Table of Contents
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
- Dutch - Netherlands
- Afrikaans - Sth Africa
- old Saxon
- low German (spoken in Nth)
- AngloFrisian
- Anglosaxon
- English - UK, USA, Canada, Australia, NZ
- old Frisian
- Frisian
primitive Greek
- modern Greek - Greece
Albanian
Armenian
primitive Celtic
- Insular
- Gaelic
- Erse (Scottish Gaelic)
- Irish Gaelic
- Manx
- Brythonic/Brittanic
- Breton - Brittany region of France
- Cornish
- Welsh
- Gallic
- Continental
- Gaulish
Balto-Salvic
- Baltic
- Old Prussian
- Lithuanian
- Lettish
- Slavonic
- Southern Slavonic
- Bulgarian
- Serbo-Croat
- Slovenian
- Russian
- Ukrainian
- Russian
- Western Slavonic
- Czech
- Polish
Anatolian
- Hittite (extinct)
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
- Kashmiri
- Romany / Gypsy
- 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)
- Modern Hebrew (19thC AD)
- 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
- Tuareg
- 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
- Thai
- Lao
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 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):
- Southern:
- Western:
- 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
- Swahili
Khoi-San:
- number about 50 languages and spoken by about 120 000 people. They are found mainly in Namibia, Botswana, and Angola.
Creole:
- Due partly to its multilingualism and its colonial past, a substantial proportion of the world's creole languages are to be found in Africa. Some are based on European languages (eg Krio from English in Sierra Leone, Kriol from Portuguese in Guinea-Bissau, Kreol from French in the Seychelles, or Mauritian Creole in Mauritius); some are based on Arabic (eg Juba Arabic in the southern Sudan, or Nubi in parts of Uganda and Kenya); some are based on local languages (eg Sango, the main language of the Central African Republic.)