How many languages are spoken in Catalonia? What languages are they? The most significant change in the demographic make-up of Catalonia's population in recent years has been in terms of the places of origin of its inhabitants. Never before has the territory witnessed coexistence between people from so many different parts of the world, and it might never experience a higher degree of linguistic diversity. The people who have emigrated to Catalonia have imported their languages. While some of the tongues in question have enough speakers to live on in the territory, others are spoken by a mere handful of individuals or even just one person, and are extremely unlikely to be passed on to new generations.

An analysis of the languages of Catalonia's inhabitants in the early 21st century reveals tremendous diversity (around 300 tongues from all over the planet) and paints two very accurate pictures, superimposed on each other. The first is of dying language families (Khoisan, Chukotko-Kamchatkan, Na-Dene, Eskimo-Aleut and Australian), which are virtually unrepresented in Catalonia. The second is of languages from outside Catalonia which, regardless of their number of speakers and whether or not they enjoy official status elsewhere, are making a permanent mark on the territory and serve as a highly reliable indication of the origins of Catalonia’s non-indigenous population.

With regard to the languages of Europe, the unprecedented spread of Italian in recent years has mirrored that of Romanian and Moldavian, the Romance tongues that have made the most significant advances. The presence of Slavic languages, with Russian at the forefront, has also increased greatly, and Catalonia is currently home to speakers of Polish, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Czech, Slovak, Slovenian, Macedonian, Bulgarian, etc. Elsewhere within the Indo-European family, Albanian, Armenian, Latvian and Lithuanian are spoken in a number of different places in Catalonia, despite them not having large communities of speakers. Where the Uralic family is concerned, there are speakers of Sami and Finnish in Catalonia, although it is the Estonian and Hungarian language communities that have undergone the greatest growth over the last few years. Georgian and Chechen, meanwhile, are Catalonia's two most widely spoken Caucasian tongues.

Pakistan, China and the Philippines are among the Asian countries from which Catalonia has received most immigrants in recent times. India, Nepal and Mongolia are other countries that the territory's Asian immigrants leave behind them. There are not many speakers of Mongolian in Catalonia at present, but their numbers have been rising steadily for several years now. Many of the Asian languages that belong to the Indo-European family are spoken in Catalonia, where some of them have substantial communities of speakers. Punjabi, Marathi, Hindi, Bengali, Urdu, Gujarati, Nepali, Konkani, Sindhi, Pashto, Persian, Sinhala and Kurdish all fall into the category in question. The Dravidian tongues, the main stronghold of which is southern India, have some speakers in Catalonia, although the Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu and Kannada language communities do not appear to be the largest of those of Indian origin in the territory. The Altaic language family is divided into three branches and, according to some experts, also includes Korean and Japanese. Languages belonging to the family's Turkic (Turkish, Uzbek, Azeri and Kazakh) and Mongolian (Khalkha and Kalmyk) branches are spoken in Catalonia. The Sino-Tibetan tongues are another Asian family that is well represented in Catalonia,  in terms of numbers of both languages and speakers. Chinese (in all its different forms), Tibetan and Burmese are among the Sino-Tibetan tongues in use in the territory. The languages of the Austric grouping (Vietnamese, Lao, Thai, Khmer, etc.), meanwhile, are present in Catalonia but have very few speakers.

The Austronesian language family, comprising the tongues of Madagascar and the islands of the Pacific, has a significant presence in Catalonia thanks to the languages of the Philippines. Pangasinan,  Tagalog, Ilocano, Pampangan, Bicol, Cebuano, Hiligaynon and Waray are some of the more than 20 Philippine languages that have been identified in Catalonia at the time of writing. Malagasy, Bahasa Indonesia, Rapanui, Maori, Javanese and Malay are among the other Austronesian tongues that, while spoken by small groups in Catalonia, are nonetheless part of the territory's contemporary linguistic heritage. Spanish and Portuguese, with their respective variants, have arrived in Catalonia from the Americas, as have a number of Amerindian tongues, such as Quechua (with speakers from Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia, among other countries), Aymara, Nahuatl, Guaraní, Mapudungu, Zapotec, Shuar and the Mayan languages.

The Austronesian language family, comprising the tongues of Madagascar and the islands of the Pacific, has a significant presence in Catalonia thanks to the languages of the Philippines. Pangasinan,  Tagalog, Ilocano, Pampangan, Bicol, Cebuano, Hiligaynon and Waray are some of the more than 20 Philippine languages that have been identified in Catalonia at the time of writing. Malagasy, Bahasa Indonesia, Rapanui, Maori, Javanese and Malay are among the other Austronesian tongues that, while spoken by small groups in Catalonia, are nonetheless part of the territory's contemporary linguistic heritage. Spanish and Portuguese, with their respective variants, have arrived in Catalonia from the Americas, as have a number of Amerindian tongues, such as Quechua (with speakers from Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia, among other countries), Aymara, Nahuatl, Guaraní, Mapudungu, Zapotec, Shuar and the Mayan languages.

Finally, the African languages spoken in Catalonia belong to three different families. Firstly, there is the Nilo-Saharan family, represented by Kanuri and Songhai. Secondly, there is the Afro-Asiatic family. Arabic is the most high profile representative of the family's Semitic branch, alongside Hebrew and Amharic. Tamazight, one of Catalonia's most widely spoken languages, is a component of the family's Berber branch. Other Afro-Asiatic tongues spoken in Catalonia are Somali and Hausa, from the Cushitic and Chadic branches respectively. Thirdly, the languages of the Niger-Congo family spoken in Catalonia include some from the Atlantic branch, such as Fula, Wolof, Diola and Serer, and others from the Mande branch, such as Diula, Soninke, Bambara, Kpelle, Vai and Manding. The family's Benue-Congo subdivision is chiefly represented in Catalonia by tongues from the Kwa branch (including Akuapem, Twi, Akan, Fanti, Fon, Ewe, Yoruba, Ga and Igbo), as well as by Bantu languages (including Bubi, Fang, Ewondo and other tongues of Equatorial Guinea, which have been spoken in the territory for many years, and Swahili, Lingala, Kikongo and Duala, which have begun to be used more recently and do not have major communities of speakers).