Glottolog 5.3
S001What it documents
The universe of 246 families and 183 isolates, identifiers and macroareas.
100 forms · 78 languages · 12 operations
Attention, One Language at a Time
When languages ask for attention, they put the mind, heart, ear, eye, face and gesture to work. These 100 forms trace how focus becomes orientation, listening, care or availability to another person.
100documented forms
78languages
12semantic operations
429genealogical units inventoried
Move the focus across the field. Arrow buttons change the case.
Colour key
hearing / listening / obedience24
transfer / giving / lending / payment14
orientation / turning12
sensory access: ear / eye / face11
placement / fixation / application10
heart / mind / inner organ8
vision / noticing / marking6
wakefulness / vigilance / caution5
interactional attention-getting4
care / concern / regard3
relational / deep listening2
intention / mental application1
100 sources
A, B and C levels
Glottolog 5.3A catalogue of languages and genealogical relationships. Here it defines the universe of families and isolates.
CLICS⁴A database of colexifications, cases in which one form expresses two or more meanings, with data from 3,447 language varieties. Open the official database ↗
updated July 13, 2026
100 points, 12 gestures
One word conceals twelve operations.
Listening appears most often, followed by transfer, orientation, sensory access and placement. Each operation describes the link between a lexical form and the semantic gesture it expresses.
Choose an operation to filter the atlas.
Interactive atlas
Move the focus. Every point has a history.
Search by language, form or family. Filter by operation, macroarea, confidence and language type. Open a point for its gloss, history, caution and sources.
100 results
Color indicates the operation. Size indicates confidence.
No case matches the filters.
CLICS⁴ colexifications
Listening connects perception to behavior.
In CLICS⁴, LISTEN has 111 links with HEAR, 38 with OBEY, 18 with UNDERSTAND and 2 with LEARN. Line weight follows the number of links.
5 signed languages, 8 cases
Focus and access to attention are different problems.
An ATTENTION lexeme describes a state of focus. A wave, touch, vibration or light opens the interactional channel.
Communities use visual, tactile and vibrotactile channels to open interaction. The protocol depends on context and relationship.
A sign's history is reconstructed from lexicographic, historical and community sources.
The signaler enters the visual field. The practice is documented in ASL community guidance.
6 contact networks
The noun travels. The verb stays local.
Latin, Literary Chinese, Arabic, Persian and Sanskrit supply abstract nouns. Receiving languages combine them with local verbs such as give, put, turn or do.
- Origin
- Latin attendere/attentio
- Route
- Latin → Romance; learned English and other European loans
- Forms
- attention/atenție/atención/attenzione
- Operation
- Orientation/extension toward
- Historical connection
- The forms inherit or borrow the same Latin family.
Glottolog 5.3 genealogical universe
392 units remain dark.
The grid contains exactly 429 cells: 246 families and 183 isolates. Light traces the path from inventory to an in-depth lexical record.
Sources and reading
Every form leads back to a source.
Glottolog places languages in their genealogical universe. CLICS⁴ traces colexifications. Dictionaries, grammars, corpora and community resources support the individual records.
CLICS⁴
S053What it documents
Counts of colexification links among LISTEN, HEAR, OBEY, UNDERSTAND and LEARN.
Haspelmath 2010
S005What it documents
The separation of comparative concepts from language-specific descriptive categories.
ASL-LEX 2.0 and Signbank
S060What it documents
Lexical attestation and comparative infrastructure for ASL signs.