Most languages are known to belong to language families. An accurately identified family is a phylogenetic unit; that is, all its members derive from a common ancestor. The concept of language families is thus dependent on the concept of a historical genetic "ancestor" of a language, implying a gradual evolution over time of one language into another language (as opposed to sudden replacement of a language): the concept of linguistic "ancestry" it is less clear-cut than the concept of biological ancestry, and in cases of significant historical language contact, it may be unclear which languages should be counted among the ancestors of a given language.

This ancestor is very seldom known directly, since most languages have a very short recorded history. However, it is possible to recover many of its features by applying the comparative method—a reconstructive procedure worked out by 19th century linguist August Schleicher. This can demonstrate the validity of many of the proposed families listed below.

Language families can be divided into smaller phylogenetic units, conventionally referred to as branches of the family, because the history of a language family is often represented as a tree diagram. However, the term family is not restricted to any one level of this "tree"; the Germanic family, for example, is a branch of the Indo-European family. Some taxonomists do restrict the term family to a certain level, but there is little consensus in how to do this. Those who do affix such labels also subdivide branches into groups, and groups into complexes. The terms superfamily, phylum, and stock are applied to proposed groupings of language families whose status as phylogenetic units is generally considered to be unsubstantiated by accepted historical linguistic methods.

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#SemNews : Semantics for the Rest of Us -- Variants of Semantic Web Languages in the Real World http://bit.ly/iTbzV
SemanticBot (SemanticBot) Sat, 07 Nov 2009 15:24:51 -0000
#SemNews : Semantics for the Rest of Us -- Variants of Semantic Web Languages in the Real World http://bit.ly/iTbzV
@jetts424 they were all speaking different languages but i understood what they were saying. there was a huge map of world up on
2BlueStarMom (Dolores Y. ) Sat, 07 Nov 2009 13:41:09 -0000
@jetts424 they were all speaking different languages but i understood what they were saying. there was a huge map of world up on
Consult or add yourself to the World Directory of Children%u2019s Book Translators (> 55 different languages) http://bit.ly/59m5H .
JoshHRussian30 (Josh H. Russian) Sat, 07 Nov 2009 12:56:05 -0000
Consult or add yourself to the World Directory of Children%u2019s Book Translators (> 55 different languages) http://bit.ly/59m5H .
@TinaDaja aww thats silly .. but plus point is u get to learn one of the most ancient languages of the world
CelinaJaitly (Celina Jaitly) Sat, 07 Nov 2009 12:14:23 -0000
@TinaDaja aww thats silly .. but plus point is u get to learn one of the most ancient languages of the world
RT @Mazukins So Many Languages in the world & a "smile" speaks them all - give away LOTS of smiles 2day-hugs mazey
kidsbestlife (denny hagel) Sat, 07 Nov 2009 12:12:24 -0000
RT @Mazukins So Many Languages in the world & a "smile" speaks them all - give away LOTS of smiles 2day-hugs mazey<Yes!& they're contagious!
So Many Languages in the world and a "smile" speaks them all - give away LOTS of smiles today - hugs mazey :)
Mazukins (Mazey Mazukin) Sat, 07 Nov 2009 11:58:11 -0000
So Many Languages in the world and a "smile" speaks them all - give away LOTS of smiles today - hugs mazey :)

 

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