Chart of the Day: The amazing diversity of languages around the world, in one map (1)

 

People on Earth speak thousands of different languages. But given the ubiquity of some languages, like English and Mandarin, its easy to forget just how many there are around the planet.

This map provides some great perspective. Instead of representing each language, the map groups territory by which broader language family the dominant local language falls into. For instance, western and southern Europe are deep blue, because most locals speak one of the Romance languages like French, Spanish, and Italian that descended from Latin. When you look globally, the diversity is dizzying:

The amazing diversity of languages around the world, in one map – Vox.