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Language Family table
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Metaweb for the Language Commons
Human languages are grouped in families, which usually indicate close interrelation and/or descendence from a common ancestor. This type is...
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| x name | x image | x Also Typed With | x geographic distribution | x sub-families | x article |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| x Indo-European languages |
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Italic languages |
The Indo-European languages comprise a family of several hundred related languages and dialects, including most of the major languages of Europe, the Iranian plateau (Southwest Asia), much of Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent (South Asia)....
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| Indo-Iranian languages | |||||
| Celtic languages | |||||
| Germanic languages | |||||
| Balto-Slavic languages | |||||
| x Gallo-Italic languages |
Northern Italian (traditional name in Romance linguistics), Padanian (recent name) or Cisalpine (rare name) is a linguistic set with different definitions. Gallo-Italian is the name used by Ethnologue. It can be viewed:
Traditionally spoken in...
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| x Italic languages |
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Romance languages |
The Italic subfamily is a member of the Indo-European language family's Centum branch. It includes the Romance languages (Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, Romanian, etc.), and a number of extinct languages of the Italian Peninsula, including...
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| x Romance languages |
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The Romance languages (sometimes referred to as Romanic languages, or Neolatin languages) are a branch of the Indo-European language family comprising all the languages that descend from Latin, the language of ancient Rome. They have more than 700...
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| x Indo-Iranian languages |
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The Indo-Iranian language group constitutes the easternmost extant branch of the Indo-European family of languages. It consists of three language groups: the Indo-Aryan (including Dardic), Iranian and Nuristani. The term Aryan languages is...
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| x Celtic languages | Human Language |
The Celtic languages are descended from Proto-Celtic, or "Common Celtic", a branch of the greater Indo-European language family. The term "Celtic" was used to describe this language group by Edward Lhuyd in 1707, having much earlier been used by...
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| x Germanic languages |
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West Germanic languages |
The Germanic languages are a group of related languages that constitute a branch of the Indo-European (IE) language family. The common ancestor of all the languages in this branch is Proto-Germanic, spoken in approximately the mid-1st millennium BC...
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| East Germanic languages | |||||
| North Germanic languages | |||||
| x Baltic languages |
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The Baltic languages are a group of related languages belonging to the Indo-European language family and spoken mainly in areas extending east and southeast of the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. The language group is sometimes divided into two sub...
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| x Algonquian languages |
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Human Language |
The Algonquian (also Algonkian, and pronounced both [æl.ˈɡɑŋ.kwi.ən] and [æl.ˈɡɑŋ.ki.ən]) languages are a subfamily of Native American languages that includes most of the languages in the Algic language family (the two Algic languages that are not...
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| x Slavic languages |
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Eastern Europe | East Slavic languages |
The Slavic languages (also called Slavonic languages), a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup of Indo-European languages, have speakers in most of Eastern Europe, in much of the Balkans, in parts of Central Europe,...
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| West Slavic languages | |||||
| South Slavic languages | |||||
| x Austronesian languages |
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The Austronesian languages are a language family widely dispersed throughout the islands of Southeast Asia and the Pacific, with a few members spoken on continental Asia. It is on par with Indo-European, Afro-Asiatic and Uralic as one of the best...
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| x Niger-Congo languages |
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The Niger-Congo languages constitute one of the world's major language families, and Africa's largest in terms of geographical area, number of speakers, and number of distinct languages. They may constitute the world's largest language family in...
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| x Sino-Tibetan languages |
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The Sino-Tibetan languages form a language family composed of, at least, the Chinese and the Tibeto-Burman languages, including some 250 languages of East Asia. They are second only to the Indo-European languages in terms of their number of speakers...
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| x West Papuan languages |
The West Papuan languages are a hypothetical language family of about two dozen Papuan languages of the Bird's Head Peninsula (Vogelkop or Doberai Peninsula) of far western New Guinea and the island of Halmahera, spoken by about 220 000 people in...
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| x Trans-New Guinea languages |
Trans–New Guinea (TNG) is a hypothetical family of Papuan languages spoken in New Guinea and neighboring islands. There have been three main versions of the proposed family.
Although Papuan languages for the most part are poorly documented, several...
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| x Afro-Asiatic languages |
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Omotic languages |
The Afro-Asiatic languages constitute a language family with about 375 languages (SIL estimate) and more than 300 million speakers spread throughout North Africa, the Horn of Africa, northern West Africa, northern Central Africa, and Southwest Asia ...
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| Semitic languages | |||||
| North Omotic languages | |||||
| x Uto-Aztecan languages |
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Uto-Aztecan (also Uto-Aztekan) is a Native American language family. It is one of the largest (both in geographical extension and number of languages) and most well-established linguistic families of the Americas. Uto-Aztecan languages are found...
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| x Mixe-Zoque languages |
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The Mixe-Zoque languages constitute a language family whose living members are spoken in and around the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Mexico. The Mexican government recognizes three distinct Mixe-Zoquean languages as official: Mixe or ayook with 188,000...
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| x Austro-Asiatic languages |
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The Austro-Asiatic languages are a large language family of Southeast Asia, and also scattered throughout India and Bangladesh. The name comes from the Latin word for "south" and the Greek name of Asia, hence "South Asia." Among these languages,...
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| x Nilo-Saharan languages |
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The Nilo-Saharan languages are a hypothetical group of African languages spoken mainly in the upper parts of the Chari and Nile rivers (hence the term "Nilo-"), including historic Nubia, north of where the two tributaries of Nile meet. Its member...
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| x Sign language |
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Book Subject |
A sign language (also signed language) is a language which, instead of acoustically conveyed sound patterns, uses visually transmitted sign patterns (manual communication, body language and lip patterns) to convey meaning—simultaneously combining...
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| x Zaparoan languages |
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Zaparoan (also Sáparoan, Záparo, Zaparoano, Zaparoana) is an endangered language family of Peru and Ecuador with fewer than 700 speakers.
Zaparoan consists of 6 languages:
Andoa and Aushiri are extinct. All languages are severely endangered.
Payne ...
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| x Tai-Kadai languages |
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The Tai-Kadai languages, also known as Kadai, Kradai, or Kra-Dai languages, and in China as Zhuang-Dong languages, are a tonal language family found in southern China and Southeast Asia. The diversity of the Tai-Kadai languages in southeastern China...
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| x Oto-Manguean languages |
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Oto-Manguean languages (also Otomanguean) are a large family comprising several families of Native American languages. All of the Oto-manguean languages that are now spoken are indigenous to Mexico, but Oto-Manguean languages that are now extinct...
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| x East Papuan languages |
The term East Papuan languages refers to a defunct proposal for a family of Papuan languages spoken on the islands to the east of New Guinea, including New Britain, New Ireland, Bougainville, the Solomon Islands, and the Santa Cruz Islands. There is...
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| x Na-Dené languages |
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Na-Dene (also Nadene, Athabaskan-Eyak-Tlingit, English [nadɪ'ne] or [nadə'ne]) is a proposed Native American language family which includes the Athabaskan languages, Eyak, Tlingit, and possibly Haida. The connection of Haida to the other languages...
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| x Sepik-Ramu languages |
The Sepik-Ramu languages are a hypothetical language family linking the Sepik, Ramu, Nor-Pondo (Lower Sepik), Leonhard Schultze (Walio-Papi), and Yuat families, together with the Taiap language isolate, and proposed by Donald Laycock in 1973.
All...
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| x Tupian languages |
The Tupi or Tupian language family comprises some 70 languages spoken in South America, of which the best known are Tupi proper and Guarani.
When the Portuguese arrived in Brazil, they found that wherever they went along the vast coast of this newly...
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| x Dravidian languages |
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Indian subcontinent |
The Dravidian family of languages includes approximately 73 languages (including the four literary languages of Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu) and are mainly spoken in southern India and northeastern Sri Lanka, as well as certain areas in...
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| x Penutian languages |
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Penutian is a proposed grouping of language families that includes many Native American languages of western North America, predominantly spoken at one time in Washington, Oregon, and California. There is a number of varying opinions concerning its...
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| x Tucanoan languages |
Tucanoan (also Tukanoan, Tukánoan) is a language family of Colombia, Brazil, Ecuador, and Peru.
Tucanoan consists of 15 languages:
I. Western Tucanoan
II. Central Tucanoan
III. Eastern Tucanoan
Macaguaje, Yupuá-Durina, and Cueretú are now extinct....
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| x Creole language |
A creole language, or simply a creole, is a stable language that originates seemingly as a nativized pidgin. This understanding of creole genesis culminated in Hall's notion of the pidgin-creole life cycle. While it is arguable that creoles share...
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| x Quechuan languages |
The Quechuan languages are a family of related languages in South America. Though it is traditionally referred to as a single language many (if not most) linguists treat it as a family of languages.
There are approximately 46 Quechuan dialects,...
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| x Panoan languages |
Panoan (also Pánoan, Panoano, Panoana, Páno) is a family of languages spoken in Peru, western Brazil, and Bolivia. It is a sub-family of the larger Pano-Tacanan family.
Panoan consists of 27 languages:
Kulino, Nocamán, Pánobo, Huariapano, Remo,...
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| x Pidgin |
A pidgin is a simplified language that develops as a means of communication between two or more groups that do not have a language in common, in situations such as trade. Pidgins are not the native language of any speech community, but are instead...
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| x Arawakan languages |
The Arawakan languages (also Arahuacan, Arawakanas, Arahuacano, Maipurean, Maipuran, Maipureano, Maipúrean) are an indigenous language family of South America and the Caribbean.
Originally the name Arawak was used exclusively for a powerful tribe in...
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| x East Geelvink Bay languages |
The East Geelvink Bay or East Cenderawasih languages are a language family of a dozen Papuan languages along the eastern coast of Geelvink Bay in Indonesian Papua, which is also known as Sarera Bay or Cenderawasih.
The East Geelvink Bay languages...
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| x North Caucasian languages |
North Caucasian languages (sometimes called simply Caucasic as opposed to Kartvelian, and to avoid confusion with the concept of "Caucasian race") is a blanket term for two language phyla spoken chiefly in the north Caucasus and Turkey: the...
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| x Torricelli languages |
The Torricelli languages are a relatively young language family of about fifty languages of the northern Papua New Guinea coast, spoken by only about 80,000 people in all. The most populous and best known Torricelli languages are the Arapesh, with...
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| x Language isolate | |||||