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About Tongues
Tongues is an open index of the world’s languages: where each one sits in its family, how many people speak it, which scripts write it, which countries it is spoken in and how safe its future looks.
Every record is built from Wikidata (CC0): ISO 639 and Glottolog codes, the family tree (the “subclass of” chain), speaker counts with their reference year, writing systems, countries, official status, the EGIDS scale of language vitality and the UNESCO endangerment level.
We publish a language only when it carries enough facts to be useful — at least five of codes, family, speakers, scripts, countries and status. Speaker numbers are the latest figure Wikidata holds for first-language (L1), second-language (L2) or total speakers; sources and years differ, so compare them with care. Hypothetical macro-families (such as Austro-Tai or Sino-Austronesian) are left out of the family trees.
Distribution maps (Wikidata property P1846) and script samples (the image of the writing system, P18) are files from Wikimedia Commons; each one is credited to its author with its licence under the image, and the image credits page lists them all. Maps show where a language is or was spoken as drawn by their authors — boundaries are approximate.
Tongues is about languages, not about speech or health: we publish no medical, therapy or speech-disorder content. It is independent and not affiliated with any standards body, language authority or government.
Data sources
- Wikidata (CC0) — languages, families, scripts, countries, EGIDS and UNESCO status
- ISO 639-3 code tables (via Wikidata, property P220)
- Glottolog identifiers (via Wikidata, property P1394)
- Wikimedia Commons — distribution maps of languages and samples of scripts (free licences, author credited under each image)
An open-data index of languages — not a linguistic authority, and not a medical or speech-therapy resource.
Questions, corrections or data requests: [email protected].