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{{short description|Group of languages related through a common ancestor}}
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{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2017}}
[[File:Primary Human Languages Improved Version.png|upright=1.8|thumb|2005 map of the contemporary distribution of the world's primary language families]]
A '''language family''' is a group of [[language]]s related through descent from a common ancestor, called the [[proto-language]] of that family. The term ''family'' is a metaphor borrowed from biology, with the [[tree model]] used in [[historical linguistics]] analogous to a [[family tree]], or to [[phylogenetic tree]]s of taxa used in evolutionary [[taxonomy (biology)|taxonomy]]. Linguists thus describe the ''daughter languages'' within a language family as being ''genetically related''.<ref>{{cite book|first1=Bruce M. |last1=Rowe |first2=Diane P. |last2=Levine |title=A Concise Introduction to Linguistics |year=2015 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-34928-0 |pages=340–341 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ePQ5CgAAQBAJ&pg=PA340 |access-date=26 January 2017}}</ref> The divergence of a proto-language into daughter languages typically occurs through geographical separation, with different [[regional dialect]]s of the proto-language undergoing different [[language change]]s and thus becoming distinct languages over time.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Dimmendaal |first1=Gerrit J. |title=Historical Linguistics and the Comparative Study of African Languages |year=2011 |publisher=John Benjamins |isbn=978-9-027-28722-9 |page=336 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e-PxyCpnnzEC&pg=PA336 |access-date=26 January 2017}}</ref>
One well-known example of a language family is the [[Romance languages]], including [[Spanish language|Spanish]], [[French language|French]], [[Italian language|Italian]], [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]], [[Romanian language|Romanian]], [[Catalan language|Catalan]], [[Romansh language|Romansh]], and many others, all of which are descended from [[Vulgar Latin]].{{refn|group=note|[[Vernacular]] [[Latin]], as opposed to the [[Classical Latin]] used as a literary language.}}<ref name="ethnologue">Lewis, M. Paul, Gary F. Simons, and Charles D. Fennig (eds.). [http://www.ethnologue.com ''Ethnologue: Languages of the World''], Seventeenth edition. Dallas, Texas: SIL International, 2013.</ref> The Romance family itself is part of the larger [[Indo-European]] family, which includes many other languages native to [[Europe]] and [[South Asia]], all believed to have descended from a common ancestor known as [[Proto-Indo-European]].
A language family is usually said to contain at least two languages, although [[language isolate]]s — languages that are not related to any other language — are occasionally referred to as families that contain one language. Conversely, there is no upper bound to the number of languages a family can contain. Some families, such as the [[Austronesian languages]], contain over 1000.<ref>{{cite web |title=Family: Austronesian|url=https://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/aust1307 |website=Glottolog 5.0 |access-date=3 August 2024}}</ref>
Language families can be identified from characteristics shared amongst their languages. [[Sound change]]s are one of the strongest pieces of evidence that can be used to identify a genetic relationship because of their predictable and consistent nature, and through the [[comparative method]] can be used to reconstruct proto-languages. However, languages can also change through [[language contact]], which can falsely suggest genetic relationships. For example, the [[Mongolic languages|Mongolic]], [[Tungusic languages|Tungusic]], and [[Turkic languages]] share many similarities that have led several scholars to believe [[Altaic languages|they were related]]. These supposed relationships were later discovered (in the view of most scholars) to be derived through language contact and thus they are not related through shared ancestry.<ref>{{cite journal |last=De la Fuente |first=José Andrés Alonso |year=2016 |title=Review of Robbeets, Martine (2015): Diachrony of verb morphology. Japanese and the Transeurasian languages |url=https://www.academia.edu/30240029 |journal=Diachronica |volume=33 |issue=4 |pages=530–537 |doi=10.1075/dia.33.4.04alo}}</ref> Eventually though, intense language contact with other language families, and inconsistent changes within the original language family, will obscure inherited characteristics and make it virtually impossible to deduce earlier relationships; even the oldest demonstrable language family, [[Afroasiatic languages|Afroasiatic]], is far younger than language itself.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Boë |first1=Louis-Jean |display-authors=etal |title=Which way to the dawn of speech?: Reanalyzing half a century of debates and data in light of speech science |journal=Science |date=11 December 2019 |volume=5 |issue=12 |doi=10.1126/sciadv.aaw3916 |pmc=7000245 }}</ref>
==Major language families==
{{Main|List of language families}}
Estimates of the number of language families in the world may vary widely. According to ''[[Ethnologue]]'' there are 7,151 [[living language|living human language]]s across 142 different language families.<ref>{{cite web|title=How many languages are there in the world?|url=https://www.ethnologue.com/guides/how-many-languages |date=3 May 2016 |website=[[Ethnologue]] |language=en |access-date=26 March 2021}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{cite web|title=What are the largest language families? |url=https://www.ethnologue.com/guides/largest-families |date=25 May 2019 |website=[[Ethnologue]] |language=en |access-date=3 March 2020}}</ref> [[Lyle Campbell]] (2019) identifies a total of 406 independent language families, including isolates.<ref name="Campbell 2019">{{cite journal |last=Campbell |first=Lyle |title=How many language families are there in the world? |journal=Anuario del Seminario de Filología Vasca "Julio de Urquijo" |publisher=UPV/EHU Press |volume=52 |issue=1/2 |date=2019-01-08 |issn=2444-2992 |doi=10.1387/asju.20195 |page=133|s2cid=166394477 |doi-access=free |hdl=10810/49565 |hdl-access=free }}</ref>
''[[Ethnologue]]'' 27 (2024) lists the following families that contain at least 1% of the 7,164 known languages in the world;<ref name="families24">{{Cite web |date=2024-04-13 |title=Welcome to the 24th edition |url=https://www.ethnologue.com/browse/families/ |website=Ethnologue |language=en}}</ref> while ''[[Glottolog]]'' 5.0 (2024) lists the following as the largest families, of 7,788 languages (other than [[Sign language|sign languages]], [[Pidgin|pidgins]], and [[Unclassified language|unclassifiable languages]]):<ref>{{Cite web |title=Glottolog 5.0 - |url=https://glottolog.org/glottolog/family |access-date=2023-06-25 |website=glottolog.org}}</ref>
{{table alignment}}
{|
|valign=top|
{|class="wikitable col2right"
|+Ethnologue 27
|-
|[[Niger-Congo languages|Niger–Congo]] ||1,552
|-
|[[Austronesian languages|Austronesian]]|| 1,256
|-
|-
|-
|[[Indo-European languages|Indo-European]]|| 454
|-
|[[Australian Aboriginal languages|Australian]]|| 384
|-
|[[Afroasiatic languages|Afroasiatic]]||382
|-
|[[Nilo-Saharan languages|Nilo-Saharan]]|| 210
|-
|[[Oto-Manguean languages|Otomanguean]]|| 179
|-
|[[Austroasiatic languages|Austroasiatic]]|| 167
|-
|[[Kra-Dai languages|Kra-Dai]]|| 91
|-
|[[Dravidian languages|Dravidian]] ||85
|}
|width=20|
|valign=top|
{|class="wikitable col2right"
|+Glottolog 5.0
!Family!!No. of<br>languages
|-
| [[Atlantic–Congo languages|Atlantic–Congo]]|| 1,410
|-
| [[Austronesian languages|Austronesian]]|| 1,274
|-
| [[Indo-European languages|Indo-European]]|| 586
|-
| [[Sino-Tibetan languages|Sino-Tibetan]]|| 514
|-
| [[Afro-Asiatic languages|Afroasiatic]] ||381
|-
| [[Trans–New Guinea languages|Trans–New Guinea]] ||316
|-
| [[Pama-Nyungan languages|Pama–Nyungan]] ||250
|-
| [[Oto-Manguean languages|Otomanguean]]|| 181
|-
| [[Austroasiatic languages|Austroasiatic]]|| 158
|-
| [[Tai-Kadai languages|Tai–Kadai]]|| 95
|-
| [[Dravidian languages|Dravidian]]|| 85
|-
| [[Arawakan languages|Arawakan]] ||77
|}
|}
Language counts can vary significantly depending on what is considered merely a dialect; for example [[Lyle Campbell]] counts only 27 Otomanguean languages, although he, ''Ethnologue'' and ''Glottolog'' also disagree as to which languages belong in the family.
Neither Ethnologue<ref>{{Cite web |title=Sign Language |url=https://www.ethnologue.com/subgroup/2/ |access-date=2025-03-15 |website=ethnologue.com}}</ref> nor Glottolog<ref>{{Cite web |title=Pseudo Family: Sign Language |url=https://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/sign1238 |access-date=2025-03-15 |website=glottolog.org}}</ref> list the language families of [[sign language]]s. Of sign language families, the [[Francosign languages|Francosign family]], hosting around 70 languages, is by far the largest and most widespread.
The largest five language families in terms of number of speakers (Indo-European, Sino-Tibetan, Afro-Asiatic, Niger-Congo and Austronesian) make up five-sixths (almost 83.3%) of the world’s population.<ref name=":1" />
== Genetic relationship ==
Two languages have a ''genetic relationship'', and belong to the same language family, if both are descended from a common ancestor through the process of [[language change]], or one is descended from the other.
The term and the process of language evolution are independent of, and not reliant on, the terminology, understanding, and theories related to [[genetics]] in the biological sense, so, to avoid confusion, some linguists prefer the term ''genealogical relationship''.<ref>{{Cite journal| volume=28| issue=1| pages=209–223| last=Haspelmath| first=Martin |author-link=Martin Haspelmath| title=How hopeless is genealogical linguistics, and how advanced is areal linguistics? — Review of Aikhenvald & Dixon (2001): Areal diffusion and genetic inheritance| journal=Studies in Language| date=2004-05-05| doi=10.1075/sl.28.1.10has| url=https://zenodo.org/record/580172}} p. 222.</ref><ref name="francois" />{{rp|184}}
There is a remarkably similar pattern shown by the linguistic tree and the genetic tree of human ancestry<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Henn |first1=B. M. |last2=Cavalli-Sforza |first2=L. L. |author-link2=Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza |last3=Feldman |first3=M. W. |author-link3=Marcus Feldman |title=The great human expansion |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |date=17 October 2012 |volume=109 |issue=44 |pages=17758–17764 |doi=10.1073/pnas.1212380109 |pmc=3497766 |bibcode=2012PNAS..10917758H |pmid=23077256 |jstor=41829755 |doi-access=free}}</ref>
that was verified statistically.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Cavalli-Sforza |first1=L. L. |author-link=Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza |last2=Minch |first2=E. |last3=Mountain |first3=J. L. |title=Coevolution of genes and languages revisited |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America |date=15 June 1992 |volume=89 |issue=12 |pages=5620–5624 |pmid=1608971 |pmc=49344 |bibcode=1992PNAS...89.5620C |doi=10.1073/pnas.89.12.5620 |jstor=2359705 |doi-access=free}}</ref> Languages interpreted in terms of the putative phylogenetic tree of human languages are transmitted to a great extent vertically (by ancestry) as opposed to horizontally (by spatial diffusion).<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Gell-Mann |first1=M. |author-link=Murray Gell-Mann |last2=Ruhlen |first2=M. |author-link2=Merritt Ruhlen |title=The origin and evolution of word order |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |date=10 October 2011 |volume=108 |issue=42 |pages=17290–17295 |doi=10.1073/pnas.1113716108 |bibcode=2011PNAS..10817290G |jstor=41352497 |url=http://authors.library.caltech.edu/59840/1/17290.full.pdf |pmid=21987807 |pmc=3198322 |doi-access=free}}</ref>
===Establishment===
{{main|Comparative method}}
In some cases, the shared derivation of a group of related languages from a common ancestor is directly [[attested language|attested]] in the historical record. For example, this is the case for the [[Romance languages|Romance language family]], wherein [[Spanish language|Spanish]], [[Italian language|Italian]], [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]], [[Romanian language|Romanian]], and [[French language|French]] are all descended from Latin, as well as for the [[North Germanic languages|North Germanic]] language family, including [[Danish language|Danish]], [[Swedish language|Swedish]], [[Norwegian language|Norwegian]] and [[Icelandic language|Icelandic]], which have shared descent from [[Proto-Norse language|Ancient Norse]]. Latin and ancient Norse are both attested in written records, as are many intermediate stages between those ancestral languages and their modern descendants.
In other cases, genetic relationships between languages are not directly attested. For instance, the Romance languages and the North Germanic languages are also related to each other, being subfamilies of the [[Indo-European language family]], since both Latin and Old Norse are believed to be descended from an even more ancient language, [[Proto-Indo-European]]; however, no direct evidence of Proto-Indo-European or its divergence into its descendant languages survives. In cases such as these, genetic relationships are established through use of the [[comparative method]] of linguistic analysis.
In order to test the hypothesis that two languages are related, the comparative method begins with the collection of pairs of words that are hypothesized to be [[cognate]]s: i.e., words in related languages that are derived from the same word in the shared ancestral language. Pairs of words that have similar pronunciations and meanings in the two languages are often good candidates for hypothetical cognates. The researcher must rule out the possibility that the two words are similar merely due to chance, or due to one having [[Loanword|borrowed]] the words from the other (or from a language related to the other). Chance resemblance is ruled out by the existence of large collections of pairs of words between the two languages showing similar patterns of phonetic similarity. Once coincidental similarity and [[Loanword|borrowing]] have been eliminated as possible explanations for similarities in sound and meaning of words, the remaining explanation is common origin: it is inferred that the similarities occurred due to descent from a common ancestor, and the words are actually cognates, implying the languages must be related.<ref>{{cite book|last=Campbell|first=Lyle|title=Historical Linguistics|date=2013|publisher=MIT Press}}</ref>
====Linguistic interference and borrowing====
When languages are in [[Language contact|contact with one another]], either of them may influence the other through [[Language transfer#Broader effects of language transfer|linguistic interference]] such as borrowing. For example, [[French language|French]] has influenced [[English language|English]], [[Arabic language|Arabic]] has influenced [[Persian language|Persian]], [[Sanskrit]] has influenced [[Tamil language|Tamil]], and [[Chinese language|Chinese]] has influenced [[Japanese language|Japanese]] in this way. However, such influence does not constitute (and is not a measure of) a genetic relationship between the languages concerned. Linguistic interference can occur between languages that are genetically closely related, between languages that are distantly related (like English and French, which are distantly related [[Indo-European language]]s) and between languages that have no genetic relationship.
===Complications===
Some exceptions to the simple genetic relationship model of languages include [[language isolate]]s and [[Mixed language|mixed]], [[pidgin]] and [[creole language]]s.
Mixed languages, pidgins and creole languages constitute special genetic types of languages. They do not descend linearly or directly from a single language and have no single ancestor.
[[Language isolate|Isolates]] are languages that cannot be proven to be genealogically related to any other modern language. As a corollary, every language isolate also forms its own language family — a genetic family which happens to consist of just one language. One often cited example is [[Basque language|Basque]], which forms a language family on its own; but there are many other examples outside Europe. On the global scale, the site [[Glottolog]] counts a total of 423 language families in the world, including 184 isolates.<ref>Cf. [https://glottolog.org/glottolog/family Language families], [[Glottolog]].</ref>
===
One controversial theory concerning the genetic relationships among languages is [[Proto-Human language|monogenesis]], the idea that all known languages, with the exceptions of [[creole language|creoles]], pidgins and [[sign language]]s, are descendant from a single ancestral language.<ref>[[Johanna Nichols|Nichols, Johanna]]. Monogenesis or Polygenesis: A Single Ancestral Language for All Humanity? Ch. 58 of ''The Oxford Handbook of Language Evolution'', ed. by [[Maggie Tallerman]] and Kathleen Rita Gibson. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2012. 558–72. Print.</ref> If that is true, it would mean all languages (other than pidgins, creoles, and sign languages) are genetically related, but in many cases, the relationships may be too remote to be detectable. Alternative explanations for some basic observed commonalities between languages include developmental theories, related to the biological development of the capacity for language as the child grows from newborn.{{citation needed|date=January 2022}}
== Structure of a family ==
{{More citations needed section|date=May 2022}}
A language family is a [[monophyly|monophyletic]] unit; all its members derive from a common ancestor, and all descendants of that ancestor are included in the family. Thus, the term ''family'' is analogous to the biological term ''[[clade]]''. Language families can be divided into smaller phylogenetic units, sometimes referred to as "branches" or "subfamilies" of the family; for instance, the [[Germanic languages]] are a subfamily of the [[Indo-European languages|Indo-European]] family. Subfamilies share a more recent common ancestor than the common ancestor of the larger family; [[Proto-Germanic]], the common ancestor of the Germanic subfamily, was itself a descendant of [[Proto-Indo-European]], the common ancestor of the Indo-European family. Within a large family, subfamilies can be identified through "shared innovations": members of a subfamily will share features that represent retentions from their more recent common ancestor, but were not present in the overall proto-language of the larger family.
Some [[taxonomy (general)|taxonomists]] restrict the term ''family'' to a certain level, but there is little consensus on how to do so. Those who affix such labels also subdivide branches into ''groups'', and groups into ''complexes''. A top-level (i.e., the largest) family is often called a ''phylum'' or ''stock''. The closer the branches are to each other, the more closely the languages will be related. This means if a branch of a [[proto-language]] is four branches down and there is also a [[sister language]] to that fourth branch, then the two sister languages are more closely related to each other than to that common ancestral proto-language.
The term ''[[macrofamily]]'' or ''superfamily'' is sometimes applied to proposed groupings of language families whose status as phylogenetic units is generally considered to be unsubstantiated by accepted [[historical linguistics|historical linguistic]] methods.
=== Dialect continua ===
{{main|Dialect continuum}}
Some close-knit language families, and many branches within larger families, take the form of [[dialect continuum|dialect continua]] in which there are no clear-cut geographical boundaries that make it possible to unequivocally identify, define, or count individual languages within the family. However, when the differences between the speech of different regions at the extremes of the continuum are so great that there is no [[mutual intelligibility]] between them, as occurs in [[Arabic]], the continuum cannot meaningfully be seen as a single language.
Further, a speech variety may either be considered as a language or as a dialect, depending on social or political considerations. Thus, different sources, especially over time, can give wildly different numbers of languages within a certain family. [[Classification of the Japonic languages|Classifications of the Japonic family]], for example, range from one language (a language isolate with dialects) to nearly twenty—until the classification of [[Ryukyuan language|Ryukyuan]] as separate languages within a [[Japonic language family]] rather than dialects of Japanese, the [[Japanese language]] itself was considered a [[language isolate]] and therefore the only language in its family.
===
{{main|Language isolate}}
Most of the world's languages are known to be related to others. Those that have no known relatives (or for which family relationships are only tentatively proposed) are called [[language isolate]]s, essentially language families consisting of a single language. There are an estimated 129 language isolates known today.<ref name=":0">{{cite journal|last=Campbell |first=Lyle |date=24 August 2010 |title=Language Isolates and Their History, or, What's Weird, Anyway? |journal=Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society |language=en |volume=36 |issue=1 |pages=16–31 |doi=10.3765/bls.v36i1.3900 |issn=2377-1666 |doi-access=free}}</ref> An example is [[Basque language|Basque]]. In general, it is assumed that language isolates have relatives or had relatives at some point in their history but at a time depth too great for linguistic comparison to recover them.
A language isolate is classified based on the fact that enough is known about the isolate to compare it genetically to other languages but no common ancestry or relationship is found with any other known language.<ref name=":0" />
A language isolated in its own branch within a family, such as [[Albanian language|Albanian]] and [[Armenian language|Armenian]] within Indo-European, is often also called an isolate, but the meaning of the word "isolate" in such cases is usually clarified with a [[Grammatical modifier|modifier]]. For instance, Albanian and Armenian may be referred to as an "Indo-European isolate". By contrast, so far as is known, the [[Basque language]] is an absolute isolate: it has not been shown to be related to any other modern language despite numerous attempts. A language may be said to be an isolate currently but not historically if related but now extinct relatives are attested. The [[Aquitanian language]], spoken in Roman times, may have been an ancestor of Basque, but it could also have been a sister language to the ancestor of Basque. In the latter case, Basque and Aquitanian would form a small family together. Ancestors are not considered to be distinct members of a family.{{citation needed|date=April 2023}}
=== Proto-languages ===
{{main|Proto-language}}
A proto-language can be thought of as a mother language (not to be confused with a [[mother tongue]]<ref>{{cite book|last=Bloomfield |first=Leonard |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Gfrd-On5iFwC |title=Language |year=1994 |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass Publ. |isbn=81-208-1196-8}}</ref>) being the root from which all languages in the family stem. 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]], a reconstructive procedure worked out by 19th century linguist [[August Schleicher]]. This can demonstrate the validity of many of the proposed families in the [[list of language families]]. For example, the reconstructible common ancestor of the Indo-European language family is called ''[[Proto-Indo-European language|Proto-Indo-European]]''. Proto-Indo-European is not attested by written records and so is conjectured to have been spoken before the invention of writing.
==Visual representation==
[[File:20150714040758!Mayan languages tree gl.svg|thumb|upright=1.35|An example of a language tree, containing the Mayan languages]]
A common visual representation of a language family is given by a genetic language tree. The [[tree model]] is sometimes termed a [[dendrogram]] or [[phylogeny]]. The family tree shows the relationship of the languages within a family, much as a family tree of an individual shows their relationship with their relatives. There are criticisms to the family tree model. Critics focus mainly on the claim that the internal structure of the trees is subject to variation based on the criteria of classification.<ref>Edzard, Lutz. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=UAFVgdGljl4C Polygenesis, Convergence, and Entropy: An Alternative Model of Linguistic Evolution Applied to Semitic Linguistics]''. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1998. Print.</ref> Even among those who support the family tree model, there are debates over which languages should be included in a language family. For example, within the dubious [[Altaic language family]], there are debates over whether the [[Japonic]] and [[Koreanic]] languages should be included or not.<ref>Georg, Stefan, Peter A. Michalove, Alexis Manaster Ramer, and Paul J. Sidwell. Telling General Linguists about Altaic. ''Journal of Linguistics'' 35.1 (1999): 65–98. Print.</ref>
The [[wave model]] has been proposed as an alternative to the tree model.<ref name="francois">{{cite book |last=François |first=Alexandre |author-link=Alexandre François |contribution= Trees, Waves and Linkages: Models of Language Diversification |editor1-last=Bowern |editor1-first=Claire |editor2-last=Evans |editor2-first=Bethwyn |title=The Routledge Handbook of Historical Linguistics |pages=161–189 |publisher=Routledge |place=London |year=2014 |isbn=978-0-41552-789-7 |contribution-url=http://alex.francois.online.fr/data/AlexFrancois_2014_HHL_Trees-waves-linkages_Diversification.pdf}}</ref> The wave model uses [[isogloss]]es to group language varieties; unlike in the tree model, these groups can overlap. While the tree model implies a lack of contact between languages after derivation from an ancestral form, the wave model emphasizes the relationship between languages that remain in contact, which is more realistic.<ref name="francois"/> [[Historical glottometry]] is an application of the wave model, meant to identify and evaluate genetic relations in [[Linkage (linguistics)|linguistic linkages]].<ref name="francois"/><ref>{{cite book |last1=Kalyan |first1=Siva |author1-link= |last2=François |first2=Alexandre |author2-link= |contribution=Freeing the Comparative Method from the tree model: A framework for Historical Glottometry |editor1-last=Kikusawa |editor1-first=Ritsuko |editor2-last=Reid |editor2-first=Laurie |title=Let's Talk about Trees: Genetic Relationships of Languages and Their Phylogenic Representation |series=Senri Ethnological Studies |volume=98 |pages=59–89 |publisher=National Museum of Ethnology |place=Ōsaka |year=2018 |isbn= |contribution-url=http://alex.francois.online.fr/data/Kalyan-Francois_2018_Freeing-Comparative-Method-from-Tree-model.pdf}}</ref>
== Other classifications of languages ==
{{More citations needed section|date=May 2022}}
=== Sprachbund ===
{{Main|Sprachbund}}
A [[sprachbund]] is a geographic area having several languages that feature common linguistic structures. The similarities between those languages are caused by language contact, not by chance or common origin, and are not recognized as criteria that define a language family. An example of a sprachbund would be the [[Indian subcontinent]].<ref>{{cite web|last=Joseph |first=Brian |date=2017 |title=The Balkan Sprachbund |url=https://www.linguisticsociety.org/sites/default/files/e-learning/LSAInstitute--BalkanSprachbundSlides.pdf|access-date=2 October 2020 |website=linguisticsociety.org}}</ref>
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 language|Oscan]], [[Umbrian language|Umbrian]], etc.) might well be "[[areal feature]]s". However, 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 languages|Germanic]], [[Baltic languages|Baltic]] and [[Slavic languages|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.
=== Contact languages ===
{{main|Mixed language|Creole language|Pidgin}}
The concept of language families is based on the historical observation that languages develop [[dialect]]s, which over time may diverge into distinct languages. However, linguistic ancestry is less clear-cut than familiar biological ancestry, in which species do not crossbreed.<ref name="ListNelson-Sathi2014">{{cite journal|last1=List |first1=Johann-Mattis |last2=Nelson-Sathi |first2=Shijulal |last3=Geisler |first3=Hans |last4=Martin |first4=William |title=Networks of lexical borrowing and lateral gene transfer in language and genome evolution |journal=[[BioEssays]] |volume=36 |issue=2 |year=2014 |pages=141–150 |issn=0265-9247 |doi=10.1002/bies.201300096 |pmid=24375688 |pmc=3910147}}</ref> It is more like the evolution of microbes, with extensive [[lateral gene transfer]]. Quite distantly related languages may affect each other through [[language contact]], which in extreme cases may lead to languages with no single ancestor, whether they be [[creole language|creoles]] or [[mixed language]]s. In addition, a number of [[sign language]]s have developed in isolation and appear to have no relatives at all. Nonetheless, such cases are relatively rare and most well-attested languages can be unambiguously classified as belonging to one language family or another, even if this family's relation to other families is not known.
Language contact can lead to the development of new languages from the mixture of two or more languages for the purposes of interactions between two groups who speak different languages. Languages that arise in order for two groups to communicate with each other to engage in commercial trade or that appeared as a result of colonialism are called [[pidgins|pidgin]]. Pidgins are an example of linguistic and cultural expansion caused by language contact. However, language contact can also lead to cultural divisions. In some cases, two different language speaking groups can feel territorial towards their language and do not want any changes to be made to it. This causes language boundaries and groups in contact are not willing to make any compromises to accommodate the other language.<ref>{{cite web|title=Languages in Contact {{!}} Linguistic Society of America |url=https://www.linguisticsociety.org/resource/languages-contact |access-date=2 October 2020 |website=www.linguisticsociety.org}}</ref>
== See also ==
{{Colbegin}}
* [[Comparative linguistics]]
* [[Constructed language]]
* [[Endangered language]]
* [[Extinct language]]
* [[Language death]]
* [[Language isolate]]
* [[List of revived languages]]
* [[Global language system]]
* [[ISO 639-5]]
* [[Linguist List]]
* [[List of language families]]
* [[List of languages by number of native speakers]]
* [[Origin of language]]
* [[Proto-language]]
* [[Proto-Human language]]
* [[Sprachbund]]
* [[Tree model]]
* [[Unclassified language]]
* [[Father Tongue hypothesis]]
* [[Farming/language dispersal hypothesis]]
{{Colend}}
{{clear}}
==Notes==
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==
{{Reflist}}
== Further reading ==
{{refbegin}}
* {{cite book|last=Boas |first=Franz |year=1911 |title=Handbook of American Indian languages |volume=1 |series=Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 40 |___location=Washington |publisher=[[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
* 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.
* 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
* Gordon, Raymond G., Jr. (Ed.). (2005). ''Ethnologue: Languages of the world'' (15th ed.). Dallas, TX: SIL International. {{ISBN
* 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). "[http://rspas.anu.edu.au/linguistics/mdr/Papuan%20Pasts%20paper.pdf Pronouns as a preliminary diagnostic for grouping Papuan languages] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040608222723/http://rspas.anu.edu.au/linguistics/mdr/Papuan%20Pasts%20paper.pdf |date=8 June 2004 }}". 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.). (
* Voegelin, C. F.
{{refend}}
== External links ==
* [http://www.muturzikin.com/countries.htm Linguistic maps] (from Muturzikin)
* [https://www.ethnologue.com/ Ethnologue]
* [http://multitree.org/ The Multitree Project]
* [http://www.proel.org/index.php?pagina=mundo Lenguas del mundo] (World Languages)
* [http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:Swadesh_lists Comparative Swadesh list tables of various language families] (from Wiktionary)
* [http://www.ezglot.com/most-similar-languages.php Most similar languages]
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[[Category:Historical linguistics]]
[[Category:Language families| ]]
[[Category:Types of groupings]]
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