uMasingane 2019Zuni: Zuni ✧ ZUN ✧ An isolate spoken by 9500 in New Mexico. Strangely, there may be a 13th-century Japanese connection.
20 dayamcho yachunne “Snow breaks branches” 2019
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 aside from the special cases for Gaulish and my tweaked version of Tocharian 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. Tocharian inherited its calendar from the Chinese system which started each year approximately six weeks past January 1st by our reckoning.
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 aside from the special cases for Gaulish and my tweaked version of Tocharian 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. Tocharian inherited its calendar from the Chinese system which started each year approximately six weeks past January 1st by our reckoning.
↑ البدر
Special thanks:
Douglas Q. Adams (Tocharian B)
I Love Languages! Youtube author (Many sample videos I’ve linked to)
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
Gertjan Postma (Brazilian Pomeranian)
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)
I Love Languages! Youtube author (Many sample videos I’ve linked to)
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
Gertjan Postma (Brazilian Pomeranian)
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
