A language family is a group of languages A language is a system for encoding information. In its most common use, the term refers to so-called "natural languages" — the forms of communication considered peculiar to humankind. In linguistics the term is extended to refer to the human cognitive facility of creating and using language. Essential to both meanings is the related by descent Genetic, in linguistics, means due to descent from a common ancestor language, rather than borrowing at some time in the past between languages that were not necessarily descended from a common ancestor. Languages that possess genetic ties with one another belong to the same linguistic grouping, known as a language family. These ties are from a common ancestor, called the proto-language A proto-language is the common ancestor of the languages that form a language family. Occasionally, the German term Ursprache is used instead of that family.

As with biological families Alpha taxonomy is the science of finding, describing and categorising organisms, thus leading to the recognition of proposed taxonomic groups, or taxa (singular: taxon), which may then be named, the evidence of relationship is observable shared characteristics. An accurately identified family is a phylogenetic In biology, phylogenetics is the study of evolutionary relatedness among various groups of organisms , which is discovered through molecular sequencing data and morphological data matrices. The term phylogenetics is of Greek origin from the terms phyle/phylon (φυλή/φῦλον), meaning "tribe, race," and genetikos (γενετικός unit; that is, all its members derive from a common ancestor, and all attested descendants of that ancestor are included in the family. Most of the world's languages are known to belong to language families. Those that are not (or for which any family relationships are only tentatively proposed) are isolate languages.

The concept of language families is based on the assumption that over time languages gradually diverge into dialects The term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by scholars of language. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors, such as social class. A dialect that is and then into new languages. However, linguistic ancestry is less clear-cut than biological ancestry: whereas different plant and animal species don't interbreed unless very closely related, quite distantly related languages may affect each other through language contact Language contact occurs when two or more languages or varieties interact. The study of language contact is called contact linguistics, which in extreme cases may lead to creoles 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 more grammatical similarities with each other than with the languages they phylogenetically derive or mixed languages A mixed language is a language that arises through the fusion of two source languages, normally in situations of thorough bilingualism, so that it is not possible to classify the resulting language as belonging to either of the language families that were its source. Although the concept is frequently encountered in historical linguistics from the with no single ancestor. In addition, a number of sign languages A sign 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 hand shapes, orientation and movement of the hands, arms or body, and facial expressions to express fluidly a speaker's have developed in isolation and may have no relatives at all. However, these cases are relatively rare and most languages can be unambiguously classified.

Contents

Structure

Subdivision

Language families can be divided into smaller phylogenetic units, conventionally referred to as branches of the family because the history of a language family is often represented as a tree diagram A phylogenetic tree or evolutionary tree is a tree showing the evolutionary relationships among various biological species or other entities that are believed to have a common ancestor. In a phylogenetic tree, each node with descendants represents the most recent common ancestor of the descendants, and the edge lengths in some trees correspond to. However, the term family is not restricted to any one level of this "tree". The Germanic family The Germanic languages are a group of related languages that constitute a branch of the Indo-European language family. The common ancestor of all the languages in this branch is Proto-Germanic, spoken in approximately the mid-1st millennium BC in Iron Age northern Europe. Proto-Germanic, along with all of its descendants, is characterized by a, for example, is a branch of the Indo-European family The Indo-European languages are a family of several hundred related languages and dialects, including most major languages of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and the Indian subcontinent. "Indo" refers to the Indian subcontinent, since in the pre-colonial era the language group extended geographically from Europe in the west to India in the. Some taxonomists Taxonomy is the practice and science of classification. The word finds its roots in the Greek τάξις, taxis and νόμος, nomos ('law' or 'science'). Taxonomy uses taxonomic units, known as taxa (singular taxon) restrict the term family to a certain level, but there is little consensus in how to do so. Those who affix such labels also subdivide branches into groups, and groups into complexes. The terms superfamily, phylum,[citation needed] and stock are applied to proposed groupings of language families whose status as phylogenetic units is generally considered to be unsubstantiated by accepted historical linguistic methods.

Proto-languages

Main article: Proto-language A proto-language is the common ancestor of the languages that form a language family. Occasionally, the German term Ursprache is used instead

The common ancestor of a language family is seldom known directly, since most languages have a relatively short recorded history. However, it is possible to recover many features of a proto-language by applying the comparative method In linguistics, the comparative method is a technique for studying the development of languages. It requires the use of two or more languages. It is opposed to the method of internal reconstruction, which studies the internal development of a single language over time. Ordinarily both methods are used together. They constitute a powerful means to—a reconstructive procedure worked out by 19th century linguist August Schleicher August Schleicher was a German linguist. His great work was A Compendium of the Comparative Grammar of the Indo-European Languages, in which he attempted to reconstruct the Proto-Indo-European language. This can demonstrate the validity of many of the proposed families in the list of language families Phyla with historically wide geographical distributions but comparatively few contemporary speakers include Eskimo-Aleut, Na-Dené, Algic, Quechuan and Nilo-Saharan. For example, the reconstructible common ancestor of the Indo-European language family is called Proto-Indo-European The Proto-Indo-European language is the unattested, reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European languages, spoken by the Proto-Indo-Europeans. The existence of such a language has been accepted by linguists for over a century, and there have been many attempts at reconstruction. Nevertheless, many disagreements and uncertainties remain. Proto-Indo-European is not attested by written records, since it was spoken before the invention of writing.

Sometimes, though, a proto-language A proto-language is the common ancestor of the languages that form a language family. Occasionally, the German term Ursprache is used instead can be identified with a historically known language. For instance, dialects of Old Norse Old Norse is a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300 are the proto-language of Norwegian Norwegian is a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is an official language. Together with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional variants (see Danish language#Classification), Swedish Swedish ( svenska ) is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along the coast and on the Åland islands. It is to a considerable extent mutually intelligible with Norwegian and to a lesser extent with Danish (see especially "Classification"). Along, Danish Danish (dansk, pronounced [d̥ænsɡ̊]) is one of the North Germanic languages (also called Scandinavian languages), a sub-group of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages. It is spoken by around 6 million people, mainly in Denmark; the language is also used by the 50,000 Danes in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein in Germany, Faroese Faroese , often also spelled Faeroese (cf. Merriam-Webster, which prefers this spelling), is a West Nordic or West Scandinavian language spoken by 48,000 people in the Faroe Islands and about 12,000 Faroese in Denmark. It is one of three insular Scandinavian languages descended from the Old Norse language spoken in Scandinavia in the Viking Age, and Icelandic Icelandic ( íslenska ) is a North Germanic language, the language of Iceland. Its closest relatives are Faroese and certain Norwegian dialects such as Telemark dialect and Sognamål. Likewise, the Appendix Probi depicts Proto-Romance, a language almost unattested due to the prestige of Classical Latin Classical Latin is the form of the Latin language used by the ancient Romans in what is usually regarded as "classical" Latin literature. Its use spanned the Golden Age of Latin literature—broadly the 1st century BC and the early 1st century AD—possibly extending to the Silver Age—broadly the 1st and 2nd centuries, a highly stylised literary dialect not representative of the speech of ordinary people.

Isolates

Languages that cannot be reliably classified into any family are known as isolates A language isolate, in the absolute sense, is a natural language with no demonstrable genealogical relationship with other languages; that is, one that has not been demonstrated to descend from an ancestor common with any other language. They are in effect language families consisting of a single language. Commonly cited examples include Basque,. A language isolated in its own branch within a family, such as Greek Greek , an Indo-European language native to the southern Balkan peninsula, is the language of the Greeks. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European. It has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. In its ancient form, it is the language of classical Ancient Greek literature within Indo-European, is often also called an isolate; but the meaning of isolate in such cases is usually clarified. For instance, Greek might be referred to as an Indo-European isolate. The isolation of modern Greek, however, is not typical of its relationship to other languages at other times in its history. Several Greek dialects evolved out of the larger Indo-European language group; and later, Greek words influenced many other languages. By contrast, the Basque language Basque is the language spoken by the Basque people who inhabit the Basque Country, a region spanning an area in north-eastern Spain and south-western France is a living modern language and a near perfect isolate. The history of its lexical, phonetic, and syntactic structures is not known, and is not easily associated to other languages, though it has been influenced by Romance languages in the region, like Castilian Spanish Spanish , sometimes called Castilian (castellano), is a Romance language that originated in northern Spain, and gradually spread in the Kingdom of Castile and evolved into the principal language of government and trade. It was taken most notably to the Americas, and also to Africa and Asia Pacific with the expansion of the Spanish Empire between, Occitan Occitan , known also as Lenga d'òc or Langue d'oc (native name: occitan [utsiˈta], lenga d'òc [ˈleŋɡɔˈðɔ(k)]; native nickname: la lenga nòstra i.e. "our [own] language") is a Romance language spoken in Occitania, that is, Southern France, the Occitan Valleys of Italy, Monaco and in the Aran Valley of Spain. It is also spoken, French French is a Romance language spoken, around the world, by more than 100 million people as a first language (mother tongue), by 190 million as a second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired foreign language, with significant speakers in 54 countries. Most native speakers of the language live in France, where the language and Portuguese Portuguese ( português or língua portuguesa) is a Romance language that originated in what is now Galicia and northern Portugal. It is derived from the Latin spoken by the romanized Pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula (namely the Gallaeci, the Lusitanians, the Celtici and the Conii) around 2000 years ago. It spread worldwide in the 15th.

The Linguist List The LINGUIST List is a major online resource for the academic field of linguistics. It was founded by Anthony Aristar in early 1990 at the University of Western Australia. Its main and oldest feature is the premoderated electronic mailing list, now with thousands of subscribers all over the world, where queries and their summarized results, is now working on a National Science Foundation funded project entitled Multitree, to build a database of all hypothesized language relationships, with a full searchable bibliography for each.

Establishment

Membership of languages in the same language family is determined by a genetic Genetic, in linguistics, means due to descent from a common ancestor language, rather than borrowing at some time in the past between languages that were not necessarily descended from a common ancestor. Languages that possess genetic ties with one another belong to the same linguistic grouping, known as a language family. These ties are relationship. The languages involved present shared retentions, i.e., features of the proto-language (or reflexes of such features) that cannot be explained better by chance or borrowing By contrast, a calque or loan translation is a related concept, whereby it is the meaning or idiom that is borrowed rather than the lexical item itself (convergence Language convergence is a type of contact-induced change whereby languages with many bilingual speakers mutually borrow morphological and syntactic features, making their typology more similar). Membership in a branch/group/subgroup within a language family is determined by shared innovations which are presumed to have taken place in a common ancestor. For example, what makes Germanic languages "Germanic" is that large parts of the structures of all the languages so designated can be stated just once for all of them. In other words, they can be treated as an innovation that took place in Proto-Germanic, the source of all the Germanic languages.

Shared innovations acquired by borrowing or other means, are not considered genetic and have no bearing with the language family concept. It has been asserted, for example, that many of the more striking features shared by Italic languages (Latin, Oscan, Umbrian, etc.) might well be "areal features In linguistics, an areal feature is any typological feature shared by languages within the same geographical area". More certainly, very similar-looking alterations in the systems of long vowels in the West Germanic languages greatly postdate any possible notion of a proto-language innovation (and cannot readily be regarded as "areal", either, since English and continental West Germanic were not a linguistic area). In a similar vein, there are many similar unique innovations in Germanic and Baltic/Slavic that are far more likely to be areal features than traceable to a common proto-language. But legitimate uncertainty about whether shared innovations are areal features, coincidence, or inheritance from a common ancestor, leads to disagreement over the proper subdivisions of any large language family.

A sprachbund A Sprachbund , from the German word for “language union”, also known as a linguistic area, convergence area, diffusion area or language crossroads, is a group of languages that have become similar in some way because of geographical proximity and language contact. They may be genetically unrelated, or only distantly related. Where genetic is a geographic area having several languages that feature common linguistic structures. The similarities between those languages are caused by language contact Language contact occurs when two or more languages or varieties interact. The study of language contact is called contact linguistics, not by chance or common origin, and are not recognized as criteria that define a language family.

Genetic connections

Connections within and between language families are often used by geneticists A geneticist is a scientist who studies genetics, the science of heredity and variation of organisms. A geneticist can be employed as a researcher or lecturer. Some geneticists perform experiments and analyze data to interpret the inheritance of traits and archaeologists Archaeology, archeology, or archæology is the science that studies human cultures through the recovery, documentation, analysis, and interpretation of material remains and environmental data, including architecture, artifacts, features, biofacts, and landscapes. Because archaeology's aim is to understand humankind, it is a humanistic endeavor, in combination with DNA Deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms and some viruses. The main role of DNA molecules is the long-term storage of information. DNA is often compared to a set of blueprints or a recipe, or a code, since it contains the instructions needed evidence and archaeological Archaeology, archeology, or archæology is the science that studies human cultures through the recovery, documentation, analysis, and interpretation of material remains and environmental data, including architecture, artifacts, features, biofacts, and landscapes. Because archaeology's aim is to understand humankind, it is a humanistic endeavor evidence, to help reconstruct prehistoric migrations and other prehistoric developments, such as the spread of the Neolithic The Neolithic Age, Era, or Period, or New Stone Age, was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 BC in the Middle East that is traditionally considered the last part of the Stone Age. The Neolithic followed the terminal Holocene Epipalaeolithic periods, beginning with the rise of farming, which produced the " complex of farming, herding, pottery, and polished stone utensils. For the scientists concerned, this is treacherous but necessary ground: the linguistic evidence is often vital to resolving the problems concerned, but must be handled with caution, for two reasons: first, it is often a delicate matter to relate languages to archaeological cultures, on the one hand, and to genetic lineages, on the other; second, many proposed language relationships are controversial, which often requires non-linguists to take a stand on linguistic issues, a professionally uncomfortable but often inevitable situation.

See also

Bibliography

External links

Categories: Language families | Linguistics

 

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