Language family tree: how the world's languages are related

Indo-European 16 languages here

Germanic
- West GermanicEnglish German Dutch
Indo-Iranian
- Indo-AryanHindi Bengali
- IranianPersian
Italic
- RomanceItalian
  - Western RomanceSpanish French Portuguese
Balto-Slavic
- Slavic
  - East SlavicRussian Ukrainian
  - West SlavicPolish
  - South SlavicSerbian
GreekGreek
Celtic
- BrythonicWelsh

Afro-Asiatic 2 languages here

Semitic
- Central SemiticArabic Hebrew

Sino-Tibetan 1 language here

SiniticMandarin Chinese

Austronesian 1 language here

Malayo-PolynesianIndonesian

Japonic 1 language here

Japanese

Austroasiatic 1 language here

VieticVietnamese

Atlantic-Congo 1 language here

Narrow BantuSwahili

Turkic 1 language here

OghuzTurkish

Koreanic 1 language here

Korean

Tai-Kadai 1 language here

Southwestern TaiThai

Classification from Glottolog 5.3, simplified to the branches that separate the languages in this guide.

The largest language families

Family	Languages
Atlantic-Congo	1,408
Austronesian	1,276
Indo-European	586
Sino-Tibetan	519
Afro-Asiatic	381
Nuclear Trans New Guinea	317
Pama-Nyungan	250
Otomanguean	181
Austroasiatic	158
Tai-Kadai	95

Number of languages per top-level family in Glottolog 5.3 (Hammarström, Forkel, Haspelmath and Bank), CC BY 4.0.

Frequently asked questions

What is the largest language family?

By number of languages, Atlantic-Congo (1,408 languages in Glottolog 5.3), followed by Austronesian (1,276). By number of speakers, Indo-European is the largest.

How many language families are there?

Glottolog 5.3 recognises 238 families plus 183 language isolates.