Origin
of languages
Indo-European:
- Latin
- Italian (~AD1000) - Italy
- French - France, Belgium, Switzerland, Haiti, W.Africa
- Spanish - Spain, Latin America
- Portugese - Portugal, Brazil
- primitive Germanic
- North Germanic
- old Norse (Vikings)
- Icelandic
- Faeroese
- Norwegian
- Swedish
- Danish
- East Germanic
- Gothic (extinct)
- Vandal (extinct)
- Burgundian (extinct)
- West Germanic
- old High German (15-16thC AD)
- official written German (spoken in Sth) - Germany, Austria,
Switzerland
- Yiddish (Hebrew characters) - US, USSR, Israel
- old Low German
- old Low Franconian
- old Saxon
- low German (spoken in Nth)
- AngloFrisian
- Anglosaxon
- English - UK, USA, Canada, Australia, NZ
- old Frisian
- primitive Greek
- Albanian
- Armenian
- primitive Celtic
- Insular
- Gaelic
- Erse (Scottish Gaelic)
- Irish Gaelic
- Manx
- Brythonic/Brittanic
- Breton - Brittany region of France
- Cornish
- Welsh
- Gallic
- Continental
- Balto-Salvic
- Baltic
- Old Prussian
- Lithuanian
- Lettish
- Slavonic
- Southern Slavonic
- Bulgarian
- Serbo-Croat
- Slovenian
- Russian
- Western Slavonic
- Anatolian
- Indo-Iranian
- Indic / Indo-Aryan (Nth West India 1000BC)
- Old Indic
- Vedic Sanskrit (1500-200BC) - sacred Hindu scriptures
- classical Sanskrit (500BC-)
- Middle Indic (3rd C BC)
- Prakrits - vernacular dialects of Sanskrit incl. Pali
the language of the Buddhist canonical writings &
remains in liturgical use in Sri Lanka, Burma &
Thailand
- New/Modern Indic (10thC AD) - northern &
central parts of Indian subcontinent & now
consist of ~35 main languages:
- Hindi - written in Devanagari script &
spoken by Hindus
- Western Hindi (180m speakers)
- Eastern Hindi (Hindustani) - mixed
Hindi/Urdu that developed around Delhi &
spread in 16th-18th C AD => lingua franca
- Urdu - similar to Hindi but contains many
Persian & Arabic words & written in
Persian Arabic script & mainly spoken by
Muslims
- Bengali - 120m speakers - Bengal, Bangladesh
- Gujarati
- Punjabi - language of the gurus - founders of
the Sikh religion
- Marathi
- Bihari
- Oriya
- Rajasthani
- Dardic
- Dravidian - southern India
- Tamil - Tamil Nadu
- Telegu - Andhra Pradesh
- Kannada (Kanarese) - Mysore
- Malayalam - Kerala
- Old Iranian (Iran, Afghanistan 1000BC)
- Western
- Baluchi
- Pushtu
- Persian
- Kurdish
- Eastern
- Avestan
- Pasto/Pushto/Afghan
Hamito-Semitic
/ Afro-Asian:
- Semitic
- North Peripheral group / Assyro-Babylonian language / Akkadian -
Mesopotamia (3000-400BC)
- Ugaritic
- Phoenician
- Ancient Hebrew (biblical) (12th-2nd C BC) - in its earliest
form was probably identical to Phoenician
- Mishnaic Hebrew (3rdC BC)
- Aramaic (1000BC) - language of Aramaeans, used in Mesopotamia
& Syria; lingua franca of Middle East, survived fall of Nineveh
(612BC) & Babylon (539BC) & remained official language of
Persian Empire (539-337BC), and became the language of the Palestine
Jews with Jesus preaching using it.
- Christian Aramaic / Syriac (4th-7thC AD until the Arabic
conquest in 7th C AD) - survives today in small Christian
communities
- South Central group
- Arabic - language of the Koran => sacred language of Muslims;
earliest writings in 4thC AD; widely spread with rise of Islam in
622AD
- Maltese - heavily influenced by Italian
- South Peripheral group
- South Arabic dialects
- Minaeans & Sabaeans (ancient times)
- Ethiopian languages
- Gecez / classical Ethiopian
- Amharic
- Tigre
- Tigrinya
- Gurage
- Berber - nth & nthwest Africa - most now written in Arabic
script
- Egyptian
- Old Egyptian (3000-2200BC)
- Middle Egyptian (2000-1300BC)
- Late Egyptian (1570-1070BC)
- demotic (popular) Egyptian (7thCBC -4thC AD)
- Coptic (3rdC AD -) written in Greek characters &
used in Christian literature; largely supplanted by
Arabic 8-14thC AD but still used by the Coptic Church
- Cushitic - Ethiopia, Somalia, Red Sea
- Galla - Kenya, Sth Ethiopia - written in Ethioian script
- Somali - written in Latin alphabet
- Chadic - central & West Africa
- Hausa - northern Nigeria & is regional lingua franca &
traditionally written in Arabic but in 20thC began to be written in
Latin alphabet
Sino-Tibetan:
- Sinitic group
- Old/Archaic Chinese (8th-3rdC BC)
- Middle/Ancient Chinese (to 11thC AD)
- Mandarin (71%) (Nth of Yantgtze & southwest China)
- classical Chinese - replaced in Chinese schools by Baihua
in 1917
- Baihua - written vernacular form of Mandarin
- Putonghua - official spoken language of China since 1956
- Wade-Giles romanization - a phonetic spelling system 1892
- Pinyin phonetic romanization 1958
- Wu (9%) (Shanghai, Suzhou, Hangzhou)
- Min (4%) (Fujian, Taiwan, Hainan)
- Gan (2%) (Jiangxi)
- Xiang (5%) (Hunan)
- Kejia (4%) (Hakka communities in southeast China)
- Yue (Cantonese) (5%) (Guanxi, Guangdong)
- Tibeto-Burman group - Tibet, Nepal, western China, Assam State in
India
- Tai group - Thailand, Laos, Burma, Assam, nth Vietnam, sw China
Austro-Asiatic:
- Munda - polysyllabic languages - eastern India
- Nicobarese - Nicobar islands
- Mon-Khmer - southeast Asia
- those heavily influenced by Indian Sanskrit & Pali:
- Khmer - Cambodia
- Mon - Burma, Thailand
- Vietnamese - Vietnam - heavily influenced by Chinese
African:
- see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_language
- see also Afro-Asian above
- Nilo-Saharan:
- a group of languages mainly spoken Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda &
Kenya, most are tonal
- more than 100 languages currently spoken by 30 million people,
examples are:
- Turkana (Kenya)
- Maasai (Kenya & Tanzania)
- Kanuri ( Nigeria)
- Songhay (Mali)
- Kadu group:
- Western: Tulishi, Keiga, Kanga
- Central: Miri, Kadugli, Katcha, Tumma
- Eastern: Ktongo, Tumtum
- Eastern Sudanic group:
- Eastern branch - Nubian, Surma, Nara, Eastern Jebel
- Western branch - Nyimang, Temein, Tama, Daju
- Nilotic group (Sudanese associated with Nilotic people, esp.
cattle herding):
- Kuliak
- Niger-Congo:
- the largest group of Africa (and probably of the world) in terms of
different languages and the main group of indigenous language in
SubSaharan Africa.
- one of its salient features, still shared by most of the Niger-Congo
languages, is the noun
class system. The vast majority of languages of this family is
tonal.
- Niger Congo A group - mainly central-eastern coastal region of
Africa
- Kordafanian group - mainly southern Sudan
- Mande - west Africa - includes Bambara (main language of Mali) and
Soninke (spoken in Mali, Senegal, Mauritania)
- Atlantic - includes Wolof
- Ijoid in Nigeria
- Dogon in Mali
- Seufo in Ivory Coast & Mali
- Gur including Dagbani in Northern Ghana
- Adamawa-Ubangi includes Sango in Central Afrikan Republic
- Kru in West Africa
- Kwa including Akan in Ghana & the Gbe languages
- Niger Congo B (Bantu) - most of southern half of Africa
- Khoi-San:
- number about 50 languages and spoken by about 120 000 people. They are
found mainly in Namibia, Botswana, and Angola.
- Creole:
-