Biology

Contour world map linguistic families and groups. Language families and language groups of languages

The main features by which ethnic communities are distinguished are language and culture. There are 5 thousand different languages in the world. They are grouped into numerous language families: Indo-European, Sino-Tibetan, Semitic-Hamitic, Austronesian, etc.

The largest is the Indo-European language family. It brings together about 2,500,000,000 people, which is almost half of the world's population. It includes such language groups that unite different peoples: Slavic (Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians, Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Bulgarians, Serbs, Slovenes, etc.); Germanic (Germans, British, Americans, Norwegians, Dutch, etc.); Romanesque (French, Italians, Spaniards, Portuguese, etc.). The Sino-Tibetan language family is the second largest, its languages (Chinese, Tibetan, Burmese) are spoken by about 1 billion people. The most common languages of the world are Chinese (975 million), English (478), Hindi (437), Spanish (392), Russian (284), Arabic (225), Bengali (200), Portuguese (184), Indonesian (159) ), Japanese (128), French (125) and German (123 million people) - two-thirds of the world's population speaks.

The UN helps refugees and hungry people. UN relief agencies provide protection to over 23 million refugees and displaced persons. The World Food Program, the leading UN organization responsible for food aid, sends more than 5 million tons of food per year, providing food to approximately 113 million people in 80 countries.

The Council of Europe (CE) is the oldest international political organization in Europe, established in 1949. French city Strasbourg, on the border of France and Germany, as a symbol of reconciliation between the two countries.
The main goal of the Council of Europe is the development of a united Europe based on the principles of freedom, democracy, protection of human rights and the rule of law. Its activities are aimed primarily at ensuring and protecting human rights, then civil, political, economic, social or cultural rights. Consequently, the activities of the Council of Europe cover all spheres of human life. This organization is not concerned with the news of the economy we and the military-political question. Since 1995 Ukraine is also a member of the Council of Europe, currently uniting 46 states.

One of the most significant achievements of the Council of Europe is the elaboration and adoption of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. The Convention establishes inalienable rights and their bodys for the same and obliges you to guarantee these rights to every person. The main difference between the Convention and other international treaties in the field of human rights is the existence of a mechanism for the protection of these rights.

Where is it better to go fishing in the Moscow region? How to find the best fishing spots? What does the term "vip fishing" mean? How is paid fishing different from free fishing and what is "eco-fishing"? A special resource about fishing in the Domodedovo district of the Moscow region will answer these questions.

Permanent link to the file - http: // site / load / 0-0-0-809-20

+ additional material:

Consider the origin of languages: when that number of languages was small. These were the so-called "proto-languages". Over time, proto-languages began to spread across the Earth, each of them became the ancestor of their own language family. The linguistic family is the largest unit of the classification of a language (peoples and ethnic groups) based on their linguistic affinity.

Further, the founders of language families split into language groups of languages. Languages that descended from one language family (that is, descended from one “proto-language”) are called “language group”. Languages of one language group retain many common roots, have similar grammatical structure, phonetic and lexical coincidences. There are now over 7,000 languages from over 100 language language families.

Linguists have identified over a hundred major language families of languages. It is assumed that language families are not related to each other, although there is a hypothesis about the common origin of all languages from a single language. The main language families are listed below.

Language family	Number languages	Total carriers language	% from the population Of the earth
Indo-European	> 400 languages	2 500 000 000	45,72
Sino-Tibetan	~ 300 languages	1 200 000 000	21,95
Altai	60	380 000 000	6,95
Austronesian	> 1000 languages	300 000 000	5,48
Austroasian	150	261 000 000	4,77
Afrasian		253 000 000	4,63
Dravidian	85	200 000 000	3,66
Japanese (Japanese-Ryukyus)	4	141 000 000	2,58
Korean		78 000 000	1,42
Thai-Kadai		63 000 000	1,15
Ural		24 000 000	0,44
Other		28 100 000	0,5

As can be seen from the list, ~ 45% of the world's population speaks the languages of the Indo-European family of languages.

Language groups of languages.

Further, the founders of language families split into language groups of languages. Languages that descended from one language family (that is, descended from one “proto-language”) are called “language group”. Languages of the same language group have many coincidences in the roots of words, in grammatical structure and phonetics. There is also a finer division of groups into subgroups.

The Indo-European language family is the most widespread language family in the world. The number of speakers of the languages of the Indo-European family exceeds 2.5 billion people who live on all inhabited continents of the Earth. The languages of the Indo-European family occurred as a result of the successive disintegration of the Indo-European proto-language, which began about 6 thousand years ago. Thus, all languages of the Indo-European family descend from a single Proto-Indo-European language.

The Indo-European family includes 16 groups, including 3 dead groups. Each language group can be divided into subgroups and languages. The table below does not show the finer division into subgroups, as well as there are no dead languages and groups.

Indo-European language family
Language groups	Incoming languages
Armenian	Armenian language (Eastern Armenian, Western Armenian)
Baltic	Latvian, Lithuanian
Germanic	Frisian languages (West Frisian, East Frisian, North Frisian languages), English language , Scottish (Anglo-Scottish) language, Dutch language, Low German language, German , Hebrew (Yiddish), Icelandic, Faroese, Danish, Norwegian language (Landsmol, Bokmol, Nynorsk), Swedish language (Swedish dialect in Finland, Skon dialect), Gutni
Greek	Modern Greek, Tsakonian, Italo-Ruman
Dard	Glangali, Kalasha, Kashmiri, Kho, Kohistani, Pashai, Phalura, Torvali, Shina, Shumashti
Illyrian	Albanian
Indo-Aryan	Sinhalese, Maldivian, Hindi, Urdu, Assamese, Bengali, Bishnupriya Manipuri, Oriya language, Bihar languages, Punjabi, Lakhnda, Gujuri, Dogri
Iranian	Ossetian language, Yagnob language, Saki languages, Pashto language Pamir languages, Baluch language, Talish language, Bakhtiar language, Kurdish language, Caspian dialects, Dialects of Central Iran, Zazaki (Zaza, Dimli), Gorani (Gurani), Persian (Farsi), Hazara language, Tajik language, Tati language
Celtic	Irish (Irish Gaelic), Gaelic (Scottish Gaelic), Manx, Welsh, Breton, Cornish
Nuristan	Kati (kamkata viri), Ashkun (ashkunu), Vaigali (kalasha-ala), Tregami (gambiri), Prasun (wasi-vari)
Romanesque	Aromun, Istro-Romanian, Meglen-Romanian, Romanian, Moldavian, French, Norman, Catalan, Provencal, Piedmont, Ligurian (modern), Lombard, Emilian-Romagnole, Venetian, Istro-Romanesque, Italian, Corsican, Neapolitan, Sicilian, Sardinian, Aragonese, Spanish, Asturleonian, Galician, Portuguese, Miranda, Ladino, Romansh, Friulian, Ladinsky
Slavic	Bulgarian language, Macedonian language, Church Slavonic language, Slovenian language, Serbian-Croatian language (Shtokavian), Serbian language (Ekava and Yekava), Montenegrin (Yekava), Bosnian, Croatian (Yekava), Kaikavian dialect, Molise-Croatian, Gradiscan-Croatian, Kashubian, Polish, Silesian, Luzhitsky subgroup (Upper Sorbian and Lower Sorbian, Slovak, Czech, Russian language, Ukrainian language, Polissya microlanguage, Rusyn language, Yugoslav-Rusyn language, Belarusian language

The language classification explains the reason for the difficulty of learning foreign languages. It is easier for a native speaker of the Slavic language who belongs to the Slavic group of the Indo-European family of languages to learn the language of the Slavic group than the language of another group of the Indo-European family, such as the languages of the Romance group (French) or the Germanic group of languages (English). It is even more difficult to learn the language of another language family, for example Chinese, which is not part of the Indo-European family, but belongs to the Sino-Tibetan family of languages.

By choosing foreign language for study, they are guided by the practical, and more often the economic side of the matter. To get a well-paid job, first of all, they choose such popular languages as English or German.

VoxBook audio course will help you in learning English

Additional materials on language families.

Below are the main language families and languages included in them. The Indo-European language family is discussed above.

Sino-Tibetan (Sino-Tibetan) language family.

Sino-Tibetan is one of the largest language families in the world. Includes over 350 languages, spoken by over 1200 million people. The Sino-Tibetan languages are divided into 2 groups, Chinese and Tibeto-Burmese.
● The Chinese group is formed by Chinese and its many dialects, the number of native speakers is more than 1050 million. Distributed in China and beyond. and min languages with more than 70 million native speakers.
● The Tibeto-Burmese group includes about 350 languages, with about 60 million speakers. Distributed in Myanmar (formerly Burma), Nepal, Bhutan, southwestern China and northeastern India. The main languages are Burmese (up to 30 million speakers), Tibetan (over 5 million), Karen languages (over 3 million), Manipuri (over 1 million) and others.

The Altai (hypothetical) language family includes the Turkic, Mongolian and Tungus-Manchurian language groups. sometimes include the Korean and Japanese-Ryukyu language groups.
● Türkic language group - widespread in Asia and Eastern Europe... The number of speakers is over 167.4 million people. They are divided into the following subgroups:
・ Bulgar subgroup: Chuvash (dead - Bulgar, Khazar).
・ Oguz subgroup: Turkmen, Gagauz, Turkish, Azerbaijani (dead - Oguz, Pechenezh).
・ Kypchak subgroup: Tatar, Bashkir, Karaite, Kumyk, Nogai, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Altai, Karakalpak, Karachai-Balkar, Crimean Tatar. (dead - Polovtsian, Pechenezh, Golden Horde).
・ Karluk subgroup: Uzbek, Uyghur.
・ East Hunnic subgroup: Yakut, Tuvan, Khakass, Shor, Karagas. (dead - Orkhon, Old Uigur.)
● The Mongolian language group includes several closely related languages of Mongolia, China, Russia and Afghanistan. Includes modern Mongolian (5.7 million people), Khalkha-Mongolian (Khalkha), Buryat, Khamnigan, Kalmyk, Oirat, Shira-Yugur, Mongorian, Bao'an-Dongsyan cluster, Mughal language - Afghanistan, Dagur (Dakhur) languages.
● Tungus-Manchu language group related languages in Siberia (including Far East), Mongolia and northern China. The number of speakers is 40 - 120 thousand people. Includes two subgroups:
・ Tunguska subgroup: Evenk, Evenk (Lamut), Negidal, Nanai, Udei, Ulch, Oroch, Udege.
・ Manchu subgroup: Manchu.

The languages of the Austronesian language family are spoken in Taiwan, Indonesia, Java - Sumatra, Brunei, Philippines, Malaysia, East Timor, Oceania, Kalimantan and Madagascar. This is one of the largest families (the number of languages is over 1000, the number of speakers is over 300 million people). They are divided into the following groups:
● Western Austronesian languages
● languages of eastern Indonesia
● oceanic languages

Afrasian (or Semitic-Hamitic) language family.

● Semitic group
・ Northern subgroup: Aysor.
・ Southern group: Arabic; Amharic, etc.
・ Dead: Aramaic, Akkadian, Phoenician, Canaanite, Hebrew (Hebrew).
・ Hebrew (the state language of Israel was revived).
● Kushite group: Galla, Somali, Beja.
● Berber group: Tuareg, Kabil, etc.
● Chadian group: Hausa, Gwandara, etc.
● Egyptian group (dead): Ancient Egyptian, Coptic.

The languages of the pre-Indo-European population of the Indian subcontinent are included:
● Dravidian group: Tamil, Malalayam, Kannara.
● Andhra group: Telugu.
● Central Indian group: Gondi.
● Brahui language (Pakistan).

The Japanese-Ryukyu (Japanese) family of languages is common in the Japanese archipelago and on the Ryukyu Islands. Japanese is an isolated language that is sometimes referred to as a hypothetical Altai family. The family includes:
・ Japanese language and dialects.

The Korean language family is represented by one single language - Korean. Korean is an isolated language that is sometimes referred to as the hypothetical Altai family. The family includes:
・ Japanese and dialects.
・ Ryukyu languages (Amami-Okinawan, Sakishim and Yonagun).

The Tai-Kadaiskiy (Thai-Kadai, Dun-Thai, Paratai) family of languages is widespread on the Indochina Peninsula and in the adjacent regions of South China.
● li languages (hlai (li) and jiamao) Thai languages
・ Northern subgroup: northern dialects of the Zhuang language, buoys, sek.
・ Central subgroup: tai (tho), nung, southern dialects of the Zhuang language.
・ Southwestern subgroup: Thai (Siamese), Lao, Shan, Khamti, Ahom, languages of black and white Thai, yuan, ly, khyn.
● Dong Shui languages: Dong, Shui, Mac, Then.
● Be
● Kadai languages: Lakua, Lati, Galao languages (northern and southern).
● li languages (hlai (li) and jiamao)

The Uralic language family includes two groups - Finno-Ugric and Samoyed.
● Finno-Ugric group:
・ Baltic-Finnish subgroup: Finnish, Izhorian, Karelian, Vepsian languages, Estonian, Votian, Livian languages.
・ Volga subgroup: Mordovian language, Mari language.
・ Permian subgroup: Udmurt, Komi-Zyryan, Komi-Permian and Komi-Yazvin languages.
・ Ugric subgroup: Khanty and Mansi, as well as Hungarian.
・ Sami subgroup: languages spoken by the Sami.
● Samoyedic languages are traditionally divided into 2 subgroups:
・ Northern subgroup: Nenets, Nganasan, Enets languages.
・ Southern subgroup: Selkup language.

An interactive map of the languages of the world - why is it needed? Then, so that you can clearly see in which country which language is spoken. For example, you select a country, click on it, and the map tells you that in this country, for example, in Papua New Guinea, they speak English, Neo-Melanesian and another local language called.

Or vice versa: you choose a language, for example, Spanish, and the map shows you that Spanish is the official language in Spain, Colombia, Panama, Argentina, Peru and a dozen other countries. In addition, it is spoken in some states of the United States, in Gibraltar. And Spanish, being not an official language, is widespread in Andorra, Belize and in some other countries - the map of languages of the world will highlight these countries in a different color.

And if you prefer French, then the map will show that French is the official language of the following countries of the world: France, of course, and besides Monaco, Guinea, Madagascar, Senegal, Niger, Mali, Togo and a number of other African countries. You will find that in Canada, Andorra, Chad, Belgium, Luxembourg and Switzerland, French is one of several official languages... Also, in some countries, French is not the state language, is widespread. First of all, of course, it comes about the Maghreb countries: Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco. All this you can see on the map of the languages of the world.

Of course, there are about 6,000 languages in the world, it is impossible to mark all of them on the language map of the world, so we will bypass local languages and focus on those that are official in at least one country.

Map of the languages of the world: practical benefits

Why do you need such an interactive language map of the world? In addition to idle curiosity and the joy of how countries change color when choosing a new language, you can plan your trip on the map of the world's languages.

For example, you are an experienced independent tourist, often combine several countries in one trip, while you always try to learn at least a few basic phrases in the local language, because even a few phrases will allow you relatively well

Created these amazing illustrations as family tree using materials from the Ethnologue website to show the origins of the Indo-European and Uralic languages, as well as the linguistic connections between them.

This tree-like visualization was inspired by her own comic "Stand Still. Stay Silent", which takes place 90 years later in the post-apocalyptic Scandinavian world. In this way Sandberg wanted to show why her characters understand each other, despite the fact that they speak different languages.

The size of a tree's leaves indicates how many people approximately speak a particular language. As you can see, English is one of the largest groups, along with Spanish and Hindi.

The trunk of the Indo-European proto-language is divided into European and Indo-Iranian (this includes, for example, Hindi). A separate small tree is the Uralic languages, which include the Finno-Ugric group (Finnish, Hungarian). These languages did not originate from a common proto-language, but independently.

With the help of the linguistic tree, it is clearly seen that the proximity of people across the territory does not at all mean that their languages have descended from common roots. Conversely, languages can have the same origin, even if their speakers live in different countries.

For example, let's take Finland and neighboring countries - Sweden, Denmark, Norway. The next part of the image shows that Finnish belongs to the Uralic language family, while Swedish, Danish and Norwegian belong to the Germanic language family.

European part the tree is divided into Slavic, Romanesque, Germanic, Celtic and other branches. Celtic languages, like Latin, are shown as thin twigs.

The relationship between Indo-Iranian languages is visible on the left side of the diagram.

In the scheme, a special part is assigned to the Finnish language, since the author is from Finland. Earlier, Sandberg used a cat's meow to illustrate the difference between her native Finnish and other Scandinavian languages.

Hello dear readers! It's time today to talk about what language families exist in the world. We will discuss everything in detail with their branches, groups, everything as it should be. Let's get started, let's not waste any time 🙂

Language family - it is the largest unit of classification of peoples (ethnic groups) on the basis of linguistic kinship - the common origin of their languages from a certain base language. Language families are divided into several language groups.

The largest of which, in terms of numbers, is the Indo-European language family. It includes the following language groups:

1) Romanesque: French, Italians, Spaniards, Portuguese, Moldovans, Romanians, and the like;

2) German: Germans, British, Scandinavians and others;

3) Slavic: Russians, Ukrainians, Poles, Belarusians, Croats, Slovaks, Czechs, Bulgarians, Serbs and the like.

All languages are related by family ties, each of which includes a group of related languages, which were in ancient times dialects of one language or were part of one linguistic union.

The largest of these families are: Indo-European (44.8% of the total world population), Seno-Tibetan (22.6%), Niger-Kordofan(6.1%), Afrasian (5.6%), austronesian(4.9%), Dravidian (3.9%). There are also so-called isolated languages that do not belong to any family and group (Japanese Korean, Ainu).

Family of Indo-European languages.

Indo-European languages - these are some of the largest language families, which include:

Heto-Luwian,

Anatolian, group;

Indo-Aryan or Indian group;

Iranian group;

Armenian language;

Phrygian language;

Greek group;

Thracian language;

Albanian;

Illyrian language;

the Viennese language;

Italian group;

romance group;

celtic group;

German group;

Baltic group;

Slavic group;

Ohar group.

The belonging of some other languages (for example Etruscan) to the Indo-European languages remains controversial. More than 150 peoples speak the languages of the Indo-European family, which is half of the world's population.

Turkic languages.

Turkic languages - it is a group of related languages. Probably belongs to the hypothetical Altai macrofamily of languages. Divided into western ( Western Hunnic) and eastern ( East Hunnic) branches.

The western line includes: Bulgar group - Bulgar ( ancient Bulgarian), Khazar, Chuvash languages; Oguz group - Oguz (X - XI centuries), Turkmen, Azerbaijani, Gagauz, Turkish and other languages;

the Kipchak group - Tatar, Karaite, Karachai-Balkarian, Nogai, Bashkir, Karakalpak, Kazakh and other languages;

Karluk group - Uzbek, Uyghur (Novouigur) and other languages.

The eastern line includes: Uyghur group - ancient Uigur, Yakut, Tuvan, and other languages;

Kyrgyz-Kypchak group - Altai, Kyrgyz languages.

There are also other classifications of the Turkic languages.

Finno-Hungarian languages.

Finno-Hungarian languages (Finnish-Finnish languages) - it is a family of related languages, which together with the Somodian languages make up a large genetic union - the Uralic languages. Divided into 5 branches:

1) Baltic Finnish - Karelian, Finnish, Vepsian, Izhora, Estonian, Votian, Levian languages.

2) Sami language.

3) Volzkofinskaya (united by territorial characteristics) - Moksha-Mordovian, Mari, Erzya-Mordovian languages.

4) Perm - Komizirian, Udmurt, Komi-Permian languages.

5) Hungarian - Hungarian and search-hungarian, Mansi and Khanty languages.

Afro-Asian languages.

Afro-Asian languages ( Semitic-Hamitic, Afro-Asian) - is a macrofamily of languages that common in North Africa, Western Asia and the island of Malta.

Divided into 5 (or 6) main branches:

Semitic,

Egyptian,

Berber-Lithuanian,

Kushite and Omot (which is sometimes regarded as a branch of the Kushite).

Semitic languages.

Semitic languages - is it a Eurasian branch, or Semitic-Hamitic, macrofamily languages. Consists of the following groups:

1) north-peripheral, or eastern (Acadian with dialects of Babylonian and Assyrian became extinct);

2) north-central, or northwestern [live - Hebrew and New Aramaic dialects, which are combined under the name of the (New Syrian) Assyrian language; dead - Amorean, Eblaite, Phoenician-Punic, Canaanite, Aramaic and Old Hebrew dialects: Imperial Aramaic, Old Aramaic; West Aramaic: Palmyrian, Palestinian, Nabatean; East Aramaic: Syriac, Babylonian-Talmudic, Manda];

3) south-central[Arabic (with dialects) and Maltese];

4) south-peripheral(the living - mehri, shkhauri, sokotri and others; the dead - Sabean, Menaean, Kataban);

5) Ethiosemite (living - tiger, tigers, or tyrganya, argobba, Amharic and others; dead - hafat, gees or Ethiopian).

The last three groups are often combined into one. The most ancient monuments of the Semitic languages are the Akkadian cuneiform inscriptions, their names and the names of the places of Palestine in Egyptian inscriptions (III - II millennium BC). There are written memos in languages such as Hebrew, Akak, Ethiopian, Syrian, Arabic. Preserved inscriptions in Ugaritic, Minea, Phoenician-Punic, Sabean and other languages.

Hay-Tibetan languages.

Hay-Tibestian languages ( Sino-Tibetan) — a family of languages that are spoken in Nepal, Myanmar, Bhutan, China and northeastern India.

Common genetic classification absent. There are two branches: Tibeto-Burmese and Chinese.

Main languages and language groups: Chinese, Tibetan (Tibetan and several closely related languages in the Himalayas), Lolo-Burmese (Burmese, Hani, Fox, Asi, Lolo, and the like), Newari, Kachin, Tangut, Cook, Karen, Manipuri Naga and other languages. In languages Sino-Tibetan families are spoken by over 1.2 billion people.

Indo-Iranian languages.

Indo-Iranian languages - it is a special branch of the Indo-European language family, which includes the Indian (Indo-Aryan) Iranian and Dardic languages.

Mongolian languages.

Mongolian languages - these are the languages of the Mongolian peoples, which were formed in the XIV-XVI centuries. from dialects early Mongolian language unique to all tribes. Includes Buryat, Mongolian, Kalmyk languages; unwritten Mongorian, Dongxiang, Baoan languages and others.

This is the kind of information we will probably end with for today. I hope this article helped you to understand in more detail what language families are, their classification. More articles coming soon. Subscribe to updates so as not to miss anything ...