All language families. What language groups exist

Most of the world's languages ​​are grouped into families. A language family is a genetic linguistic association.

But there are isolated languages, i.e. those that do not belong to any known language family.
There are also unclassified languages, of which there are more than 100.

Language family

There are about 420 language families in total. Sometimes families are united into macro-families. But at present, only theories about the existence of the Nostratic and Afrasian macrofamilies have received reliable substantiation.

Nostratic languages- a hypothetical macrofamily of languages, uniting several language families and languages ​​of Europe, Asia and Africa, including Altaic, Kartvelian, Dravidian, Indo-European, Uralic, and sometimes also Afroasiatic and Eskimo-Aleutian languages. All Nostratic languages ​​go back to a single Nostratic parent language.
Afroasiatic languages- a macrofamily of languages ​​distributed in northern Africa from the Atlantic coast and the Canary Islands to the Red Sea coast, as well as in Western Asia and on the island of Malta. There are groups of speakers of Afroasiatic languages ​​(mainly various dialects of Arabic) in many countries outside the main area. The total number of speakers is about 253 million people.

The existence of other macrofamilies remains only a scientific hypothesis that requires confirmation.
Family– this is a group of definitely, but quite distantly related languages ​​that have at least 15% matches in the base list.

The language family can be figuratively represented as a tree with branches. Branches are groups of closely related languages. They do not have to be of the same level of depth, only their relative order within the same family is important. Let us consider this question using the example of the Indo-European family of languages.

Indo-European family

This is the most widespread language family in the world. It is represented on all inhabited continents of the Earth. The number of speakers exceeds 2.5 billion. The Indo-European family of languages ​​is considered part of the macrofamily of Nostratic languages.
The term “Indo-European languages” was introduced by the English scientist Thomas Young in 1813.

Thomas Young
The languages ​​of the Indo-European family descend from a single Proto-Indo-European language, whose speakers lived about 5-6 thousand years ago.
But it is impossible to name exactly where the Proto-Indo-European language originated; there are only hypotheses: regions such as Eastern Europe, Western Asia, and steppe territories at the junction of Europe and Asia are named. With a high probability, the archaeological culture of the ancient Indo-Europeans can be considered the so-called “Yamnaya culture”, the bearers of which in the 3rd millennium BC. e. lived in the east of modern Ukraine and the south of Russia. This is a hypothesis, but it is supported by genetic studies indicating that the source of at least part of the Indo-European languages ​​in Western and Central Europe was a wave of migration of speakers of the Yamnaya culture from the territory of the Black Sea and Volga steppes approximately 4,500 years ago.

The Indo-European family includes the following branches and groups: Albanian, Armenian, as well as Slavic, Baltic, Germanic, Celtic, Italic, Romance, Illyrian, Greek, Anatolian (Hittite-Luvian), Iranian, Dardic, Indo-Aryan, Nuristan and Tocharian languages groups (Italic, Illyrian, Anatolian and Tocharian groups are represented only by dead languages).
If we consider the place of the Russian language in the taxonomy of the Indo-European language family by level, it will look something like this:

Indo-European family
↓
Branch: Balto-Slavic
↓
Group: Slavic
↓
Subgroup: East Slavic
↓
Language: Russian

Slavic

Isolated languages ​​(isolates)

There are more than 100 of them. In fact, each isolated language forms a separate family, consisting only of that language. For example, Basque (northern regions of Spain and adjacent southern regions of France); Burushaski (this language is spoken by the Burish people living in the mountainous regions of Hunza (Kanjut) and Nagar in northern Kashmir); Sumerian (the language of the ancient Sumerians, spoken in Southern Mesopotamia in the 4th-3rd millennia BC); Nivkh (the language of the Nivkhs, widespread in the northern part of Sakhalin Island and in the basin of the Amguni River, a tributary of the Amur); Elamite (Elam is a historical region and ancient state (III millennium - mid-VI century BC) in the southwest of modern Iran); Hadza (in Tanzania) languages ​​are isolated. Only those languages ​​are called isolated for which there is sufficient data and inclusion in the language family has not been proven for them, even after intensive attempts to do so.

The development of languages ​​can be compared to the process of reproduction of living organisms. In past centuries, their number was much smaller than today; there were so-called “proto-languages”, which were the ancestors of our modern speech. They broke up into many dialects, which were distributed throughout the planet, changing and improving. Thus, various language groups were formed, each of which descended from one “parent”. Based on this criterion, such groups are classified into families, which we will now list and briefly consider.

The largest family in the world

As you might have guessed, the Indo-European language group (more accurately, it is a family) consists of many subgroups that are spoken throughout much of the world. Its distribution area is the Middle East, Russia, all of Europe, as well as the countries of America that were colonized by the Spaniards and the British. Indo-European languages ​​are divided into three categories:

Native speeches

Slavic language groups are very similar in both sound and phonetics. They all appeared at about the same time - in the 10th century, when the Old Church Slavonic language, invented by the Greeks - Cyril and Methodius - for writing the Bible, ceased to exist. In the 10th century, this language split, so to speak, into three branches, among which were the eastern, western and southern. The first of them included the Russian language (Western Russian, Nizhny Novgorod, Old Russian and many other dialects), Ukrainian, Belarusian and Rusyn. The second branch included Polish, Slovak, Czech, Slovinian, Kashubian and other dialects. The third branch is represented by Bulgarian, Macedonian, Serbian, Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin, Slovenian. These languages ​​are common only in those countries where they are official, and Russian is the international one.

Sino-Tibetan family

This is the second largest language family, which covers the entire area of ​​South and Southeast Asia. The main “protolanguage,” as you guessed, is Tibetan. All who come from him follow him. These are Chinese, Thai, Malay. Also language groups belonging to the Burmese regions, Bai language, Dungan and many others. Officially, there are about 300 of them. However, if you take into account adverbs, the number will be much higher.

Niger-Congo family

The linguistic groups of the peoples of Africa have a special phonetic system, and, of course, a special sound, unusual for us. A characteristic feature of the grammar here is the presence of nominal classes, which is not found in any Indo-European branch. Indigenous African languages ​​are still spoken by people from the Sahara to the Kalahari. Some of them “assimilated” into English or French, some remained original. Among the main languages ​​that can be found in Africa, we highlight the following: Rwanda, Makua, Shona, Rundi, Malawi, Zulu, Luba, Xhosa, Ibibio, Tsonga, Kikuyu and many others.

Afroasiatic or Semito-Hamitic family

There are language groups spoken in North Africa and the Middle East. It also still includes many of the dead languages ​​of these peoples, such as Coptic. Of the currently existing dialects that have Semitic or Hamitic roots, the following can be named: Arabic (the most widespread in the territory), Amharic, Hebrew, Tigrinya, Assyrian, Maltese. Also often included here are the Chadic and Berber languages, which are essentially spoken in Central Africa.

Japanese-Ryukyuan family

It is clear that the distribution area of ​​these languages ​​is Japan itself and the adjacent Ryukyu Island. Until now, we have not finally figured out from which proto-language all those dialects that are now used by the inhabitants of the Land of the Rising Sun originated. There is a version that this language originated in Altai, from where it spread, along with its inhabitants, to the Japanese islands, and then to America (the Indians had very similar dialects). There is also an assumption that the birthplace of the Japanese language is China.

Languages ​​and peoples. Today, the peoples of the world speak more than 3,000 languages. There are about 4000 forgotten languages, some of them are still alive in the memory of mankind (Sanskrit, Latin). By the nature of the language, many researchers judge the degree of kinship between peoples. Language is most often used as an ethnic differentiating feature. The linguistic classification of peoples is the most recognized in world science. At the same time, language is not an indispensable feature that distinguishes one people from another. The same Spanish language is spoken by several different Latin American peoples. The same can be said about the Norwegians and Danes, who have a common literary language. At the same time, residents of Northern and Southern China speak different languages, but consider themselves to be the same ethnic group.

Each of the major literary languages ​​of Europe (French, Italian, English, German) dominates a territory that is linguistically much less homogeneous than the territory of the Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian peoples (L. Gumilyov, 1990). The Saxons and Tyroleans hardly understand each other, and the Milanese and Sicilians do not understand each other at all. The English of Northumberland speak a language close to Norwegian, as they are descendants of the Vikings who settled in England. The Swiss speak German, French, Italian and Romansh.

The French speak four languages: French, Celtic (Bretons), Basque (Gascons) and Provençal. Linguistic differences between them can be traced from the beginning of the Romanization of Gaul.

Taking into account their intra-ethnic differences, the French, Germans, Italians, and British should be compared not with Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians, but with all Eastern Europeans. At the same time, such systems of ethnic groups as the Chinese or Indians correspond not to the French, Germans or Ukrainians, but to Europeans as a whole (L. Gumilyov, 1990).

All languages ​​of the peoples of the world belong to certain language families, each of which unites languages ​​similar in linguistic structure and origin. The process of formation of language families is associated with the isolation of different peoples from each other in the process of human settlement across the globe. At the same time, peoples that were initially genetically distant from each other can enter into one language family. Thus, the Mongols, having conquered many nations, adopted foreign languages, and the blacks resettled by slave traders in America speak English.

Human races and language families. According to biological characteristics, people are divided into races. The French scientist Cuvier identified three human races at the beginning of the 19th century - black, yellow and white.

The idea that human races emerged from different centers was established in the Old Testament: “Can an Ethiopian change his skin and a leopard his spots.” On this basis, the theory of the “Nordic, or Indo-European chosen man” was created among English-speaking Protestants. Such a man was put on a pedestal by the French Comte de Gobineau in a book with the provocative title “Treatise on the Inequality of Human Races.” The word “Indo-European” over time was transformed into “Indo-Germanic”, and the ancestral home of the primitive “Indo-Germans” began to be sought in the region of the North European Plain, which at that time was part of the kingdom of Prussia. In the 20th century ideas about racial and national elitism turned into the bloodiest wars in human history.

By the middle of the 20th century. Many classifications of human races have developed - from two (Negroid and Mongoloid) to thirty-five. Most scientists write about four human races with the following centers of origin: the Greater Sunda Islands - the homeland of the Australoids, East Asia - the Mongoloids, Southern and Central Europe - the Caucasoids, and Africa - the Negroids.

All these races, their languages ​​and centers of origin are correlated by some researchers with different original hominids. The ancestors of the Australoids are Javan Pithecanthropus, the Mongoloids are Sinanthropus, the Negroids are African Neanderthals, and the Caucasoids are European Neanderthals. The genetic connection of certain ancient forms with the corresponding modern races can be traced using morphological comparisons of craniums. Mongoloids, for example, are similar to Sinanthropus with a flattened face, Caucasians are similar to European Neanderthals with strongly protruding nasal bones, and the broad nose makes Negroids similar to African Neanderthals (V. Alekseev, 1985). In the Paleolithic, people were the same black, white, yellow as they are today, with the same differentiation of skulls and skeletons. This means that intercivilizational differences go back to ancient times, to the beginning of the human race. These should also include interlingual differences.

The oldest finds of representatives of the Negroid race were discovered not in Africa, but in Southern France, in the Grimaldi Cave near Nice, and in Abkhazia, in the Kholodny Grotto. An admixture of Negroid blood is found not only among Spaniards, Portuguese, Italians, residents of the south of France and the Caucasus, but also among residents of the north-west - in Ireland (L. Gumilyov, 1997).

Classical Negroids belong to the Niger-Kordofanian language family, which began to populate Central Africa from North Africa and Western Asia quite late - somewhere at the beginning of our era.

Before the arrival of the Negroids (Fulani, Bantu, Zulus) in Africa, the territory south of the Sahara was inhabited by the Kapoids, representatives of a recently identified race, which included the Hottentots and Bushmen, belonging to the Khoisan language family. Unlike blacks, capoids are not black, but brown: they have Mongoloid facial features, they speak not while exhaling, but while inhaling, and are sharply different from both blacks and Europeans and Mongoloids. They are considered a remnant of some ancient race of the southern hemisphere, which was displaced from the main areas of its settlement by Negroids (L. Gumilyov, 1997). Then many Negroids were transported to America by slave traders

Another ancient race of the southern hemisphere is the Australoid (Australian family). Australoids live in Australia and Melanesia. With black skin, they have huge beards, wavy hair, and broad shoulders, and exceptional reaction speed. Their closest relatives lived in southern India and belong to the Dravidian language family (Tamil, Telugu).

Representatives of the Caucasoid (white race), belonging mainly to the Indo-European language family, inhabited not only, as now, Europe, Western Asia and the North of India, but also almost the entire Caucasus, a significant part of Central and Central Asia and Northern Tibet.

The largest ethnolinguistic groups of the Indo-European language family in Europe are Romance (French, Italians, Spaniards, Romanians), Germanic (Germans, English), Slavic (Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians, Poles, Slovaks, Bulgarians, Serbs). They inhabit North Asia (Russians), North America (Americans), South Africa (immigrants from England and Holland), Australia and New Zealand (immigrants from England), and a significant part of South America (Spanish and Portuguese-speaking Latin Americans).

The largest representative of the Indo-European family is the Indo-Aryan group of peoples of India and Pakistan (Hindustani, Bengalis, Marathas, Punjabis, Biharis, Gujjars). This also includes the peoples of the Iranian group (Persians, Tajiks, Kurds, Baluchis, Ossetians), the Baltic group (Latvians and Lithuanians), Armenians, Greeks, Albanians..

The most numerous race is the Mongoloids. They are divided into subraces belonging to different language families.

Siberian, Central Asian, Central Asian, Volga and Transcaucasian Mongoloids form the Altai language family. It unites the Turkic, Mongolian and Tungus-Manchu ethnolinguistic groups, each of which in turn is divided into ethnolinguistic subgroups. Thus, the Turkic Mongoloids are divided into the Bulgar subgroup (Chuvash), southwestern (Azerbaijanis, Turkmens), northwestern (Tatars, Bashkirs, Kazakhs), southeastern (Uzbeks, Uighurs), northeastern (Yakuts) subgroups.

The most widely spoken language in the world, Chinese (over 1 billion people), belongs to the Sino-Tibetan language family. It is used in writing by North Chinese and South Chinese Mongoloids (Chinese or Han), who differ significantly from each other anthropologically and in colloquial speech. The Tibetan Mongoloids also belong to the same language family. The Mongoloids of Southeast Asia are classified into the Parataic and Austroasiatic language families. The peoples of the Chukchi-Kamchatka and Eskimo-Aleut language families are also close to the Mongoloids.

There are also subraces, with which groups of certain languages ​​are usually correlated, that is, the system of human races is arranged hierarchically.

Representatives of the listed races include 3/4 of the world's population. The remaining peoples belong to small races or microraces with their own language families.

At the contact of the main human races, mixed or transitional racial forms are encountered, often forming their own language families.

Thus, the mixing of Negroids with Caucasians gave rise to mixed-transitional forms of peoples of the Afroasiatic, or Semitic-Hamitic family (Arabs, Jews, Sudanese, Ethiopians). Peoples speaking languages ​​of the Ural language family (Nenets, Khanty, Komi, Mordovians, Estonians, Hungarians) form transitional forms between Mongoloids and Caucasians. Very complex racial mixtures formed into the North Caucasian (Abkhazians, Adygeans, Kabardians, Circassians, Chechens, Ingush peoples of Dagestan) and Kartvelian (Georgians, Mingrelians, Svans) language families.

Similar racial mixing occurred in America, only it was much more intense than in the Old World, and, in general, did not affect language differences.

The listing of languages ​​is accompanied by minimal geographical, historical and philological commentary.

I. INDO-EUROPEAN LANGUAGES

1. Indian group 1

(over 96 living languages ​​in total)

1) Hindi and Urdu(sometimes united under the common name Hindustani 2) - two varieties of one modern Indian literary language: Urdu is the state language of Pakistan, written on the basis of the Arabic alphabet; Hindi (the official language of India) - based on the Old Indian Devanagari script.
2) Bengali.
3) Punjabi.
4) Lahnda (lendi).
5) Sindhi.
6) Rajasthani.
7) Gujarati.
8) Mrathi.
9) Sinhalese.
10) Nepali(eastern Pahari, in Nepal)
11) Bihari.
12) Oriya.(otherwise: audrey, utkali, in eastern India)
13) Assamese.
14) Gypsy, emerged as a result of resettlement and migrations in the V - X centuries. AD
15) Kashmiri and others Dardic languages

Dead:
16) Vedic- the language of the most ancient sacred books of the Indians - the Vedas, formed in the first half of the second millennium BC. e. (recorded later).
17) Sanskrit. The “classical” literary language of the Indians from the 3rd century. BC to the 7th century AD (literally samskrta means "processed", as opposed to prakrta "not normalized" spoken language); There remains a rich literature in Sanskrit, religious and secular (epic, drama); The first Sanskrit grammar of the 4th century. BC Panini was redesigned in the 13th century. AD Vopadeva.
18) Pali- Central Indian literary and cult language of the medieval era.
19) Prakrits- various colloquial Central Indian dialects, from which modern Indian languages ​​originated; replicas of minor persons in Sanskrit drama are written in Prakrits.

1 About Indian languages, see: 3grapher G.A. Languages ​​of India, Pakistan, Ceylon and Nepal. M., I960.
2 See, for example, the title of the book by A.P. Barannikov "Hindustani (Urdu and Hindi)". D., 1934.

2. Iranian group 1

(more than 10 languages; finds the greatest affinity with the Indian group, with which it unites into a common Indo-Iranian, or Aryan, group;
Arya is a tribal self-name in the most ancient monuments, from which Iran, and Alan is the self-name of the Scythians)

1) Persian(Farsi) - writing based on the Arabic alphabet; for Old Persian and Middle Persian, see below.
2) Dari(Farsi-Kabuli) is the literary language of Afghanistan, along with Pashto.
3) Pashto(Pashto, Afghan) - literary language, since the 30s. the official language of Afghanistan.
4) Balochi (Baluchi).
5) Tajik.
6) Kurdish.
7) Ossetian; adverbs: Iron (eastern) Digor (western). Ossetians are descendants of the Alans-Scythians
8) Talyshsky.
10) Caspian(Gilan, Mazanderan) dialects.
11) Pamir languages(Shugnan, Rushan, Bartang, Capykol, Khuf, Oroshor, Yazgulyam, Ishkashim, Wakhan) are the unwritten languages ​​of the Pamirs.
12) Yagnobsky.

Dead:
13) Old Persian- the language of cuneiform inscriptions of the Achaemenid era (Darius, Xerxes, etc.) VI - IV centuries. BC e.
14) Avestan- another ancient Iranian language, which came down in the Middle Persian copies of the sacred book "Avesta", which contains religious texts of the cult of the Zoroastrians, followers of Zoroaster (in Greek: Zoroaster).
15) Pahlavi- Middle Persian language III - IX centuries. n. e., preserved in the translation of the “Avesta” (this translation is called “Zend”, from which for a long time the Avestan language itself was incorrectly called Zend).
16) Median- a genus of northwestern Iranian dialects; no written monuments have survived.
17) Parthian- one of the Middle Persian languages ​​of the 3rd century. BC e. - III century n. e., distributed in Parthia to the southeast of the Caspian Sea.
18) Sogdian- the language of Sogdiana in the Zeravshan valley, first millennium AD. e.; ancestor of the Yaghnobi language.
19) Khorezmian- the language of Khorezm along the lower reaches of the Amu Darya; the first is the beginning of the second millennium AD.
20) Scythian- the language of the Scythians (Alans), who lived in the steppes along the northern shore of the Black Sea and east to the borders of China in the first millennium BC. e. and the first millennium AD e.; preserved in proper names in Greek transmission; ancestor of the Ossetian language.
21) Bactrian(Kushan) - the language of ancient Bakt along the upper reaches of the Amu Darya, as well as the language of Kushan at the beginning of the first millennium AD.
22) Saki(Khotanese) - in Central Asia and Chinese Turkestan; from V - X centuries. AD texts written in the Indian Brahmi script remain.

Note. Most modern Iranian scholars divide the living and dead Iranian languages ​​into the following groups:

A. Western
1) Southwestern: ancient and middle Persian, modern Persian, Tajik, Tat and some others.
2) Northwestern: Median, Parthian, Baluchi (Baluchi), Kurdish, Talysh and other Caspian.
B. Eastern
1) Southeast: Saka (Khotanese), Pashto (Pashto), Pamir.
2) Northeast: Scythian, Sogdian, Khorezmian, Ossetian, Yaghnobi.

1 About Iranian languages, see: Oransky I.M. Iranian languages. M, 1963. - Tatsky - Tats are divided into Muslim Tats and “Mountain Jews”

3. Slavic group

A. Eastern subgroup
1) Russian; adverbs: northern (Veliko) Russian - “oozing” and southern (Veliko) Russian - “accharging”; The Russian literary language developed on the basis of the transitional dialects of Moscow and its environs, where from the south and southeast the Tula, Kursk, Oryol and Ryazan dialects spread features that were alien to the northern dialects, which were the dialectal basis of the Moscow dialect, and supplanted some features of the latter, as well as by mastering elements of the Church Slavonic literary language; in addition, into the Russian literary language in the 16th-18th centuries. various foreign language elements were included; writing based on the Russian alphabet, processed from the Slavic - “Cyrillic” under Peter the Great; the most ancient monuments of the 11th century. (they also apply to the Ukrainian and Belarusian languages); the state language of the Russian Federation, an interethnic language for communication between the peoples of the Russian Federation and adjacent territories of the former USSR, one of the world languages.
2) Ukrainian or Ukrainian A Insky; before the revolution of 1917 - Little Russian or Little Russian; three main dialects: northern, southeastern, southwestern; The literary language began to take shape in the 14th century; the modern literary language has existed since the end of the 18th century. on the basis of the Dnieper dialects of the south-eastern dialect; writing based on the Cyrillic alphabet in its post-Petrine variety.
3) Belorussian; writing since the 14th century. based on the Cyrillic alphabet Dialects northeastern and southwestern; the literary language is based on Central Belarusian dialects.

B. Southern subgroup
4) Bulgarian- formed in the process of contact of Slavic dialects with the language of the Kama Bulgars, from which it received its name; writing based on the Cyrillic alphabet; the most ancient monuments from the 10th century. AD
5) Macedonian.
6) Serbo-Croatian; The Serbs have a letter based on the Cyrillic alphabet, the Croats have a letter based on Latin; the most ancient monuments from the 12th century.
7) Slovenian;- writing based on the Latin alphabet; the most ancient monuments from the X - XI centuries.

Dead:
8) Old Church Slavonic(or Old Church Slavic) - the common literary language of the Slavs of the medieval period, which arose on the basis of Thessalonica dialects of the Old Bulgarian language in connection with the introduction of writing for the Slavs (two alphabets: Glagolitic and Cyrillic) and the translation of church books to promote Christianity among the Slavs in the 9th-10th centuries . n. e.. Among the Western Slavs it was supplanted by Latin due to Western influence and the transition to Catholicism; in the form of Church Slavonic - an integral element of the Russian literary language.

IN. Western subgroup
9) Czech; writing based on the Latin alphabet; the most ancient monuments from the 13th century.
10) Slovak; Polish; writing based on the Latin alphabet; ancient monuments from the 14th century,
12) Kashubian; lost its independence and became a dialect of the Polish language.
13) Lusatian(abroad: Sorabian, Vendian); two variants: Upper Sorbian (or eastern) and Lower Sorbian (or western); writing based on the Latin alphabet.

Dead:
14) Polabsky- became extinct in the 18th century, was distributed along both banks of the river. Labs (Elbe) in Germany.
15) Pomeranian dialects- became extinct in the medieval period due to forced Germanization; were distributed along the southern coast of the Baltic Sea in Pomerania (Pomerania).

4. Baltic group

1) Lithuanian; writing based on the Latin alphabet; monuments from the 14th century Latvian; writing based on the Latin alphabet; monuments from the 14th century
3) Latgalian 1 .

Dead:
4) Prussian- became extinct in the 17th century. in connection with forced Germanization; territory of former East Prussia; monuments of the XIV-XVII centuries.
5) Yatvingian, Curonian and other languages ​​on the territory of Lithuania and Latvia, extinct by the 17th-18th centuries.

1 There is an opinion that this is only a dialect of the Latvian language.

5. German group

B. West German subgroup
6) English; Literary English developed in the 16th century. AD based on the London dialect; V-XI centuries - Old English (or Anglo-Saxon), XI-XVI centuries. - Middle English and from the 16th century. - New English; writing based on the Latin alphabet (unchanged); written monuments from the 7th century; language of international significance.
7) Dutch (Dutch) with Flemish; writing on a Latin basis; In the Republic of South Africa live the Boers, immigrants from Holland, who speak a variety of the Dutch language, the Boer language (otherwise: Afrikaans).
8) Frisian; monuments from the 14th century
9) German; two dialects: Low German (northern, Niederdeutsch or Plattdeutsch) and High German (southern, Hochdeutsch); the literary language was formed on the basis of southern German dialects, but with many northern features (especially in pronunciation), but still does not represent unity; in the VIII-XI centuries. - Old High German, in the XII-XV centuries. -Middle High German, from the 16th century. - New High German, developed in the Saxon offices and translations of Luther and his associates; writing based on the Latin alphabet in two varieties: Gothic and Antiqua; one of the largest languages ​​in the world.
10) Yiddish(or Yiddish, New Hebrew) - various High German dialects mixed with elements of Hebrew, Slavic and other languages.

IN. East German subgroup
Dead:
11) Gothic, existed in two dialects. Visigothic - served the medieval Gothic state in Spain and Northern Italy; had a writing system based on the Gothic alphabet, compiled by Bishop Wulfila in the 4th century. n. e. for the translation of the Gospel, which is the most ancient monument of the Germanic languages. Ostrogothic is the language of the eastern Goths, who lived in the early Middle Ages on the Black Sea coast and in the southern Dnieper region; existed until the 16th century. in Crimea, thanks to which a small dictionary compiled by the Dutch traveler Busbeck has been preserved.
12) Burgundian, Vandal, Gepid, Herulian- languages ​​of ancient Germanic tribes in East Germany.

6. Roman group

(before the collapse of the Roman Empire and the formation of Romance 1 languages ​​- Italic)

1) French; the literary language had developed by the 16th century. based on the dialect of Ile-de-France centered in Paris; French dialects developed at the beginning of the Middle Ages as a result of crossing the folk (vulgar) Latin of the conquerors of the Romans and the language of the conquered native Gauls - Gallic; writing based on the Latin alphabet; the most ancient monuments from the 9th century. AD; Middle French period from the 9th to the 15th centuries, New French - from the 16th century. The French language acquired international significance before other European languages.
2) Provençal (Occitan); minority language of south-eastern France (Provence); as a literary one existed in the Middle Ages (lyrics of the troubadours) and survived until the end of the 19th century.
3) Italian; the literary language developed on the basis of Tuscan dialects, and in particular the dialect of Florence, which arose due to the crossing of vulgar Latin with the languages ​​of the mixed population of medieval Italy; written in the Latin alphabet, historically the first national language in Europe 3.
4) Sardinian(or Sardinian). Spanish; developed in Europe as a result of crossing folk (vulgar) Latin with the languages ​​of the native population of the Roman province of Iberia; writing based on the Latin alphabet (the same applies to Catalan and Portuguese).
6) Galician.
7) Catalan.
8) Portuguese.
9) Romanian; developed as a result of crossing folk (vulgar) Latin and the languages ​​of the natives of the Roman province of Dacia; writing based on the Latin alphabet.
10) Moldavian(a variety of Romanian); writing based on the Russian alphabet.
11) Macedonian-Romanian(Aromunian).
12) Romansh- language of a national minority; Since 1938 it has been recognized as one of the four official languages ​​of Switzerland.
13) Creole languages- crossed Romance languages ​​with local languages ​​(Haitian, Mauritian, Seychelles, Senegalese, Papiamento, etc.).

Dead (Italian):
14) Latin- literary state language of Rome in the republican and imperial era (III century BC - first centuries of the Middle Ages); the language of rich literary monuments, epic, lyrical and dramatic, historical prose, legal documents and oratory; the most ancient monuments from the 6th century. BC; Varro's first description of the Latin language. I century BC; classical grammar of Donatus - 4th century. AD; the literary language of the Western European Middle Ages and the language of the Catholic Church; along with ancient Greek, it is a source of international terminology.
15) Medieval Vulgar Latin- folk Latin dialects of the early Middle Ages, which, when crossed with the native languages ​​of the Roman provinces of Gaul, Iberia, Dacia, etc., gave rise to the Romance languages: French, Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian, etc.
16) Oscian, Umbrian, Sabelian and other Italian dialects were preserved in fragmentary written monuments of the last centuries BC.

1 The name “Romanesque” comes from the word Roma, as Rome was called by the Latins, and currently by the Italians.
2 See chap. VII, § 89 - on the formation of national languages.
3 See ibid.

7. Celtic group

Dead:
3) Manx- the language of the Isle of Man (in the Irish Sea).

B. Brythonic subgroup
4) Breton; Bretons (formerly Britons) moved after the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons from the British Isles to the continent of Europe.
5) Welsh (Welsh).

Dead:
6) Cornish; in Cornwall, a peninsula in southwestern England.

B. Gallic subgroup
7) Gallic; extinct since the formation of the French language; was widespread in Gaul, Northern Italy, the Balkans and even Asia Minor.

8. Greek group

Dead:
2) Ancient Greek, X century BC - V century AD;
Ionic-Attic dialects from the 7th-6th centuries. BC;
Achaean (Arcado-Cypriot) dialects from the 5th century. BC;
northeastern (Boeotian, Thessalian, Lesbian, Aeolian) dialects from the 7th century. BC
and Western (Dorian, Epirus, Cretan) dialects; - the most ancient monuments from the 9th century. BC (Homer's poems, epigraphy); from the 4th century BC a common literary language, Koine, based on the Attic dialect, centered in Athens; the language of rich literary monuments, epic, lyrical and dramatic, philosophical and historical prose; from III-II centuries. BC works of Alexandrian grammarians; along with Latin, it is a source of international terminology.
3) Middle Greek, or Byzantine,- the state literary language of Byzantium from the first centuries AD. until the 15th century; the language of monuments - historical, religious and artistic.

9. Albanian group

10. Armenian group

11. Hittite-Luwian (Anatolian) group

12. Tocharian group

Note 1. For a number of reasons, the following groups of Indo-European languages ​​are closer together: Indo-Iranian (Aryan), Slavic - Baltic and Italo-Celtic.
Note 2. Indo-Iranian and Slavic-Baltic languages ​​can be combined into the section of satem languages, as opposed to others belonging to kentom languages; this division is carried out according to the fate of the Indo-European *g and */с midpalatals, which in the first gave anterior lingual fricatives (catam, simtas, съто - “one hundred”), and in the second remained posterior lingual plosives; in Germanic, due to the movement of consonants - fricatives (hekaton, kentom (later centum), hundert, etc. - “one hundred”).
Note 3. The question of whether Venetic, Messapian, obviously, the Illyrian group (in Italy), Phrygian, Thracian (in the Balkans) belongs to the Indo-European languages ​​can generally be considered resolved; the languages ​​Pelasgian (Peloponnese before the Greeks), Etruscan (in Italy before the Romans), Ligurian (in Gaul) have not yet been clarified in their relationship to the Indo-European languages.

II. CAUCASIAN LANGUAGES 1

A. Western group: Abkhaz-Adyghe languages

B. Eastern group: Nakh-Dagestan languages

2. Dagestan subgroup
Avarsky.
Darginsky.
Laksky.
Lezginsky.
Tabasaran.
These five languages ​​are written on Russian basis. The remaining languages ​​are unwritten:
Andean.
Karatinsky.
Tindinsky.
Chamalinsky.
Bagvalinsky.
Akhvakhsky.
Botlikhsky.
Godoberinsky.
Tsezsky.
Betinsky.
Khvarshinsky.
Gunzibsky.
Ginukhsky.
Tsakhursky.
Rutulsky.
Agulsky.
Archinsky.
Buduheky.
Kryzsky.
Udinsky.
Khinalugsky.

3. Southern group: Kartvelian (Iberian) languages
1) Megrelian.
2) Lazsky (Chansky).
3) Georgian: writing in the Georgian alphabet from the 5th century. AD, rich literary monuments of the Middle Ages; dialects: Khevsur, Kartli, Imeretian, Gurian, Kakhetian, Adjarian, etc.
4) Svansky.

Note. All languages ​​that have a written language (except Georgian and Ubykh) are based on the Russian alphabet, and in the previous period, for several years, on the Latin alphabet.

1 The question of whether these groups represent one family of languages ​​has not yet been resolved by science; rather, one might think that there are no family ties between them; the term "Caucasian languages" refers to their geographical distribution.

III. OUTSIDE THE GROUP - BASQUE LANGUAGE

IV. URAL LANGUAGES

1. FINNO-UGRIAN (UGRO-FINNISH) LANGUAGES

A. Ugric branch

B. Baltic-Finnish branch

B. Perm branch

G. Volga branch

Note. Finnish and Estonian languages ​​are written using the Latin alphabet; among the Mari and Mordovians - has long been based on the Russian alphabet; in Komi-Zyryan, Udmurt and Komi-Permyak - on a Russian basis (since the 30s of the 20th century).

2. SAMODYAN LANGUAGES

Note. Modern science considers the Samoyed languages ​​to be related to the Finno-Ugric languages, which were previously considered as an isolated family and with which the Samoyeds form a larger association - the Uralic languages.

V. ALTAI LANGUAGES 1

1. TURKIC LANGUAGES 2

Dead:
24) Orkhon- according to the Orkhon-Yenisei runic inscriptions, the language (or languages) of the powerful state of the 7th-8th centuries. n. e. in Northern Mongolia on the river. Orkhon. The name is conditional.
25) Pechenezhsky- the language of the steppe nomads of the 9th-11th centuries. AD
26) Polovtsian (Cuman)- according to the Polovtsian-Latin dictionary compiled by Italians, the language of the steppe nomads of the 11th-14th centuries.
27) Old Uyghur- the language of a huge state in Central Asia in the 9th-11th centuries. n. e. with writing based on a modified Aramaic alphabet.
28) Chagatai- literary language of the 15th-16th centuries. AD in Central Asia; Arabic graphics.
29) Bulgarian- the language of the Bulgarian kingdom at the mouth of the Kama; The Bulgar language formed the basis of the Chuvash language, part of the Bulgars moved to the Balkan Peninsula and, mixing with the Slavs, became a constituent element (superstrate) of the Bulgarian language.
30) Khazar- the language of a large state of the 7th-10th centuries. AD, in the region of the lower reaches of the Volga and Don, close to the Bulgarian.

Note 1. All living Turkic languages, except Turkish, have been written since 1938-1939. based on the Russian alphabet, until then for several years - based on Latin, and many even earlier - based on Arabic (Azerbaijani, Crimean Tatar, Tatar and all Central Asian, and foreign Uighurs to this day). In sovereign Azerbaijan, the question of switching to the Latin alphabet has been raised again.
Note 2. The question of the grouping of Turkic-Tatar languages ​​has not yet been finally resolved by science; according to F.E. Korshu (see: Korsh F.E. Classification of Turkish tribes by languages, 1910) - three groups: Northern, Southeastern and Southwestern; according to V.A. Bogoroditsky (see: Bogoroditsky V.A. Introduction to Tatar linguistics in connection with other Turkic languages, 1934.) - eight groups: North-Eastern, Abakan, Altai, West Siberian, Volga-Ural, Central Asian, South-Western ( Turkish) and Chuvash; according to W. Schmidt (See: Schmidt W. Die Sprachfamilien und Sprachenkreise der Erde, 1932.) - three groups: Southern, Western, Eastern, while W. Schmidt classifies the Yakut as Mongolian. Other classifications were also proposed - V.V. Radlova, A.N. Samoilovich, G.I. Ramstedt, S.E. Malova, M. Ryasyanen and others. In 1952 N.A. Baskakov proposed a new scheme for the classification of Turkic languages, which the author thinks of as “periodization of the history of the development of peoples and Turkic languages” (see: “Izvestia of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Department of Literature and Language,” vol. XI, issue 2), where ancient divisions intersect with new and historical with geographical (see also: Baskakov N.A. Introduction to the study of Turkic languages. M., 1962; 2nd ed. - M., 1969).

1 A number of scientists are of the opinion about the possible distant relationship of three language families - Turkic, Mongolian and Tungus-Manchu, forming the Altai macrofamily. However, in accepted usage, the term “Altaic languages” denotes a conditional association rather than a proven genetic grouping (V.V.).
2 Due to the fact that in Turkology there is no single point of view on the grouping of Turkic languages, we give them a list; At the end, various points of view on their grouping are given.
3 Currently, the Altai and Shor languages ​​use the same literary language based on Altai.

2. MONGOLIAN LANGUAGES

Note. There are also a number of smaller languages ​​(Dagur, Dong-Xian, Mongolian, etc.), mainly in China (about 1.5 million), Manchuria and Afghanistan; No. 2 and 3 have been around since the 30s. XX century writing based on the Russian alphabet, and until then, for several years - based on the Latin alphabet.

3. TUNGU-MANCHUR LANGUAGES

A. Siberian group

B. Manchu group

B. Amur group

Note. No. 1 and 2 have been since 1938-1939. writing based on the Russian alphabet, and until then, for several years - based on the Latin alphabet.

4. SEPARATE LANGUAGES OF THE FAR EAST, NOT PART OF ANY GROUPS

(presumably close to Altai)

1) Japanese; writing based on Chinese characters in the 8th century. AD; new phonetic-syllabic writing - katakana and hiragana.
2) Ryukyu, obviously related to Japanese.
3) Korean; the first monuments based on Chinese hieroglyphs from the 4th century. AD, modified in the 7th century. AD; from the 15th century - Korean folk script "onmun" - alphabetic syllabic graphics system.
4) Ainsky, mainly on the Japanese Islands, also on Sakhalin Island; has now fallen out of use and been replaced by Japanese.

VI. AFRASIAN (SEMITO-HAMITIC) LANGUAGES

1. Semitic branch

Dead:
5) Akkadian (Assyrian - Babylonian); known from cuneiform monuments of the ancient East.
6) Ugaritic.
7) Hebrew- the language of the most ancient parts of the Bible, the cult language of the Jewish church; existed as a colloquial language before the beginning of our era; from the 19th century on its basis, Hebrew was developed, now the official language of the state of Israel (along with Arabic); writing based on the Hebrew alphabet.
8) Aramaic- the language of the later books of the Bible and the common language of the Near East in the era of the 3rd century. BC - IV century AD
9) Phoenician- language of Phenicia, Carthage (Punic); dead BC; writing in the Phoenician alphabet, from which subsequent types of alphabetic writing originated.
10) Geez- former literary language of Abyssinia IV-XV centuries. AD; is now an iconic language in Ethiopia.

2. Egyptian branch

3. Berber-Libyan branch

(North Africa and West Central Africa)

1) Ghadames, Siua.
2) Tuareg(tamahak, ghat, taneslemt, etc.).
3) 3enaga.
4) Kabyle.
5) Tashelhit.
6) Zenetian(reef, shauya, etc.).
7) Tamazight.

Dead:
8) Western Numidian.
9) Eastern Numidian (Libyan).
10) Guanche, existed before the 18th century. languages ​​(dialects?) of the aborigines of the Canary Islands.

4. Kushitic branch

(Northeast and East Africa)

1) Bedauye (beja).
2) Agavian(aungi, bilin, etc.).
3) Somalia.
4) Sidamo.
5) Afar, Saho.
6) Oromo (Galla).
7) Irakw, Ngomwia etc.

5. Chadian branch

(Central Africa and West-Central Sub-Saharan Africa)

1) Hausa(belongs to the Western Chadic group) the largest language of the branch.
2) Other Western Chadians: gwandara, ngizim, bole, karekare, angas, sura etc.
3) Central Chadian: tera, margi, mandara, kotoko etc.
4) Eastern Chadian: mubi, sokoro etc.

VII. NIGERO-CONGO LANGUAGES

(territory of sub-Saharan Africa)

1. Mande languages

2. Atlantic languages

3. Idjoid languages

4. Kru languages

5. Kwa languages

6. Dogon language

7. Gur languages

8. Adamauan-Ubangian languages

9. Benue-Congo languages

The largest family in the Niger-Congo macrofamily, it covers the territory from Nigeria to the east coast of Africa, including South Africa. It is divided into 4 branches and many groups, among which the largest is the Bantu languages, which in turn are divided into 16 zones (according to M. Ghasri).

1) Nupe.
2) Yoruba.
3) Ygbo.
4) Edo.
5) Jukun.
6) Efik, ibibio.
7) Kambari, birom.
8) Tiv.
9) Bamileke.
10) Com, lamnso, tikar.
11) Bantu(Duala, Ewondo, Teke, Bobangi, Lingala, Kikuyu, Nyamwezi, Togo, Swahili, Congo, Luganda, Kinyarwanda, Chokwe, Luba, Nyakyusa, Nyanja, Yao, Mbundu, Herero, Shona, Sotho, Zulu, etc.).

10. Kordofanian languages

VIII. NILO-SAHARAN LANGUAGES

(Central Africa, zone of geographical Sudan)

1) Songhai.
2) Saharan: kanuri, tuba, zaghava.
3) Fur.
4) Mimi, mabang.
5) Eastern Sudanese: wilds, mahas, bale, suri, nera, ronge, tama etc.
6) Nilotic: Shilluk, Luo, Alur, Acholi, Nuer Bari, Teso, Nandi, Pakot etc.
7) Central Sudanese: kresh, sinyar, capa, bagirmi, moru, madi, logbara, mangbetu.
8) Kunama.
9) Bertha.
10) Kuama, Como, etc.

IX. KHOISAN LANGUAGES

(in South Africa, Namibia, Angola)

1) Bushman languages(Kung, Auni, Hadza, etc.).
2) Hottentot languages(Nama, Koran, San-Dave, etc.).

X. Sino-TIBETAN LANGUAGES

A. Chinese branch

B. Tibeto-Burman branch

XI. THAI LANGUAGES

Note. Some scholars consider the Thai languages ​​to be related to Austronesian; in previous classifications they were included in the Sino-Tibetan family.

XII. MIAO-YAO LANGUAGES

Note. These little-studied languages ​​of Central and Southern China were previously included in the Sino-Tibetan family without sufficient grounds.

XIII. DRAVIDIAN LANGUAGES

(languages ​​of the ancient population of the Indian subcontinent, presumably related to the Uralic languages)

1) Tamil.
2) Telugu.
3) Malayalam.
4) Kannada.
For all four there is a script based on (or type of) the Indian Brahmi script.
5) Tulu.
6) Gondi.
7) Brahui etc.

XIV. OUTSIDE THE FAMILY - BURUSHASDI LANGUAGE (VERSHIKIAN)

(mountainous regions of North-West India)

XV. AUSTROASIATIC LANGUAGES

XVI. AUSTRONESIAN (MALAYAN-POLYNESIAN) LANGUAGES

A. Indonesian branch

2. Javanese group
1) Javanese.
2) Sundanese.
3) Madura.
4) Balinese.

3. Dayak or Kalimantan group
Dayak etc.

4. South Sulawesi group
1) Saddansky.
2) Buginese.
3) Makassar etc.

5. Filipino group
1) Tagalog(Tagalog).
2) Ilocano.
3) Bikolsky etc.

6. Madagascar group
Malagasy (formerly Malagasy).

Dead:
Kavi- Old Javanese literary language; monuments from the 9th century n. e.; By origin, the Javanese language of the Indonesian branch was formed under the influence of the languages ​​of India (Sanskrit).

B. Polynesian branch

B. Micronesian branch

Note. The classification of the Austronesian macrofamily is given in an extremely simplified form. In fact, it covers a huge number of languages ​​with an extremely complex multi-stage division, regarding which there is no consensus (V.V.)

XVII. AUSTRALIAN LANGUAGES

XVIII. PAPUA LANGUAGES

XIX. PALEOASIAN LANGUAGES 1

A. Chukotka-Kamchatka languages

B. Eskimo-Aleut languages

B. Yenisei languages

G. Nivkh (Gilyak) language

D. Yukagir-Chuvan languages

1 Paleo-Asian languages ​​- the name is conditional: Chukchi-Kamchatka represent a community of related languages; other languages ​​are included in Paleo-Asian languages ​​rather on a geographical basis.

XX. INDIAN (AMERINDIAN) LANGUAGES

A. Language families of North America

B. Language families of Central America

B. Language families of South America

Language families are a term used to classify peoples according to language. A language family includes languages ​​that are related to each other.

It manifests itself in the similarity of the sound of words denoting the same object, as well as in the similarity of such elements as morphemes and grammatical forms.

According to the theory of monogenesis, the world's language families were formed from the proto-language spoken by ancient peoples. The division occurred due to the predominance of tribes and their distance from each other.

Language families are divided as follows.

From this table it is clear that languages ​​of the same family can be distributed in a wide variety of countries and parts of the world. And the very concept of “language families” was introduced to facilitate the classification of languages ​​and the compilation of their family tree. The most widespread and numerous is the Indo-European family of languages. Peoples speaking languages ​​of the Indo-European family can be found in any hemisphere of the Earth, on any continent and in any country. There are also languages ​​that are not included in any language family. These are also artificial.

If we talk about the territory of Russia, then a wide variety of language families are represented here. The country is inhabited by people of more than 150 different nationalities, who can consider almost every language family to be their native language. The linguistic families of Russia are distributed geographically depending on which country a particular region borders on, and which language is most widespread in the country bordering the region.

Some nationalities have occupied a certain territory since ancient times. And at first glance it may seem strange why these particular language families and languages ​​predominate in this region. But there is nothing strange about this. In ancient times, human migrations were determined by the search for new hunting grounds, new lands for agriculture, and some tribes simply led a nomadic lifestyle.

The forced relocation of entire peoples during the Soviet era also played a significant role. The languages ​​from the Indo-European, Uralic, Caucasian and Altai families are most fully represented in Russia. The Indo-European family occupies Western and Central Russia. Representatives live mainly in the north-west of the country. The northeast and southern regions are predominantly occupied by Altai language groups. Caucasian languages ​​are represented mainly in the territory lying between the Black and Caspian seas.