science

Glottolog

Glottolog is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Glottolog rather than just read about it. In short: Glottolog is an open-access online bibliographic database of the world's languages. In addition to listing linguistic materials (grammars, articles, dictionaries) describing individual languages, the database also contains the most up-to-date language affiliations based on the work of expert linguists.

Glottolog — illustration

Key takeaways

Glottolog belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Glottolog to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Glottolog from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Glottolog is an open-access online bibliographic database of the world's languages. In addition to listing linguistic materials (grammars, articles, dictionaries) describing individual languages, the database also contains the most up-to-date language affiliations based on the work of expert linguists. Glottolog was first developed and maintained at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, and between 2015 and 2020 at the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology in Jena, Germany. Its main curators include Harald Hammarström and Martin Haspelmath.

Overview Sebastian Nordhoff and Harald Hammarström established the Glottolog/Langdoc project in 2011. The creation of Glottolog was partly motivated by the lack of a comprehensive language bibliography, especially in Ethnologue. Glottolog provides a catalogue of the world's languages and language families and a bibliography on individual languages. It differs from Ethnologue in several respects:

It includes only those languages that the editors have been able to confirm both exist and are distinct. Varieties that have not been confirmed, but are inherited from another source, are tagged as "spurious" or "unattested". It attempts only to classify languages into families demonstrated to be valid groupings based on research by linguists specializing in them. Comprehensive bibliographic information is provided, especially for lesser-known or underdescribed languages. To a limited extent, alternative names are listed according to the sources that use them. Apart from a single point-location on a map at its geographic centre, no ethnographic or demographic information is provided. Language names used in the bibliographic entries are identified by ISO 639-3 code or Glottolog's own code (Glottocode). External links are provided to ISO, Ethnologue and other online language databases The latest version is 5.3, released under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License in March 2026. It is part of the Cross-Linguistic Linked Data project hosted by the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology.

Language families Glottolog is more conservative in its classification than other databases in establishing membership of languages and families given its strict criteria for postulating larger groupings. On the other hand, the database is more permissive in terms of considering unclassified languages as isolates. Edition 4.8 lists 421 spoken language families and isolates as follows:

Creoles are classified with the language that supplied their basic lexicon. In addition to the families and isolates listed above, Glottolog uses several non-genealogical families for various languages:

Pidgins (84 languages) Mixed languages (9) Artificial languages (31) Speech registers (15) Sign languages (223) Unclassifiable attested languages (121) Unattested languages (68) Bookkeeping: spurious languages, such as retired ISO entries; kept for bookkeeping purposes (390 including 6 sign languages)

Notes

References

External links

Official website

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Glottolog

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Glottolog claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Glottolog before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Glottolog ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Glottolog

In research: Glottolog appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Glottolog in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Glottolog is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2011 establishments in Germany, Bibliographic databases and indexes, Cross-Linguistic Linked Data, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Glottolog outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Glottolog in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Glottolog means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Glottolog out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Glottolog in simple terms?

Why does Glottolog matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Glottolog?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Glottolog.