World Language Map

Languages spoken in Brazil

180 living languages are mapped in Brazil. The most widely spoken, by Unicode CLDR’s estimate, is Portuguese (91% of the population). They belong to 23 language families, the largest being Tupian (42 languages). 10 are language isolates, with no known relatives.

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The filter only changes what is drawn. Tap the map to list every language at a spot, whichever family is shown. You can also pick any family from its own page.

Key

Language families (largest ten)

  • Atlantic-Congo
  • Austronesian
  • Sino-Tibetan
  • Indo-European
  • Afro-Asiatic
  • Nuclear Trans New Guinea
  • Otomanguean
  • Austroasiatic
  • Tai-Kadai
  • Pama-Nyungan

Everything else

  • All other families Smaller families, isolates and unclassified languages.
  • Point A language with no area map. The dot sits at its Glottolog position, in its family colour.

How to read the map. Each colour is a language family: a group of languages that share a common ancestor. The ten largest families have their own colour and every other family is grey. Areas are see-through, so where two languages share a place the colours mix. Tap anywhere to list every language whose area covers that spot. Areas are generalisations drawn from published atlases, many of them decades old, and cities are multilingual, so an area never says that everyone there speaks the language. A dot marks a language that has no area map. The family name is always given in words, because colour alone is hard to tell apart for some people.

Languages of Brazil at a glance

  • 180living languages
  • 23language families
  • 220.1 millionpeople (CLDR estimate)
  • 6with a CLDR share

Tap the map to list every language whose area covers a spot in Brazil. Areas are generalisations from published atlases and overlap, and a language that is mapped here is not necessarily spoken everywhere inside its area.

The 40 most widely spoken languages in Brazil

Languages with a Unicode CLDR share come first, biggest first by estimated speakers; the rest follow A to Z. Estimated speakers are the share applied to CLDR’s own population figure for the country.

LanguageFamilyShare of populationEstimated speakersStatus
PortugueseIndo-European91%200,247,320Not endangered
EnglishIndo-European8%17,604,160Not endangered
GermanIndo-European0.8%1,848,437Not endangered
ItalianIndo-European0.3%616,146Not endangered
VenetianIndo-European0.2%528,125Threatened
JapaneseJaponic0.2%462,109Not endangered
AikanãIsolateThreatened
Akawaio-IngarikoCaribanThreatened
AkuntsuTupianNearly extinct
AmahuacaPano-TacananShifting
AmundavaTupianThreatened
ApalaíCaribanShifting
ApinayéNuclear-Macro-JeShifting
ApurinãArawakanShifting
ArawetéTupianShifting
ArutaniIsolateNearly extinct
Aruá (Rondonia State)TupianNearly extinct
AsháninkaArawakanThreatened
AtoradaArawakanNearly extinct
Avá-CanoeiroTupianMoribund
AwetíTupianShifting
BakairíCaribanShifting
Baniva de MaroaArawakanShifting
Baniwa do IcanaArawakanShifting
Barasana-EduriaTucanoanShifting
BoraBoranThreatened
BororoBororoanShifting
BorumNuclear-Macro-JeMoribund
CafundoIndo-EuropeanNearly extinct
CarapanaTucanoanShifting
CashinahuaPano-TacananShifting
Central-Southern TimbiraNuclear-Macro-JeShifting
ChamacocoZamucoanShifting
ChiripáTupianShifting
Cinta LargaTupianShifting
Cocama-CocamillaTupianNearly extinct
CubeoTucanoanShifting
CulinaArawanShifting
CurripacoArawakanThreatened
DeniArawanShifting

Read more: where is Portuguese spoken?

Language families in Brazil

All 180 languages in Brazil, A to Z

About these numbers

The list of languages in Brazil comes from the overlap of Glottography and Glottolog language areas and positions with the country outline, together with the languages Glottolog assigns to the country. The shares come from Unicode CLDR release 48 and are estimates. See every source and licence.

Questions about languages in Brazil

How many languages are spoken in Brazil?

180 living languages are mapped in Brazil, from 23 families, plus 10 language isolates. The number depends on how a catalogue decides where one language ends and another begins, so other sources give other totals.

What is the most spoken language in Brazil?

By Unicode CLDR's estimate, Portuguese is spoken by 91% of the population, about 200,247,320 people, followed by English (8%). Shares are approximate, can add up to more than 100% because many people speak several languages, and only cover languages CLDR has a figure for.

Which language families are found in Brazil?

Tupian (42 languages), Arawakan (21 languages), Cariban (18 languages), Nuclear-Macro-Je (16 languages) and Pano-Tacanan (13 languages), and 18 more.

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