Old World Language Families
This isn’t a map, though there are small maps embedded, but an awesome graphic using the tree metaphor to detail the spread of languages.
The size of the foliage represents the approximate population of speakers of each language. The graphic contains Indo-European and Finno-Ugric families so while it contains much of the world’s population, it does not include African, East Asian, Middle Eastern or indigenous languages. The author, Minna Sundberg is Finnish so there is extra attention given at the bottom of the map to the Finno-Ugric tree (detailed below) and North Germanic branch of the Indo-European tree.
-via Mappenstance
I love this tree map. Always try to find out if Euskera (from Basque Country in Spain) is represented. Ha en’t found it. Basque people claim not having roots in any other language.
I think this is the first time I have seen the bottom part of this illustration. The visuals and the content make it one of the best infographics ever published. In a way, it's proven by how widely it's been used over the last 10 years.