Meet Language Explorer: Google’s New Open-Source Linguistic Atlas

Google Research's Language Explorer, is a new interactive map that anyone can use to explore the world's languages.

Mapping the World’s Tongues

The interface of the Language Explorer is built around a highly responsive interactive map. Users can dive into the data in several ways:

• Spatial Discovery: You can use the map to zoom into a specific region - like the Highlands of Papua New Guinea or the Amazon Basin - to see the density of indigenous languages spoken there.
• Point-and-Click Data: Clicking on a specific pin opens a detailed data page for that language. Because it’s powered by LinguaMeta, every data point can be traced back to its original source.
• Search and Filter: If you’re looking for something specific, you can search by language name, country, or region to immediately see where a language is rooted.

Powered by LinguaMeta

At the heart of the Language Explorer is a new open-source data repository called LinguaMeta. Developed by Google Research, LinguaMeta acts as a "unified resource" that cleans and organizes language data from a massive variety of sources.

By centralizing this data, Google has created a transparent, traceable repository of language metadata. In the Language Explorer, this translates to a wealth of information available for every language, including:

• Speaker counts and geographic distribution.
• Writing systems and scripts.
• Official endangerment status (based on UNESCO and other vital scales).
• Regional usage and official language status.

By making the underlying LinguaMeta repository open-source (available on GitHub), Google is inviting the global linguistic community to help improve the data. If a community member sees an error in how their language is represented, the transparent nature of the project makes it easier to identify the source and update it.