LANGUAGE FAMILIES

Olga Krasnoukhova

A language family is a set of languages that descended from one single ancestral language and

are therefore genealogically related. The ancestral language is often referred to as the proto-

language of that family. Within a family, languages can be arranged into branches and groups.

These divisions are usually based on shared innovations: grammatical characteristics found in

some related languages but not found in their common ancestor. Using the metaphor of a

biological family tree, languages in a language family are sometimes called sister languages and

daughter languages, dependent on their level of relatedness. This entry examines the linguistic

diversity, and it addresses such questions as to why numbers of language families and languages

spoken across the world can only be given as estimates.. The second part of the entry gives a

detailed overview of language families of six geographic areas.

Linguistic Diversity

Among the processes of language formation is language divergence. That is a diversification

through space and time, when an originally one speech community falls apart (often

geographically) and gradually evolves into distinct languages. These would first form dialects of

one language. Subsequently, the dialects would diverge to a degree that they are no longer

mutually intelligible, thus starting to be separate languages. The distinction between a language

and a dialect generally hinges on this—partly subjective—parameter of mutual intelligibility.

which are mutually intelligible, but are generally regarded as separate languages. Another

example includes Serbian, Croatian, and Bosnian.

The number of existing languages is usually given as a rough estimate, since an exact

number is impossible to state for two reasons. The fluid line between a language and a dialect is

the first one. The second one is a simple lack of sufficient documentation for many languages

that we theoretically know of, thus not allowing us to evaluate their status. Glottolog, a

systematic catalog of the world’s languages today, lists more than 7,000 languages. The number

of top-level genealogical units, or language families that all the languages fall into, is likewise a

question with no precise answer. Research on the membership in a family, as well as the level of

relatedness that is involved, has been ongoing for many of the world’s languages, and it regularly

brings in adjustments in existing classifications. For the present-day view, Glottolog suggests

around 240 top-level language families, also known as phyla. These language families are of a

very different size, ranging from just two members to more than a thousand. For example, the

largest language family, Atlantic-Congo, includes around 1,400 languages. The Austronesian

language family counts around 1,200 languages, and the Indo-European has around 580

languages.

There are also languages that are not part of any language family. These are of two types.

One is languages that are not documented sufficiently to be compared to other languages in a

meaningful way, and for which any possible genealogical relatives remain unknown. These are

referred to as unclassified languages. The other is languages that do not have any demonstrable

genealogical relatedness to any other languages. These are language isolates. In principle, a

language isolate can be regarded as a language family with just one living member, since it may
have had relatives in the past. It is not impossible that most present-day language isolates may

have had sister or daughter languages that became extinct without leaving any traces or record.

According to Glottolog, there are 188 language isolates and more than 100 unclassified

languages.

A fluid borderline between a language family, a language, and a dialect is illustrated by

Lyle Campbell for Basque, a language traditionally referred to as an isolate. Specialists of

Basque keep working on the degree of genealogical relation between Basque and Aquitanian, an

extinct language once spoken in the ancient Aquitaine. One hypothesis suggests that Aquitanian

is the ancestral language of Basque. Another hypothesis puts forward that Aquitanian and

Basque are related at the level of sister languages, having one common ancestor. If the latter

hypothesis ever proves to be correct, then Basque could be considered as one surviving language

of a family, not an isolate in the strict sense. Basque is tricky in another way, too: Should

Basque be called a language, or is it already a small language family? By standard criteria,

dialects that are not mutually intelligible are considered separate languages. Larry Trask in the

1990s argued that the dialects of Basque have diversified considerably and that at least Zuberoa

(Suletino, Souletin) is not mutually intelligible with the other dialects. Therefore, Basque could

already be considered a small language family rather than a language. Open questions like the

ones for Basque are pertinent for many if not most languages.

Based on the number of speakers who use a language as their mother tongue, languages

can be roughly divided into healthy, endangered, moribund, and dead (or extinct). As of today, at

least one fifth of the world’s languages are either seriously endangered or moribund. The

distribution of languages according to the number of speakers is extremely skewed. According to

Ethnologue, 8 languages are spoken as their mother tongue by 40% of the world’s population.
About 400 languages are the mother tongue of 94% of the world’s population. This also means

that the other 6,600 languages are spoken by only 6% of the world’s population. Besides, the

linguistic diversity is not distributed evenly in geographic terms. There are areas in the world that

harbor an impressive number of languages. These are referred to as linguistic hotspots. Among

such undisputed hotspots are the New Guinea and the East Melanesian Islands, which host

1,000–2,000 different languages. Among other linguistic hotspots are the Caucasus, eastern

Siberia, north of Australia, the Northwest Pacific Plateau of the United States, the Macro-Sudan

belt in northern Sub-Saharan Africa, and the Guaporé-Mamoré area in the Amazon region of

South America. The continent of South America is in itself a macro-area of extreme linguistic

diversity.

Below is an overview of language families found on six macro-areas, based on the data

from Harald Hammarström and Glottolog. The number of languages given in the brackets should

give the reader an indication of a family size, but should not be treated as final, as continually

emerging data and ongoing research regularly bring in some adjustments.

Africa

There are more than 2,000 languages in Africa. The majority of these belong to the Atlantic-

Congo language family, which is also the largest language family in the world (> 1,400

members). Another major language family in Africa is Afroasiatic (> 300 members), with North

Africa as its core area. There are also middle-sized language families (< 100 members) such as

Eastern Sudanic, Central Sudanic, Mande in West Africa, Omotic in Ethiopia, Dogon in West

Africa, Saharan in Chad, and a few small languages families and isolates.
 Eurasia

Eurasia refers here to the landmass north of Sinai; it includes Japan and islands to the north of it

but does not include insular Southeast Asia. Eurasia counts around 1,400 languages. The largest

language families (ranging between 580 and 160 languages) are Indo-European with Europe and

India as its core areas, Sino-Tibetan in China and Nepal, and Austroasiatic in India and Southeast

Asia. Midsized language families (< 100 members) are Tai-Kadai in Southeast Asia, Dravidian

in southern India, Turkic with Central Asia as its core area, Uralic in Europe and northwest

Russia, Hmong-Mien in southern China, Nakh-Dagestanian in Northeast Caucasus, Mongolian

in Mongolia, Japonic in East Asia and Japan, and Tungusic in Siberia. There are several small

language families (< 10 members), such as Great Andamanese and Jarawa-Onge in the Andaman

Islands, Kartvelian and Abkhaz-Adyge in the Caucasus, and Chukotko-Kamchatkan, Yukaghir

and Ket in Siberia. There are 8 one-member language families or isolates: Basque in Western

Europe, Nivkh in Siberia, Ainu in northern Japan, Korean in Korea, Burushaski in North

Pakistan, Kusunda in Nepal, Nihali in India, and Shom Pen in the Nicobar Islands.

Australia

There are around 250 languages in Australia. The largest language family present on the

continent is Pama-Nyungan (> 200 members). Pama-Nyungan languages cover the vast majority

of the continent. All other aboriginal languages of Australia are generally referred to as “non-

Pama-Nyungan.” As the name suggests, this is not a genealogical classification, but a grouping

of languages defined negatively. These non-Pama-Nyungan languages represent about 24

different genealogical units, ranging in size from about eleven to only one member.
Geographically, they are all found in the northern part of Australia, which makes it one of the

most linguistically diverse areas in the world.

Oceania

Oceania is a label here for a geographic area that includes all islands of the tropical Pacific

Ocean, between Sumatra and the Americas. There are more than 2,000 languages here. The

largest language family is Austronesian (> 1,200). Austronesian languages are spoken on some

of the coast of New Guinea, as well as most smaller islands. Most of the interior of New Guinea,

part of its coast, and some island areas are occupied by languages labeled as “Papuan.” Papuan is

another group defined negatively and is used in reference to languages spoken in this area that

are not Austronesian. Genealogical relations between the Papuan languages have been a matter

of ongoing research and debate among specialists of this area. At least two different views on

classification have prevailed. According to Stephen Wurm, Papuan languages fall into five major

phyla and six minor ones, plus several language isolates. According to William Foley, the

available data suggest no fewer than 60 distinct top-level genealogical units with no evidence for

higher level relationships. One of the problems is the lack of data on many of the languages,

leaving existing proposals on classification at the level of hypotheses.

North America

North America harbors around 320 languages, falling into around 30 language families. The

largest ones, ranging between 70 and 45 members, are Uto-Aztecan, Algic, and Athapaskan-

Eyak-Tlingit. Other are smaller in size, such as Salishan, Siouan, Eskimo-Aleut, Iroquoian, and

Miwok-Costanoan. There are many small language families (< 10 members), such as Cochimi-
Yuman, Pomoan, Kiowa-Tanoan, Muskogean, Wakashan, Caddoan, Sahaptian, Maiduan,

Tsimshian, Chinook, Haida, Keresan, Palaihnihan, and Wintuan. And there are 13 language

isolates: Coosan, Kalapuyan, Karuk, Klamath-Modoc, Kutenai, Takelma, Wappo, Washo, Yana,

Yokutsan, Yuchi, Yuki, and Zuni.

Central and South America

There are around 300 languages in Central America. The largest language family here is

Otomanguean with around 180 languages spoken in central and southern Mexico (for the

purposes of this entry, this part of Mexico has been grouped with Central and South American

countries). Other languages families are much smaller in size (< 30). These include Mayan,

Mixe-Zoque, Totonacan, Huavean, Tarascan, and Tequistlatecan (all with Mexico as the core

area), Misumalpan in Honduras and Nicaragua, and Jicaquean in Honduras. There are two living

language isolates, such as Seri in Mexico, and Xincan in Guatemala.

According to Lyle Campbell, South America has about 420 languages still spoken today,

and these fall in no less than 108 distinct genealogical units. The largest language families found

here range between 70 and 25 members: Tupian, Arawakan, Quechuan, Cariban, Panoan, and

Tucanoan. There are also a few ‘middle-sized’ families (ranging between 25 and 10 members):

Chibchan, Ge, and Chocoan. However, the great majority of language families in South America

are small, and often comprise less than 6 members. There is one more intriguing fact about the

genealogical diversity of the South American continent. According to Frank Seifart and Harald

Hammarström, here one finds the highest number (and proportion) of language isolates in the

world, with as much as 60 % of the lineages being isolates.

See also Australian Aboriginal Languages; Descriptive Linguistics; Indigenous Languages of

Central and South America; Indigenous Languages of North America; Indigenous Languages of

the Pacific; Languages of Africa; Languages of Europe; Languages of East Asia; Languages of

North Asia; Languages of South Asia; Languages of Southeast Asia; Languages of Central Asia;

Linguistic Typology

FURTHER READINGS

Campbell, L. (2012). Classification of the indigenous languages of South America. In L.

Campbell & V. Grondona (Eds.), The indigenous languages of South America: A comprehensive

guide (59–166). Berlin, Germany: De Gruyter Mouton.

Campbell, L. (2016). Language isolates and their history, or, What’s weird, anyway? In

Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society, 36, 16–31.

[Link]

Cysouw, M, & Good, J. (2013). Languoid, doculect, and glossonym: Formalizing the

notion “language.” Language Documentation & Conservation, 7, 331–359.

Simons, G. F., & Fennig, C. D. (Eds.). (2017). Ethnologue: Languages of the world (20th

ed.). Dallas, TX: SIL International. Retrieved from [Link]

Foley, W. A. 1986. The Papuan languages of New Guinea. Cambridge, United Kingdom:

Cambridge University Press.

Hammarström, H.,& Forkel, R., & Haspelmath, M. (2017). Glottolog 3.0. Jena,

Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History. Retrieved April 2017 from
[Link]

Hammarström, H. (2010). Online appendix for a full-scale test of the language farming

dispersal hypothesis. Diachronica, 27(2), 197–213.

Nichols, J. (1992). Linguistic diversity in space and time. Chicago, Illinois: University of

Chicago Press.

Seifart, F & H. Hammarström (2018 forthc.) Language isolates in South America. In L.

Campbell (Ed.), Language isolates (260-286). London and New York: Routledge. Trask, R. L.

(1997). History of Basque. London, United Kingdom: Routledge.

Wurm, S. A. (1982). Papuan languages of Oceania (Ars Linguistica, 7). Tübingen,

Germany: Gunter Narr.