Language Families

A language family is a collection of languages derived from a common ancestor. For example, English, Latin, and Ancient Greek are derived from the Indo-European family of languages. That is why they share many similarities with respect to words and grammar. Unclassified languages are generally known as linguistic isolates; or languages that have no known ancestor. Examples of linguistic isolates include the Sumerian language and the Basque language.

Proto-languages are languages that are not attested in the written record; however, scholars believe in their existence because of findings in the field of comparative linguistics. Examples of proto-languages include Proto-Indo-European and Proto-Afro-Asiatic.

List of languages: Family › A–Z

Language
Status
Entries
Afro-Asiatic (Family)
Ancient
3
Ancient
3
Ancient
5
Historic
1
Ancient
1
Indo-European (Family)
Historic
3
Living
7
Living
1
Living
1
Ancient
2
Living
1
Historic
2
Ancient
1
Living
1
Japonic (Family)
Living
1
Koreanic (Family)
Living
1
Sino-Tibetan (Family)
Living
1
Unclassified (Family)
Living
1
Ancient
3

Citation

MLA 8

PsychLing Contributors. "Language Families." PsychLing, OMNIKA Foundation, 30 Jul. 2023, psylng.org/mli/language-families. Accessed 20 Dec. 2024.

APA 6

PsychLing (2023, July 30). Language Families. Retrieved from https://psylng.org/mli/language-families

CMS 16

PsychLing Contributors. "Language Families." Las Vegas, NV: OMNIKA Foundation. Created July 30, 2023. Modified August 6, 2023. Accessed December 20, 2024. https://psylng.org/mli/language-families.

Bibliography

Ethnologue

Eberhard, David M., Gary F. Simons, and Charles D. Fennig, eds. "Ethnologue: Languages of the World. 25th ed." Dallas, TX: SIL International, 2022. Accessed August 20, 2023. https://www.ethnologue.com. [Visit]

Glottolog

Hammarström, Harald, Robert Forkel, Martin Haspelmath, and Sebastian Bank. "Glottolog: A Database of Languages." Leipzig, Germany: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. Created 2011. Accessed July 28, 2023. https://glottolog.org. [Visit]

Allo

OMNIKA Foundation Contributors. "Allo: A Modern Dictionary for Dead Ancient Languages." Las Vegas, NV: OMNIKA Foundation. Created March 15, 2019. Accessed July 28, 2023. https://ancientlanguages.org. [Visit]

OMNIKA

OMNIKA Foundation Contributors. "OMNIKA: Digital Mythology Library." Las Vegas, NV: OMNIKA Foundation. Created January 21, 2019. Accessed July 28, 2023. https://omnika.org. [Visit]

ISO 639-3

SIL International Contributors. "ISO 639-3 Registration Authority: International Standard for Language Codes." Dallas, TX: SIL International. Accessed July 28, 2023. https://iso639-3.sil.org. [Visit]

ScriptSource

SIL International Contributors. "ScriptSource: Index of Languages and Writing Systems." Dallas, TX: SIL International. Created June 11, 2011. Accessed July 28, 2023. https://scriptsource.org. [Visit]

PsychLing MLI

Ancient Greek is a language that belongs to the Indo-European language family.

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PsychLing MLI

Basque is a language that belongs to the Unclassified language family.

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PsychLing Glossary

Comparative Linguistics is a field of study that concerns the scientific study of comparing languages.

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PsychLing MLI

English is a language that belongs to the Indo-European language family.

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PsychLing MLI

Indo-European is a language family.

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PsychLing Glossary

Language is a term in Linguistics that means structured human communication like speech, writing, or gestures.

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PsychLing Glossary

Language Family is a term in Historical Linguistics that means a collection of languages derived from a common ancestor.

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PsychLing MLI

Latin is a language that belongs to the Indo-European language family.

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PsychLing MLI

Proto-Afro-Asiatic is a proto-language that belongs to the Afro-Asiatic language family.

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PsychLing MLI

Proto-Indo-European is a proto-language that belongs to the Indo-European language family.

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PsychLing Glossary

Proto-Language is a term in Historical Linguistics that means a hypothetical ancestor language of other languages.

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PsychLing MLI

Sumerian is a language that belongs to the Unclassified language family.

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Unclassified is a language family.

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