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Language families and languages


 

Most languages are known to belong to language families ("families" hereforth). An accurately identified family is a phylogenetic unit, that is, all its members derive from a common ancestor. This ancestor is very seldom known to us directly, since most languages have a very short recorded history. However, it is possible to recover many of its features by applying the comparative method — a reconstructive procedure worked out by 19th-century linguist August Schleicher. This can demonstrate the validity of many of the proposed families listed below.

Language families (spoken)

In the following, each "bulleted" item is a known language family. The geographic headings over them are meant solely as a tool for grouping families into collections more comprehensible than an unstructured list of the dozen or two of independent families. Geographic relationship is convenient for that purpose, but these headings are not a suggestion of any "super-families" phylogenetically relating the families named.

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Africa and southwest Asia

:See main article, African languages

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Europe, and north, west, and south Asia

East and Southeast Asia and the Pacific

North America

: See main article, Native American languages

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Central America and South America

: See main article, Native American languages

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◄ Language families and languages: Largest families
Language families and languages: Language isolates (spoken) ►

~ Table of Content ~

►Introduction
►Largest families
►Language families (spoken)
►Language isolates (spoken)
►Sign languages
►Creole languages, pidgins, mixed languages, and trade languages
►Proposed language stocks
►Other natural languages of special interest
►External links
►Bibliography

 

 

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