Welcome to the 29th edition

As our contribution to the celebration of International Mother Language Day, we are pleased to announce the release of the 29th edition of Ethnologue. This is a milestone edition for us, marking the 75th anniversary of the publication of our first edition in 1951. Mother Language Day, February 21, reminds the world of the importance of the lesser-known languages of the world. Because knowledge about lesser-known languages has been a focus of the Ethnologue since its inception, we are pleased to be able to provide our most up-to-date information about the languages of the world each year on this day. This new edition is the result of over 8,000 updates that have been made to the Ethnologue database since the 28th edition was released one year ago. As a result, the descriptions of 1,835 languages contain at least one update.

This edition marks a transition in the editorial team. After 15 years of exemplary service as our Managing Editor, Chuck Fennig has stepped aside to take a part-time role as a Research Editor focusing on languages that are now dispersed around the globe. He is succeeded by Ali Robinson who stepped into the Managing Editor role for the production of this edition. She comes to us with a decade of service to Ethnologue, first as a prolific field contributor in Nigeria and more recently as a full-time editorial assistant. We look forward to many more editions in her capable hands.

Not only are languages constantly changing, so is what we know about them. Therefore the total number of living languages in the world cannot be known precisely. That number changes as knowledge of the world’s languages improves. This edition lists a total of 7,170 living languages worldwide—a net increase of 11 living languages since the previous edition of Ethnologue was published one year ago. This is the result of changes in the extinction status of some languages and changes in the ISO 639-3 inventory of languages (with which Ethnologue stays aligned). This edition drops 3 languages that were listed as living in the previous edition (1 having changed in status from living to extinct, 1 being designated as unattested, and 1 having been removed from the ISO standard). Conversely, 14 languages are newly listed as living (5 of which were added by the ISO standard as being previously unidentified and 9 having been shifted in status from extinct to dormant).

This edition also incorporates updates to many of the language maps, plus it adds 5 new map plates. One of these is added to the map series for Indonesia: a map of the dominant languages in Maluku. Two countries are newly mapped: Poland (1 plate) and Italy (3 plates).

And the job is not finished yet! As we work diligently to research the language situation of the world, we will continue to benefit from the knowledge of our users who are familiar with specific countries and languages. We value your input and we encourage you to join our Contributor Program. With a contributor account you will be entitled to complimentary access to the website and will be able to use the “Submit new contribution” link at the bottom of each page for a language or country in order to propose corrections and additions.

On Mother Language Day, we hope you will be able to find your mother language (or perhaps that of one of your ancestors) in the Ethnologue and celebrate the linguistic diversity that enriches our world.