Languages by Region

Just to start, I'll go by continents. Hopefully, if you're looking for a specific language, you know what continent(s) it's spoken on. However, this can also be used to get an idea of what is spoken where.

Africa
Asia
Australia and the Pacific
North America
South America
Europe

Africa
- Nothern Africa/Sahara
  
  Arabic
  Berber languages
  Nubian (souther Egypt, northern Sudan)
- Western Sub-Saharan Africa
  - Yoruba (Nigeria, some others)
  - Hausa (Nigeria, some others)
  - French
- Eastern Sub-Saharan Africa
  - Swahili (Kenya, Tanzania, others)
  - Maasai (Kenya)
  - Amharic (Ethiopia)
  - Somali (Somalia)
- Southern Africa
  - Afrikaans (South Africa, Namibia)
  - Zulu (South Africa)
  - Xhosa (South Africa)
  - Bushman languages (South Africa, Namibia, Botswana)
  - English

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Western Asia, Arabian Penninsula
Arabic (Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan, Palestine, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, others)
Turkish (Turkey, Cyprus)
Hebrew (Israel)
Farsi/Persian (Iran)
Armenian (Armenia, Turkey)
Azerbaijani (Azerbaijan)
Georgian (Georgia)
Chechen (Chechnya)
Central Asia
- Kazakh (Kazakhstan)
- Uzbek (Uzbekistan)
- Tajik (Tajikistan)
- Russian (Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, others)
Northern Asia/Siberia
- Russian
- Mongolian (Mongolia)
- Manchu (China)
East Asia
- Chinese (China, Taiwan)
- Korean
- Japanese (Japan)
South-East Asia
- Vietnamese (Vietnam)
- Thai (Thailand)
- Lao (Laos)
- Khmer (Cambodia)
- Malaysian (Malaysia)
- Javanese (Indonesia)
- Indonesian (Indonesia)
- Tagalog (Philipines)
- Burmese (Burma or Myanmar)
South Asia/Himalayas
- Hindi (India)
- Urdu (Pakistan)
- Tamil (India, Sri Lanka)
- Telegu (India)
- Bengali (India, Bangladesh)
- Pashto (Afganistan, Pakistan)
- Malayalam (India)
- Nepali (Nepal)
- Tibetan (Tibet, Bhutan)

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Australia and the Pacific

English (Australia, New Zealand, lots of islands)
Pidgin English (Papua New Guinea--developed from English)
French (many islands)
Hawaiian (Hawaii)
Tahitian (Tahiti)
Maori (New Zealand)
Samoan (Western and American Samoa)
Australian Aborigine languages
700 languages in Paupua New Guinea

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(North) America

English (U.S. and Canada)
Greenlandic (Greenland--an Eskimo language)
Yupik (western Alaska--an Eskimo language)
Aleut (Aleutian islands, off of Alaska)
Inuit (Alaska and northern Canada--an Eskimo language)
Tlingit (Southern Alaska, northern British Columbia)
Salish (British Columbia)
Navajo (S.W. U.S)
Spanish (S.W. U.S, California, Texas, Florida, Mexico)
Hopi (S.W. U.S)
Dakota (Northern Plains)
Blackfoot (Northern Plains)
Cherokee (Oklahoma, formerly Georgia)
Cree
Pennsylvania Dutch {really German} (Pennsylvania)
French (Quebec, Louisiana)
Haitian Creole {French} (Haiti)

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Spanish (Columbia, Argentina, Chile, Venezuela, Ecuador, others)
Portuguese (Brazil)
Quechua (Peru, Bolivia)
Aymara (Bolivia)

English (Britain, Ireland)
French (France, Belgium, Switzerland, Luxembourg)
German (Germany, Luxembourg, Austria, Switzerland, Lichtenstein)
Italian (Italy, Switzerland)
Dutch (Netherlands, Belgium)
Irish (Ireland)
Welsh (Wales)
Icelandic (Iceland)
Norwegian (Norway)
Swedish (Sweden)
Danish (Denmark)
Finnish (Finland)
Polish (Poland)
Czech (Czech Republic)
Hungarian (Hungary)
Romanian (Romania)
Serbo-Croatian (Serbia, Bosnia, Croatia)
Bulgarian (Bulgaria)
Russian Russia
Spanish Spain
Portuguese (Portugal)
Catalan (Spain)
Ukrainian (Ukraine)
Lithuanian (Lithuania)
Maltese (Malta)
Turkish (Turkey, Bulgaria)
Greek (Greece)

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Back to Guide to World Languages.

Back to Languages and Linguistics.

July 13, 1996