Ethnolinguistic
Language families of the world
A linguistic map of related languages, an approximation of ethnolinguistic geography, not a census of peoples.
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Language areas (Asher & Moseley)
Open polygons for language areas digitized from Asher & Moseley’s atlas and linked to Glottocodes, areas, not single Glottolog points, and still not a census of peoples.
What
Asher & Moseley’s Atlas of the World’s Languages drew language distributions as printed maps. A 2025 Scientific Data paper (Ranacher et al.) georeferenced those sheets, digitized 6,992 distinct language-area polygons, and linked each polygon to a Glottocode. Data are released as a faithful replication plus enriched aggregates (GitHub Glottography / asher2007world). This closes a gap Glottolog itself states: Glottolog gives coordinates (points), not speaker-area polygons.
Why on this shelf
Live Language families is Glottolog classification geography. This card is the complementary object: polygonal language areas from a named atlas, interoperable with Glottolog IDs. It is still linguistic geography: not Political admin-0 and not Ethnicity-as-race.
How to read it
Treat polygons as “the atlas drew a speech-area here,” generalized for atlas scale. Historical vs contemporary sheets differ; colonial borders and multilingual regions cut across neat fills. Do not merge into World countries. Do not treat a Glottocode link as proof of sovereignty or blood. Prefer citing the Scientific Data article + the GitHub dataset together.
Caveats
Polygons are a generalized atlas drawing of a speech-area, not sovereignty and not blood. Languages are not peoples and not states.
Sources
- Ranacher et al., Scientific Data 2025: language areas from Asher & Moseley
- Same via doi.org
- PMC full text
- GitHub: Glottography/asher2007world (polygons + Glottocodes)
- Glottolog
License
Language-area polygons from Glottography/asher2007world (CC BY 4.0), digitized from Asher & Moseley and linked to Glottocodes; cite Ranacher et al., Scientific Data 2025. The preview samples those areas from the traditional / time-of-contact sheets, not the Glottolog family choropleth and not a census of peoples.
Open source map →Related maps
Ethnolinguistic
Living languages count
Ethnologue’s public insight on how many living languages are counted, a magnitude card next to the Glottolog family map, not a second family atlas.
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Endangered languages (UNESCO Atlas)
Languages UNESCO listed as vulnerable to extinct, an endangerment atlas, not a census of peoples and not a second family-tree map.
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Ethnolinguistic
World Atlas of Language Structures
Structural features of languages: sound systems, word order, grammar, mapped from reference grammars. Typology, not ethnicity and not a family tree.
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Endangered Languages Project catalogue
A living catalogue and map of endangered and Indigenous languages with community resources, another endangerment lens beside UNESCO’s 2010 Atlas, not a second Glottolog.
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