Language family

A language family is a group of languages relat ed t hrough descent from a common ancestral
language or parental language, called t he prot o-language of t hat family. The t erm "family"
reflect s t he t ree model of language originat ion in hist orical linguist ics, which makes use of a
met aphor comparing languages t o people in a biological family t ree, or in a subsequent
modificat ion, t o species in a phylogenet ic t ree of evolut ionary t axonomy. Linguist s t herefore
describe t he daughter languages wit hin a language family as being genetically related.[1]

Contemporary distribution (2005 map) of the world's major language families (in some cases geographic groups of
families). This map includes only primary families i.e. branches are excluded.

For greater detail, see Distribution of languages on Earth.

According t o Ethnologue t here are 7,151 living human languages dist ribut ed in 142 different
language families.[2][3] A living language is defined as one t hat is t he first language of at least one
person. The language families wit h t he most speakers are: t he Indo-European family, wit h many
widely spoken languages nat ive t o Europe (such as English and Spanish) and Sout h Asia (such as
Hindi and Bengali); and t he Sino-Tibet an family, mainly due t o t he many speakers of Mandarin
Chinese in China.

Lyle Campbell (2019) ident ifies a t ot al of 406 independent language families, including language
isolat es.[4]

There are also many dead languages which have no nat ive speakers living, and ext inct languages,
which have no nat ive speakers and no descendant languages. Finally, t here are some languages
t hat are insufficient ly st udied t o be classified, and probably some which are not even known t o
exist out side t heir respect ive speech communit ies.

Membership of languages in a language family is est ablished by research in comparat ive

linguist ics. Sist er languages are said t o descend "genet ically" from a common ancest or. Speakers
of a language family belong t o a common speech communit y. The divergence of a prot o-
language int o daught er languages t ypically occurs t hrough geographical separat ion, wit h t he
original speech communit y gradually evolving int o dist inct linguist ic unit s. Individuals belonging t o
ot her speech communit ies may also adopt languages from a different language family t hrough
t he language shift process.[5]

Genealogically relat ed languages present shared ret ent ions; t hat is, feat ures of t he prot o-
language (or reflexes of such feat ures) t hat cannot be explained by chance or borrowing
(convergence). Membership in a branch or group wit hin a language family is est ablished by shared
innovat ions; t hat is, common feat ures of t hose languages t hat are not found in t he common
ancest or of t he ent ire family. For example, Germanic languages are "Germanic" in t hat t hey share
vocabulary and grammat ical feat ures t hat are not believed t o have been present in t he Prot o-
Indo-European language. These feat ures are believed t o be innovat ions t hat t ook place in Prot o-
Germanic, a descendant of Prot o-Indo-European t hat was t he source of all Germanic languages.

Structure of a family

Language families can be divided int o smaller phylogenet ic unit s, convent ionally referred t o as
branches of t he family because t he hist ory of a language family is oft en represent ed as a t ree
diagram. A family is a monophylet ic unit ; all it s members derive from a common ancest or, and all
at t est ed descendant s of t hat ancest or are included in t he family. (Thus, t he t erm family is
analogous t o t he biological t erm clade.)

Some t axonomist s rest rict t he t erm family t o a cert ain level, but t here is lit t le consensus in how
t o do so. Those who affix such labels also subdivide branches int o groups, and groups int o
complexes. A t op-level (i.e., t he largest ) family is oft en called a phylum or stock. The closer t he
branches are t o each ot her, t he more closely t he languages will be relat ed. This means if a
branch of a prot o-language is four branches down and t here is also a sist er language t o t hat
fourt h branch, t hen t he t wo sist er languages are more closely relat ed t o each ot her t han t o t hat
common ancest ral prot o-language.

The t erm macrofamily or superfamily is somet imes applied t o proposed groupings of language
families whose st at us as phylogenet ic unit s is generally considered t o be unsubst ant iat ed by
accept ed hist orical linguist ic met hods.

There is a remarkably similar pat t ern shown by t he linguist ic t ree and t he genet ic t ree of human
ancest ry[6] t hat was verified st at ist ically.[7] Languages int erpret ed in t erms of t he put at ive
phylogenet ic t ree of human languages are t ransmit t ed t o a great ext ent vert ically (by ancest ry)
as opposed t o horizont ally (by spat ial diffusion).[8]

Dialect continua

Some close-knit language families, and many branches wit hin larger families, t ake t he form of
dialect cont inua in which t here are no clear-cut borders t hat make it possible t o unequivocally
ident ify, define, or count individual languages wit hin t he family. However, when t he differences
bet ween t he speech of different regions at t he ext remes of t he cont inuum are so great t hat
t here is no mut ual int elligibilit y bet ween t hem, as occurs in Arabic, t he cont inuum cannot
meaningfully be seen as a single language.

A speech variet y may also be considered eit her a language or a dialect depending on social or
polit ical considerat ions. Thus, different sources, especially over t ime, can give wildly different
numbers of languages wit hin a cert ain family. Classificat ions of t he Japonic family, for example,
range from one language (a language isolat e wit h dialect s) t o nearly t went y—unt il t he
classificat ion of Ryukyuan as separat e languages wit hin a Japonic language family rat her t han
dialect s of Japanese, t he Japanese language it self was considered a language isolat e and
t herefore t he only language in it s family.
Isolates

Most of t he world's languages are known t o be relat ed t o ot hers. Those t hat have no known
relat ives (or for which family relat ionships are only t ent at ively proposed) are called language
isolat es, essent ially language families consist ing of a single language. There are an est imat ed
129 language isolat es known t oday.[9] An example is Basque. In general, it is assumed t hat
language isolat es have relat ives or had relat ives at some point in t heir hist ory but at a t ime dept h
t oo great for linguist ic comparison t o recover t hem.

It is commonly misunderst ood t hat language isolat es are classified as such because t here is not
sufficient dat a on or document at ion of t he language. This is false because a language isolat e is
classified based on t he fact t hat enough is known about t he isolat e t o compare it genet ically t o
ot her languages but no common ancest ry or relat ionship is found wit h any ot her known
language.[9]

A language isolat ed in it s own branch wit hin a family, such as Albanian and Armenian wit hin Indo-
European, is oft en also called an isolat e, but t he meaning of t he word "isolat e" in such cases is
usually clarified wit h a modifier. For inst ance, Albanian and Armenian may be referred t o as an
"Indo-European isolat e". By cont rast , so far as is known, t he Basque language is an absolut e
isolat e: it has not been shown t o be relat ed t o any ot her modern language despit e numerous
at t empt s. Anot her well-known isolat e is Mapudungun, t he Mapuche language from t he
Araucanían language family in Chile. A language may be said t o be an isolat e current ly but not
hist orically if relat ed but now ext inct relat ives are at t est ed. The Aquit anian language, spoken in
Roman t imes, may have been an ancest or of Basque, but it could also have been a sist er
language t o t he ancest or of Basque. In t he lat t er case, Basque and Aquit anian would form a
small family t oget her. (Ancest ors are not considered t o be dist inct members of a family.)

Proto-languages

A prot o-language can be t hought of as a mot her language (not t o be confused wit h a mot her
t ongue, which is one t hat a specific person has been exposed t o from birt h[10]), being t he root
which all languages in t he family st em from. The common ancest or of a language family is
seldom known direct ly since most languages have a relat ively short recorded hist ory. However, it
is possible t o recover many feat ures of a prot o-language by applying t he comparat ive met hod, a
reconst ruct ive procedure worked out by 19t h cent ury linguist August Schleicher. This can
demonst rat e t he validit y of many of t he proposed families in t he list of language families. For
example, t he reconst ruct ible common ancest or of t he Indo-European language family is called
Proto-Indo-European. Prot o-Indo-European is not at t est ed by writ t en records and so is
conject ured t o have been spoken before t he invent ion of writ ing.

Other classifications of languages

Sprachbund

A sprachbund is a geographic area having several languages t hat feat ure common linguist ic
st ruct ures. The similarit ies bet ween t hose languages are caused by language cont act , not by
chance or common origin, and are not recognized as crit eria t hat define a language family. An
example of a sprachbund would be t he Indian subcont inent .[11]

Shared innovat ions, acquired by borrowing or ot her means, are not considered genet ic and have
no bearing wit h t he language family concept . It has been assert ed, for example, t hat many of t he
more st riking feat ures shared by It alic languages (Lat in, Oscan, Umbrian, et c.) might well be "areal
feat ures". However, very similar-looking alt erat ions in t he syst ems of long vowels in t he West
Germanic languages great ly post dat e any possible not ion of a prot o-language innovat ion (and
cannot readily be regarded as "areal", eit her, since English and cont inent al West Germanic were
not a linguist ic area). In a similar vein, t here are many similar unique innovat ions in Germanic, Balt ic
and Slavic t hat are far more likely t o be areal feat ures t han t raceable t o a common prot o-
language. But legit imat e uncert aint y about whet her shared innovat ions are areal feat ures,
coincidence, or inherit ance from a common ancest or, leads t o disagreement over t he proper
subdivisions of any large language family.

Contact languages

The concept of language families is based on t he hist orical observat ion t hat languages develop
dialect s, which over t ime may diverge int o dist inct languages. However, linguist ic ancest ry is less
clear-cut t han familiar biological ancest ry, in which species do not crossbreed.[12] It is more like
t he evolut ion of microbes, wit h ext ensive lat eral gene t ransfer. Quit e dist ant ly relat ed languages
may affect each ot her t hrough language cont act , which in ext reme cases may lead t o languages
wit h no single ancest or, whet her t hey be creoles or mixed languages. In addit ion, a number of sign
languages have developed in isolat ion and appear t o have no relat ives at all. Nonet heless, such
cases are relat ively rare and most well-at t est ed languages can be unambiguously classified as
belonging t o one language family or anot her, even if t his family's relat ion t o ot her families is not
known.
Language cont act can lead t o t he development of new languages from t he mixt ure of t wo or
more languages for t he purposes of int eract ions bet ween t wo groups who speak different
languages. Languages t hat arise in order for t wo groups t o communicat e wit h each ot her t o
engage in commercial t rade or t hat appeared as a result of colonialism are called pidgin. Pidgins
are an example of linguist ic and cult ural expansion caused by language cont act . However,
language cont act can also lead t o cult ural divisions. In some cases, t wo different language
speaking groups can feel t errit orial t owards t heir language and do not want any changes t o be
made t o it . This causes language boundaries and groups in cont act are not willing t o make any
compromises t o accommodat e t he ot her language.[13]

See also

Background colors used on Wikipedia for various language families and groups

Afro- Nilo-Saharan? Niger– Khoisan (areal)

Asiatic Congo?

Indo- Caucasian Uralic Dravidian Altaic (areal) Paleosiberian

European (areal) (areal)

Sino-Tibetan Hmong– Kra–Dai Austroasiatic

Mien

Austronesian Papuan Australian (areal) Andamanese

(areal) (areal)

Eskimo– Algic Uto-Aztecan Na-Dené (and Dené– American

Aleut Yeniseian?) (areal)

Creole/Pidgin/Mixed Language Sign Constructed Unclassified

isolate language language

Const ruct ed language

Endangered language

Ext inct language

Language deat h

List of revived languages

 Global language syst em

ISO 639-5

Linguist List

List of language families

List of languages by number of nat ive speakers

Origin of language

Prot o-language

Prot o-Human language

Tree model

Unclassified language

Fat her Tongue hypot hesis

Farming/language dispersal hypot hesis

References

1. Rowe, Bruce M.; Levine, Diane P. (2015). A Concise Introduction to Linguistics (https://books.google.co
m/books?id=ePQ5CgAAQBAJ&pg=PA340) . Routledge. pp. 340–341. ISBN 978-1317349280.
Retrieved 26 January 2017.

2. "How many languages are there in the world?" (https://www.ethnologue.com/guides/how-many-langu

ages) . Ethnologue. 3 May 2016. Retrieved 26 March 2021.

3. "What are the largest language families?" (https://www.ethnologue.com/guides/largest-families) .

Ethnologue. 25 May 2019. Retrieved 3 March 2020.

4. Campbell, Lyle (8 January 2019). "How Many Language Families are there in the World?". Anuario del
Seminario de Filología Vasca "Julio de Urquijo". UPV/EHU Press. 52 (1/2): 133. doi:10.1387/asju.20195
(https://doi.org/10.1387%2Fasju.20195) . ISSN 2444-2992 (https://www.worldcat.org/issn/2444-29
92) . S2CID 166394477 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:166394477) .

5. Dimmendaal, Gerrit J. (2011). Historical Linguistics and the Comparative Study of African Languages
(https://books.google.com/books?id=e-PxyCpnnzEC&pg=PA336) . John Benjamins Publishing. p. 336.
ISBN 978-9027287229. Retrieved 26 January 2017.
 6. Henn, B. M.; Cavalli-Sforza, L. L.; Feldman, M. W. (17 October 2012). "The great human expansion" (http
s://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3497766) . Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences. 109 (44): 17758–17764. Bibcode:2012PNAS..10917758H (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/ab
s/2012PNAS..10917758H) . doi:10.1073/pnas.1212380109 (https://doi.org/10.1073%2Fpnas.121238
0109) . JSTOR 41829755 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/41829755) . PMC 3497766 (https://www.ncb
i.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3497766) . PMID 23077256 (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2307
7256) .

7. Cavalli-Sforza, L. L.; Minch, E.; Mountain, J. L. (15 June 1992). "Coevolution of genes and languages
revisited" (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC49344) . Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 89 (12): 5620–5624.
Bibcode:1992PNAS...89.5620C (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1992PNAS...89.5620C) .
doi:10.1073/pnas.89.12.5620 (https://doi.org/10.1073%2Fpnas.89.12.5620) . JSTOR 2359705 (http
s://www.jstor.org/stable/2359705) . PMC 49344 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4
9344) . PMID 1608971 (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1608971) .

8. Gell-Mann, M.; Ruhlen, M. (10 October 2011). "The origin and evolution of word order" (http://authors.lib
rary.caltech.edu/59840/1/17290.full.pdf) (PDF). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
108 (42): 17290–17295. Bibcode:2011PNAS..10817290G (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2011PN
AS..10817290G) . doi:10.1073/pnas.1113716108 (https://doi.org/10.1073%2Fpnas.1113716108) .
JSTOR 41352497 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/41352497) . PMC 3198322 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.
gov/pmc/articles/PMC3198322) . PMID 21987807 (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21987807) .

9. Campbell, Lyle (24 August 2010). "Language Isolates and Their History, or, What's Weird, Anyway?" (htt
p://journals.linguisticsociety.org/proceedings/index.php/BLS/article/view/3900) . Annual Meeting of
the Berkeley Linguistics Society. 36 (1): 16–31. doi:10.3765/bls.v36i1.3900 (https://doi.org/10.3765%2
Fbls.v36i1.3900) . ISSN 2377-1666 (https://www.worldcat.org/issn/2377-1666) .

10. Bloomfield, Leonard (1994). Language (https://books.google.com/books?id=Gfrd-On5iFwC) . ISBN 81-

208-1196-8.

11. Joseph, Brian (2017). "The Balkan Sprachbund" (https://www.linguisticsociety.org/sites/default/files/e-l

earning/LSAInstitute--BalkanSprachbundSlides.pdf) (PDF). linguisticsociety.org. Retrieved 2 October
2020.

12. List, Johann-Mattis; Nelson-Sathi, Shijulal; Geisler, Hans; Martin, William (2014). "Networks of lexical
borrowing and lateral gene transfer in language and genome evolution" (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/p
mc/articles/PMC3910147) . BioEssays. 36 (2): 141–150. doi:10.1002/bies.201300096 (https://doi.or
g/10.1002%2Fbies.201300096) . ISSN 0265-9247 (https://www.worldcat.org/issn/0265-9247) .
PMC 3910147 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3910147) . PMID 24375688 (https://p
ubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24375688) .

13. "Languages in Contact | Linguistic Society of America" (https://www.linguisticsociety.org/resource/langu

ages-contact) . www.linguisticsociety.org. Retrieved 2 October 2020.
Further reading

Boas, Franz (1911). Handbook of American Indian languages. Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin
40. Vol. 1. Washington: Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology. ISBN 0-8032-5017-7.

Boas, Franz. (1922). Handbook of American Indian languages (Vol. 2). Bureau of American Ethnology,
Bulletin 40. Washington, D.C.: Government Print Office (Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American
Ethnology).

Boas, Franz. (1933). Handbook of American Indian languages (Vol. 3). Native American legal materials
collection, title 1227. Glückstadt: J.J. Augustin.

Campbell, Lyle. (1997). American Indian languages: The historical linguistics of Native America. New York:
Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-509427-1.

Campbell, Lyle; & Mithun, Marianne (Eds.). (1979). The languages of native America: Historical and
comparative assessment. Austin: University of Texas Press.

Goddard, Ives (Ed.). (1996). Languages. Handbook of North American Indians (W. C. Sturtevant,
General Ed.) (Vol. 17). Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution. ISBN 0-16-048774-9.

Goddard, Ives. (1999). Native languages and language families of North America (rev. and enlarged ed.
with additions and corrections). [Map]. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press (Smithsonian
Institution). (Updated version of the map in Goddard 1996). ISBN 0-8032-9271-6.

Gordon, Raymond G., Jr. (Ed.). (2005). Ethnologue: Languages of the world (15th ed.). Dallas, TX: SIL
International. ISBN 1-55671-159-X. (Online version: Ethnologue: Languages of the World (http://www.e
thnologue.com) ).

Greenberg, Joseph H. (1966). The Languages of Africa (2nd ed.). Bloomington: Indiana University.

Harrison, K. David. (2007) When Languages Die: The Extinction of the World's Languages and the Erosion
of Human Knowledge. New York and London: Oxford University Press.

Mithun, Marianne. (1999). The languages of Native North America. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press. ISBN 0-521-23228-7 (hbk); ISBN 0-521-29875-X.

Ross, Malcolm. (2005). "Pronouns as a preliminary diagnostic for grouping Papuan languages (http://r
spas.anu.edu.au/linguistics/mdr/Papuan%20Pasts%20paper.pdf) ". In: Andrew Pawley, Robert
Attenborough, Robin Hide and Jack Golson, eds, Papuan pasts: cultural, linguistic and biological
histories of Papuan-speaking peoples (PDF)

Ruhlen, Merritt. (1987). A guide to the world's languages. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

Sturtevant, William C. (Ed.). (1978–present). Handbook of North American Indians (Vol. 1–20).
Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution. (Vols. 1–3, 16, 18–20 not yet published).

Voegelin, C. F. & Voegelin, F. M. (1977). Classification and index of the world's languages. New York:
Elsevier.
External links

Linguist ic maps (ht t p://www.mut urzikin.com/count ries.ht m) (from Mut urzikin)

Et hnologue (ht t ps://www.et hnologue.com/web.asp)

The Mult it ree Project (ht t p://mult it ree.org/)

Lenguas del mundo (ht t p://www.proel.org/index.php?pagina=mundo) (World Languages)

Comparat ive Swadesh list t ables of various language families (ht t ps://en.wikt ionary.org/wiki/A
ppendix:Swadesh_ list s) (from Wikt ionary)

Most similar languages (ht t p://www.ezglot .com/most -similar-languages.php)

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