The six largest language families by language count are Niger-Congo, Austronesian, Trans-New Guinea, Sino-Tibetan, Indo-European, and Afro-Asiatic. Of the 142 different language families, these six stand out as the major language families of the world. They can be found throughout the world, spreading uniquely to different regions and countries.
What are the 6 largest language families?
What are the largest language families? The six largest language families by language count are Niger-Congo, Austronesian, Trans-New Guinea, Sino-Tibetan, Indo-European, and Afro-Asiatic. Of the 142 different language families, these six stand out as the major language families of the world.
What are the different language families?
Our All in the Language Family series goes into detail on how these families work. The Indo-European Language Family — One of the largest language families in the world, comprising hundreds of languages including those in the Germanic, Romance, Baltic and Slavic language families.
What are the top 5 languages in the world?
1 Indo-European - 2.910 Billion. The Indo-European language family is the largest in the world. ... 2 Sino-Tibetan Languages - 1.268 Billion. The Sino-Tibetan language family is the second largest in the world. ... 3 Niger-Congo Languages - 437 Million. ... 4 Austronesian Languages - 386 Million. ...
How many languages are in the Indo-European family?
Based on speaker count, Indo-European and Sino-Tibetan are the largest two language families, with over 4.6 billion speakers between them. The two most spoken languages are in these families – English is classified as Indo-European, and Mandarin Chinese is classified as Sino-Tibetan.
What are the 7 language families?
Major language familiesNiger–Congo (1,542 languages) (21.7%)Austronesian (1,257 languages) (17.7%)Trans–New Guinea (482 languages) (6.8%)Sino-Tibetan (455 languages) (6.4%)Indo-European (448 languages) (6.3%)Australian [dubious] (381 languages) (5.4%)Afro-Asiatic (377 languages) (5.3%)More items...
How many major language families are there?
How many language families are there? According to Ethnologue (16th edition), there are 147 language families in the world.
What is the world's largest language family?
The single largest language family, Indo-European has about 150 languages and about three billion speakers.
What are the 2 largest language families?
Although the Indo-European and Sino-Tibetan language families two of the largest in the world, linguists have categorized more than one hundred language families around the globe.
What are the 5 language family?
The six largest language families by language count are Niger-Congo, Austronesian, Trans-New Guinea, Sino-Tibetan, Indo-European, and Afro-Asiatic. for at least one language in the family. Each of these families has at least 5% of the world's languages, and together account for two-thirds of all languages.
What is the oldest language family?
the Dravidian familyThe Tamil language is recognized as the oldest language in the world and it is the oldest language of the Dravidian family. This language had a presence even around 5,000 years ago. According to a survey, 1863 newspapers are published in the Tamil language only every day.
What is the smallest language family?
Afro-Asiatic The Afro-Asiatic language family includes 381 languages, making it the smallest language family on this list. These languages are primarily spoken in Northern Africa, the Middle East, and several islands in Western Asia.
What is the oldest dead language?
Sumerian languageThe archaeological proof we have today allows us to state that the oldest dead language in the world is the Sumerian language. Dating back to at least 3500 BC, the oldest proof of written Sumerian was found in today's Iraq, on an artifact known as the Kish Tablet.
What is the third largest language family?
The Trans-New Guinea family of languages is a diverse group of Papuan languages spoken in New Guinea and surrounding islands, probably the world's third-largest by the number of languages.
What are the four types of language?
These are called the four "language skills":Skill #1: Listening.Skill #2: Speaking.Skill #3: Reading.Skill #4: Writing.
What is the most spoken language in the world?
Mandarin ChineseEnglish is the largest language in the world, if you count both native and non-native speakers. If you count only native speakers, Mandarin Chinese is the largest.
What are the 3 types of language classification?
The three basic classifications for languages of the world are: Genealogical. Typological. Areal.
How many types of languages are there?
According to Ethnologue, there are approximately 7,111 languages being spoken today, but this number is constantly fluctuating — and this does not include dialects either!
How many language trees are there?
According to Ethnologue there are 7,151 living human languages distributed in 142 different language families. A living language is defined as one that is the first language of at least one person.
How many languages are there in the world?
7,100 languagesWhat are the world's most spoken languages? Well, more than 7,100 languages are spoken in the world today. Each and every one of them make the world a diverse and beautiful place. Sadly, some of these languages are less widely spoken than others.
What are the 3 types of language classification?
The three basic classifications for languages of the world are: Genealogical. Typological. Areal.
What are the six largest language families?
The six largest language families by language count are Niger-Congo, Austronesian, Trans-New Guinea, Sino-Tibetan, Indo-European, and Afro-Asiatic . Of the 142 different language families, these six stand out as the major language families of the world. They can be found throughout the world, spreading uniquely to different regions and countries.
Which language family has the most speakers?
These six families also make up five-sixths of the world’s population. Based on speaker count, Indo-European and Sino-Tibetan are the largest two language families, with over 4.6 billion speakers between them. The two most spoken languages are in these families – English is classified as Indo-European, and Mandarin Chinese is classified as Sino-Tibetan.
Which two languages are the largest?
Each of these families has at least 5% of the world’s languages, and together account for two-thirds of all languages. Niger-Congo and Austronesian are the two largest from this perspective, each with over 1,000 languages due to the incredible language diversity in sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia, respectively.
What are the 2 largest language families?
Although the Indo-European and Sino-Tibetan language families two of the largest in the world, linguists have categorized more than one hundred language families around the globe.
How are language families classified?
There are two kinds of classification of languages practiced in linguistics: genetic (or genealogical) and typological.
What is a Group 1 language?
Group 1, the easiest of the bunch, includes French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish and Swahili. According to FSI research, it takes around 480 hours of practice to reach basic fluency in all Group 1 languages.
Why are sign language families not well established?
The family relationships of sign languages are not well established due to a lagging in linguistic research, and many are isolates (cf. Wittmann 1991).
What is a mixed language?
A mixed language often refers to a particular combination of existing ones, which may stem from different families : a pidgin is a simple language used for communication between groups; this may involve simplification and/or mixing of multiple languages.
How many languages are there in Tupian?
Tupian (71 languages) Language counts can vary significantly depending on what is considered 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.
What is an international auxiliary language?
International auxiliary language – Language meant for communication between people from different nations who do not share a common first language. Glottolog#Language families. Language isolate#List of language isolates by continent. Lists of languages.
Why are some languages unclassified?
Languages are considered unclassified either because, for one reason or another, little effort has been made to compare them with other languages, or more commonly because they are too poorly documented to permit reliable classification: most such languages are extinct and, most likely, will never be known well enough to classify.
What are some examples of languages that are not part of any family?
With this happens, it is called a language isolate. Examples of languages that are language isolates include Korean, Sumerian, and Elamite.
What is the largest language family in the world?
The Indo-European language family is the largest in the world. It consists of 437 daughter languages and has an estimated 2.91 billion speakers across Europe and Asia. This number of speakers represents nearly half of the total global population. many languages in the Indo-European family are widely used, including English, Spanish, French, German, Russian, Punjabi, Bengali, and Hindustani. All of these modern languages descend from Proto-Indo-European, which developed during the Neolithic age. As the human population dispersed throughout the region, distance and geographic barriers created isolated pockets of civilizations. Over time, new languages and dialects formed. Some of the most important of these early languages include Latin, Mycenaean Greek, and Vedic Sanskrit.
How many languages are spoken in Austronesian?
Austronesian Languages - 386 Million. The Austronesian language family is the fourth largest in the world in terms of the number of speakers. It is made up of 1,224 daughter languages and has approximately 386 million speakers spread throughout Oceania, Maritime Southeast Asia, and a few regions of mainland Asia.
What languages did the Austronesian people speak?
Some of the most widespread Austronesian languages include Javanese, Tagalog, and Malay. This language family once covered the largest area on earth, until it was surpassed by the Euro-Indonesian family during the era of European colonization.
What is the third largest language in Africa?
The third largest language family in the world and the largest in Africa is the Niger-Congo. It consists of 1,524 daughter languages and has around 437 million speakers throughout Africa. This language family is further divided into 6 subgroups: Katla, Atlantic-Congo, Ijo, Dogon, Mande, and Rashad. Of the Niger-Congo languages, Swahili is the most widely used, with between 2 and 15 million native speakers and between 50 and 100 million second language speakers. It is the official language of Kenya, Tanzania, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Other languages, however, have a larger number of native speakers, including Igbo, Shona, Yoruba, and Fula.
How many languages are there in the world?
At least 135 languages families have been identified throughout the world, each of them belonging to a different linguistic family.
What is the origin of modern languages?
All of these modern languages descend from Proto-Indo-European, which developed during the Neolithic age. As the human population dispersed throughout the region, distance and geographic barriers created isolated pockets of civilizations. Over time, new languages and dialects formed.
What is the most famous language family?
The Romance Language Family — Perhaps the most famous language family there is, the Romance languages are widely spoken in Europe (and the name has nothing to do with our modern notions of love and romance). The Germanic Language Family — The family of English and German, the Germanic languages also include the Nordic and Scandinavian languages, ...
Which language family has the most speakers?
The Afro-Asiatic Language Family — This family — the fourth largest in the world — includes languages spoken in North and East Africa, as well as the Arabian Peninsula, and it has six distinct branches: Berber, Chadic, Cushitic, Egyptian, Omotic and Semitic. The Semitic Language Family — Arabic has by far the most speakers of any ...
How Do We Know Which Languages Belong To Which Languages?
The further back you go, the harder it is to figure out who’s related to who. If two languages are very similar — take, for example, any of the Scandinavian languages, which are practically mutually intelligible — it’s not too hard to determine that they’re related. But what if there are just a few things in common?
How to determine a language family?
This is done by comparing old forms of languages and seeing how similar the grammar and vocabulary are, and then coming up with a theoretical Proto- language. Linguists examine Indo-European languages and see that certain words are very similar across languages. “Father,” for example, is believed to come from the Proto-Indo-European “pehter.” There is no actual written evidence of this word, but linguists survey various languages and see Sanskrit pitar, Latin pater, Old Persian pitar and Old Irish athir. From that, linguists can determine that they all likely come from the same root word. One word doesn’t make a language family, though, and so historical reconstruction needs to look at much more vocabulary before being able to decide on the classification of a language.
How many languages are there in the Mayan language family?
The Mayan Language Family — A group of 32 languages that are indigenous to North America, the Mayan languages has survived better than any other language family in the Americas.
Why is the Romance language family used as an example?
The Romance language family is so often used as an example not only because the languages are widely spoken, but also because there is a clear history showing how they evolved from Vulgar Latin to their modern iterations. As far as language families go, this clarity is uncommon.
What languages are spoken in Europe?
The Germanic Language Family — The family of English and German, the Germanic languages also include the Nordic and Scandinavian languages, as well as a few others spoken in Europe. The Slavic Language Family — Spoken throughout Russia and in parts of Eastern and Northern Europe, the Slavic languages are another part of ...
Identifying Language
Language is an identification for different cultures, as it is essential for communication. It influences the political, social, and economic.
Language families
The classification by languages origins and historic development is known as a genetic classification. The languages which are the descendants of common ancestral language are called Proto-Language.
Major languages in India
It has its own language and dialects. As per the 1961 census of India, it is estimated to have 187 languages. About 97% of people of India speak 23 major languages excluding English.
