Languages are commonly classified by linguists using a "genetic" approach. This involves comparing the sound and meanings of similar elements of different languages to establish a common root. The members of each language family are all derived from a single ancestor (eg the Italic family of languages including French , Italian , Spanish ... all descend from Latin).
The best-known language family is the Indo-European , which includes most of the languages of Europe and Northern India and several languages of the region in between. Indo-European has the following subfamilies: Italic, Germanic, Celtic, Hellenic, Baltic, Slavic , Armenian , Albanian , Indo-Iranian, Hittite (an extinct languages of Turkey) and Tokharian (an extinct language of NW China).
Other language families are present in Europe in addition to the Indo-European family. Basque is an isolate , or a language with no known relatives. Finnish , Estonian, Saami (Lapp), and Hungarian are the western members of the Finno-Ugric branch of the Uralic family (which also includes various languages of the Ural Mountains region and Siberia). Many languages of India and its neighbours to the Northwest belong to the Indo-Iranian branch of Indo-European. Two other groups: the Munda languages (usually considered a branch of the Austro-Asiatic languages) and the Dravidian family also exist. The Sino-Tibetan languages are spoken in Southeast Asia; the family's principal branches are the Tibeto-Burman and the Sinitic (which includes the many Chinese "dialects").
In the Pacific, there are three main language groups: the Malayo-Polynesian languages, a family that has a Western (Indonesian) branch and an Eastern (Oceanic) branch; the Papuan languages (a regional group of New Guinea); the Australian aboriginal languages (related to one another but not to non-Australian languages).
The languages of the Afro-Asiatic family are spoken in the Middle East and Africa. The family's five branches are Semitic (including Arabic and Hebrew) Chadic (including Hausa ); Berber; Cushitic; and Egyptian-Coptic (extinct). The Niger-Kordofanian family of Africa has the major branch Niger-Congo; it includes Africa's most widely spoken group: the Bantu languages (such as Swahilli and Zulu).
Attempts to classify Native American languages have resulted in more than 150 families. Along the Arctic coast and in Greenland, Inupiaq (Eskimo-Aleut family) is spoken by the Inuit (Eskimo). Sub-arctic Canada includes various Athabascan and Algonquian languages. Native American languages in the US east of the Mississippi River are predominantly Algonquian, Iroquoian, and Muskogean. The principal Great Plains family is the Siouan, but Caddoan and western Algonquian languages are also spoken. Shoshonean languages (Uto-Aztecan family) dominate the Great Basin, bordered on the North by the Sahaptian family. On the Northwest Coast are the Salishan and Wakashan families, Tlingit (thought to be related to Athabascan languages), and a probable isolate: Haida. The Apachean branch of Athabascan is found throughout the Southwest of the US, with the Yuman family and the Pima-Papago language (Uto-Aztecan) of Arizona and Southern California. In California many small (disputed) families exist.
Important in Mexico and Central America are the Uto-Aztecan family (Aztec or Nahuatl), the Otomanguean family (Mixtec, Otomi, and Zapotec, among others), and families such as Mixe-Zoquean, Totonacan, and Tequistlatecan. The Mayan family comprises about two dozen languages.
Depending on their approach, linguists classify South American languages into 90 or so families and isolates, or into three nearly all-inclusive superfamilies; Macro-Chibchan, Andean-Equatorial, and Ge-Pano-Carib. The most widely spoken Native South American languages are Quechua and Aymara, Guaraní, and Mapuche or Araucanian. Important in Central America and Northern South America are Macro-Chibchan languages (such as Guaymi, Paez, and Warao) and also the large Arawakan group (including Island or Black Carib, Guajiro, and Campa). The widely accepted Macro-Ge superfamily includes many languages spoken in the Brazilian region.
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