This is going to be a very short “The Best…” list of online maps that show the geographical locations of what language is spoken where.

These accessible maps can be used as an engaging way to also promote learning about geography. I’m sure there are other ways to utilize them in the classroom. Please share your ideas in the comments section of this post.

There are really only two “language maps” that I’m including in this list (I’ve since added several more to bottom of this post). I’m also adding two other supportive resources.

The Modern Language Association Language Map: A Map of Languages in the United States is an incredible site. That link will lead you to the map itself, while this link will take you to an explanation of everything that can be done with it.

The Cyberjournalist site wrote a good and short description of the the MLA site, and I’m just going to quote it here:

“Want to know how many people speak Yiddish or Creole in your neighborhood? The Modern Language Association’s new Language Map displays the locations and numbers of speakers of the 30 languages most commonly spoken in the United States. You can search by language and state and the tool produces a map of how many people speak that language by county or zip code.”

The second site on this short list is an excellent world map of languages created by the language-learning site Bab.la.

As I mentioned, I’m also including two other language map “related” resources here.

One is a Voice of America report (that includes audio support for the text) on the MLA language map of the United States.

The other is a simple chart representation showing the actual number of people who speak specific languages worldwide.

Here are some new additions:

The UNESCO Interactive Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger very quickly and easily shows you the numerous language in danger of disappearing, along with details about each one.

This world map shows which countries have English as their official language.

The Lexicalist is a “demographic dictionary.” It shows you who is using which words, including slang. It’s pretty intriguing. Thanks to Katherine Schulten for the tip.

The Linguistic Diversity Index is an interactive map showing the diversity of languages in each country.

The Language Olympics is a neat infographic showing the languages spoken on each of the continents. Once you go to the link, you have to scroll down to get to it. You’ll pass another infographic related to world languages that I personally find rather incomprehensible, but it might just be me.

“Language Families:Their Popularity, Spread and Longevity” is the title of an interesting infographic.

Planet English is an infographic from Voxy.

Here’s a map of North American English Dialects, Based on Pronunciation Patterns

Disappearing Languages is an interactive map from National Geographic showing endangered languages around the world.

Here’s a map that shows the Number of Endangered Languages by Country.

The World Atlas of Language Structures looks pretty intriguing.

Languages of Europe is an interesting color-coded map.

The Speech Accent Archive is pretty amazing — just check it out.

The Yale Grammatical Diversity Project: English In North America looks intriguing.

World Languages Mapped by Twitter comes from The Atlantic.

The world of Wikipedia’s languages mapped comes from The Guardian.

Our Mother Tongues is a very impressive site that’s designed to support and preserve Native American languages. It’s very engaging, and includes a “language map,” videos and more. One of its very neat features is that it allows you choose a virtual audio postcard with a Native American greeting that you can send to someone. You can also write a personalized message on it. You’re given a unique url address, and it can be posted on a student/teacher website or blog.

Feel free to share additional suggestions.

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