Language Families of the World

Language Family

• a group of languages related by a common origin
• members of a family are said to be cognate languages (Latin co-gnatus 'born together')

WORLD LANGUAGE FAMILIES

• INDO-EUROPEAN, examples: English, German, French, Spanish, Russian, Latin, Greek, Hindi, Sanskrit
  
  
• URALO-ALTAIC
  • URALIC (Finno-Ugric), examples: Finnish, Estonian, Lapp, Hungarian
  • ALTAIC, examples: Turkish, Manchu and Mongolian (in northern Asia)
    
    
• BASQUE, only one language, Basque (in northern Spain), in this family
  
  
• CAUCASIAN:
  
  • NORTHERN CAUCASIAN: Circassian, Abkhasian, Chechen/Chechnian, Avarian
  • SOUTHERN CAUCASIAN: Georgian
    
    
• ETRUSCAN, only one language, Etruscan (now extinct but once spoken in northern Italy), in this family
  
  
• HAMITO-SEMITIC (Afro-Asiatic), examples: Arabic, Hebrew, Berber, Tuareg, Somali, Coptic, Ancient Egyptian
  
  
• NIGER-CONGO (spoken in central, southern, and southeastern Africa)
  • BANTU, examples: Swahili (in Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Burundi, etc), Zulu (in parts of South Africa)
  • KWA, examples: Yoruba (in Nigeria), Ewe (in Ghana) Ibo (in Togo)
    
    
• KHOISAN (spoken in southwestern Africa), examples: Kxoe (Black Bushman), !O!ung, Nama (Hottentot)
  
  
• SINO-TIBETAN, examples: Mandarin, Cantonese, Tibetan, Burmese
  
  
• JAPANESE, examples: Standard Japanese, Okinawan
  
  
• KOREAN, examples: Standard Korean
  
  
• DRAVIDIAN (spoken in southern India), examples: Tamil, Telugu
  
  
• MON-KHMER, examples: Cambodian, Vietnamese
  
  
• TAI, examples: Thai, Lao
  
  
• AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINE, examples: Mabuiag, Warumungu, Gooniyandi
  
  
• PAPUAN (in Papua New Guinea), examples: Buin, Nasioi
  
  
• MALAYO-POLYNESIAN (Austronesian): Malagasy, Indonesian, Javanese, Malay, Tagalog, Maori, Samoan, Hawaiian
  
  
• NATIVE AMERICAN (many different and seemingly unrelated families):
  • ESKIMO-ALEUT, examples: Inuit
  • ATHABASCAN, examples: Navajo, Apache
  • ALGONQUIAN, examples: Abnaki, Delaware, Cree, Ojibwa, Cheyenne, Blackfoot
  • IROQUOIS, examples: Mohawk, Oneida, Seneca, Cherokee, Tuscarora
  • MUSKOGEAN, examples: Seminole, Choctaw
  • SIOUAN, examples: Dakota, Crow, Winnebago
  • UTO-AZTECAN, examples: Hopi, Shoshone, Nahuatl
  • MAYAN, examples: Mayan, Quiché, Yucatec
  • QUECHUA, examples: Quechua (in parts of Peru, Ecuador, Chile, Bolivia, Argentina)
  • ARAWAK, examples: Arawak (in Surinam and Guyana)
  • CARIB (in parts of Venezuela, Brazil, Surinam, Guyana, French Guiana), examples: Carib (in Venezuela), Wayana (in Surinam)
  • TUPI-GUARANI, examples: Guarani (in parts of Paraguay, Argentina)

Links

Ethnologue: Languages of the World: http://www.ethnologue.com/web.asp

Language index: http://www.ethnologue.com/language_index.asp

Language families: http://www.ethnologue.com/family_index.asp

Maps, Countries and Regions: http://www.ethnologue.com/country_index.asp

The San-Bushman of Southern Africa: http://www.swaziweb.net/bushman/

Aboriginal Languages of Australia: http://www.dnathan.com/VL/austLang.htm

Numbers from 1 to 10 in 4500 languages

Numbers in various writing systems

Arabic Numbers

Numeral Systems

Chinese Numerals