Language Families of the World

Many linguists believe world languages likely develop from a single source language in the distant past; an introduction to the concept of language families; how languages change over time; what linguistics can teach humans about their own history.

While the Indo-European family of languages is not the first group to be identified as related, it is the family that receives much of the research and classification that becomes the basis of modern linguistics; what defines Indo-European languages.

Diving into the earliest roots of Indo-European languages with a look at Germanic, Romance, Balto-Slavic, Greek, Albanian and Celtic languages; how Indo-European languages contradict common notions about language; mysteries yet to be solved.

Tracing back to the branching of the Indo-European tree, when the European languages split from the Indo-Aryan varieties; exploring many variations that evolve; why it can be so difficult to differentiate between a language and a dialect.

Focusing on the "click" languages, some of the most endangered languages in the world; these endangered languages share a distinctive profile, yet likely do not all come from a single family; exploring where they may have begun; how they work.

The Niger-Congo family of languages does not adhere to an identified pattern; what links this immense family together; what the essence of the Niger-Congo is; what these languages say about migration patterns; exploring these questions and more.

Looking at unique aspects of the Niger-Congo family, including the use of tone; how different languages can spring from the same original materials; seeing how many languages can develop in proximity and share words but be part of different groups.

Looking at the Afro-Asiatic language family that develops in the Fertile Crescent; focusing on the Semitic branch, which includes Arabic and Hebrew; examining what defines this group of languages; uncovering the roots of the first alphabets.

Looking at other Afro-Asiatic subfamilies, including the "Berber" subfamily and other subfamilies spoken south of the Sahara; what they can teach people about the nature of language; a look at Somali oral poetry; its complex use of alliteration.

The Nilo-Saharan family runs between the Afro-Asiatic and Niger-Congo languages in Africa; how linguists know that the Nilo-Saharan languages are related, as they are immensely different from each other; examining the unique features of this family.

Meeting the Uralic family of languages in Europe; this family stretches across the north of Europe and into Russia and parts of Asia; why Turkish was once thought to be part of this family; how Uralic languages differ from Indo-European and others.

How linguists establish connections between languages and determine their common roots; looking at the languages of Polynesia to see how changes can be followed backward to reveal connections between languages; the Indo-European and Uralic families.

Named for the Caucasus Mountains, the Caucasian languages are actually three different families; exploring these grammatically complex languages; understanding how they work; how so many different varieties can spring from a relatively small area.

The "Big Four" languages of southern India are not part of the Indo-European family, but rather, the Dravidian; what the distribution of Dravidian languages says about where they come from and how they got where they are; their unique features.

The Altaic languages are spoken across Asia; why there is some debate among linguists as to whether they comprise one family or are made of three separate ones; how these languages function, including nuances like a mood known as "evidentiality".

Japanese and Korean share some features of Altaic languages, yet some linguists believe they are separate; a brief foray through the Japanese writing system; looking deeper into the language; turning to Korean; comparing it with Asian languages.

Exploring the Asian languages beyond Japanese and Korean; why Mandarin and Cantonese are a classic example of two different languages being mistaken for dialects, thanks in part to a shared writing system and cultural proximity.

Chinese is one branch of the Sino-Tibetan family; the other branch, Tibeto-Burman, consists of around 400 languages; the features of languages from both branches; what linguists can assume about the proto-language from which they may have sprung.

How languages with different origins can still seem to be structurally related; looking at the concept of a Sprachbund; why contact is just as influential as origin when it comes to resemblances between otherwise unrelated languages.

Investigating the large and widespread Austronesian language family; what connects Austronesian languages to other families; how they differ from European languages; tracing the way Austronesian languages spread across far-flung locations.

The languages of Polynesia are estimated to be some of the newest in the world; looking back to the earliest cultures of the Polynesian islands to see how the languages likely originate and are disseminated, branching into separate subgroups.

How some languages end up isolated amidst other unrelated families; looking at pockets of language in Siberia, Spain and Japan that are not related to those that surround them; understanding what the nature of language suggests about these places.

No one language is older than another; when two languages are forced into proximity, a makeshift fusion of the two can emerge as a new language known as a creole; how a hierarchical, stopgap form of communication can become a true language.

Turning to the linguistically rich island of New Guinea; why it is home to hundreds of languages in a relatively small area; how pronouns allow linguists to find connections between these languages; exploring some of their unusual traits.

Australia has about a dozen languages that will be passed to generations of children; a look at some of Australia's language families; how separation from a common ancestor and proximity to a different language cause a language to change.

Continuing the examination of the languages of Australia, including the first Australian language to be documented by Europeans; many of these languages present a case study in language obsolescence and language mixture.

North America is home to at least 300 distinct languages before English; theories linguists have regarding the relationship of various Native American languages; the origins of humans and their varieties of speech on the North American continent.

Zooming in on some of the larger language families of North America; what they suggest about language in general; examining languages on the brink of extinction; seeing which languages contribute words currently used in American English.

Continuing the journey through the languages of North America, including a language that uses no sounds that require the lips to touch; the unique grammatical features of languages across the continent; what happens when languages die out.

Following Native American migrations to encounter the language families that move south and take root in Central and South America; experiencing a range of linguistic developments, which include a language variety that incorporates whistling.

Languages from different families that have been brought together can create a hybrid that belongs to both; every combination happens in different ways and to varying degrees; it looks at several examples of this phenomenon.

Tracing the relationships between macro language families; how the pursuit of evidence connecting the language families is complicated by time, accidental similarities, lost languages and more; looking at theories that could offer solutions.

The idiosyncrasies in DNA allow people to trace back to common ancestors, much like language traits allow them to chart language-family relationships; the concept of glottochronology; seeing the linguistic theories that are confirmed by genetics.

What writing systems say about language; why writing actually tells people about human ingenuity in communication; the cultural importance of language; its preservation and loss; the realities of a more linguistically homogeneous future.