Languages and language families - Languages of the …abuch/12ws/lotw01.pdfLanguages and language families Languages of the World ... verbs and the forms of grammar, ... Danish, GutnishAuthors:

Language families

Armin Buch

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Language relationships

Language familiesIndoeuropean languages

Other language familiesLanguages and language families

Languages of the World

Armin W. Buch1

2012/10/24

1Relying heavily on material by Gerhard Jäger and David Erschler

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Other language families

So. . .

I Why are there different languages at all?I How many languages are there?I Where are they spoken and by how many people?I What are their relationships?

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Distribution of languages

Area Languages Number of speakersCount % Count % Mean Median

Africa 2,110 30.5 726 m. 12.2 344,291 25,200Americas 993 14.4 50 m. 0.8 50,852 2,300Asia 2,322 33.6 3,622 m. 60.8 1,560,194 11,100Europe 234 3.4 1,553 m. 26.1 6,638,295 201,500Pacific 1,250 18.1 6 m. 0.1 5,144 980Totals 6,909 100.0 5,959 m. 100.0 862,572 7,560

I Source: http://www.ethnologue.com/ethno_docs/distribution.asp?by=area

http://www.ethnologue.com/ethno_docs/distribution.asp?by=area

http://www.ethnologue.com/ethno_docs/distribution.asp?by=area

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What counts as a language?

I Chinese: a language family with a common writing systemI Arabic: similarI Serbian/Croatian/Bosnian: dialects separated by war;

different writing systemsI Norwegian/Danish/SwedishI Hindi/UrduI Dutch/Low German/German

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Dialect vs. Language

I a shprakh iz a dialekt mit an armey un flot (“A language isa dialect with an army and navy”; published, but notoriginally coined by Max Weinreich)

I Dialect continua: Via mutually intellegible local dialects,mutually unintellegible languages are connected

I There are no proper linguistic criteria to define adifference

I Rather, it is a sociolinguistic / political question

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How to organize this abundance of languages?

I By number of speakers: doneI By region: see mapsI By common origin: language genealogyI By common properties: linguistic typology

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Genetic relationships

I One explanation for the similarity of some languages isthat they descended from a common ancestor

I Some cases are well documentedI Romance languages: there is a diachronic continuum

going back to Latin

I Others require a careful reconstruction (next week’s topic)

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The discovery of Sanskrit

The Sanskrit Language [. . . ] [bears to both Latinand Greek] a stronger affinity both in the roots ofverbs and the forms of grammar, than could possiblyhave been produced by accident; so strong indeedthat no philologer could examine them at all withoutbelieving them to have sprung from some commonsource, which perhaps no longer exists: there issimilar reason, so not quite so forcible, for supposingthat both the Gothic and the Celtic, though blendedwith a different idiom, had the same origin with theSanskrit; and the old Persian might be added to thesame family [. . . ]

(William Jones, 1786)

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Indoeuropean (IE) languages

I Three millenia of written languageI Modern Indo-European languages are all European

languages except Hungarian, Finnish, Estonian, andBasque

I Many West Asian and South Asian languages

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Figure: Indo-European languages

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Branches of the IE family

I 8 living branches: Celtic, Germanic, Romance,Balto-Slavic, Greek, Albanian, Indo-Iranian, Armenian

I 2 well-documented extinct branches: Tocharian, AnatolianI several poorly documented extinct branches

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Indo-Iranian

I Indo-Aryan: Sanskrit, Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Marathi,Sinhala, . . .

I Iranian: Avestan, ancient Persian (cuneiform documents),Farsi, Pashto, Kurdish, Balochi, . . .

I Nuristani: Kati, Prasuni, Ashkunu, Waigali, Gambiri,. . . (small languages, mostly spoken inPakistan/Afghanistan)

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Armenian

I Old Armenian, Eastern Armenian, Western Armenian

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Slavic

I East Slavic: Russian, Belarussian, Ukrainian, RuthenianI West Slavic: Sorbian (Upper Sorbian, Lower Sorbian),

Polabian†, Polish, Pomeranian (Kashubian, Slovincian†),Czech, Slovak

I South Slavic: Burgenland Croatian, Bosnian, Croatian,Molise Croatian, Macedonian, Montenegrin, Serbian,Slovenian

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Baltic

I Eastern Baltic: Lithuanian, Latvian, Curonian, Selonian†,Semigallian†

I Western Baltic†: Old Prussian, Sudovian, Galindian,Skalvian

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Celtic

I Continental Celtic†: Gaulish, Galatian, Lepontian,Celtiberian

I Insular CelticI British languages: Cumbric†, Welsh, Cornish†, BretonI Goidelic languages: Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Manx

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Germanic

I East Germanic†: Burgundian, Vandalic, GothicI North Germanic: Norwegian, Faroese, Jamtlandic, Norn†,

Swedish, Danish, GutnishI West Germanic: English, Scots, Frisian, Dutch, Low

German, German, Swiss German, Yiddish, . . .

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Romance (Italic)

I Latino-Faliscan: Latin†, Faliscan†, Spanish, Portuguese,French, Italian, Romanian, Moldovan, Catalan, Galician,Occitan, Sardinian, Ladin, Romansh

I Osco-Umbrian†

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Yet more . . .

I GreekI AlbanianI Illyric†I Venetic†I Lusitanian†

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Tocharian

I Tocharian A† and Tocharian B†I Were spoken in second half of the first millenium in the

Northwest of present day ChinaI About 5,000 written documents survive

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Anatolian languages

I Hittite†, Lydian†, Palaic†, Luwian†, Lycian†, Carian†,Pisidian†, Sidetic†

I Phrygian†I Thracian†I Macedonian† (unrelated to modern Macedonian, which is

a Slavic language)

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I group of genetically (i.e. historically) related languagesI Descent from a common proto-languageI Descent has to be established via generally accepted

methodsI Classification is (unavoidably) variable and sometimes

subjectiveI IE is by far the best studied familyI Ethnologue counts more then 100 language families

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Figure: Languages families

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Figure: African languages

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Afro-Asiatic

I Semitic: Arabic, Hebrew, Amharic, . . .I Berber: Tuareg, . . .I Egyptian†I Cushitic: Somali, Oromo, . . .I Chadic: Hausa, . . .

http://wals.info/languoid/family/afroasiatic?berber=dfff&biumandara=df40&egyptiancoptic=dff0&masa=d9ff&centralcushitic=d000&westchadic=d909&beja=d090&southomotic=td00&southerncushitic=tfc0&eastchadic=dccc&semitic=df6f&northomotic=tf60&easterncushitic=tffc&tg_format=bigmap&lat=16.25&lng=20.25&z=4&t=m

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Nilo-Saharan

I ControversialI Comprises about 200 African languagesI Nubian, Fur, Kanuri, Songhai. . .I Nubian has one of the oldest written traditions among

African languages (interrupted in the 15th century).

http://wals.info/languoid/family/nilosaharan?morumadi=t99f&temein=s090&nara=sff0&songhay=d000&easternjebel=t00d&daju=t6f3&koman=df40&maban=d9ff&fur=dff0&nilotic=sf6f&westernsaharan=d909&nubian=sf40&nyimang=sccc&mangbetu=td00&taman=s909&gumuz=df6f&berta=dfff&kuliak=sfff&shabo=d090&surmic=s9ff&kresh=tfc0&lendu=tf60&bongobagirmi=tffc&mangbutuefe=ta00&kunama=dccc&tg_format=bigmap&lat=9.333333333335&lng=17.29166666665&z=4&t=m

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Niger-Congo languages

I ControversialI Most important subgroup: Bantu languagesI Swahili, Rwanda, Zulu, . . .I Non-Bantu Languages considered to belong to NC:

Bamana, Yoruba, Fula . . .

http://wals.info/languoid/family/nigercongo?kwa=dccc&defoid=tf60&dogon=dfff&adamawa=d9ff&ubangi=d909&igboid=t99f&heiban=sff0&ijoid=df6f&talodiproper=sccc&southernatlantic=d000&northernatlantic=d090&katlatima=sf6f&gur=dff0&edoid=td00&platoid=sfff&tegem=s9ff&crossriver=tfc0&kru=df40&kainji=t6f3&nupoid=t00d&westernmande=s090&bantoid=tffc&easternmande=s909&idomoid=ta00&rashad=sf40&tg_format=bigmap&lat=5.5&lng=152.58&z=0&t=m

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Khoisan languages

I Languages of the bushmen in Southern AfricaI Use click sounds (which are typologically uncommon)

http://wals.info/languoid/family/khoisan?sandawe=df6f&southernkhoisan=df40&northernkhoisan=dff0&centralkhoisan=dfff&tg_format=bigmap&lat=-18&lng=26.5&z=4&t=m

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Uralic

I Finno-Ugric: Hungarian, Finnish, Estonian, Saami, anumber of languages in Central Russia: Mari, Mordvin,Udmurt . . .

I Samoyedic: A number of endangered languages inNorthern Russia

http://wals.info/languoid/family/uralic?samoyedic=dfff&finnic=dff0&ugric=df6f&tg_format=bigmap&lat=58.99999999999999&lng=54.875&z=4&t=m

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Altaic

I Turkic: Turkish, Turkmen, Kyrgyz, KazakhI MongolicI Tungusic (Northern China, East Siberia)I Korean, JapaneseI Partially controversial, especially the inclusion of Korean

and Japanese

http://wals.info/languoid/family/altaic?mongolic=dfff&tungusic=dff0&turkic=df6f&tg_format=bigmap&lat=51.375&lng=84.20833333335001&z=3&t=m

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Dravidian

I Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, . . .I Spoken mainly in Southern India and Sri LankaI The only exception is Brahui, spoken in Western Pakistan

http://wals.info/languoid/family/dravidian?northerndravidian=dff0&centraldravidian=dfff&southerndravidian=df40&southcentraldravidian=df6f&tg_format=bigmap&lat=19.25&lng=77.16666666665&z=5&t=m

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Sino-Tibetan

I Sinitic (Chinese languages)I Tibeto-Burman (spoken in Myanmar, Northern Thailand,

Nepal, Bhutan, parts of China, India and Pakistan):Tibetan, Brahmaputran, . . .

http://wals.info/languoid/family/sinotibetan?chinese=dfff&naxi=tfc0&baric=df6f&kukichinnaga=d090&jinghpo=d9ff&burmeselolo=dccc&qiangic=td00&rgyalrong=ta00&nungish=tf60&karen=d909&lepcha=d000&bodic=df40&mirish=tffc&bai=dff0&tg_format=bigmap&lat=24&lng=98.75&z=5&t=m

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Austro-Asiatic

I Vietnamese, Khmer, SantaliI Spoken in South-East Asia and Northern India

http://wals.info/languoid/family/austroasiatic?munda=dfff&khmer=d9ff&monic=d909&vietmuong=tffc&aslian=dff0&bahnaric=df6f&katuic=df40&nicobarese=d090&khasian=dccc&palaungkhmuic=d000&tg_format=bigmap&lat=14.166666666665&lng=93.58333333350001&z=5&t=m

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Austronesian

I Family with the largest geographical expansion (fromMadagascar in the West until Hawaii in the East)

I Malagasy, Javanese, Bahasa Indonesia, Tagalog,Taiwanese languages, Maori (language of the aboriginesof New Zealand), Polynesian languages, . . .

http://wals.info/languoid/family/austronesian?tg_format=bigmap&atayalic=dfff&centralmalayopolynesian=dff0&paiwanic=df6f&tsouic=df40&oceanic=dccc&southhalmaherawestnewguinea=d9ff&borneo=d909&chamorro=d090&mesophilippine=d000&northernphilippines=tffc&palauan=tfc0&samabajaw=tf60&southmindanao=td00&southernphilippines=ta00&sulawesi=t99f&sundic=t6f3&yapese=t00d

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Tai-Kadai languages

I Thai, Isan, Lao, . . .I Speculations that Austronesian and Tai-Kadai form a

single family

http://wals.info/languoid/family/taikadai?kadai=dfff&kamtai=dff0&tg_format=bigmap&lat=21.499999999999996&lng=104.0833333335&z=5&t=m

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Paleo-American language families

I Classification according to Greenberg:I Eskimo-AleutI Na-Dene (Northern and Western North-America)I Amerindian (rest of North-America and South-America)

I Amerindian is heavily contestedI Using traditional methods, only many much smaller

families can be established

http://wals.info/languoid/family/eskimoaleut?eskimo=dfff&aleut=dff0&tg_format=bigmap&lat=61.166666666649995&lng=-107&z=3&t=m

http://wals.info/languoid/family/nadene?tlingit=df6f&athapaskan=dfff&eyak=dff0&tg_format=bigmap&lat=50.125&lng=-132&z=3&t=m

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Problematic cases

I 700 languages in Papua-New Guinea, often unrelated toeach other

I Several hundred languages of Australian aborigines;genetic classification is unclear

I Isolated languages (Basque etc.)

Documents

Languages and language families - Languages of the …abuch/12ws/lotw01.pdfLanguages and language families Languages of the World ... verbs and the forms of grammar, ... Danish, GutnishAuthors: