Languanologue # 5

Today we have a list of the top ten families with wide recognition, in terms of numbers of native speakers as a proportion of world population, listed with their core geographic areas:

1. Indo-European Languages - 46% (Europe, Southwest to South Asia, America, Oceania)

2. Sino-Tibetan Languages - 21% (East Asia)

3. Niger-Congo Languages - 6.4% (Sub Saharan Africa)

4. Afro-Asiatic Languages - 6% (North Africa, Southwest Asia)

5. Austronesian languages - 5.9% (Oceania, Madagascar, maritime Southeast Asia)

6. Dravidian languages - 3.7% (South Asia)

7. Altaic languages - 2.3% (Central Asia, Northern Asia, Anatolia, Siberia)

8. Japonic languages - 2.1% (Japan)

9. Austro-Asiatic languages - 1.7% (mainland Southeast Asia)

10. Tai-Kadai languages - 1.3% (Southeast Asia)