World Language Map

Pano-Tacanan languages map

25 Pano-Tacanan languages are on the map, most of them in Peru, Brazil and Bolivia. It divides into 2 main branches, the largest being Panoan (20 languages). The best-known members include Yaminahua, Matsés and Tacana. Only this family is drawn; tap the map to list every language at a spot.

Tap or scroll to load the interactive map

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

Key

Language families (largest ten)

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

Everything else

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

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

The Pano-Tacanan family at a glance

  • 25languages
  • 24drawn as areas
  • 1shown as points
  • 2main branches

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

Biggest Pano-Tacanan languages

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

  1. Where is Yaminahua spoken? (about 2,729 speakers)
  2. Where is Matsés spoken? (about 2,200 speakers)
  3. Where is Tacana spoken? (about 1,800 speakers)
  4. Where is Cashinahua spoken? (about 1,200 speakers)
  5. Where is Cashibo-Cacataibo spoken? (about 1,200 speakers)
  6. Where is Ese Ejja spoken? (about 700 speakers)
  7. Where is Panoan Katukína spoken? (about 700 speakers)
  8. Where is Chácobo spoken? (about 600 speakers)
  9. Where is Matís spoken? (about 320 speakers)
  10. Where is Amahuaca spoken? (about 310 speakers)

Branches of Pano-Tacanan

The second level of the Glottolog family tree.

  • Panoan (20)
  • Tacanan (5)

Where Pano-Tacanan languages are spoken

Countries with the most Pano-Tacanan languages, with the number of languages in brackets.

All 25 Pano-Tacanan languages, A to Z

Questions about Pano-Tacanan languages

How many Pano-Tacanan languages are there?

25 living Pano-Tacanan languages are on this map, in the Glottolog classification. They fall into 2 main branches, the biggest being Panoan (20 languages). Other classifications group languages differently, so totals vary.

Where are Pano-Tacanan languages spoken?

Peru (13), Brazil (13) and Bolivia (8) have the most Pano-Tacanan languages, with the number of languages in brackets.

What are the biggest Pano-Tacanan languages?

By the approximate speaker counts Wikidata holds: Yaminahua (about 2,729), Matsés (about 2,200) and Tacana (about 1,800). These figures differ between sources and years.

Embed this map

Copy this code into your web page. It is free to use. Please keep the link under the map, as it is how people find where the map comes from.