How many different varieties of 'pancake' are there?

I'm not going to accept this as an answer, but as Community has decided to give it a nudge.

I wrote up my little 'experiment' after I did it.

Although culinarily, a pancake would be something from a batter that is self-leveling, there seem to be a few other categories that many people may not consider 'pancakes' based on their upbringing :

1. Items made from shredded vegetables, with starch or an egg as a binder : latkes (Jewish; aka 'potato pancakes'), okonomiyaki (Japan), jeon (Korea), kartoffelpuffer (Germany)

2. Dough that is rolled out very thin and then cooked on a griddle or in a pan: roti (India), some varieties of bing (China, eg. 'scallion pancakes' (cong you bing) and 'mandarin pancakes' (bao bing)). Note that this would also include South American tortillas and many flatbreads. (although not classic preparations of naan (India) which is made in a tandoor)

3. Batter or gruel that is spread out, rather than self-leveling: crêpes (France), dosa (India), matafan (France), some styles of jonnycakes (USA), some styles of hoecakes (USA)

For the self-leveling batter-based pancakes, we can still divide them up into a few categories, as not everyone considered all of them pancakes:

1. large, thin, and unleavened: pancakes (England), pannekoeken (Netherlands), pannkakor (Sweden), pannekaken (Norway), pfannkuchen (Germany)

2. Leavened, cooked in a depression (not a flat griddle or pan), may be rotated during cooking: poffertjes (Netherlands), æbleskiver (Denmark), takoyaki (Japan)

3. Unleavened (other than whipped air & steam) cooked in a vessel in the oven: Dutch babies (USA), pannukakku (Finland), Yorkshire pudding (England). May include other popovers.

4. Leavened, cooked on a pan or griddle: drop scone (UK), pancakes (USA; aka flapjacks, griddlecakes), pancakes (Scotland; aka 'Scotch pancake'), pikelet (Australia), some styles of jonnycakes (USA), some styles of hoecakes (USA)

I'm not sure how to classify the following:

• injera (Ethiopia); might be self-leveling, but is poured in a spiral (so either pancake variety 4 or non-pancake variety 3). Also not flipped, which is abnormal for griddle-cooked pancakes.
• kanom krok (Thailand); cooked in a depression like pancake variety 3, but assembled like a sandwich rather than being individually flipped.
• kaiserschmarrn (Austria); either mixed during cooking or cut up after making a pancake of variety 4.

I can think of several "bread"-like dishes that are made in a pan. Since they're all from cultures where I don't speak the language, I can't say for the translation of the name.

• Ethiopian Injera - This is a bread made from wheat flour and teff flour with water, left out for three days to rise (think sourdough without a starter) and then cooked in a pan. It's quite sour, but has exactly the consistency of a fluffy pancake. This is the main staple of Ethiopian diet, served with a number of different "sauces".
• Druze Pitta - This is a little different from a regular Pitta, as it doesn't have a pocket, and isn't baked so much as done on the top of a convex pan. The idea is similar to a flour tortilla, but the flavour is different.
• Yemeni / Israeli Malawach - This is a pastry similar to filo or puff pastry, but with more margarine. It is then fried in a pan and served hot with crushed tomatoes and a hard-boiled egg on the side.
• French Toast (pain perdu) - I'm not sure if this qualifies, but it is a slice of bread (already baked) drenched in egg and then fried in a pan.

I can't think of anything else right now, but I'm sure there are plenty more.

there's

• Ployes (French-Canadian buckwheat pancakes)

and two not-so-sweet pancakes but oh so good:

• Scallion pancakes (??? Chinese/Korean)
• Latkes (potato pancakes)

It might take a linguist to really have a good answer there! I don't really have any good answers but I see where you're going... the term 'pancake' is so vague it could quite easily apply to many things that have not much in common.

I haven't looked through this but it might be worth a look: Pancakes (Wikipedia).

Assuming they'll mostly be the type of pancake you're not after, but there might be some interesting exceptions.

A German oddity in language:
In the city of Berlin, "Berliner" are called "Pfannkuchen".
In the rest of Germany, a "Pfannkuchen" is actually a pancake.

So, in a way, the German "Berliner" may be quiet far from a Pancake while still being called one. The Berliner itself is closer to a doughnut, really: Berliner

There is a pancake which seems to be missing here still: the Breton galette, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galette. It differs from other buckweat pancakes by being cooked on much higher temperature - I was taught that if the dough doesn't throw bubbles before congealing, the pan is not hot enough.

There is of course also Afrikaaner pannekoek. It is a very thin pancake, usually served with cinnamon sugar. It along with kerrie en reis is the traditional food eaten at kerkbasaar. The once-a-year church bazaar held to raise funds for various Afrikaans churches. I'm not entirely certain if this pancake is the same as the Dutch pannekoeken. Any Dutch person can find a link to a pannekoek recipe here. I would be interested to know how strong a resemblance the Afrikaans version has to the Dutch version.