Info from: www.krysstal.com/langfams.html
Family
- Branch (example(s))
The Indo-European Family
- Celtic Branch (Welsh, Gaelic, Cornish)
- Germanic Branch (English, Dutch, Flemish, Afrikaans, German, Yiddish, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Icelandic)
- Romance (Latin) Branch (Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian, Latin)
- Slavic Branch (Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, Czech, Croatian, Serbian)
- Baltic Branch (Lithuanian, Latvian, Prussian)
- Hellenic Branch (Greek, Mycenaean)
- Illyric Branch (Albanian)
- Anatolian Branch (Hittite, Lydian)
- Thracian Branch (Armenian)
- Iranian Branch (Farsi, Kurdish, Persian)
- Indic Branch (Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Punjabi, Sanskrit)
- Tokharian Branch (Turfanian, Kuchean)
The Uralic Family
- Finnic Branch (Finnish, Estonian)
- Ugric Branch (Hungarian, Vogul)
- Samoyed Branch (Nenets, Selkup)
- Yukaghir Branch (Yukaghir)
The Altaic Family
- Turkic Branch (Turkish)
- Mongolian Branch (Mongolian)
- Tungusic Branch (Evenki)
- Korean Branch (Korean)
- Japonic Branch (Japanese)
The Sino-Tibetan Family
- Sinitic Branch (Mandarin, Cantonese)
- Tibeto-Burman Branch (Burmese, Tibetan)
- Tai Branch (Thai, Lao)
- Southern (Hmong-Mien) Branch (Hmong)
The Malayo-Polynesian Family
- Formosan Branch (Amis, Atayal)
- Western Branch (Indonesian, Malay, Balinese)
- Micronesian Branch (Marshallese)
- Melanesian Branch (Fijian)
- Polynesian Branch (Maori, Samoan, Tahitian, Hawaiian)
The Afro-Asiatic Family
- Semitic Branch (Arabic, Hebrew, Aramaic, Akkadian, Phoenician)
- Berber Branch (Shluh, Tamazight)
- Cushitic Branch (Somali)
- Egyptian Branch (Egyptian, Coptic)
- Chadic Branch (Hausa)
The Caucasian Family
- Kartvelian Branch (Georgian, Laz)
- Abkhaz-Adyghean Branch (Abaza, Circassian)
- Nakh Branch (Chechen)
- Daghestanian Branch (Tsez)
The Dravidian Family
- Central Branch (Brahui, Gondi)
- Southern Branch (Telugu, Tamil)
Austro-Asiatic Family
- Viet-Muong Branch (Vietnamese)
- Mon-Khmer Branch (Khmer)
- Munda Branch (Santali, Mundari)
Niger-Congo Family
- Mande Branch (Mende, Malinke)
- West Atlantic Branch (Fulani, Wolof)
- Voltaic Branch (Mossi, Gurma)
- Kwa Branch (Yoruba, Ewe)
- Bantu Branch (Swahili, Kongo, Nyoro, Tonga, Chokwe, Zulu)
- Efik Branch (Efik, Ibibio)
- Adamawan Branch (Mbum)
- Eastern Branch (Zande, Sango)
- Ijo Branch (Ijo)
and there are many other language families…
June 30th, 2008 at 5:05 pm
seeing your list reminds me of my geography (cultural) class last semester (- i did a language map too!) this makes me really happy.
August 29th, 2008 at 6:36 am
Every island in Micronesia speaks a different language. And not a different dialect of the same language, but completely different languages. The islands are so isolated and so spread apart (a couple hundred spread over 2000 square miles of ocean) that they cannot understand each other at all. Further compounding the issue, anthropologists believe that the islands were simultaneously colonized from the west (via the Philippines) and from east (via Kiribati and the Marshalls). So they often have languages from completely different root systems.
September 9th, 2008 at 12:59 pm
My father is Israeli, did you know that?
I speak very little hebrew…I can help with pronunciation. I remember the alphabet from hebrew school!