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South Bird's Head languages map

8 South Bird's Head languages are on the map, most of them in Indonesia. It divides into 2 main branches, the largest being Nuclear South Bird's Head (6 languages). Only this family is drawn; tap the map to list every language at a spot.

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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.

The South Bird's Head family at a glance

8languages
5drawn as areas
3shown as points
2main branches

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

Branches of South Bird's Head

The second level of the Glottolog family tree.

Nuclear South Bird's Head (6)
Inanwatanic (2)

Where South Bird's Head languages are spoken

Countries with the most South Bird's Head languages, with the number of languages in brackets.

Indonesia (8)

All 8 South Bird's Head languages, A to Z

Questions about South Bird's Head languages

How many South Bird's Head languages are there?

8 living South Bird's Head languages are on this map, in the Glottolog classification. They fall into 2 main branches, the biggest being Nuclear South Bird's Head (6 languages). Other classifications group languages differently, so totals vary.

Where are South Bird's Head languages spoken?

Indonesia (8) have the most South Bird's Head languages, with the number of languages in brackets.