* Share This

Language Family list

List started by Metaweb for the Language domain
Human languages are grouped in families, which usually indicate close interrelation and/or descendence from a common ancestor.  This type is... more
Make a view based on this one

181 Language Family topics

Add more Use Results
advanced
   
x name x image x Also Typed With x geographic distribution x sub-families x article
Showing 1 - 60 « prev next »
+

Do you know something that's missing from this view? Add it!

name

If you have a list you can use our wizard to match it with topics that may already be in Freebase. Go to the import tool »

Indo-European languages     Italic languages
The Indo-European languages comprise a family of several hundred related language and dialect, including most of the major languages of Europe, the Iranian plateau (Southwest Asia), much of Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent (South Asia). The...
Indo-Iranian languages
Celtic languages
Germanic languages
Balto-Slavic languages
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...
Italic languages Languages in Iron Age Italy, 6th century BC     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 language of the Italian Peninsula, including...
Romance languages      
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...
Indo-Iranian languages Map of Indo-Iranian Languages      
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...
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 invented as a language group label by Edward Lhuyd in 1707, having much earlier been used by Greek...
Germanic languages     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...
East Germanic languages
North Germanic languages
Baltic languages Distribution of the Baltic languages in the Baltic (simplified).      
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...
Algonquian languages Human Language    
The Algonquian (also Algonkian, and pronounced both and ) 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 Algonquian are Wiyot and Yurok...
Slavic languages Countries inhabited by West Slavs (in light green)   Eastern Europe East Slavic languages
[[Image:Slavic europe.png|thumb|275px|right|]] The Slavic languages (also called Slavonic languages), a group of closely related language of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup of Indo-European languages, have speakers in most of Eastern Europe, in...
West Slavic languages
South Slavic languages
Austronesian languages Current distribution of Human Language Families      
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...
Niger-Congo languages Map showing the approximate distribution of Bantu (dull yellow) vs. other Niger-Congo languages (bright yellow)      
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...
Sino-Tibetan languages Sino-Tibetan languages in red      
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...
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...
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...
Afro-Asiatic languages     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 ...
Semitic languages
North Omotic languages
Uto-Aztecan languages Pre-contact distribution of Northern Uto-Aztecan languages (note: this map does not show the distribution in Mexico)      
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...
Mixe-Zoque languages Locations where the Mixe-Zoque languages are spoken. Mixe (red color) and Zoque (green color      
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...
Austro-Asiatic languages Map showing present distribution of Austro-Asiatic languages throughout Southeast Asia      
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,...
Nilo-Saharan languages Map showing the distribution of Nilo-Saharan languages      
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...
Sign language Two sign language interpreters working as a team for a school.      
A sign language (also signed language) is a language which uses manual communication, body language and lip patterns instead of sound to convey meaning—simultaneously combining hand shapes, orientation and movement of the hand, arm or body, and...
Zaparoan languages Yezhoù zaparoeg      
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. ...
Tai-Kadai languages Verspreiding en onderverdeling van de Tai-Kadai-talen volgens de classificatie van David B. Solnit      
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...
Oto-Manguean languages      
Oto-Manguean languages (also Otomanguean) are a large family comprised of 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...
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...
Na-Dené languages      
Na-Dene (also Nadene, Athabaskan-Eyak-Tlingit, English [] or []) 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 is...
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...
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...
Dravidian languages Dravidian languages spoken in South Asia   Indian subcontinent  
The Dravidian family of languages includes approximately 73 languages that are mainly spoken in southern India and northeastern Sri Lanka, as well as certain areas in Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, and eastern and central India, as well as in parts of...
Penutian languages      
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...
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...
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...
Quechuan languages        
The Quechuan languages are a family of related language in South America. It has aproximately 46 dialect, group in at least seven language. All of them can be called varieties of Quechua; the best-known variety is the dialect of Cusco, an early...
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,...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Language isolate        
A language isolate, in the absolute sense, is a natural language with no demonstrable genealogical (or "genetic") relationship with other living languages; that is, one that has not been demonstrated to descend from an ancestor common to any other...
Chimakuan languages Pre-contact distribution of Chimakuan languages      
The Chimakuan language family consists of two languages spoken in northwestern Washington, USA on the Olympic Peninsula. It is part of the Mosan sprachbund, and one of its languages is famous for having no nasal consonant. The two languages were...
Cariban languages        
The Cariban languages are an indigenous language family of South America. Carib languages are widespread across northern South America, from the mouth of the Amazon River to the Colombia Andes and from Maracaibo (Venezuela) to Central Brazil....
Hmong-Mien languages        
The Hmong-Mien or Miao-Yao languages are a small language family of southern China and Southeast Asia. They are spoken in mountainous areas of southern China, including Guizhou, Hunan, Yunnan, Sichuan, Guangxi, and Hubei provinces, where its...
Altaic languages      
Altaic, according to its proponents, is a language family that includes 66 language spoken by about 348 million people, mostly in and around Central Asia and northeast Asia. According to the best-known version of Altaic, it consists of the Turkic,...
Algic languages Pre-contact distribution of Algic languages (in red). Note distribution in northwestern California      
The Algic (also Algonquian-Wiyot-Yurok or Algonquian-Ritwan) languages are an indigenous language family of North America. They are all thought to descend from Proto-Algic, a second-order proto language reconstructed using Proto-Algonquian and the...
Hokan languages        
The Hokan language family is a hypothetical grouping of a dozen small language families spoken in California and Mexico. In nearly a century since the "Hokan" hypothesis first proposed these families were related to each other, little additional...
South Caucasian languages        
The South Caucasian languages (also known as Ibero-Caucasian or Kartvelian) are spoken primarily in Georgia, with smaller groups of speakers in Turkey, Azerbaijan, Iran, Russia and Israel. There are approximately 5.2 million speakers of this...
Sko languages        
The Sko or Skou languages are a small language family spoken by about 7000 people, mainly along the coast of Sandaun Province in Papua New Guinea, with a few being inland from this area and at least one just across the border in the Indonesian...
Chibchan languages        
The Chibchan languages (also Chíbchan, Chibchano) make up a language family indigenous to the Isthmo-Colombian area, which extends from eastern Honduras to northern Colombia and includes populations of these countries as well as Nicaragua, Costa...