What are the worlds 10 main language families?
What are the worlds 10 main language families?
Language families by speakers
- Indo-European. 2.562 billion. 44.78%
- Sino-Tibetan. 1.276 billion. 22.28%
- Niger-Congo. 358 million. 6.26%
- Afro-Asiatic. 340 million. 5.93%
- Austronesian. 312 million. 5.45%
- Dravidian. 222 million. 3.87%
- Altaic. 145 million. 2.53%
- Japanese. 123 million. 2.16%
What are the 12 language families?
These languages can be divided into 12 language families: Algonquian languages, Inuit languages, Athabaskan languages, Siouan languages, Salish languages, Tsimshian languages, Wakashan languages, Iroquoian languages, Michif, Tlingit, Kutenai and Haida.
What are the major language families in the world?
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.
How many main language families are there?
142 different language
According to Ethnologue there are 7,139 living human languages distributed in 142 different language families. A “living language” is simply one that is currently used as the primary form of communication of a group of people.
What are the 14 main language families?
Glottolog 4.0 (2019) lists the following as the largest families, of 8494 languages:
- Atlantic–Congo (1,432 languages)
- Austronesian (1,275 languages)
- Indo-European (588 languages)
- Sino-Tibetan (494 languages)
- Afro-Asiatic (373 languages)
- Nuclear Trans–New Guinea (314 languages)
- Pama–Nyungan (248 languages)
What is the root of all languages?
The common ancestor of English, Latin, Greek, Russian, Gaelic, Hindi, and many other languages spoken in Europe and India is known as Proto-Indo-European, whereas the more recent common ancestor of just English, German, Dutch, Norwegian and the other Germanic languages is known as Proto-Germanic.
