World Language Map

Yam languages map

18 Yam languages are on the map, most of them in Papua New Guinea and Indonesia. It divides into 2 main branches, the largest being Morehead-Maro (14 languages). 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 Yam family at a glance

  • 18languages
  • 6drawn as areas
  • 12shown as points
  • 2main branches

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

Branches of Yam

The second level of the Glottolog family tree.

  • Morehead-Maro (14)
  • Kanum (4)

Where Yam languages are spoken

Countries with the most Yam languages, with the number of languages in brackets.

All 18 Yam languages, A to Z

Questions about Yam languages

How many Yam languages are there?

18 living Yam languages are on this map, in the Glottolog classification. They fall into 2 main branches, the biggest being Morehead-Maro (14 languages). Other classifications group languages differently, so totals vary.

Where are Yam languages spoken?

Papua New Guinea (17) and Indonesia (5) have the most Yam languages, with the number of languages in brackets.

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.