From Creation to today

Every language on Earth

About 7,000 living languages, one dot each, appearing as their families spread — read alongside the Torah's account of one language and the scattering at Babel.

Dates are when a family is thought to have reached a region, graded like every hop in the atlas. A dot is today's language at today's place — not a claim about when that language itself arose.

Families

Sign languages, pidgins and mixed languages, shown at the end without dates0

Two timelines

Today

Glottolog lists 0 languages still spoken or signed. Of those with an assessment, 0 are shifting, moribund or nearly extinct — no longer reliably passed to children — and 0 more are threatened.

“For then will I turn to the peoples a pure language, that they may all call upon the name of the LORD, to serve Him with one consent.”Zephaniah 3:9

How this map is made

Languages, families and coordinates: Glottolog (CC BY 4.0). Extinct languages are left out.
Family expansions: about 200 dated waypoints for the 21 largest or best-studied families, each graded. Smaller families and isolates are shown from the start: most were in place long before 3761 BCE, and for some the timing is simply unknown.
Torah chronology follows Seder Olam (Anno Mundi); the two timelines are shown side by side, not merged.

3761 BCE0 languages

Gathering 6,949 languages…

The scale stretches recent centuries. Red ticks: Torah tradition · teal: history.