ere’s today’s date in 785 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

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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.).

25 гӀапынхъамыз (ʿapynqaməz) 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.

25 Mozokas “Moose hunter” 2019

Abkhazian (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.

25 хәажәкыр (hãažãkyr) 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.

25 kaluta ia 2019

Acholi: 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.

25 Dwe me adek 2019

Achuar-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.

25 tanku 2019

Achuar-Shiwiar [Shiwiar Chicham]: Achuar-Shiwiar [Shiwiar Chicham] ✧ ACU ✧ The other dialect of Achuar-Shiwiar

25 etsa 2019

Adele (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.).

25 awulu 2019

Afar (Qafár af): Afar (Qafár af) ✧ 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.

25 Ciggilta Kudo 2019  ▭

Aghem (Wum): Aghem (Wum) ✧ AGQ ✧ Niger-Congo family, Cameroon. Aghem speakers traditionally used leopard-skin carpets.

25 ndzɔ̱ŋɔ̱tƗ̀dʉ̀ghà 2019

Aghul (Agul): Aghul (Agul) ✧ AGX ✧ Northeast Caucasian, 30,000 speakers mostly in Southern Dagestan. There is a contrast between “tense” and “weak” consonants.

25 суьл варз (sul varz) 2019

Ahom: Ahom ✧ AHO ✧ Kra–Dai family, Brahmaputra river valley, nearly extinct though widely studied. Unique script.

25 (din sam) 2019  ▭

Ahtna [Central]: Ahtna [Central] ✧ AHT ✧ Athabaskan, around 80 speakers (all dialects combined), Alaska’s Copper River. Incorporates about 100 Russian loanwords.

25 konts’aghi na’aaye’ “Seventh month [of snow]” 2019  ▭

Ahtna [Lower]: Ahtna [Lower] ✧ AHT ✧ Another dialect of Ahtna

25 konts’aghi na’aaye’ “Seventh month [of snow]” 2019

Ahtna [Mentasa]: Ahtna [Mentasa] ✧ AHT ✧ Another dialect of Ahtna

25 unen tic’elaxa 2019

Ainu: Ainu ✧ AIN ✧ Aboriginal language of Japanese archipelago, ancestry unknown, nearly extinct natively. Counts in base 20.

25 ミキワタチュプ (mikiwtachup) 2019  ▭

Aja: Aja ✧ AJG ✧ Niger-Congo, Gbe, spoken by half a million Aja people in Benin and Togo. Closely related to Ewe and Fon (q.v.); not to be confused with the Nilo-Saharan language Aja.

25 agɔmakplɔ 2019

Akan (Twi): Akan (Twi) ✧ AKA ✧ Niger-Congo Language native to Ghana and Ivory Coast, also brought to South America by slaves

25 Ebɔw-Ɔbenem 2019  ▭

Akha [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.

25 leǔ ha̬ 2019

Alabama (Alibamu): Alabama (Alibamu) ✧ AKZ ✧ Muskogean language, distantly related to Choctaw (q.v.), spoken in Texas. Regular versus nasalized vowels, contrastive vowel length.

25 hasiholtina istatótchìina 2019

Albanian [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).

25 mars 2019  ▭

Albanian [Tosk] (Arberesh): Albanian [Tosk] (Arberesh) ✧ ALS ✧ Albanian dialect spoken in Italy, partial interintelligibility with Gheg Albanian (q.v.)

25 mars 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.

25 Qisagunix̂ “Famine” -or- Maartax̂ 2019  ▭

Algonquin: Algonquin ✧ ALQ ✧ Algonquian family, closely related to (but divergent from) Ojibwe (q.v.). 1800 speakers in Quebec and Ontario.

25 nekì gizis “Goose month” 2019

Altai: Altai ✧ ATV ✧ Turkic language spoken by 20,000 natively in Siberia’s Altai Mountains. Previously written in the Roman alphabet (as shown here), it has used the Cyrillic since 1938.

25 kandıq 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.

25 dii mun fu baka yali 2019

Alutiiq [Kodiak]: Alutiiq [Kodiak] ✧ EMS ✧ An Eskimo-Aleut language, indigenous to the Alaska and Kenai Peninsulas and Kodiak Island, with around 200 native speakers. Two chief dialects, Kodiak (shown here) and Chugach.

25 Kaignasqaq Iraluq “Hungry moon” 2019  ▭

Amharic: Amharic ✧ AMH ✧ Afro-Asiatic. Ethiopia, yes, but the Rastafari also dig it. Not to be confused with Aramaic (q.v.).

25 መጋቢት (mäggabit) 2019  ▭

Anejom̃ (Aneityum): Anejom̃ (Aneityum) ✧ ATY ✧ Malayo-Polynesian, Southern Oceanic, spoken by several hundred people on Aneityum/Anatom, Vanuatu’s southernmost island. Vowel and consonant lengths are contrastive; noun genders are animate vs inanimate.

25 niau (Bamboo-like plant) 2019

Angami (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.

25 Kezi o krö 2019  ▭

Anii: 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.

25 Arɛ́cika kaŋɔrɔ 2019

Apache [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.

25 Minii Chííidn 2019  ▭

Apache [Western]: Apache [Western] ✧ APW ✧ Athabaskan family, SE Arizona, 14,000 native speakers. Acute accents indicate a high tone on a vowel.

25 Wóózhch’į́į́d “Eagle's cry” 2019  ▭

Apatani (Tani): Apatani (Tani) ✧ APT ✧ Sino-Tibetan family, Western Tani, 45,000 native speakers in India’s Arunachal Pradesh. Tonal, both vowel and consonant lengths are contrastive. Most nouns have 2 syllables.

25 myoko piilo 2019  ▭

Arabic [Levantine]: Arabic [Levantine] ✧ APC ✧ Afro-Asiatic family, Semitic. Descended from Ancient North Arabian.

٢٥ آذار  (āðar) 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.

٢٥ الربيع (al rabī) ٢٠١٩  ▭

Arabic [Moroccan] (Darija): Arabic [Moroccan] (Darija) ✧ ARY ✧ From the Maghrebi subgroup of Arabic, heavily influenced by Berber languages along with French and Spanish. Between 50% and 70% of Moroccans speak Darija.

٢٥ شهر تلاتة (sheher tlāta) ٢٠١٩

Aragonese (“fabla”): Aragonese (“fabla”) ✧ ARG ✧ Indo-European, Romance. Spoken by 25,500 in Northern Aragon, endangered, mutually intelligible with Spanish.

25 marzo 2019

Arapaho: 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).

25 hootoneeniisiis -or- honootonooɂooɂ “The fire went out” 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.

25 huupirikaatít 2019

Aromanian (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.

25 marțu 2019  ▭

Arosi: Arosi ✧ AIA ✧ Malayo-Polynesian, Solomonic, spoken by 6800 on Makira (San Cristobal) Island, east of Guadalcanal in the Solomons.

25 watauakerei 2019

Arpitan (Franco-Provençal) [Savoyard]: Arpitan (Franco-Provençal) [Savoyard] ✧ FRP ✧ An Arpitan dialect spoken around Savoy in western France

25 mârs 2019  ▭

Arpitan (Franco-Provençal) [Stéphenois]: Arpitan (Franco-Provençal) [Stéphenois] ✧ FRP ✧ Gallo-Romance, spoken around Saint-Étienne in eastern central France

25 mâ 2019

Assiniboine 1 (Nakota): Assiniboine 1 (Nakota) ✧ 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.

25 cągú nąkeke hąwi -or- tabéȟʾa tawí 2019

Assiniboine 2 (Nakota): Assiniboine 2 (Nakota) ✧ ASB ✧ Alternative terminology

25 wįcíšta yazą hąwi 2019

Asturian: Asturian ✧ AST ✧ Indo-European, Romance, Northern Spain (Oviedo/Gijón area). Three genders.

25 marzu 2019  ▭

Atikamekw: Atikamekw ✧ ATJ ✧ Algonquian family, Cree complex, 5500 speakers in southwestern Quebec

25 nikikw pisimw 2019

Atong {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.

25 mars 2019

Atsugewi: 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.

25 uĭnka psukitók “little spring” 2019

Austro-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.

25 Meaz 2019  ▭

Avar [Premodern/Folk]: Avar [Premodern/Folk] ✧ AVA ✧ Northeast Caucasian language spoken in Dagestan and Azerbaijan. Uses either Cyrillic or Arabic characters.

25 гочарулъ ڬۈچارۇڸ (gоčarul″) 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.

25 salmu payu 2019

Aymara: 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.

25 achuqa phaxsi -or- achuqa 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.

25 ŋwíí akǝ ráá 2019

Bagirmi: Bagirmi ✧ BMI ✧ Nilo-Saharan family, approx. 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.

25 Nap məta 2019

Bagvalal (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.

25 ма́ртбос̄ӏ (mártboss̓) 2019

Bahasa Banjar: Bahasa Banjar ✧ BJN ✧ Malayo-Polynesian, spoken by the Banjarese of South Kalimantan in Indonesia

25 Marat 2019  ▭

Bakweri (Kpwe or Mokpwe): Bakweri (Kpwe or Mokpwe) ✧ BGM ✧ Niger-Congo, Bantu Zone A, 25,000 speakers in Cameroon

25 Etoma Matiy 2019

Baluchi (Balochi): Baluchi (Balochi) ✧ BAL ✧ Indo-Iranian language related to Kurdish (q.v.). Uses Pashto and Roman script.

25 molmán 2019  ▭

Bambara: Bambara ✧ BAM ✧ Niger-Congo, Mande. Two tones, many French loans. Same word used for hand and arm.

25 Marsi 2019  ▭

Bariai: Bariai ✧ BCH ✧ Austronesian family, Ngero group, 1400 speakers in Papua New Guinea

25 amarere 2019

Basaa: Basaa ✧ BAS ✧ Niger-Congo, Bantu. Four tones, 230,000 speakers in Camaroon. (Not to be confused with Bassa, below.)

25 maètuèmb 2019

Bashkir: Bashkir ✧ BAK ✧ Turkic language spoken in Bashkortostan between the Volga and Urals. Uses no articles.

25 буранай (buranai) 2019

Basque [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.

25 epail -or- martxo 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.

25 epail -or- marti 2019

Basque [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.

25 ostaroa 2019

Bassa: 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.)

25 Dunu-Tòɖò 2019

Batak: 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.

25 《muda ni mate》 sipaha hurung 2019  ▭

Bats (Batsbi or Tsova-Tush): Bats (Batsbi or Tsova-Tush) ✧ BBL ✧ Northeast Caucasian, Nakh branch but unintelligible with Chechen or Ingush (q.v.). Approx. 2500 speakers. Vowels can be nazalized, and both vowels and consonants can be either long or short.

კე მარტ (mart) 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.

25 сакавіка (sakavika) 2019  ▭

Bemba (Chibemba): Bemba (Chibemba) ✧ BEM ✧ Niger-Congo family, Southern Bantu. Tonal, spoken in Zambia.

25 kutumpu 2019

Bena: Bena ✧ BEZ ✧ Niger-Congo family, Northeast Bantu, spoken in south central Tanzania

25 pa mwedzi gwa wudatu 2019

Beothuk: 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.

25 manamiss 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.

25 'napɛ ta -leyi 2019

Beti [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.

25 ngɔn lála 2019

Bezhta (Kapucha): Bezhta (Kapucha) ✧ KAP ✧ Preliterate Northeast Caucasian language spoken by around 6800 in Southern Dagestan.

25 март (mart) 2019

Biete (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.).

25 Itâi 2019

Bishnupriya 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.

২৫ ২০১৯  ▭

Bislama: Bislama ✧ BIS ✧ A creole combining English with Austronesian lanugages. Official in Vanuatu.

25 Maj 2019  ▭

Blackfoot (Siksika): Blackfoot (Siksika) ✧ BLA ✧ Algonquian family, unusual pitch system. Montana and Southern Alberta.

25 sa’aiki’somm 2019  ▭

Blin (Bilen): Blin (Bilen) ✧ BYN ✧ Afro-Asiatic, Cushitic. 70,000 speakers around Keren, Eritrea. Related to Tigrinya (q.v.) and Tigre (Tigrayit).

25 (kbla) 2019

Bonggi (Kamus Bonggi): Bonggi (Kamus Bonggi) ✧ BDG ✧ Malayo-Polynesian, North Bornean, 1400 speakers on the Banggi and Balambangan islands in Malaysia’s Kudat District.

25 buaidn tiga 2019

Breton (Armoric): Breton (Armoric) ✧ BRE ✧ Indo-European, Celtic, Brythonic. Spoken in Brittany, related to Welsh and Cornish (q.v.).

25 mis meurzh 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.

25 מאַרט (mart) 2019

Bulgar: Bulgar ✧ XBO ✧ Presumably Turkic, extinct since medieval times, unrelated to modern Bulgarian (which is South Slavic). Bulgar’s modern descendent is Chuvash (q.v.).

XXV nauruz MMXVIIII

Bulgarian [Eastern Rup, 19th century]: Bulgarian [Eastern Rup, 19th century] ✧ BUL ✧ South Slavic. From the south-central Bulgarian town of Asenovgrad.

25 марта (marta) 2019

Bulgarian [Rhodope, pre-1945]: Bulgarian [Rhodope, pre-1945] ✧ BUL ✧ Another Bulgarian, here from the Rhodope Mountains around Smolyan

25 марта (marta) 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.

25 mâr 2019

Burmese: Burmese ✧ MYA ✧ Sino-Tibetan. Spoken in Myanmar/Burma, tonal. Unusual sounds such as unvoiced Ms and Ns. Script favors arcs and circles because the ancient Burmese wrote on palm leaves and straight lines would risk splitting them.

(maʿ)   ▭

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.

25 timbireŋ 2019

Burushaski: Burushaski ✧ BSK ✧ A language isolate spoken by 90,000 in Northern Pakistan and Jammu and Kashmir in India. Three dialects: Hunza, Nagar, and Wershikwar. Actions must often specify how loud something was.

25 hamal 2019  ▭

Burushaski [Wershikwar]: Burushaski [Wershikwar] ✧ BSK ✧ Native to the Yasin Valley, spoken by some 20,000 of the 90,000 total for Burushaski in general. More divergent than Hunza and Nagar, Wershikwar is seen by some as a separate language.

25 booyingkus 2019

Buryat [Premodern]: Buryat [Premodern] ✧ BUA ✧ Mongolic language related to Mongolian and Oirat (q.v.). China, Mongolia, and eastern Russia.

25 гурбадугаар һара (gurbadugaar 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.

25 Wa’-nit 2019

Carrier (Dakelh): Carrier (Dakelh) ✧ CRX ✧ Na-Dené family, Athabaskan. A few hundred speakers in British Columbia.

25 tɕ07ztɕo uzʔ 2019

Catalan: 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.’

25 de març 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.

25 Ga·nęs·gwa·ǫ·tá:ʔah “Frogs” 2019

Cerma: Cerma ✧ CME ✧ Niger-Congo, Gur, 63,000 speakers in Burkina Faso and Côte d'Ivoire. Three dialects: Banfora, Niangoloko, and Soubakanié Dougou.

25 kãntũmpĩɛ 2019

Cham [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 kluw   ▭

Chamorro: Chamorro ✧ CHA ✧ Malayo-Polynesian, approx. 60,000 speakers in the Marianas archipelago. Same word used for hand and arm.

25 måtso 2019

Chang (Mochungrr): Chang (Mochungrr) ✧ NBC ✧ Sino-Tibetan, Brahmaputran branch, 62,000 speakers in Nagaland, NE India. Uses the Roman alphabet, introduced in 1928.

25 Wanjiklit 2019

Chatino [Zona Alta]: Chatino [Zona Alta] ✧ CLY ✧ Zapotecan language spoken by 23,000 in Southern Oaxaca, Mexico. It has ten tones and uses nasal vowels.

25 ko' marzo 2019

Chayahuita: 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.

25 pascoa yoqui -or- huënëpi tahuëri 2019

Chechen 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.

25 ибне (ybne) 2019  ▭

Chechen 2: Chechen 2 ✧ CHE ✧ A second alternative terminology for Chechen

25 ниэкарг бутт (niekarg butt) 2019

Chechen 3: Chechen 3 ✧ CHE ✧ A third alternative terminology for Chechen

25 зазадоккху бутт (zazadokqu butt) 2019

Cherokee [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.

25 (Anayilisv) 2019  ▭

Chewa (Chichewa or Nyanja): Chewa (Chichewa or Nyanja) ✧ NYA ✧ Niger-Congo family, Bantoid. Spoken in Malawi and Zambia. Unusually complex gender system.

25 mwezi wa Malichi 2019

Cheyenne: 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.

25 Ponoma’a’êhaseneeše’he 2019  ▭

Chickasaw: Chickasaw ✧ CIC ✧ Muskogean family, approx. 75 speakers total in Oklahoma, USA. Same word used for hand and arm.

25 Hushi Atuchina 2019

Chilcotin: Chilcotin ✧ CLC ✧ Athabaskan, approx. 860 native speakers in Chilcotin Country, central British Columbia. Chilcotin is bitonal and exhibits consonant harmony.

25 Benen ʔEghutelog 2019

Chimané [Mosetén]: Chimané [Mosetén] ✧ CAS ✧ Language isolate (?) spoken by around 2000 north of La Paz, Bolivia. Same word used for hand and arm.

25 chhibinyatyi’ 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.

25 Marsh 2019

Choctaw: Choctaw ✧ CHO ✧ Muskogean, related to Chickasaw (q.v.). South-central USA, 18,000 speakers.

25 Macha 2019  ▭

Choyo (Queyu): Choyo (Queyu) ✧ QVY ✧ A Sino-Tibetan, Qiangic language of Yajiang and Xinlong Counties in Sichuan with approx. 7000 speakers. Choyo is closely related to another Qiangic language, Zhaba, spoken by a similar number in Yajiang and Daofu Counties.

25 da³⁵wa⁵⁵sõ⁵⁵pa⁵³ 2019

Chukchi: Chukchi ✧ CKT ✧ About 10,000 speakers in extreme eastern Siberia. Uses vowel harmony. Also, words cannot begin or end with consonant blends.

25 льатйъэлгын (l’atj”elgyn) 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.

25 Maas 2019

Chuvash: Chuvash ✧ CHV ✧ Turkic, spoken in the Urals. Features “hard” versus “soft” words. Genderless.

/XX puš IIII/X✳✳  ▭

Cimbrian: Cimbrian ✧ CIM ✧ A Germanic language spoken by approx. 400 in NE Italy whose grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation render it unintelligible to Standard High German speakers. Italian has largely displaced it.

25 martzo -or- lentz 2019  ▭

Circassian (Cherkess) [Adyghe]: Circassian (Cherkess) [Adyghe] ✧ ADY ✧ Northwest Caucasian language. Has 50-60 consonant sounds, mutually intelligible with Circassian [Kabardian] (q.v.).

25 гъэтхапэ (ġǎtχāpǎ) 2019  ▭

Circassian (Cherkess) [Kabardian]: Circassian (Cherkess) [Kabardian] ✧ KBD ✧ The other major Circassian dialect, also called East Circassian. Mutually intelligible with Circassian [Adyghe] (q.v.).

25 гъатхэпэ (ʁātχapa) 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.

25 un'ma kûchuite 2019

Comanche [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.

25 Nanaʔbutituikatu mua “Hot and cold moon” -or- Tahpooku mua “Cottonball moon” 2019

Comorian [Maore] (Shimaore): Comorian [Maore] (Shimaore) ✧ SWB ✧ Niger-Congo family, Bantu. 80,000 speakers on French islands of Mayotte.

25 marsi 2019

Coptic: Coptic ✧ COP ✧ Afro-Asiatic, Ptolemaic Egyptian. Extinct as vernacular, used for Coptic Orthodox liturgy. Its Greek-derived alphabet adds modifications pulled from Egyptian hieroglyphics. (The Coptic calendar is non-Gregorian though these are the language’s Gregorian terms.)

25 Ⲙⲁⲣⲧⲓⲟⲥ 2019  ▭

Cornish: 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.

25 mys Merth 2019  ▭

Corsican: Corsican ✧ COS ✧ Indo-European, Romance, and unlike Sardinian (q.v.) this language is mutually intelligible with Italian. Spoken on Corsica, endangered.

25 marzu 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.

25 malesu 2019

Cree: Cree ✧ CRE ✧ Algonquian family. Formerly creolized with French & Scottish Gaelic. Official in Canada’s Northwest Territories, almost 100,000 speakers.

25 migisupizum “Eagle” 2019  ▭

Creek (Muscogee or Seminole): Creek (Muscogee or Seminole) ✧ MUS ✧ Muskogean family, tonal with nazalizations, 5000 speakers in Oklahoma and Florida

25 tasahcucee “Little spring” 2019

Crimean 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.

25 saban 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.

25 ožujak “Weather-changing month” 2019

Crow (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.

25 bulúxchilattache 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.

25 ma²rzo⁴ -or- iyuu inu 2019

Cuman (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.

25 ilyaz ay 2019  ▭

Curonian: Curonian ✧ XCU ✧ Extinct Balto-Slavic language spoken until the 16th century in parts of modern Latvia, Lithuania, and Germany.

25 mêrcs 2019

Czech (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.

25 březen (Forest animals being pregnant) 2019  ▭

⌅

Dagaare: Dagaare ✧ DGA ✧ Niger-Congo, Gur branch. Unusual consonant blends such as GB, KP, and MGM.

25 MyuuraatasobO 2019

Dakota (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.

25 Oomani 2019

Dalecarlian (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.

25 (mass) 2019  ▭

Dalmatian: Dalmatian ✧ DLM ✧ Romance language once spoken on the Adriatic east coast. Its last surviving native speaker, marine mail carrier Tuone Udaina, died in a roadwork accident in 1898.

25 márz 2019  ▭

Dangaléat: Dangaléat ✧ DAA ✧ Afro-Asiatic, East Chadic, 60,000 speakers in Central Chad. Vowel length is contrastive, uses implosive consonants.

25 korriyka 2019

Danish [Premodern/Folk]: Danish [Premodern/Folk] ✧ DAN ✧ Traditional Danish before it adopted neo-Latin month conventions

25 Tormåned 2019

Dan: 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.

25 Masö -or- ˈˈzrʋ 2019  ▭

Deg Xinag: Deg Xinag ✧ ING ✧ Athabaskan language, virtually extinct. Area around the lower Yukon River, Alaska.

25 Q’uliq’ay no’o “Hawk moon” 2019

Denaakk’e (Koyukon Athabascan): Denaakk’e (Koyukon Athabascan) ✧ KOY ✧ Athabascan, spoken by approx. 300 in east central Alaska, 3 dialects

25 Yeggets’e Nen’ Loyet 2019  ▭

Dena’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.

25 ɬuq’aka ni’u 2019

Denya: Denya ✧ ANV ✧ Niger-Congo family, Bantoid, Mamfe. Spoken in Cameroon by around 11,000

25 marisi 2019

Dhivehi (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.

25 (māč) 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.

25 xɑ⁵⁵ lo⁵³ kɑ³¹ sɯŋ³⁵ 2019

Dinka [Northwestern]: Dinka [Northwestern] ✧ DIW ✧ Nilo-Saharan, spoken in Sudan and by a refugee population in Jacksonville, Florida.

25 aduoŋ 2019

Ditidaht (Nitinaht): Ditidaht (Nitinaht) ✧ DTD ✧ Wakashan family, Vancouver Island. No nasal consonants, virtually extinct.

25 wiiʔibqƛabaał 2019

Djimini (Jinmini): Djimini (Jinmini) ✧ DYI ✧ Niger-Congo, Senufo, 96,000 speakers in Ivory Coast’s Debakala Department

25 nɛŋgɛwaga yeŋge 2019

Dogrib (Tłı̨chǫ Yatıì): Dogrib (Tłı̨chǫ Yatıì) ✧ DGR ✧ Na-Dené, Athabaskan. Canada Northwest Territories, 2600 speakers.

25 Det’ôtso 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.

25 sɔŋɛ 2019

Dukhan: Dukhan ✧ DKH ✧ A Turkic amalgam related to Tuvan, Buryat, and Tofalar (all q.v.) spoken, often mixed with Mongolian, by approx. 500 Dukha reindeer herders in Northernmost Mongolia. (Language code DKH is unofficial.)

25 аk аy 2019

Duru [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.

25 dùgùdugu 2019

Dusun (Bunduliwan): Dusun (Bunduliwan) ✧ DTP ✧ A Malayo-Polynesian language, standardized by the Kadazandusun Cultural Association Sabah, and spoken by 140,000 in Malaysia and Brunei.

25 Tulan Gomot “Harvest month” 2019

Dutch [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.

XXV (lentemaand) MMXVIIII  ▭

Dzongkha: Dzongkha ✧ DZO ✧ Sino-Tibetan family, approx. 170,000 native speakers (and an additional 470,000 non-native) in Bhutan where it is the only official language.

25 (spyi.zlaw.gsum.pa) 2019

⌅

Edo (Bini): Edo (Bini) ✧ BIN ✧ Niger-Congo family. Spoken by Benin Empire descendents.

25 uki egbo 2019

Embu (Kîembu): Embu (Kîembu) ✧ EBU ✧ Niger-Congo family, Bantu. Spoken by 320,000 in two dialects, northeast of Nairobi, Kenya.

25 Mweri wa kathatũ 2019

Emilian-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.

25 mêrs 2019  ▭

Emilian-Romagnol [Ferrarese]: Emilian-Romagnol [Ferrarese] ✧ EGL/RGN ✧ E-R dialect heard in the Province of Ferrara which includes the city of Comacchio.

25 màrz 2019

Enets (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.

25 “Long trips” 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).

XXV (Hrēþmōnað) “Hreða [fertility goddess] month” 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.).

25 Levitantop -or- Lovitantop 2019

Erromintxela: Erromintxela ✧ EMX ✧ A Basque/Romani hybrid language spoken by around a thousand Pyranees-dwelling Roma

25 martxoa 2019

Ersu [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.

25 suɑ³³i⁵⁵ɬɑ³³ 2019

Erzya: 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.

25 эйзюрков (eizürkov) 2019  ▭

Eskayan: Eskayan ✧ ESY ✧ Famously obscure Philippine language, extinct but heavily studied. Possibly a Cebuano-based cryptolect.

25 maso 2019

Estonian: 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.

25 paastukuu 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.

25 paastukuu “Lenten month” 2019

Etruscan: Etruscan ✧ ETT ✧ Assigned to the hypothetical Tyrrhenian family (along with at least two other long-extinct, poorly attested languages), spoken on the Italian peninsula in classical times. Written right-to-left, the Etruscan language lacked the sounds of O, D, B, and G.

XXΛ (velcitna) ⊕⊕XIX  ▭

Even (Lamut): Even (Lamut) ✧ EVE ✧ Altaic, Tungusic. Endangered, with 7000-odd speakers in Siberia. Doesn’t use articles.

25 эври ечэн (ėvri ječėn) 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.

25 ektengkire “Time snow falls off tree branches” 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.

25 Tedoxe 2019

Extremaduran: 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.”

25 marçu -or- marzu 2019  ▭

⌅

Fang: Fang ✧ FAN ✧ Niger-Congo, Southern Bantoid, one million speakers predominantly in Equatorial Guinea and Gabon, beyond that in Cameroon, São Tomé and Príncipe, and The Republic of the Congo. Tonal, eight major dialects, spelling not currently standardized.

25 ngon-lâ 2019

Fe’fe’ (Nufi or Bafang): Fe’fe’ (Nufi or Bafang) ✧ FMP ✧ Niger-Congo, Bantoid. 120,000 speakers around Bafang, Cameroon.

25 mbakngofat 2019

Flemish [West-Vlams]: Flemish [West-Vlams] ✧ VLS ✧ A highly divergent Dutch dialect with 1.2 million speakers

25 moarte 2019  ▭

Fon: Fon ✧ FON ✧ Niger-Congo, Gbe. Spoken by 2.2 million in Togo and Benin in over 50 dialects.

25 xwejí sùn 2019

Fox (Meskwaki or Sauk): Fox (Meskwaki or Sauk) ✧ SAC ✧ Algonquian, endangered, approx. 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.

25 mâcha 2019  ▭

Fox (Meskwaki or Sauk) I: Fox (Meskwaki or Sauk) I ✧ 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.

25 mtt 2019

Fox (Meskwaki or Sauk) II: Fox (Meskwaki or Sauk) II ✧ SAC ✧ Fox as above, written with the Fox II script, a true alphabet showing consonants and vowels explicitly.

25 2019

Frafra (Gurenɛ): Frafra (Gurenɛ) ✧ GUR ✧ Niger-Congo, Gur, Mooré, spoken by 720,000 in Ghana and Burkina Faso. Its alphabet doesn’t use c, j, q, or x, but adds ɛ, ɔ, ŋ, and ɣ. Akin to Mossi (q.v.).

25 wɔlbiõ wõrga 2019

Frankish (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.

XXV Lenzimanoþ MMXVIIII

Frisian [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.

25 foarjiersmoanne “Spring month” 2019  ▭

Frisian [North] (Mooring): Frisian [North] (Mooring) ✧ FRR ✧ About 10,000 speakers in the Schleswig-Holstein region of Germany

25 marts -or- uursmoune “Spring 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

25 feurjiersmond 2019

Friulian: 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).

25 març 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.

25 mbooy 2019  ▭

Fur: Fur ✧ FVR ✧ Tentatively attributed to the Nilo-Saharan family, spoken in south central Darfur in western Sudan.

25 Sǔbuŋáŋ 2019

Futunan: Futunan ✧ FUT ✧ Malayo-Polynesian language spoken on Futuna Island and New Caledonia. Its words for hand and arm are identical.

25 malesio 2019

⌅

Gaelic [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.

25 Mí Márta 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.

25 Am Màrt 2019  ▭

Gaelic [Scottish Archaic]: Gaelic [Scottish Archaic] ✧ GLA ✧ As Scottish Gaelic above, but older

25 Mìos Meadhanach an Earraich 2019

Gagauz: Gagauz ✧ GAG ✧ Turkic language spoken in Moldova, Ukraine, Turkey, Russia

25 баба марта айы (baba marta ayı) 2019

Galician: Galician ✧ GLG ✧ Sharply divergent Portuguese spoken in Galicia (Northern Spain). Fidel Castroʼs father was Galician and emigrated to make his sugar cane fortune.

25 marzo 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.

25 lumii 2019

Gallo: 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.

25 martz 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.

25 ürüwa 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.

25 bilsini gittamgipa ja 2019

Gaulish: 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).

XI elembivii MMXVIIII  ▭

Ga: Ga ✧ GAA ✧ Niger-Congo family, Kwa division, first written in 1764. Tonal, three vowel lengths.

25 Ochokrikri 2019

Gciriku (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.

25 Ntjînano 2019

Georgian: 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.

კე მარტი (mart̓i) ცით  ▭

Georgian [Old]: Georgian [Old] ✧ KAT ✧ Georgian from approximately 800-1000 ce

კე მირკანი (mirk̓ani) ცით

German [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.

25 März 2019  ▭

German [Alsatian Folk]: German [Alsatian Folk] ✧ GSW ✧ Previous to, or aside from, the modern neo-Roman.

25 Lenzmond -or- Lenzmonat -or- Lenzing -or- Frühlingsmonat 2019

German [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.

25 im Märts 2019

German [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.

XXV Lenzinmānōd 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.

25 Moaz -or- Meert 2019  ▭

German [Ripuarian] (Kölsch): German [Ripuarian] (Kölsch) ✧ KSH ✧ Indo-European, West Germanic, Central Franconian. Cologne region.

25 Määz 2019

German [Walser]: German [Walser] ✧ WAE ✧ Germanic, uppermost Swiss alps. Its CH is quite roughly articulated.

25 Märze 2019  ▭

German [mid 17th century]: German [mid 17th century] ✧ GER ✧ The High German shown on a 1665 calendar

25 Mertz 2019

Gitxsan (Gitksan): Gitxsan (Gitksan) ✧ GIT ✧ Tsimshianic family, British Columbia, < 1000 speakers

25 hlox̱sa 'wihlax̱s 2019

Gothic: 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.

XXV (austramenoþs) 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.

25 citaa 2019

Greenlandic (Kalaallisut): Greenlandic (Kalaallisut) ✧ KAL ✧ Language from the Eskimo-Aleut family, now official in Greenland

25 Martsi 2019  ▭

Griko (Grecanic Italiot Greek): Griko (Grecanic Italiot Greek) ✧ GRE ✧ Variety of modern Greek with approx. 50% mutual intelligibility with it. About 28,000 speakers in the toe and heel of Italy.

25 Marti 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.

25 nɔhɂóúɂaanɔh ɂóhuutɔ́yaɂáách “When snow insects bite” 2019

Guahibo: 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.

25 pabianü tajuita (no distinction between February and March) “Sowing conucos (banana, cane, chili)” 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.

25 санйүә (sаnjyә) 2019

Guaraní [Paraguayan]: Guaraní [Paraguayan] ✧ GUG ✧ Tupian family. This is the standard Guaraní spoken in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay. Genderless. Oldest writings date from 1639.

25 jasyapy 2019  ▭

Guernésiais: Guernésiais ✧ NRF ✧ Indo-European, Romance, Langue d’oïl. A Norman dialect spoken by approx. 200 on the Channel Island of Guernsey. Victor Hugo contemporary George Métivier (1790–1881) was a widely celebrated author in Guernésiais.

25 mar 2019  ▭

Guhu-Samane: Guhu-Samane ✧ GHS ✧ An isolate related to the Binanderean family, Papua New Guinea, five dialects recognized, 13,000 speakers.

25 Maasi 2019

Guiqiong: Guiqiong ✧ GQI ✧ Sino-Tibetan, Qiangic. A preliterate, poorly documented language spoken in Sichuan and Tibet. Four tones (33, 35, 53, 55). There are approx. 6000 native speakers, who switch to Chinese when they travel outside their villages.

25 sↄ̃⁵⁵pu⁵³ 2019

Gullah (Sea Islands Creole): Gullah (Sea Islands Creole) ✧ GUL ✧ English-based, Niger-Congo influences. The word “kumbaya” comes from Gullah, and some characters in Daughters of the Dust (1991) speak Gullah over English captions.

25 Maa’ch 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.

25 Mweri̱ Gwakasatu 2019

Gusii (Ekegusii or Kisii): Gusii (Ekegusii or Kisii) ✧ GUZ ✧ Niger-Congo family, Northeast Bantu, spoken by 2.2 million in western Kenya’s Gusii district. Contrastive vowel lengths.

25 Egetamo 2019  ▭

Gusilay: 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%.

25 Fureh 2019

Gutnish (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.

25 mass -or- mars 2019

Gwere (Lugwere): Gwere (Lugwere) ✧ GWR ✧ Niger-Congo, Great Lakes Bantu, 410,000 speakers in Uganda.

25 Gwakusatu -or- Naizuba 2019

Gwich’in [Western]: Gwich’in [Western] ✧ GWI ✧ Na-Dené family, Athabaskan. 700 speakers in Alaska + NW Canada.

25 Ch’izhin Zhrii 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.

25 Xitgáas Kungáay “Noisy goose moon” 2019

Haitian Creole: Haitian Creole ✧ HAT ✧ French-derived but borrows from Taíno, Portuguese, African languages

25 mas 2019  ▭

Hakha Chin (Lai): Hakha Chin (Lai) ✧ CNH ✧ Sino-Tibetan family, spoken in Burma, Bangladesh, and India. Tonal.

25 March thla 2019

Hakka: Hakka ✧ HAK ✧ Sino-Tibetan. Taiwan, SE China, diaspora communities worldwide. Uses NG sounds and final M, unlike, say, Mandarin Chinese.

25 三月 sam¹ 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).

25 bø³¹ zo̱³¹ 2019

Harari: Harari ✧ HAR ✧ Afro-Asiatic family, Semitic, approx. 25,000 speakers in Ethiopia. Once written with Arabic script, but nowadays with the Ethiopic abugida and the Roman alphabet.

25 shíshtí-khá warhay 2019

Havasupai-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.

25 Mu Thaw Gyo 2019

Heiltsuk-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.

25 qṃsistá “Moon tipped over” 2019

Herero (Otjiherero): Herero (Otjiherero) ✧ HER ✧ Niger-Congo, Bantu, spoken by around 200,000 of at least six different ethnicities in Angola, Botswana, and Namibia. Roman script was introduced by missionaries in the 19th century.

25 Eseninarindi 2019

Hidatsa: 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.

25 Mirée Arugibáadagi Mirísh 2019

Hiligaynon (Ilongo): Hiligaynon (Ilongo) ✧ HIL ✧ Malayo-Polynesian, Visaya group, spoken in Philippines. The indigenous abugida script shown here, Baybayin, dates from the 13th century.

25 (dagangbulan) 2019

Hmong (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.

25 Peb hlis ntuj 2019  ▭

Holikachuk: Holikachuk ✧ HOI ✧ Athabaskan language, central Alaska. Its last fluent speaker, Wilson “Tiny” Deacon, died in March 2012.

25 Q’iulq’iy Zo’ 2019

Homshetsi (Hamshen): Homshetsi (Hamshen) ✧ AXM(?) ✧ Archaic Armenian dialect spoken by 14,000 in Turkey, preliterate until 1995. Homshetsi and modern Armenian are not mutually intelligible.

25 (mart) 2019  ▭

Hopi: Hopi ✧ HOP ✧ Uto-Aztecan family, approx. 7000 native speakers in NE Arizona. Bitonal with four distinct dialects identified by linguist Benjamin Whorf that differ in their consonant inventory.

25 Osomuyaw “Whispering wind 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.).

25 khê piq 2019

Huichol [Wixarika]: Huichol [Wixarika] ✧ HCH ✧ Uto-Aztecan language with 45,000 speakers, native to west-central Mexico. Creates long “sentence words” with prefixes and suffixes.

25 haquiya -or- haika metseeri 2019  ▭

Hungarian [Premodern religious]: Hungarian [Premodern religious] ✧ OHU ✧ Church-based Hungarian, before it adopted neo-Latin month conventions

25 böjtmás hava “Fasting month” 2019

Hungarian [Premodern secular]: Hungarian [Premodern secular] ✧ OHU ✧ Secular Hungarian, before it adopted neo-Latin month conventions

25 kikelet hava “Revival month” 2019  ▭

Hungarian [Reform Era]: Hungarian [Reform Era] ✧ HUN ✧ Hungarian during the nationalistic fervor of 1825-1848

25 tavaszelő 2019

Huron (Wendat) [17th-18th centuries]: Huron (Wendat) [17th-18th centuries] ✧ WYA ✧ Iriquoian family, Five Nations, Huronian, native to Quebec. As recorded by French Jesuits from the 1650s to 1740s. No native speakers but currently under revival.

25 anda8atonnen “Water overflows” 2019

⌅

Iaai: Iaai ✧ IAI ✧ Malayo-Polynesian, Southern Oceanic, 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.

25 maac 2019

Iatmül: 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.”

25 li՚ kamagi՚ n 2019

Iban: 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.

25 lelang 2019

Idu Mishmi (Chulikata): Idu Mishmi (Chulikata) ✧ CLK ✧ Sino-Tibetan, endangered. India’s Dibang Valley District of Arunachal Pradesh, 3 dialects.

25 (chang) -or- mùlā 2019  ▭

Igbo: Igbo ✧ IBO ✧ Niger-Congo, tonal, proverb-heavy, Nigeria. Actor Chiwetel Ejiofor (Amistad, Twelve Years a Slave, etc.) is Igbo.

25 ónwa áton’áfò 2019

Ik: 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.

25 Dáŋ -or- Lɔɗʉ́ŋɛ 2019

Ingrian (Izhorian): Ingrian (Izhorian) ✧ IZH ✧ Uralic, Finnic language with only 120 speakers around Gulf of Finland

25 martti 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.

25 мутхьал (mut-hal) 2019  ▭

Ingush 2: Ingush 2 ✧ INH ✧ Alternative terminology

25 гӏалгӏай мархий бутт (g̓alg̓ay marχiy butt) 2019

Inuktitut: 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.

25 (natsialiut) 2019  ▭

Inuktitut [Nunavik]: Inuktitut [Nunavik] ✧ IKU ✧ A dialect of Inuktitut

25 Natsialiuti 2019

Inuktitut [Qikiqtaaluk]: Inuktitut [Qikiqtaaluk] ✧ IKU ✧ Inuktitut terminology used in the Baffin Region

25 Avunnisi 2019

Inupiaq [North Slope]: Inupiaq [North Slope] ✧ IPK ✧ Eskimo-Aleut family, extreme NW Alaska

25 paniqsiqsiivik 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.

25 huyaa'aa 2019

Isan: 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.

25 meenakom 2019

Istriot (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.

25 màrso 2019

Itelmen: 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.

25 адукоач (adukoač) 2019

Iu Mien (Yao): Iu Mien (Yao) ✧ IUM ✧ 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, several voiceless nasals as well as a voiceless L.

25 faah hlaax 2019

Izere [Ibor]: Izere [Ibor] ✧ IZR ✧ Niger-Congo family, Plateau, between 50,000 and 100,000 speakers total. Of its five dialects, Ibor Izere is the most heavily influenced by modern world exposure.

25 [March unknown] 2019

⌅

Jèrriais: 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.

25 mâr 2019  ▭

Japanese [Premodern]: Japanese [Premodern] ✧ OJP ✧ Dating from the Heian Period (794-1185)

25 弥生 (yayoi) “Month of growth” 2019

Japhug [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.

25 χsɯmba jamar 2019

Jaqaru: 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.

25 marsu 2019

Jarai: Jarai ✧ JRA ✧ Malayo-Polynesian language related to Cham (q.v.), spoken in Vietnam and Cambodia

25 blan klâo 2019

Jebero (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.

25 Paskua-duker 2019

Jerba 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.

25 mars 2019

Jingpho (Kachin): Jingpho (Kachin) ✧ KAC ✧ Sino-Tibetan, Bramaputran. Kachin State, Burma, and Yunan Province, China. Five tones, commonly written with the Roman alphabet.

25 wut 2019  ▭

Jju: Jju ✧ KAJ ✧ Niger-Congo, West Plateau. 300,000 speakers in Nigeria’s Southern Kaduna state.

25 Hywan A̱tat 2019

Jola-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.

25 mars 2019

⌅

Kabiye: Kabiye ✧ KBP ✧ Niger-Congo, Gur. Spoken by 1.2 million in Togo, Benin, and Ghana.

25 tozo fenaɣ 2019

Kabuverdianu (Cape Verdean): Kabuverdianu (Cape Verdean) ✧ KEA ✧ The oldest surviving creole, based on 15th century Portuguese

25 marsu 2019

Kabwa (Ekikabwa): Kabwa (Ekikabwa) ✧ CWA ✧ Niger-Congo family, Northeast Bantu, 14,000 speakers in Tanzania’s Mara Region adjacent to Lake Victoria.

25 Kitaaturi 2019

Kabyle (Taqbaylit): Kabyle (Taqbaylit) ✧ KAB ✧ Afro-Asiatic, Berber, spoken in Algeria. Masculine nouns begin with A (character ); feminine nouns begin and end with T (character ).

25 (meɣres) 2019  ▭

Kako (Mkako): Kako (Mkako) ✧ KKJ ✧ Niger-Congo family, Bantu. Spoken by around 120,000 who are mostly Batouri and Ndélélé in Cameroon, including smaller numbers in the Central African Republic and the Republic of Congo. Three main mutually intelligible dialects.

25 mbiyɔ mɛndoŋgɔ 2019

Kalapuya: Kalapuya ✧ KYL ✧ Tiny language family once spoken in Western Oregon, extinct

25 Atcha-uyu 2019

Kalenjin (Nandi): Kalenjin (Nandi) ✧ KLN ✧ Nilo-Saharan family, spoken in east Africa’s Rift Valley

25 kiptamo 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.

25 lechew 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.

25 Mwai wa katatũ 2019

Kanji [Piti-Atsam]: Kanji [Piti-Atsam] ✧ CCH/PCN ✧ Niger-Congo family, Platoid. Spoken by around 30,000 in Nigeria.

25 pen atat 2019

Kankanaey [Northern]: Kankanaey [Northern] ✧ XNN ✧ A Malayo-Polynesian language spoken on Luzon in the Philippines. Kankanaey has 240,000 speakers, Northern Kankanaey, 94,000. This dialect is spoken in the Philippines' western Mountain Province, Ilocos Sur Province, and Abra Province in the Tubo municipality.

25 kitkiti 2019

Kanza (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).

25 hoⁿba oscéje 2019

Kapingamarangi (Kirinit): Kapingamarangi (Kirinit) ✧ KPG ✧ Polynesian language with around 3000 speakers on the Kapingamarangi and Pohnpei Islands of Micronesia

25 dolu malama 2019

Kaqchikel: Kaqchikel ✧ CAK ✧ Mayan family, 450,000 speakers in Guatemala’s Central Highlands. Kaqchikel intensifies adjectives by reduplication — in other words, repeating them twice.

25 rox ik’ 2019

Karachay-Balkar: Karachay-Balkar ✧ KRC ✧ Turkic language spoken in the Kabardino-Balkaria region of the north Caucasus. Closely related to Kumyk (q.v.).

25 тотурну ал айы (toturnu al ayi) 2019  ▭

Karakalpak: Karakalpak ✧ KAA ✧ Turkic, closely related to Kazakh (q.v.), approx. 400,000 speakers in Uzbekistan

25 ҳамал (hamal) 2019  ▭

Karang: Karang ✧ KZR ✧ Niger-Congo, Bantu. Four dialects, 18,000 speakers in Camaroon.

25 few gel zaŋna 2019

Karelian [Standard]: Karelian [Standard] ✧ KRL ✧ Uralic, Finnic. Only non-Karelian spoilsports call it a Finnish dialect. 36,000 speakers.

25 kevätkuu “Spring 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.

25 kevätkuudu 2019

Karen [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.

(thway kaw)   ▭

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.

25 itrôopaan 2019

Kasena (Kasem): Kasena (Kasem) ✧ XSM ✧ Niger-Congo, Gur, 250,000 speakers in Ghana and Burkina Faso.

25 lʋŋʋ cana 2019

Kaska: 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.

25 Ahdā Sā “Eagle month” -or- Īhtsʼī Sā “Windy month” 2019

Kayan [Baram]: Kayan [Baram] ✧ KCT ✧ A Malayo-Polynesian language spoken in central Borneo, in two dialects of weak interintelligibity. Not to be confused with Sino-Tibetan Kayan, also known as Padaung.

25 bulan telo’ 2019

Kazakh: 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.

25 наурыз (naurız) -or- виртин ай (birtin ay) 2019  ▭

Kemedzung (Dumbo): Kemedzung (Dumbo) ✧ DMO ✧ Niger-Congo family, Southern Bantoid, 3500 speakers in western Cameroon

25 ntishɛ 2019

Keresan: Keresan ✧ KEE/KJQ ✧ Language isolate group spoken in New Mexico. Some vowels are whispered. 10,000 speakers.

25 shch’ami daawaatra 2019  ▭

Ket: Ket ✧ KET ✧ The only surviving language from the Yeniseian family and seriously endangered, with 150 speakers in Siberia’s Yenisei River valley

25 диӷып (diɣyp) 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

25 kâñ 2019

Khakas [Sagay]: Khakas [Sagay] ✧ KJH ✧ Another dialect of Khakas

25 ulugh körîk ayï 2019

Khanty (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.

25 сӓри кӱрәк тыӆәс (säri kürĕk tyl̦ĕs) 2019  ▭

Khanty (Ostyak) [Eastern]: Khanty (Ostyak) [Eastern] ✧ KCA ✧ Eastern Khanty terms collected 1956-1957

25 urniki “Raven month” 2019

Kharia: 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.

25 ɖok.ɖaʔă 2019

Khasi: 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.

25 'nái-lber 2019  ▭

Khmer (Cambodian): Khmer (Cambodian) ✧ KHM ✧ Austroasiatic family, Mon-Khmer branch, heavy Sanskrit influences. Oldest inscription dates from 611 ce.

(mik nea)   ▭

Khowar (Chitrali): Khowar (Chitrali) ✧ KHW ✧ Indo-European, Indo-Iranian, 450,000 speakers mostly in Pakistan. Five dialects, month names can vary from one Chitrali village to another.

25 šadaɣ 2019

K’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’.

25 rox 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).

25 Okwakashatu 2019

Kikuyu (Gikuyu): Kikuyu (Gikuyu) ✧ KIK ✧ Niger-Congo, Northeast Bantu, 6.6 million speakers in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. Three tones: high, low, low-rising. Spoken by a character in the 1983 Star Wars movie Return of the Jedi.

25 Mwere wa gatatũ 2019

Kiliwa: Kiliwa ✧ KLB ✧ Yuman language, 50 speakers, northern Baja California. Word for Pacific Ocean is Kuñím.

25 mat chipam 2019

Kiowa: 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.

25 Ahye-day p’aw “Time new leaves begin to form on trees” 2019

Kiribati (Gilbertese): Kiribati (Gilbertese) ✧ GIL ✧ Malayo-Polynesian, 120,000 speakers. Its alphabet has 13 letters. “Kiribati” is pronounced KEER-i-bass, as natively this language has no S and so uses the digraph TI to indicate that sound from foreign loans.

25 Maati 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.

25 mácka -or- hasí statoccí:nan 2019

Kơho: 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.

25 kəənhaj pɛ 2019

Kokborok (Tripuri): Kokborok (Tripuri) ✧ TRP ✧ Sino-Tibetan language of India and Bangladesh. Uses high and low tones.

25 remtham talni mung 2019

Komi (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.

25 рака (raka) 2019  ▭

Komo: Komo ✧ XOM ✧ Nilo-Saharan (possibly), Koman; 10,000 speakers in Sudan, 8500 in Ethiopia. Three tones, uses ejective and implosive consonants.

25 pay kana sʉ 2019

Kom: Kom ✧ BKM ✧ Niger-Congo, Bantu. Tri-tonal, 127,000 speakers in NW Camaroon

25 njoñ aèntÏìm 2019

Kongo: Kongo ✧ KON ✧ Bantu language spoken in Angola and both Congos. The words zombie and goober, and possibly funky, are Kongo loans.

25 sánza ya mísáto 2019

Konso: Konso ✧ KXC ✧ Afro-Asiatic, Cushitic, spoken by 240,000 South of Lake Chamo in Ethiopia. Serves as a lingua franca in the area.

25 murano 2019

Korku: 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.

25 phagun 2019

Kosraean (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.

25 mahs 2019

Kposo (Ikposo): Kposo (Ikposo) ✧ KPO ✧ Niger-Congo, Kwa, 160,000 speakers in Togo and Ghana. Consonant blends KP and GB frequently occur, along with ƔL.

25 zata 2019

Ksingmul: Ksingmul ✧ PUO ✧ Austroasiatic, Mon-Khmer, spoken by 27,000 ethnic Ksingmul (Xinh Mul in Vietnamese) in Vietnam and Laos.

25 bluən saːm 2019

Kumeyaay (Central Diegueño): Kumeyaay (Central Diegueño) ✧ DIH ✧ Yuman family, spoken by approx. 400 in Southern California and the Baja

25 halakwol 2019

Kumyk: Kumyk ✧ KUM ✧ Turkic language spoken by approx. 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.

25 оьркий (orky) 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.

25 dillanii “Flowery anthills month” 2019

Kurdish [Kurmanji/North]: Kurdish [Kurmanji/North] ✧ KMR ✧ Indo-European family, Indo-Iranian. The dialect of 75% of Kurdish speakers.

25 adar -or- avdar 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.

25 adar 2019

Kurdish [Sorani/South]: Kurdish [Sorani/South] ✧ CKB ✧ The Kurdish dialect second in number of speakers to Kurmanji

25 âdâr 2019  ▭

Kusasi (Kusaal) [Western or Mowed]: Kusasi (Kusaal) [Western or Mowed] ✧ KUS ✧ Niger-Congo, Gur, 17,000 speakers in Burkina Faso. Tonal. There is also an Eastern dialect spoken in Ghana.

25 da'walak wãrɩk 2019

Kutenai (Ktunaxa): Kutenai (Ktunaxa) ✧ KUT ✧ Language isolate spoken by 100 (British Columbia, Montana, and Idaho). No distinction between voiced vs unvoiced consonants, word order is flexible.

25 ǂik’uq’ 2019

Kven: 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.

25 marsikuu 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.

25 ḵ̓wiḵ̓wa'la̱nx̱ 2019

Kwangali: 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.

25 Nsinano 2019

Kwasio: 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.

25 ngwɛn ńlal 2019

Kyrgyz: Kyrgyz ✧ KIR ✧ Altaic family, Turkic. Spoken by 4 million in Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, China.

25 calğan Kuran 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.

25 mařed 2019

Ladakhi (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.

25 dawa saum 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.

25 merz 2019

Ladin [Cadorean]: Ladin [Cadorean] ✧ LLD ✧ Ladin dialect of a handful of speakers in Cadore in the Italian province of Belluno bordering on Austria

25 marze 2019

Ladin [Fassa Valley]: Ladin [Fassa Valley] ✧ LLD ✧ Another Ladin dialect, 600 speakers in Trentino in the Italian Alpines

25 mèrz 2019

Ladin [Gardenese]: Ladin [Gardenese] ✧ LLD ✧ Ladin dialect, 8000 speakers in the Dolomites of South Tyrol in Northern Italy

25 merz 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.

25 marz 2019

Ladino (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.

25  (marso) 2019  ▭

Lahu: Lahu ✧ LHU ✧ Sino-Tibetan family, spoken in China, Thailand, Myanmar, and Laos

25 mâɂchì 2019

Lakota: Lakota ✧ LKT ✧ Siouan-Catawban family, spoken by approx. 6000 in the US Dakotas. Heard in the 1990 movie Dances with Wolves.

25 Ista Oniyanpi Wi “Moon of sore eyes” 2019  ▭

Lak: Lak ✧ LBE ✧ Northeast Caucasian, approx. 160,000 speakers in Southern Dagestan. Heavy influences from Russian, Turkish, Arabic, and Persian.

25 шамилчинмур барз (šаmilčinmur barz) 2019

Lama: Lama ✧ LAS ✧ Niger-Congo, Gur, Gurunsi, 260,000 speakers in Benin and Togo in three dialects. Three tones: high, low, falling.

25 kɔɔta honɖɔ 2019

Lao: Lao ✧ LAO ✧ Kra–Dai family, 6 tones. Many Indo-European loans via Pali/Sanskrit.

(deuan meena)   ▭

Latgalian: Latgalian ✧ LTG ✧ Baltic, 150,000 speakers. Related to Latvian, Samogitian, and Lithuanian (q.v.).

25 pavasara mieness 2019  ▭

Laz (Lazuri): Laz (Lazuri) ✧ LZZ ✧ A Kartvelian language spoken in five major dialects by approx. 22,000 on the southeast shore of the Black Sea. Many Greek and Turkic loans; all Laz nouns end with a vowel.

25 მირკანი (mirk̓ani) 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.

25 Mechoammowigischuch “Shad month” 2019

Leonese: Leonese ✧ ??? ✧ Endangered Romance language undergoing a revival in NW Spain. Oldest writings date from ca. 959-974 ce.

25 marzu 2019  ▭

Lepcha: Lepcha ✧ LEP ✧ Sino-Tibetan family, non-tonal, unique script. West Bengal, Nepal, Bhutan.

(thaon 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.

25 ибне (ibne) 2019  ▭

Lezgian [Premodern]: Lezgian [Premodern] ✧ LEZ ✧ Conjectured Lezgian terminology of yore

25 яр (yar) -or- тIул (t’ul) 2019

Lhao 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.

25 lɔ̱⁵⁵ sam³¹  khjɛʔ⁵⁵ 2019

Ligurian [Genoese]: Ligurian [Genoese] ✧ LIJ ✧ Indo-European, Romance, Northern Italy. Endangered. Not to be confused with ancient Ligurian, an extinct Celtic language.

25 marsu 2019  ▭

Ligurian [Monégasque]: Ligurian [Monégasque] ✧ LIJ ✧ Ligurian dialect spoken by 5600 in Monaco including Princess Stephanie. Employs the non-Italian ü, œ, and ç.

25 marsu 2019  ▭

Limburgish: Limburgish ✧ LIM ✧ Germanic language, Limburg & Rhineland areas. Quite unusually, it’s tonal.

25 Mièrt 2019  ▭

Lingala: Lingala ✧ LIN ✧ Niger-Congo, Bantu, tonal. Spoken by 15 million in both Congos.

25 sánzá ya mísáto 2019  ▭

Lingarak (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.

25 [No correspondence for March] 2019

Lisu [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.

25 sahan 2019

Lisu [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.

25 (sa⁴⁴ ha²¹) 2019

Lithuanian: Lithuanian ✧ LIT ✧ Baltic, 3 million speakers. Unusually, its alphabet places Y after Į.

25 kovas “Rook (crow-like bird)” 2019

Livonian: 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.

25 kievádkú “Spring 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.

25 mars 2019

Lombard [Eastern Bergamasque]: Lombard [Eastern Bergamasque] ✧ LMO ✧ A subdivision of Eastern Lombard spoken by 700,000

25 mars 2019

Lombard [Mantuan]: Lombard [Mantuan] ✧ LMO ✧ Lombard dialect spoken in the city and commune of Mantua in Lombardy

25 mars 2019

Lombard [Western] (Insubric): Lombard [Western] (Insubric) ✧ LMO ✧ The Lombard spoken in Southern Switzerland and Northern Italy around Milan

25 marz 2019  ▭

Lorrain [Vosgien La Bresse]: Lorrain [Vosgien La Bresse] ✧ ??? ✧ Romance, Langue d’oïl, Lorraine subgroup. Lorraine’s Vosgien dialects were spoken in France in Vosges, St. Quirin, eastern Badonviller, and two Alsace Departments. Rarely spoken today, though much of its influence and vocabulary lives on.

25 mars 2019  ▭

Lorrain [Vosgien La Haye]: Lorrain [Vosgien La Haye] ✧ ??? ✧ Another Vosgien subdialect.

25 mars 2019

Lorrain [Vosgien Ville sur Illon]: Lorrain [Vosgien Ville sur Illon] ✧ ??? ✧ And yet another

25 mars 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.

25 mars 2019  ▭

Lower Tanana: Lower Tanana ✧ TAA ✧ Endangered Athabaskan language with a dozen or so speakers. Minto, Alaska.

25 ch’eyona’ nondedekden 2019

Loxrlavu [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).

25 sangaxiu 2019

Lozi: 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.

25 Liatamani 2019

Luba-Kasai (Ciluba or Western Luba): Luba-Kasai (Ciluba or Western Luba) ✧ LUA ✧ Niger-Congo family, Bantu, spoken in the Katanga Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Closely related to, but not to be confused with, Luba-Katanga (q.v.).

25 ngondo muisaatu -or- luabanya nkasu 2019

Luba-Katanga: Luba-Katanga ✧ LUB ✧ Niger-Congo family, Bantu, spoken in the Katanga Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Closely related to, but not to be confused with, Luba-Kasai (q.v.).

25 Lusòlo 2019

Ludic: 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.).

25 keväzkuu 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.

25 Mugulansigo -or- omwezi ogw'okusatu 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.

25 Zengulu 2019

Luo: Luo ✧ LUO ✧ Nilo-Saharan family, Kenya and Tanzania. Barak Obama Sr. was Luo.

25 Dwe mar adek 2019

Luxembourgish [Traditional]: Luxembourgish [Traditional] ✧ LTZ ✧ Indo-European, Germanic, French influences. Its CH is pronounced like English SH (Š). “Moselle Franconian” is an umbrella term for Luxembourgish and its related West Germanic dialects.

25 Lenzmount 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.

25 oeníoiŋok 2019

Maa [Samburu]: Maa [Samburu] ✧ SAQ ✧ Maa dialect of the Northern Kenya highlands, 240,000 speakers

25 Lapa le okuni 2019

Macassarese [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.

XXV bulang Bisaakai MMXVIIII

Macedonian [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.

25 цутар (tsutar) “Budding” 2019  ▭

Mada [Rija]: Mada [Rija] ✧ MDA ✧ Niger-Congo, Plateau, Ninzic, spoken by over 100,000 (all dialects) in Nigeria’s Plateau and Kaduna States. Tonal. Not to be confused with Maɗa, an Afro-Asiatic language of Cameroon.

25 hwə yə̄ tar 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

25 manululsul 2019

Makasai [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.

25 mater-raadina “Worm excrements on the ground” 2019

Makhuwa-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).

25 Mweri wo uneraru 2019

Malagasy: Malagasy ✧ MLG ✧ Spoken in Madagascar but non-African (Malayo-Polynesian, from Borneo). For all dialects inclusive there are 25 million speakers.

25 Martsa 2019  ▭

Malagasy [Antankaraña]: Malagasy [Antankaraña] ✧ XMV ✧ Dialect spoken by ethnic Antankaraña in Northern Madagascar

25 Fisahamasay 2019

Malagasy [Sakalava]: Malagasy [Sakalava] ✧ SKG ✧ Dialect spoken by ethnic Sakalava in Northern Madagascar

25 Faosa 2019

Malagasy [Tandroy-Mahafaly]: Malagasy [Tandroy-Mahafaly] ✧ TDX ✧ Dialect spoken by ethnic Mahafaly in SW Madagascar

25 Marsa 2019

Malecite-Passamaquoddy: Malecite-Passamaquoddy ✧ PQM ✧ Algonquian family, spoken in New Brunswick & Maine, endangered

25 siqoni-kisuhs 2019

Maltese: Maltese ✧ MLT ✧ Unique Arabic/Sicilian hybrid, 370,000 speakers on Malta. Its cadence and inflection reminds many non-natives of Italian.

25 Marzu 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

(ilan biya)   ▭

Mandinka: Mandinka ✧ MNK ✧ Niger-Congo family, Mande branch, Manding group. Bitonal.

25 maaci karoo 2019

Mandinka [Traditional]: Mandinka [Traditional] ✧ MNK ✧ Niger-Congo family, Mande branch, Manding group. Bitonal.

25 annabi sukuwo 2019

Mang: 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.

25 meː⁶ peː⁶ 2019

Mangarevan: 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.

25 akahu 2019

Mangbai: Mangbai ✧ ZNG ✧ Niger-Congo, Mbum, Tupuri–Mambai, 14,000 speakers in Cameroon (Bénoué) and Chad (Lac-Léré). First studied academically in 1971, official alphabet published in 2004. Mangbai is tonal but that’s not shown in writing.

25 fee kisoogi ɓaga -or- fee kisoogi so՚ le 2019

Mankanya: Mankanya ✧ KNF ✧ Niger-Congo family, Bak branch, spoken natively by 75,000 in Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, and Senegal.

25 Pli pwajënţën pi kanuur 2019

Mansi: Mansi ✧ MNS ✧ Uralic, related to Hungarian, 3000 speakers in central Siberia. Word order is fixed.

25 маньполь (man’pol’) 2019

Manx: 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.

25 Mayrnt 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.

25 Poutū te rangi 2019  ▭

Māori [Cook Islands] (Rarotongan): Māori [Cook Islands] (Rarotongan) ✧ MRI ✧ This is the Māori dialect official in the Cook Islands with approx. 14,000 speakers there and another 8000 in New Zealand.

25 Māti 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.

25 Nukutaurua 2019  ▭

Mapudungun (Mapuche): Mapudungun (Mapuche) ✧ ARN ✧ Language isolate spoken in Chile and Argentina, writing system under dispute

25 glor-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.

25 ӱярня (üyarnya) 2019  ▭

Marshallese: Marshallese ✧ MAH ✧ Malayo-Polynesian, two main dialects, spoken on the Marshall Islands.

25 Ṃaaj 2019

Mashi (Kwandu): Mashi (Kwandu) ✧ MHO ✧ A Niger-Congo, Bantu language spoken by 22,000 in parts of Angola, DR Congo, and Zambia.

25 Lukânga 2019

Matlatzinca: 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.

25 xunbë 2019  ▭

Maxakalí: Maxakalí ✧ MBL ✧ Language with its own family spoken by a few hundred in Minas Gerais, Brazil

25 maxxo 2019

Mbuko: Mbuko ✧ MHW ✧ Afro-Asiatic, Chadic. 13,000 speakers in Northern Camaroon. Not to be confused with Mbukushu (q.v.), from the Niger-Congo family.

25 kiya féëo 2019

Mbukushu: 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.

25 ngendafire 2019

Mbula: Mbula ✧ MNA ✧ Malayo-Polynesian, spoken by 4500 in Morobe, Papua New Guinea. Many bilingual in (q.v.) 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).

25 Turgom 2019

Mbèlimè: Mbèlimè ✧ MBL ✧ Niger-Congo, Gur, Oti-Volta, 40,000 speakers in the communes of Cobly and Boukoumbé in the department of Atacora in northwest Benin and areas of Togo adjacent.

25 ucaatú 2019

Meitei (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.

(ingaa)

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.

25 Maaji 2019

Menominee: Menominee ✧ MEZ ✧ Algonquian family, spoken in Northern Wisconsin, nearly extinct

25 Wanāēw kēsoq “Crusted snow moon” 2019

Meta': 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.

25 imeg mbəŋchubi 2019

Meänkieli: Meänkieli ✧ FIT ✧ Endangered Finnish dialect group spoken in Sweden’s Norrbotten province. Unlike Finnish, it borrows neo-Roman terms for the months.

25 marsi 2019  ▭

Miami-Illinois (Myaamia): Miami-Illinois (Myaamia) ✧ MIA ✧ Algonquian, originally midwestern US. Extinct but under revival.

25 mahkoonsa kiilhswa 2019  ▭

Michif: Michif ✧ CRG ✧ A French-Cree hybrid, < 1000 speakers. North Dakota, Saskatchewan, Manitoba. It borrows its Gregorian calendar terms from French.

25 már 2019

Micmac: Micmac ✧ MIC ✧ Eastern Algonquian family, approx. 7000 speakers currently. At one time Micmac used a system of Egyptianesque hieroglyphics called Komqwejwi'kasikl.

25 Si’ko’ku’s “Spring forerunner” 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.

25 mə̄krə̀ŋ 2019

Min Dong [Fuzhou]: Min Dong [Fuzhou] ✧ CDO ✧ Sino-Tibetan, unintelligible with Mandarin or Cantonese, untra-complex tonality

25 dâ̤ săng nguŏk 2019

Mingrelian: 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.

კე მელახი (melakhi) ცით  ▭

Mirandese: Mirandese ✧ MWL ✧ Romance language, at least 1000 years removed from Portuguese.

25 márcio 2019  ▭

Miskito: Miskito ✧ MIQ ✧ From the small Misumalpan family, spoken by approx. 150,000 in Honduras and Nicaragua. English loans are numerous in Miskito; Spanish, less so.

25 kakamuk 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.

25 yoo marzu 2019

Mixtec [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.

25 yòò yákà 2019

Mizo (Lushai): Mizo (Lushai) ✧ LUS ✧ Sino-Tibetan language spoken in Myanmar, Bangladesh & India. Akin to Biete (q.v.).

25 vau thla 2019  ▭

Moba [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.

25 tuntonbienn 2019

Moba [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.

25 ŋmaariŋantaa -or- kɔnkuur 2019

Mohawk: Mohawk ✧ MOH ✧ Iroquoian family, 3500 speakers in Ontario, Quebec, and Northern New York State. Curiously, no labial (lip-produced) consonants.

25 Enniskó: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 martkov 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.

гуравдугаар сар (guravdugaar sar)   ▭

Monguor (Tu): Monguor (Tu) ✧ 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.

25 ghuran sara 2019

Montagnais Innu: Montagnais Innu ✧ MOE ✧ Algonquian language related to Cree (q.v.), spoken by 11,000 in Labrador and Quebec. Contrastive vowel length.

25 uinashku-pishim^u 2019  ▭

Mossi (Mòoré): Mossi (Mòoré) ✧ MOS ✧ A Niger-Congo language spoken by 5 million, mostly in Burkina Faso

25 tuulgo 2019

Moxo [Trinitario]: Moxo [Trinitario] ✧ TRN ✧ Arawakan family, Southern, native to NE Bolivia. The Endangered Languages Project reports 3100 speakers.

25 maaso 2019

Mozarabic (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.

XXV מרש مرس  márs MMXVIIII  ▭

Mundang: Mundang ✧ MUA ✧ A Niger-Congo language spoken by 250,000 in Southern Chad

25 cokcwaklii 2019

Mussau-Emira: Mussau-Emira ✧ EMI ✧ Malayo-Polynesian, Oceanic, St. Matthias, with 5000 speakers based primarily on Papua New Guinea’s islands of Mussau and Emira. All Mussau-Emiraphones are bilingual in Tok Pisin (q.v.) and many can read English.

25 kotona ateva ulana 2019

Muya: 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.

25 dε³³wε⁵⁵so⁵⁵mbε⁵³ 2019

Mwotlap [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.

25 tētnawon 2019  ▭

Myene (Omyene): Myene (Omyene) ✧ MYE ✧ Niger-Congo, Bantu, 45,000 speakers of the Mpongwe, Nkomi, Galwa, and Bongo Pygmy groups in Gabon.

25 fogwɛraro 2019

⌅

Nāhuatl: 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.

25 tlayeti 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.

25 atlag katol 2019

Nakhi (Naxi): Nakhi (Naxi) ✧ NXQ ✧ Sino-Tibetan, spoken in Yunnan by 350,000, famous for its Dongba “picture” writing.

25 salwa -or- saiyui 2019

Nàmá (Khoekhoe): Nàmá (Khoekhoe) ✧ HQM ✧ Khoisan family, 300,000 speakers. Consonants include 20 clicks. Formerly called Hottentot.

25 !hoaǂgais -or- ǀkhuuǁkhâb 2019  ▭

Nanai (Gold): Nanai (Gold) ✧ GLD ✧ Tungusic. 4000 speakers, decendents of Manchurian Jurchen

25 хун биани 2019  ▭

Nandi (Cemual): Nandi (Cemual) ✧ NIQ ✧ Tentatively assigned to the Nilo-Saharan family, Kalenjin branch, spoken by 950,000 in Kenya’s Rift Valley Province. Not to be confused with Nande (Kinande), a Niger-Congo language.

25 Iwatkut 2019

Naskapi: Naskapi ✧ NSK ✧ Algonquian family, spoken by 1,230 in Quebec and Labrador. Uses the Cree syllabic writing system.

25 (michisu-piisim na) “Eagle month” 2019

Navajo (Diné bizaad): Navajo (Diné bizaad) ✧ NAV ✧ Athabaskan family, southwest US. Tonal, uses ejectives like the Caucasian languages.

25 Wóózhchʼį́į́d 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).

25 dùgùdugu -or- waɦaab 2019

Ndebele [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).

25 uMbimbitho 2019

Ndebele [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.

25 uNtaka 2019

Ndyuka (Aukan): Ndyuka (Aukan) ✧ DJK ✧ English-based creole spoken by the Maroon people of Suriname

25 dii mun 2019

Neapolitan: 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.

25 marz 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.

25 màrze 2019

Nenets: Nenets ✧ YRK ✧ Uralic family, Samoyedic. It’s moribund and spoken by hardly anybody in extreme NW Russia.

25 sye nits’ yriy 2019  ▭

Nez Perce: Nez Perce ✧ NEZ ✧ Plateau Penutian family, Idaho, < 200 speakers, revival underway

25 Latíit’aal 2019

Nganasan: Nganasan ✧ NIO ✧ Uralic family, Samoyedic. Extreme north central Russia, approx. 1000 speakers.

25 señi 2019  ▭

Ngiemboon: Ngiemboon ✧ NNH ✧ Niger-Congo family, Southern Bantoid, Grassfields. Spoken in Province de l'Ouest and Bamboutos in Cameroon by 250,000.

25 saŋ lepyè shúm 2019

Ngomba: 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.

25 pɛsaŋ pɛ́tát 2019

Ngwo (Engwo): Ngwo (Engwo) ✧ NGN ✧ Niger-Congo, Southern Bantoid, 22,000 speakers in the North West Region of Cameroon — Momo Division, Njikwa Subdivision. Ngwo is tonal and agglutinative.

25 Máchì 2019

Nheengatu: Nheengatu ✧ YRL ✧ Tupi-Guaraní family, spoken by 19,000 in Brazil, Colombia, and Venezuela. The name means “good tongue.”

25 îasysapyra 2019  ▭

Nisga’a: Nisga’a ✧ NCG ✧ Tsimshianic family, seriously endangered, British Columbia (Canada)

25 Xsaak 2019

Niuean: Niuean ✧ NIU ✧ Malayo-Polynesian language spoken in Niue. Unlike Hawaiian it uses no glottal stop.

25 Masi 2019

Nivkh (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.

25 chrad long 2019  ▭

Nkore: Nkore ✧ NYN ✧ Niger-Congo, Bantu. Spoken by 2.3 million in southwestern Uganda.

25 katumba 2019

Nogai (Alabugat Tatar): Nogai (Alabugat Tatar) ✧ NOG ✧ Turkic, spoken in southwestern Russia’s Tuva region by Golden Horde descendents

25 навруз ай (nawruz ay) 2019  ▭

Norman: Norman ✧ NRF ✧ Romance, Langue d’oïl with a substantial Norse element, spoken by approx. 100,000 in Normandy. The Channel Island languages Guernésiais, Jèrriais, and Sercquiais (q.v.) descended from medieval Norman.

25 mâr 2019

Northern 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.

25 Wuyoopooe Naka Tseboo'e Muha 2019

Nuer: Nuer ✧ NUS ✧ Nilo-Saharan. South Sudan, Ethiopia. Breathy vs. non-breathy vowels. Related to Reel (q.v.).

25 Duɔɔ̱ŋ 2019

Nukuoro: Nukuoro ✧ NKR ✧ Malayo-Polynesian, approx. 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.

25 manu 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.).

25 sɔ⁵⁵ ɬa⁵⁵ 2019

Nuuchahnulth (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.

25 ʔayaaqumł 2019  ▭

Nyole (Lunyole) [Ugandan]: Nyole (Lunyole) [Ugandan] ✧ NUJ ✧ Niger-Congo family, Bantu, 340,000 speakers in the Tororo District of Uganda. It shares approx. 60% of its vocabulary with Kenyan Nyole.

25 Namoome 2019

Nzime (Badweʼe): Nzime (Badweʼe) ✧ PAC ✧ Niger-Congo, Bantu Zone A, spoken by 40,000 Dweʼe and Nzime people in Cameroon. Two dialects, Koonzime and Bajue.

25 kumlo-myɛʼ 2019

⌅

Occitan [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.

25 març 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.

25 març 2019  ▭

Occitan [Provençal]: Occitan [Provençal] ✧ OCI ✧ Indo-European, Romance, closely related to Catalan (q.v.). A Langue d'òc spoken in Southern France.

25 mars 2019  ▭

Occitan [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.

25 març 2019

Oirat [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.

25 моһа сар (moġa sar) 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.

25 Onaabdin Giizis “Snowcrust Moon” 2019  ▭

Ojibwe (Chippewa) [Western]: Ojibwe (Chippewa) [Western] ✧ OJW ✧ The other major dialect of Ojibwe

25 Onaabani Giizis “Snowcrust Moon” 2019

Oneida: Oneida ✧ ONE ✧ Iroquoian family, approx. 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.

25 Tewʌhníslya’ks “The day is split.” 2019  ▭

Onondaga: Onondaga ✧ ONO ✧ Iroquoian family, approx. 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.

25 tichkôna 2019

Oroch: 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.

25 беэ туа (bjey tua) 2019

Oromo: Oromo ✧ ORM ✧ Afro-Asiatic, Cushitic. Non-Roman scripts were once banned. Oromo’s modern Roman standard, called Qubee, was formalized in 1991.

25 bitooteessa 2019

Ös (Chulym): Ös (Chulym) ✧ CLW ✧ Western Turkic, moribund, spoken by a few dozen in southwestern Siberia north of the Altay Mountains. Soviet-era school children were punished when caught speaking Ös.

25 kučugen ai 2019  ▭

Osage: 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.

25 mį́įǫpa weðáabrį 2019

Ossetian [Digor]: Ossetian [Digor] ✧ OSS ✧ Indo-European, Indo-Iranian, spoken mainly by Muslim Ossetians, about 100,000, in the Caucasus.

25 marti 2019

Ossetian [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.

25 комбæттæны мæй (kombættæni mæy) 2019  ▭

Ozolotepec: Ozolotepec ✧ ZAO ✧ Oto-Manguean family, Zapotecan group, spoken by 6500 in Oaxaca, Mexico. Zapotecan languages like Ozolotepec are tonal.

25 mars 2019

O’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.

25 Ce:dagĭ maşad “Green month” 2019

⌅

Pacoh: Pacoh ✧ PAC ✧ Austroasiatic, Eastern Mon-Khmer, Katuic, 32,000 speakers in Laos and Vietnam. Six vowels which can be short or long, and use either normal or creaky voicing. Heavy Vietnamese influence.

25 kixay pe 2019

Paicî: Paicî ✧ PRI ✧ Malayo-Polynesian, Southern Oceanic, Northern New Caledonian, 7300 speakers on New Caledonia’s east coast and inland valleys. Paicî’s consonant inventory is spare but it has many nasal vowels. It’s also tri-tonal.

25 nâ wârâ upwârâ 2019

Palauan: Palauan ✧ PAU ✧ Austronesian family, approx. 15,000 speakers. Palau, Guam, Mariana Islands.

25 Ongede el buil 2019  ▭

Palawano [Brook's Point]: Palawano [Brook's Point] ✧ PLW ✧ Malayo-Polynesian, Greater Central Philippine. This dialect (there are two others) is spoken by 25,000 on Palawan Island, Philippines. Amazingly, its 26-letter alphabet is identical to the English one.

25 pemulagan 2019

Palor (Sili-Sili): Palor (Sili-Sili) ✧ FAP ✧ Niger-Congo family, Cangin, 9,700 speakers in the Thies area of Senegal.

25 mars 2019

Pame (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.

25 ngum’au kiñgyie’p mejep masua’ang 2019

Pashto [Northern/Eastern]: Pashto [Northern/Eastern] ✧ PUS ✧ Indo-European, Indo-Iranian, spoken by the Pashtuns of NE Pakistan

25 rumbey chor 2019  ▭

Pashto [Southern/Western]: Pashto [Southern/Western] ✧ PUS ✧ Pashto dialect spoken in western Afghanistan and Iran

25 lumrey khor 2019

Pawnee [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.

25 Paahutáwiʾuʾ -or- Piirápaaruʾ 2019

Pawnee [South Band]: Pawnee [South Band] ✧ PAW ✧ With Skiri above, the other dialect of Pawnee

25 Paahutawiʾuʾ -or- Piiraápaaruʾ 2019

Pecheneg: Pecheneg ✧ XPC ✧ A mysterious, poorly attested Turkic language with no known descendents, extinct by 1300

25 veçem 2019

Pemon (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.

25 Ira maden kapüyi “Month of breezes” 2019

Penan-Nibong: Penan-Nibong ✧ PEZ ✧ Malayo-Polynesian, North Sarawakan, spoken by 13,000 in Sarawak, Borneo. Two main dialects.

25 laseh teleu 2019

Pennsylvania “Dutch” (Deitsch): Pennsylvania “Dutch” (Deitsch) ✧ PDC ✧ A Palatinate German spoken by the Amish, many of whom not named Miller or Yoder

25 Marz 2019

Penrhyn (Tongarevan): Penrhyn (Tongarevan) ✧ PNH ✧ Seriously endangered Polynesian language spoken by around 200, Northern Cook Islands

25 māti 2019

Picard (Ch’ti or “Patois”): Picard (Ch’ti or “Patois”) ✧ PCD ✧ Indo-European, Romance, Langue d’oïl. Extreme Northern France.

25 mars 2019  ▭

Picard [Medieval]: Picard [Medieval] ✧ PCD ✧ As seen on the Astrolabe of Berselius (14th century)

XXV march MMXVIIII

Piedmontese: 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.

25 mars 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.

25 《dapasmeing》 kahlek 2019

Pipil (Nawat): Pipil (Nawat) ✧ PPL ✧ Uto-Aztecan language under revival, El Salvador. There are now over 3000 speakers.

25 metzi yey 2019

Piro [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.

25 marzo ksuru -or- ganikajginapu 2019

Pitcairn-Norfolk: Pitcairn-Norfolk ✧ PIH ✧ An endangered Tahitian/English creole spoken on Pitcairn & Norfolk Islands

25 maach 2019

Pnar (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.

25 wisu 2019  ▭

Pohnpeian: Pohnpeian ✧ PON ✧ Malayo-Polynesian, Micronesian, spoken by approx. 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.

25 pehn -or- mahs 2019

Poitevin-Saintongeais: Poitevin-Saintongeais ✧ ??? ✧ Indo-European, Romance, Langue d’oïl. Earliest known writings from 1400s.

25 mar 2019

Pökut: Pökut ✧ KLN ✧ Nilo-Saharan family, Kalenjin. 264,000 speakers in Kenya, Uganda.

25 Pokokwo 2019

Polabian: 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.

25 zürmôn -or- sürmôn 2019

Pomeranian [Kashubian]: Pomeranian [Kashubian] ✧ CSB ✧ Indo-European, West Slavic. Some 100,000 speakers living mostly in Germany & Poland.

25 strëmiannik 2019  ▭

Pomeranian [Slovincian]: Pomeranian [Slovincian] ✧ CSB ✧ The other major dialect of Pomeranian, though unfortunately extinct since World War I

25 mărcʉ 2019

Pontic: 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.

25 Μάρ’τς (Marts) 2019

Potawatomi: 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.

25 nmébné-gizes 2019

Proto-Germanic: Proto-Germanic ✧ ??? ✧ Reconstructed ancestor of all Germanic languages, last spoken ca. 250 bce

XXV lenþamenoþ MMXVIIII  ▭

Proto-Slavic: Proto-Slavic ✧ ??? ✧ Reconstructed ancestor of all Slavic languages, 5th to 8th centuries ce

XXV berzn MMXVIIII  ▭

Pukapukan: Pukapukan ✧ PKP ✧ Malayo-Polynesian language from Danger Island (Cook Islands group). Over 4000 speakers.

25 Māti 2019

Pumi [Qingua or Southern]: Pumi [Qingua or Southern] ✧ PMJ ✧ Sino-Tibetan, Qiangic. Spoken by highland ethnic Pumi in Yunnan.

25 sã⁵⁵uɑ̃⁵⁵ɬi⁵⁵ 2019

Pumi [Taoba or Northern]: Pumi [Taoba or Northern] ✧ PMI ✧ The other chief dialect of Pumi. The two are not mutually intelligible.

25 sõ³⁵li⁵⁵mei³⁵ 2019

Purépecha (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.

25 mariso 2019

Puroik (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.

25 lɯk³³ tsər³³ aŋ³³ bo³³ 2019

⌅

Q’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.

25 maars -or- rox 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.”

25 ɦɛ səm pa 2019

Qiang [Máwō]: Qiang [Máwō] ✧ CNG ✧ Sino-Tibetan, Qiangic, non-tonal, 130,000 speakers in China’s Sichuan

25 khsiʂ 2019  ▭

Qiang [Taoping]: Qiang [Taoping] ✧ QXS ✧ Sino-Tibetan, Qiangic, but tonal (unlike Ergong and Máwō above), 80,000 speakers

25 tshi⁵⁵ʂı³³ 2019

Quechua [Standard]: Quechua [Standard] ✧ QUE ✧ Quechuan family, spoken by Inca Empire descendents. Natively it lacks the vowels E and O.

25 ñiqin pawqar waray killapi 2019  ▭

Quechua [Huallaga]: Quechua [Huallaga] ✧ QUE ✧ Quechua dialect spoken in the Huánuco Province in Peru

25 marsu 2019

Quechua [Northern/Ecuadorian]: Quechua [Northern/Ecuadorian] ✧ QUE ✧ Quechua dialect, called Kitchwa, spoken in Ecuador, Colombia, and Peru

25 pawkar 2019  ▭

Quechua [Southern/Bolivian Cochabamba]: Quechua [Southern/Bolivian Cochabamba] ✧ QUH ✧ Of Southern Bolivian Quechua as a whole there are 1.6 million speakers in Bolivia, Argentina, and Chile. In Bolivia it’s the most heavily spoken indigenous language. This is the Cochabamba dialect of it.

25 kinsa ñeqen killa -or- jatun poqoy killa 2019

Quechua [Southern/Cusco]: Quechua [Southern/Cusco] ✧ QUZ ✧ Modern terminology for the Quechua dialect spoken in the Peru’s Cusco region

25 pawqarwaray 2019  ▭

Quechua [Southern/Cusco Imperial]: Quechua [Southern/Cusco Imperial] ✧ QUZ ✧ This is the traditional terminology of the Inca Empire, citing its monthly celebrations

25 paucar warai “Clothes of flowers” 2019

Quileute (Quillayute): Quileute (Quillayute) ✧ QUI ✧ The last language to survive from the Chimakuan family. 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.

25 yashabałḳtiyat 2019  ▭

⌅

Rade: Rade ✧ RAD ✧ Austronesian, Malayo-Polynesian, Chamic, Highlands, akin to Cham (q.v.), spoken by 180,000 E-de people in southern Vietnam.

25 mlan tlâo 2019

Raivavaen: Raivavaen ✧ ??? ✧ A presumably extinct Malayo-Polynesian language native to the island of Raivavae in French Polynesia. The source: a dictionary completed in 1938 by ethnologist Frank Stimson but never published.

25 [March unknown] 2019

Rangi (Langi): Rangi (Langi) ✧ LAG ✧ Niger-Congo family, Bantu, with between 270,000 and 410,000 speakers in central Tanzania. Nouns divide into 19 classes.

25 Kʉkeenda 2019

Rapa 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.

25 vahine 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.

25 shø̀m shvlá 2019

Reel (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.

25 Kuool 2019

Rennell-Bellona (Rennellese): Rennell-Bellona (Rennellese) ✧ MNV ✧ Malayo-Polynesian, 4000 speakers, Solomon Islands' Rennell and Bellona provinces. For most people who live there it’s their first language. No ng (ŋ) sound; doubled vowels sound out as separate syllables.

25 Maose 2019

rGyalrong [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.

25 zla wa ksǝm pɐ 2019

Rohingya: Rohingya ✧ RHG ✧ Indo-European, Indo-Iranian, Bengali-Assamese. Six noun cases. Heavily persecuted, the Rohingya are toughing it out in Burma and in refugee camps in Bangladesh.

25 zer 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.

25 marto 2019

Romani [Balkan Ursari]: Romani [Balkan Ursari] ✧ RMN ✧ A Balkan Romani spoken in Moldavia and Romania

25 martija 2019  ▭

Romani [Kale Finnish]: Romani [Kale Finnish] ✧ RMF ✧ Indo-Aryan language, by way of Scotland, spoken by the Finnish Romani

25 maasesko čoon 2019

Romani [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.

25 quirdalé -or- quindalé 2019

Romani [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).

25 bavaľako munþos 2019

Romanian [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.

25 márta 2019

Romanian [Old Church/Traditional]: Romanian [Old Church/Traditional] ✧ RON ✧ Indo-European, Romance. Pre-20th century.

25 mărțișor “Marriage” 2019

Romansh [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.

25 mars 2019  ▭

Romansh [Putèr]: Romansh [Putèr] ✧ ROH ✧ Romansch dialect spoken in the Engadine Valley, Switzerland.

25 marz 2019

Rombo (Kirombo): Rombo (Kirombo) ✧ ROF ✧ Niger-Congo, Northeast Bantu, Chaga, spoken in Tanzania’s Kilimanaro Region. Four dialects: Keni, Mashati, Mkuu, and Usseri.

25 Mweri wa katatu 2019

Rongga: Rongga ✧ ROR ✧ Malayo-Polynesian, Central-Eastern, spoken in East Nuse Tenggara Province in central Flores, Indonesia. Not to be confused with Ronga, a Bantu language. Unlike English, Rongga’s first person plural offers both inclusive and exclusive forms.

25 [March unknown] 2019

Rotokas: Rotokas ✧ ROO ✧ Spoken by approx. 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.

25 vo pevapa kekira 2019

Russian [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.

25 Mart 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.

25 протальник (protal’nik) “Rooks (crow-like birds)” 2019

Rusyn (Ruthene or Ruthenian): Rusyn (Ruthene or Ruthenian) ✧ RUE ✧ East Slavic, approx. 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.

25 марецъ (maryets) 2019  ▭

Rwanda-Rundi: Rwanda-Rundi ✧ KIN/RUN ✧ Niger-Congo, Bantu. Tonal, official in Rwanda, 20 million speakers.

25 Werurwe 2019

⌅

Sa‘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.

25 ha‘asusu uhi “Gossiping” -or- lo‘a wäi peine 2019

Sabaean (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.

XXV (ðū mʕwn) MMXVIIII  ▭

Salish, Coastal [Island Halkomelem]: Salish, Coastal [Island Halkomelem] ✧ HUR ✧ A language from the Salishan family spoken by approx. 200 on the east coast of Vancouver Island

25 Wulhxus 2019

Salish, Coastal [Klallam]: Salish, Coastal [Klallam] ✧ CLM ✧ Salishan family, heard in the Pacific Northwest on the Northern shore of the Olympic Peninsula. Natively extinct with the death of Hazel Sampson in 2014, though the high school in Port Angeles, WA, now offers it.

25 wəx̣əs -or- x̣áƛ̕ ɬqáy̕č̕ 2019

Salish, Coastal [North Straits]: Salish, Coastal [North Straits] ✧ STR ✧ Salishan family, Vancouver area. Six dialects, nearly extinct.

25 waʔx̱wəx̱ɬcítəŋ̕ 2019

Salish, 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.

25 wə́x̣əs 2019  ▭

Salish, 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.

25 waq̓waq̓us 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.

25 temstsatsḵay shalshal 2019

Salish, 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.

25 tem lhawt՚ 2019

Salish, Interior [Colville-Okanagan] (Syilx): Salish, Interior [Colville-Okanagan] (Syilx) ✧ OKA ✧ Southern British Columbia and Northern Washington State. Syilx is spoken natively by approx. 600 of whom only a quarter are “deeply fluent” and mostly over 50; it’s considered moribund.

25 skn̓irmn̓ 2019

Salish, Interior [Kalispel–Spokane–Flathead]: Salish, Interior [Kalispel–Spokane–Flathead] ✧ FLA/SPO ✧ Also called Montana Salish, spoken by approx. 100 elders in the central Montana’s Flathead Nation and in the Kalispel and Spokane Reservations in Washington. Critically endangered.

25 k̕ʷsixʷ 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. Stress is predictable: the vowels U and I are always stressed, the schwa never is.

25 Pellsqépts “Spring wind month” 2019

Sami [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.

25 njuhčâmáánu 2019  ▭

Sami [Kildin]: Sami [Kildin] ✧ SJD ✧ A Sami spoken by approx. 600 in the Lovozero area of the Kola Peninsula

25 нюххчманну (nyuhhčmannu) 2019

Sami [Lule]: Sami [Lule] ✧ SMJ ✧ Spoken by between 1000 and 2000 around the Lule River in Sweden and in Norway’s Nordland County.

25 sjnjuktjamánno 2019  ▭

Sami [Northern]: Sami [Northern] ✧ SME ✧ The most widely spoken Sami, approx. 20,000 speakers

25 njukčamánu “Swan month” 2019  ▭

Sami [Skolt]: Sami [Skolt] ✧ SMS ✧ Seriously endangered, 400 speakers mostly around Sevettijärvi, Finland. Oldest writings date from 1884.

25 pâ’zzlâšttammannu 2019  ▭

Sami [Southern]: Sami [Southern] ✧ SMA ✧ Seriously endangered, 500 speakers in Norway’s Snåsa and Hattfjelldal districts

25 njoktjen 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.

25 Pūlis 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.).

25 kuovs “Crows” 2019

Sango: 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.

25 mbängü 2019

Sangu {Tanzania}: Sangu {Tanzania} ✧ SBP ✧ Niger-Congo family, Northeast Bantu, Bena-Kinga, 75,000 speakers in Tanzania’s Mbeya Region. Not to be confused with Sango (above) or the Sangu language of Gabon.

25 Mushende 2019

Sanskrit: 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.

२५ तृतीयमास (tṛtīyamāsa) २०१९  ▭

Santali: Santali ✧ SAT ✧ Austroasiatic-Munda language spoken in Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, and Nepal. Uses Ol Chiki alphabet devised in the early 20th century.

Saramaccan: Saramaccan ✧ SRM ✧ Portuguese/English/Dutch creole + African traits. Suriname.

25 gãã́ líba “Big month” 2019

Sardinian [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.

25 martzu -or- matzu 2019

Sardinian [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.).

25 malzu 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.

25 martu 2019

Sardinian [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).

25 martzu 2019

Sardinian [Sassarese]: Sardinian [Sassarese] ✧ SDC ✧ 100,000 speakers tending toward the north of the island. Heavy Corsican (q.v.) influences.

25 mazzu 2019

Satawalese: 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.

25 Mainap 2019

Saxwe (Tsáphɛ): Saxwe (Tsáphɛ) ✧ SXW ✧ Niger-Congo family, Gbe group, spoken by 170,000 in Benin

25 Dantasun 2019

Secoya (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.

25 yaji 2019

Sedang: Sedang ✧ SED ✧ Austroasiatic language native to Laos & Vietnam, 100,000 speakers. Famously huge vowel inventory: its basic vowels can be plain (o), nasal (õ), or creaky (o̰); some, simultaneously nasal and creaky (õ̰).

25 khế pái 2019

Seediq [Truku/Taroko]: Seediq [Truku/Taroko] ✧ TRV ✧ Formosan, Atayalic. Indigenous language from Northern Taiwan with 20,000 speakers.

25 tru idas 2019

Sekani [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.”

25 Tsintel Ooza 2019

Sekani [McLeod Lake]: Sekani [McLeod Lake] ✧ SEK ✧ Another Sekani variant

25 Ahda inza 2019

Selkup: Selkup ✧ SEL ✧ Uralic, Samoyedic. Yamalo-Nenets region in Siberia, 1500 speakers. Distinguishes between long and short vowels.

25 мáрти´рсе иррет (márti´rse irret) “Going to the taiga month” 2019

Seneca: Seneca ✧ SEE ✧ Iroquoian family, Northern, Five Nations, native to Western New York and Ontario’s Six Nations Reserve. Fewer than 100 native speakers. Most Seneca words are verbs; colons signal long vowels.

25 Niyó’not’à:h -or- Oàgaida:töh 2019

Serbian [Orthodox]: Serbian [Orthodox] ✧ SRP ✧ Serbian Orthodox Church tradition

25 благовештенски (blagoveštensky) 2019

Serbian [Premodern/Folk]: Serbian [Premodern/Folk] ✧ SRP ✧ Serbian folk tradition, pre-19th century

25 дерикожа (derikoža) 2019

Sercquiais (Sarkese): Sercquiais (Sarkese) ✧ NRF ✧ Indo-European, Romance. A Norman dialect spoken by approx. 20 on the Channel Island of Sark.

25 mar 2019

Seri: Seri ✧ SEI ✧ Indigenous language isolate spoken by < 1000 in Mexico. Uses nine definite articles that depend on the relative movement of the object.

25 cayajáacoj 2019

Seychellois Creole (Seselwa): Seychellois Creole (Seselwa) ✧ CRS ✧ French-based creole of the Seychelles, around 70,000 speakers

25 mars 2019

Shan: 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.

(lunhuk)   ▭

Shawiya Berber: Shawiya Berber ✧ SHY ✧ Afro-Asiatic, Berber, spoken in and around the Awras Mountains of eastern Algeria. Preliterate until recently.

25 mars 2019

Shawnee: Shawnee ✧ SJW ✧ An Algonquian language with fewer than 200 speakers in Oklahoma. Two genders, animate and inanimate.

25 Shkipiye kwiitha “Sap Moon” 2019  ▭

Sheko: 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.

25 támú kʼoy ʔyatsʼn 2019  ▭

Sherpa: Sherpa ✧ XSR ✧ Sino-Tibetan, Bodic, Tibetic. Spoken by 150,000 in Nepal, Tibet, and Kashmir. Tonal.

25 dāwā sumbā 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.

25 Adwöng 2019

Shinasha (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.

25 k’aab jaana 2019

Shixing: 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.

25 sɐ⁵⁵ɬɯ⁵⁵ 2019

Shona: Shona ✧ SNA ✧ Bantu language spoken by over 8 million, official in Zimbabwe

25 Kurume 2019  ▭

Shor: Shor ✧ CJS ✧ Turkic, 10,000 speakers in Siberia’s Kemerovo Province. Mongolian and Russian loans, preliterate until 1885.

25 keeryuk au 2019

Shoshone [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.

25 pahim müattsi 2019

Shuar: 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 were among the tribes who originally produced shrunken heads (“tsantsa” in Shuar).

25 nase 2019  ▭

Sicilian: 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.

25 màrzu 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.

25 Masi 2019

Silesian: Silesian ✧ SZL ✧ West Slavic, spoken by a half million 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.

25 mařec 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.

25 yajirẽ 2019

Slavey [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.

25 Det’oneo 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).

XXV (mart) MMXVIIII

Slavonic [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 (above).

25 ма́ртъ (márt) 2019

Slovenian [Standard Premodern]: Slovenian [Standard Premodern] ✧ SLV ✧ Indo-European, South Slavic, standardized from the Carniolan and other dialects during the 18th century. Unlike other Slavics, Slovenian offers three numbers — singular, dual, and plural. Not to be confused with Slovak, which is WEST Slavic and close to Czech (q.v.).

25 sušec “Dry enough for cultivation” 2019  ▭

Slovenian [Prekmurian Premodern]: Slovenian [Prekmurian Premodern] ✧ SLV ✧ Prekmurian is a Slovenian dialect spoken in NE Slovenia and western Hungary. It’s sufficiently divergent both culturally and linguistically that many consider it a separate language.

25 mali tráven 2019

Slovenian [Resian]: Slovenian [Resian] ✧ ??? ✧ From the Resia Valley in Italy’s Udine Province. Heavy Italic influences, considered a separate language by most speakers. Unlike Standard Slovenian its alphabet includes W.

25 märč 2019

Somali: 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.

25 bisha saddexaad -or- saddexa -or- gu'soor 2019

Soninke: Soninke ✧ SNK ✧ Niger-Congo family, Western Mande, spoken in Mali (official), Senegal (official), Côte d'Ivoire, The Gambia (official), Mauritania (official), Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, and Ghana. It uses the Arabic and Roman alphabets.

25 marisinxaso 2019

Sorbian (Lusatian or Wendish) [Lower]: Sorbian (Lusatian or Wendish) [Lower] ✧ WEN ✧ Indo-European, West Slavic, spoken by 10,000 in lower Saxony (Brandenburg)

25 pózymski 2019  ▭

Sorbian (Lusatian or Wendish) [Upper]: Sorbian (Lusatian or Wendish) [Upper] ✧ WEN ✧ Indo-European, West Slavic, spoken by 40,000 in upper Saxony

25 nalĕtnik 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.

25 Tlhakubele 2019

Sotho [Northern] (Pedi): Sotho [Northern] (Pedi) ✧ SOT ✧ Another dialect of Sotho, South Africa.

25 Mopitlo 2019

Southern Luo [Lango]: Southern Luo [Lango] ✧ LAJ ✧ Nilo-Saharan family, Uganda. All numerals under 20 begin with A.

25 Kʉkeenda 2019

Southern Min (Minnan): Southern Min (Minnan) ✧ NAN ✧ Sino-Tibetan, spoken by 47 million in China’s Fujian province

25 三月 saⁿ-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.

25 (maṛs) 2019  ▭

Sudovian (Yotvingian): Sudovian (Yotvingian) ✧ XSV ✧ Indo-European, Baltic, unfortunately extinct by 1600. It was mutually intelligible with Samlandish (q.v.).

25 kovas -or- martis 2019  ▭

Sumo [Northern, Mayangna]: Sumo [Northern, Mayangna] ✧ SUM ✧ Like Miskito (q.v.), from the small Misumalpan family. There are approx. 9000 speakers of Sumo languages in the Huaspuc River area in Nicaragua and Honduras; shown here is the Mayangna dialect.

25 kâma wainku “Cat's claw month” 2019

Sumo [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.

25 kama waiku “Cat's claw month” 2019

Sumo [Southern, Ulwa]: Sumo [Southern, Ulwa] ✧ ULW ✧ Misumalpan family, Sumo group, Southern. About 400 speakers in eastern Nicaragua.

25 kahma waikaku “Cat's claw month” 2019

Svan: 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.

კე მა̈რტ (märt̓) ცით  ▭

Swazi (siSwati): Swazi (siSwati) ✧ SSW ✧ Niger-Congo, Bantu. Swaziland (official), Lesotho, Mozambique, and South Africa.

25 iNdlovu 2019  ▭

Swedish [Traditional/Folk]: Swedish [Traditional/Folk] ✧ SWE ✧ North Germanic, descended from Old Norse. This is the premodern terminology.

25 vårmånad 2019

Syriac 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.

(ādār)  

⌅

Tabasaran: Tabasaran ✧ TAB ✧ Northeast Caucasian language notable for its vast noun case inventory — 48, give or take. Natively it lacks the vowel O; the palochka character (Ӏ) makes preceding consonant an ejective.

25 курш (kurš) 2019  ▭

Tacana: Tacana ✧ TNA ✧ Western Tacanan family, 1800 speakers along the Beni & Madre de Dios rivers in Bolivia

25 badhi kimisha 2019

Tachelhit (Shilha or Sussian): Tachelhit (Shilha or Sussian) ✧ SHI ✧ Afro-Asiatic, Berber, Southern Morocco. Writings date from 16th century ce.

25 (maṛṣ) 2019

Tagalog [Pre-colonial]: Tagalog [Pre-colonial] ✧ TGL ✧ Malayo-Polynesian, Central Philippine, spoken by approx. 70 million (28 million fluently). This endemic terminology derives from the first Tagalog dictionary, published by Franciscan priest Pedro de San Buenaventura in 1613.

25 pangalan nang buang ikatlo sa lakad nang taon 2019  ▭

Taita (Daw'ida): Taita (Daw'ida) ✧ DAV ✧ Niger-Congo family, Bantu. 400,000 speakers in Kenya’s Taita Hills.

25 Mori ghwa kadadu 2019

Taki 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.

25 Drimun 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)

25 Kwakasatu 2019

Tamahaq: Tamahaq ✧ THV ✧ Afro-Asiatic, Berber, Northern Tuareg language spoken in Algeria, western Libya, and Northern Niger. Three dialects, 77,000 speakers.

25 mars 2019

Tamil: Tamil ✧ TAM ✧ Dravidian family, India. Split off from Malayalam 9th century ce. Pronouns offer several levels of politeness.

25 2019

Tanacross: Tanacross ✧ TCB ✧ Athabaskan language with approx. 30 speakers (middle Tanana River, Alaska)

25 ch’esẖǎan’ s̱ǎa’ “Eagle month” -or- xwłuu saa’ “Crusted snow month” 2019  ▭

Tasawaq (Ingelshi): Tasawaq (Ingelshi) ✧ TWQ ✧ Tentatively assigned to Nilo-Saharan, Songhay, though heavily influenced by Berber languages. 8000 speakers, Niger.

25 marsi 2019

Tatar [Kazan]: Tatar [Kazan] ✧ TAT ✧ Turkic, spoken in Tatarstan. Has used Arabic, Roman, & Cyrillic alphabets.

25 mart 2019  ▭

Telugu: Telugu ✧ TEL ✧ Dravidian family, Andhra Pradesh, India. Oldest text, 575 ce.

25 2019

Tem [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).

25 ɩzaarʊʊ 2019

Temne: Temne ✧ TEM ✧ Niger-Congo, Bantu language spoken in Sierra Leone, 4 tones.

25 Gbáproṅ 2019

Teso (Ateso): Teso (Ateso) ✧ TEO ✧ Nilo-Saharan language spoken in Kenya, Uganda by 1.6 million. Not conventionally tonal, but has contrastive syllable stress.

25 Okwamg’ 2019

Tetum (Tetun): Tetum (Tetun) ✧ TET ✧ Malayo-Polynesian language with Portuguese influences, East Timor.

25 marsu 2019

Thadou: 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.

25 lhakao 2019

Thai: 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.

๒๕ มีนาคม (miinakhom) “mina(a type of fish)” 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).

༢༥ ta¹³wa¹³sum⁵⁵pa⁵³ ༢༠༡༩  ▭

Tibetan [Dégé]: Tibetan [Dégé] ✧ BOD ✧ The Tibetan dialect spoken in China’s Sichuan Province

༢༥ da¹³wa⁵³suŋ⁵⁵ba⁵³ ༢༠༡༩

Tibetan [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.

༢༥ zla ba gsum pa ༢༠༡༩

Ticuna: 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.

25 [March unknown] 2019

Tigrinya: Tigrinya ✧ TIR ✧ Afro-Asiatic, South Semitic. Ethiopia & Eritrea, 9 million speakers. Like English and unlike many of its close relatives, Tigrinya uses phrasal verbs.

25 መጋቢት (megabit) 2019  ▭

Tiriyó (Trio): Tiriyó (Trio) ✧ TRI ✧ Cariban family, Taranoan, spoken by 2100 in Brazil’s Pará State and in Suriname’s Sipaliwini District. Its two dialects are referred to as H Tiriyó and K Tiriyó. Heavy Dutch influences.

25 masupo 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.

25 Marsu 2019

Tlingit: Tlingit ✧ TLI ✧ Na-Dené family, USA Pacific northwest, nearly extinct

25 Héentáanáx Kayaan’i Dís 2019  ▭

Tobian: Tobian ✧ TOX ✧ Malayo-Polynesian, Micronesian, Trukic, critically endangered, native to Palau’s states of Hatohobei, Koror, and Sonsorol. 150 native speakers now mostly in Koror, Palau.

25 haseruwari maham 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 see here.

XXV wate meñe MMXVIIII  ▭

Tofa (Tofalar or Karagas): Tofa (Tofalar or Karagas) ✧ KIM ✧ A moribund, mildly tonal Turkic language closely related to Tuvan (q.v.) with approx. 90 speakers in the Irkutsk region. Uses a modified Cyrillic alphabet of 42 characters.

25 тоорбаш ай (tōrbаš ay) 2019  ▭

Tok Pisin (New Guinea Pidgin): Tok Pisin (New Guinea Pidgin) ✧ TPI ✧ English-based creole of Papua New Guinea with 120,000 native/fluent speakers and another 4 million with L2 proficiency. Beyond its English substrate it borrows from local Malayo-Polynesian languages and German.

25 numba 3 mun 2019

Tokelauan [Traditional]: Tokelauan [Traditional] ✧ TKL ✧ Malayo-Polynesian, approx. 4300 speakers in American Samoa (on Tokelau and Swains Island) and New Zealand. Tokelauan and Tuvaluan are mutually intelligible.

25 Takaoga 2019

Tolowa (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.

25 Taa-xe num-nii-man’s 2019

Tonga (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.

25 Muyobo 2019

Tongan: Tongan ✧ TON ✧ Malayo-Polynesian. Only one vowel per syllable, no blended consonants. Not to be confused with the Bantu language Tonga above.

25 Ma’asi 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.

25 yavii marzó 2019

Trique [Chicahuaxtla]: Trique [Chicahuaxtla] ✧ TRC ✧ Dialect of Trique heard in San Andrés Chicahuaxtla, Oaxaca, Mexico. 6000 speakers.

25 mársúu 2019

Tsafiki (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.

25 pi'poka wu pe 2019

Tsez (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.

25 март (mart) 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.

25 dawa sumpa -or- taida 2019

Tsimshian [Coast]: Tsimshian [Coast] ✧ TSI ✧ Indigenous language spoken by around 240 in British Columbia and Alaska. Possibly an isolate.

25 Ha’lila᾿x six’ẅa᾿h “Time for first harvest” 2019

Tsonga: Tsonga ✧ TSO ✧ Niger-Congo family, Bantu. Uses whistling sounds and a single click.

25 Nyenyankulu 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.

25 Mopitlwe 2019

Tuareg [Tamasheq]: Tuareg [Tamasheq] ✧ TAQ ✧ Afro-Asiatic, Berber. Complex “avoidance” behavior in communication.

25 (mars) 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.

25 sã³³ jye²¹ 2019

Tumbuka: Tumbuka ✧ TUM ✧ Niger-Congo, Bantu. Speakers in Malawi, Zambia, & Tanzania.

25 Marichi 2019

Tunica: 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.

25 Komelitahch’a 2019  ▭

Turkish [Standard]: Turkish [Standard] ✧ TUR ✧ From the Altaic family. Turkish’s earliest inscriptions have been found in Mongolia

25 mart -or- kuzu ayı -or- dol tökümü 2019  ▭

Turkish [Meskhetian]: Turkish [Meskhetian] ✧ TUR ✧ Dialect spoken by the Meskheti disapora throughout Russia

25 март (mart) 2019

Turkish [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.

25 март (mart) 2019

Turkmen 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.

25 mart 2019  ▭

Turkmen 2 [Post-Niyazov]: Turkmen 2 [Post-Niyazov] ✧ TUK ✧ As decreed by dictator Saparmurat Niyazov (1940-2006)

25 Nowruz (traditional Persian new year) 2019  ▭

Turkmen 3 [Post-Post-Niyazov]: Turkmen 3 [Post-Post-Niyazov] ✧ TUK ✧ Back by popular demand!

25 mart 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.

25 kanęharę́ʔkye 2019

Tutchone [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.

25 Dän ze “Snowshoe-walking month” 2019

Tutchone [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.

25 Thay nzhā “Eagle returning month” -or- Mäkay nakwätän nzhā “Thawing daily, freezing nightly” 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.

25 үш ай (üš ay) 2019  ▭

Tyap (Katab): Tyap (Katab) ✧ KCG ✧ Niger-Congo, West Plateau. 200,000 speakers, Nigeria.

25 Zwat Tsat 2019

Tzotzil: Tzotzil ✧ TZO ✧ Mayan family, Cholan-Tzeltalan branch, spoken by 400,000 in Chiapas, Mexico

25 marso 2019  ▭

⌅

Uab Meto: Uab Meto ✧ AOZ ✧ Malayo-Polynesian family, unusual gender distinctions, spoken by 800,000 Atoni people in Indonesian West Timor

25 fun-tenu’ 2019

Ubykh: 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.

25 psıbığu (psəbəʁʷ) 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.

25 южтолэзь (yužtolez’) 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.

25 березень (berezеn’) “Birch-burning” 2019  ▭

Ukrainian [Premodern]: Ukrainian [Premodern] ✧ UKR ✧ Older Ukrainian

25 капельник (kapel’nyk) -or- протальник (protal’nyk) 2019

Unami [Lenape]: Unami [Lenape] ✧ UNM ✧ Nominally extinct Algonquian language of the New Jersey area Lenape people

25 Xamokhwite Kishux “Shad Month” 2019

Upper 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.

25 witcala’myxun 2019  ▭

Upper Kuskokwim: Upper Kuskokwim ✧ KUU ✧ Athabaskan, only 40 speakers (Alaska). Features a voiceless N sound.

25 ch’itsozroṉ 2019

Upper Tanana [Tetlin]: Upper Tanana [Tetlin] ✧ TAU ✧ Athabaskan, related to Tanacross (q.v.), fewer than 100 speakers. Tetlin, Alaska.

25 Ch’ishyaann’ Saa 2019

Urhobo: 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.

25 arhá 2019

Uyghur: Uyghur ✧ UIG ✧ Turkic, loans from Persian, Russian, Chinese. Spoken in China’s Xinjiang region.

25 üchinchi ay 2019

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Vai: 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.

25 (vɔɔ) 2019  ▭

Venda: Venda ✧ VEN ✧ Niger-Congo family, Bantu branch. 800,000 speakers in Southern Africa

25 t̥hafamuhwe 2019

Venetian: 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).

25 marso 2019  ▭

Veps: Veps ✧ VEP ✧ Finno-Ugric, approx. 6300 speakers mostly near the Gulf of Finland. It has 23 noun cases, the most of any Finnic language.

25 kevä 2019

Vietnamese (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.

25 tháng ba 2019  ▭

Votic (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.

25 martti 2019

Võro: Võro ✧ VRO ✧ Finno-Ugric, related to Veps (q.v.), seriously endangered

25 urbõkuu 2019

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Wa [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.

25 kʰiʔ lwe 2019

Waama (Yoabu): Waama (Yoabu) ✧ WWA ✧ Niger-Congo, Gur, Oti-Volta, spoken by 50,000 in Benin. Closely related to Mbèlimè and Moba (q.v.).

25 tuunniire 2019

Wali {Niger-Congo}: Wali {Niger-Congo} ✧ WLX ✧ Niger-Congo family, Gur, Moré–Dagbani, 140,000 speakers centered around the city of Wa and nearby villages in Ghana’s Upper West Region. Not to be confused with Nilo-Saharan Wali spoken in Sudan. Like Finnic and Turkic languages, Wali exhibits vowel harmony.

25 ‘chiuri ata daana 2019

Wallisian (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.).

25 malesio 2019

Walloon: 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.

25 måss 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

25 yowetede 2019

Warao: 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.

25 waniku dijanamo 2019

Waray-Waray [Premodern]: Waray-Waray [Premodern] ✧ WAR ✧ Malayo-Polynesian, Central Visayan, 2.6 million speakers. Philippines.

25 (karayapanhon) 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.

25 maatso 2019

Welsh (Cymric): Welsh (Cymric) ✧ CYM ✧ Indo-European, Celtic, Brythonic. Many speakers not named Jones.

25 Mawrth 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).

25 Wake hiliruxe 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.

25 gaseluuweli merame 2019

Wolof: Wolof ✧ WOL ✧ Niger-Congo language. Senegal, Gambia, Mauritania. The terms “okay” and “hep cat” may possibly have come from Wolof.

25 gamou 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.

25 mjēca 2019  ▭

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Xhosa: Xhosa ✧ XHO ✧ Niger-Congo, Southern Bantu, bitonal (though not shown in writing) with many unusual consonants including 18 clicks

25 eyoKwindla “Month of first fruits” 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.

25 wala ʔawa 2019

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Yakut (Sakha): Yakut (Sakha) ✧ SAH ✧ Northern Turkic, grammatically genderless, spoken by 450,000 in the Sakha Republic in Northern Siberia

25 кулун тутар (kulun tutar) 2019  ▭

Yanesha’ (Amuesha): Yanesha’ (Amuesha) ✧ AME ✧ Arawakan family. Spoken by approx. 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.)

25 chochem̃ 2019

Yangben (Central Yambasa): Yangben (Central Yambasa) ✧ YAV ✧ Niger-Congo family, Southern Bantoid, spoken by 17,000 in Cameroon

25 ɔnsúmbɔl -or- oóli ú kátátúɛ 2019

Yaqui (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.

25 bajmet 2019  ▭

Yawa: Yawa ✧ YVA ✧ A language from the West Papuan family (perhaps), spoken by 10,000 at Yapen Island’s Cenderawasih Bay, Indonesia.

25 maretije 2019

Yi (Nuosu): Yi (Nuosu) ✧ III ✧ Tibeto-Burman language spoken by ethnic Yi in China and SE Asia

25 (suoma) 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

25 ȵu⁵⁵ ɬɯ²¹ “Monkey month” 2019

Yiddish (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. Approx. 3 million speakers worldwide.

25 מערץ (merts) 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.

25 Oṣù Ẹrẹ̀nà 2019  ▭

Yuchi: Yuchi ✧ YUC ✧ Native American language of unknown ancestry, virtually extinct, Oklahoma

25 Wadasine “Little summer 2019

Yukaghir [Tundra]: Yukaghir [Tundra] ✧ YKG ✧ A moribund two-language family, spoken by a few dozen in the Russian Far East

25 пугудьэмэ ниҥин хачил (pugud’eme niŋin χačil) 2019  ▭

Yupik [Pacific Gulf]: Yupik [Pacific Gulf] ✧ YPK ✧ Eskimo-Aleut family, 2 dialects, approx. 500-1000 speakers

25 Kaignasqaq Iraluq 2019

Yupik [St Lawrence]: Yupik [St Lawrence] ✧ YPK ✧ Eskimo-Aleut family, Bering Strait area, < 300 speakers

25 Teghiglugsiq 2019  ▭

Yupi’k [Chevak Cup’ik]: Yupi’k [Chevak Cup’ik] ✧ YPK ✧ Seriously endangered Yupi’k (q.v.) sub-dialect. Hooper Bay, Alaska.

25 Neqlelek 2019

Yupi’k [Mid-Alaskan]: Yupi’k [Mid-Alaskan] ✧ YPK ✧ Eskimo-Aleut family, approx. 13,000 speakers

25 Kepnerciq 2019

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Zapotec, 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).

25 beu' Na báa' na “Holy Week month” 2019

Zapotec, 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.

25 mars 2019

Zarma (Dyerma): Zarma (Dyerma) ✧ DJE ✧ Nilo-Saharan family, Songhay group. Spoken in southwest Niger.

25 gani 2019  ▭

Zaza(Zazaki or Dimli): Zaza(Zazaki or Dimli) ✧ ZZA ✧ Indo-European, Indo-Iranian; 2 to 4 million speakers, mostly in Turkey. This is the dialect a Zaza group is proposing as a spoken and literary standard.

25 adar 2019  ▭

Zaza (Zazaki or Dimli) [Northern]: Zaza (Zazaki or Dimli) [Northern] ✧ KIU ✧ This is the northern or Zazakiyê Zımey dialect of Zaza, spoken in Turkey’s Erzincan, Erzurum, Gumushane, Kayseri, Mus, Sivas, and Tunceli provinces.

25 mart 2019

Zhuang: Zhuang ✧ ZHA ✧ Kra–Dai family, 6 tones, spoken in China’s Guangxi region

25 nin sam -or- 3 nyied 2019

Zou (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.

25 douta hà 2019

Zou (Zomi) [Chin Hills]: Zou (Zomi) [Chin Hills] ✧ ZOM ✧ This is the Zou spoken in those areas other than India.

25 dóupí hlà 2019  ▭

Zulu: Zulu ✧ ZUL ✧ Bantu language widely spoken in Southern Africa. Uses clicks.

25 uNdasa 2019

Zuni: Zuni ✧ ZUN ✧ An isolate spoken by 9500 in New Mexico. Strangely, there may be a 13th-century Japanese connection.

25 li’dekwakkya ts’ana “Little sand storm” 2019

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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 switch from lunar to solar and 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.

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Tachimachizuki ↓

Special thanks:

Douglas Q. Adams (Tocharian B)
I Wayan Arka (Ronggo)
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)
Barbara Webster Black and Friends of Tobi (Tobian)
Roger Blench and Bitrus Kaze of the University of Cambridge (Izere)
William Bright and Susan Gehr (Karuk)
Can Dai Quang (Cham)
Bernard Comrie of UC Santa Barbara and Timur Maisak (Bagvalal)
I Love Languages! Youtube author (Many sample videos I’ve linked to)
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 Lorrain)
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

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