I. Indo-European language family (13 groups or branches)

1. Indian (Indo-Aryan) group Includes old, middle and new Indian languages. Over 96 living languages ​​in total

1) Hindustani - new Indian literary language. It has two varieties: Hindi (state language of India); Urdu (state language of Pakistan).

Dead: 2) Vedic - the language of the most ancient sacred books (Vedas) of the Aryans, who invaded India in the middle of the 2nd millennium BC; Sanskrit is the literary language of the ancient Indians from the 3rd century BC. BC. to the 7th century AD It has two forms: epic (the language of the "Mahabharata" and "Ramayana") and classical (formed in the 1st millennium AD).

2. Iranian group

1) Persian (Farsi), Pashto (Afghan) - the state language of Afghanistan, Tajik, Kurdish, Ossetian, Pamir - non-written languages ​​of the Pamirs. Dead: 2) Old Persian - the language of cuneiform inscriptions of the Achaemenid era; Avestan - the language of the sacred book "Avesta", close to Sanskrit; Median, Parthian, Sogdian, Khorezmian, Scythian, Saka.

3. Slavic group Slavic languages ​​were formed on the basis of one common language, the collapse of which dates back to the middle of the 1st millennium AD.

1) Eastern subgroup: Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian; 2) Southern subgroup: Bulgarian, Macedonian, Serbo-Croatian (the Serbs have a letter based on the Russian alphabet, among the Croats - based on the Latin). Dead: 3) Old Church Slavonic (Old Church Slavonic or Church Slavonic). 4) Western subgroup: Czech, Slovak, Polish, Kashubian, Serbal Lusatian (has two dialects - Upper Lusatian and Lower Lusatian). Dead: 5) Polabsky - was distributed on the banks of the river. Laby (Elbe) until the 17th century.

4. Baltic group

1) Lithuanian, Latvian, Latgalian. Dead: 2) Prussian - was widespread in East Prussia, due to the forced Germanization of the Prussians, it went out of use at the end of the 18th century; 3) Curonian - the language of the population of Courland.

5. German group Includes 3 subgroups: northern, western and eastern (dead)

1) Northern (Scandinavian) subgroup: Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Icelandic, Farroer; 2) West German subgroup: English, Dutch *, Flemish, German (formed in the 16th century), Yiddish (New Jewish).

• NOTE. After the text you are reading was posted on the Internet, the following letter was received by the editors of the site:

I would like to draw the attention of the authors of the site to the inaccuracy in the classification of languages. As a Diploma in Dutch, with full knowledge subject, I argue that it is unlawful to speak of "Dutch" and "Flemish" languages. The Dutch and Flemings have a common literary language - Dutch. All major philological reference books and dictionaries, including the Big dictionary of the Dutch language (Groot Woordenboek der Nederlandse Taal) is the fruit of the joint work of Dutch and Flemish linguists.

6. Romanesque group

1) French, Italian, Sardinian (Sardian), Spanish, Catalan, Portuguese, Romanian, Moldavian, Romansh - the official language of Switzerland, Creole - crossed with French about. Haiti. Dead: 2) Medieval Vulgar Latin - vernacular Latin dialects of the early Middle Ages, which, when crossed with the languages ​​of the Roman provinces, became the basis of modern Romance languages.

7. Celtic group

1) Irish, Scottish, Breton, Welsh (Welsh). Dead: 2) Gaulish.

8. Greek group

1) Greek (modern Greek). Dead: 2) Ancient Greek; Middle Greek (Byzantine).

9. Albanian group

1) Albanian.

10. Armenian group

1) Armenian.

Dead groups of the Indo-European language family: 11) Anatolian - Hittite, Luvian, Lydian (were common in Asia Minor); 12) Italian - Latin and Umbrian languages; 13) Tokhar - Karashahr, Kuchan (known from manuscripts of the 5th-7th centuries found during excavations in Chinese Turkestan in the 20th century).

II. Semitic-Hamitic (Afrasian) language family

1. Semitic group

1) Northern subgroup: Aysor. Dead: 2) Aramaic, Akkadian, Phoenician, Canaanite, Hebrew (Hebrew). In Hebrew in the II-I millennium BC. e. said the Jews of Palestine. The most important monument of the Hebrew language - Old Testament(the oldest part - "The Song of Deborah" - refers to the XII or XII centuries BC, the rest of the text - to the IX-II centuries BC). From the beginning N. e. Hebrew, displaced from colloquial use by Aramaic, was the language of culture and religion. The beginning of the revival of Hebrew was laid by Jewish writers and journalists of the Haskalah (Enlightenment) period in the 18th-19th centuries. You can read more about this in the article by O.B. Cohen "From the history of the revival of the Hebrew language". In the XX century. Hebrew - the state language of Israel; 3) Southern group: Arabic; Amharic - the literary language of Ethiopia; tigre, tigrinya, harari, and others are the non-written languages ​​of Ethiopia.

2. Cushitic group Includes the languages ​​of Northeast Africa

1) Galla, Somali, Beja, etc.

3. Berber group

1) Tuareg, Kabil, etc. Dead: 2) Libyan.

4. Chadian group

1) House and others.

5. Egyptian group (dead)

1) Ancient Egyptian, Coptic - the cult language of the Orthodox Church in Egypt.

NOTE. Sometimes the Semitic-Hamitic family is divided into two groups: Semitic and Hamitic, which includes all non-Semitic languages. Some scholars believe that there is no relationship between Semitic and Hamitic languages.

III. Caucasian language family

1) Adyghe-Abkhazian group: Abkhazian, Abaza, Adyghe, Kabardian; 2) Nakh group: Chechen, Ingush; 3) Dagestan group (5 written languages, 22 non-written languages): Avar, Dargin, Lezgin, Lak, Tabasaran; 4) Kartvelian group: Megrelian, Georgian, Svan.

IV. Finno-Ugric language family

1. Ugric group

1) Hungarian (Magyar), Mansi, Khanty;

2. Finnish group

1) Baltic subgroup: Finnish (Suomi), Sami (Lapp), Estonian, Karelian, Izhora, Veps, Vod, Liv; 2) Permian group: Komi-Zyryansky, Komi-Permian; 3) Volga group: Udmurt, Mari, Mordovian (includes two independent languages ​​- Erzya and Moksha).

V. Samoyed language family

1) Nenets, Enets, Nganasan, Selkup.

NOTE. Sometimes the Finno-Ugric and Samoyedic language families are combined into a single Uralic language family with two groups: Finno-Ugric and Samoyedic.

VI. Turkic language family

1) Bulgar group: Chuvash; dead - Bulgarian, Khazar; 2) Oguz group: Turkmen, Gagauz, Turkish, Azerbaijani; Dead - Oguz, Pecheneg; 3) Kypchak group: Tatar, Bashkir, Karaim, Kumyk, Nogai, Kazakh, Kirghiz, Altai, Karakalpak, Karachay-Balkarian, Crimean Tatar. Dead - Polovtsian, Pecheneg, Golden Horde. 4) Karluk group: Uzbek, Uighur; 5) Eastern Xiongnu group: Yakut, Tuva, Khakass, Shor, Karagas. Dead - Orkhon, Old Uyghur.

VII. Mongolian language family

1) Mongolian, Buryat, Kalmyk, Mogul (Afghanistan), Mongolian (PRC), Dakhur (Manchuria).

VIII. Tungus-Manchu language family

1) Tungus group: Evenki, Evenk (Lamut), Negidal Nanai, Udei, Ulchi, Oroch; 2) Manchu group: Manchu; Dead - Chzhurzhensky, Sibo.

NOTE. The Turkic, Mongolian and Tungus-Manchu language families are sometimes combined into the Altaic language family. The Altaic language family sometimes includes a Japanese-Korean group (branch) with Korean and Japanese languages.

IX. Sino-Tibetan language family

1) Chinese group: Chinese, Dungan; 2) Tibeto-Burmese group: Tibetan, Burmese, Izu, Hani, Lisu, Himalayan and Assamese languages.

X. Dravidian language family (languages ​​of the pre-Indo-European population of the Hindustan peninsula)

1) Dravidian group: Tamil, Malalayam, Kannara; 2) Andhra group: Telugu; 3) Central Indian group: gondii; 4) Brahui language (Pakistan).

XI. Austroasiatic language family

1) Vietnamese group: Vietnamese; 2) Mon-Khmer group: Mon, Khasi, Khmer, Senoy, Semang, Nicobar; 3) Miao-yao group: miao, yao;

1) The concept of classification.

Currently, there are from 3 to 5 thousand languages ​​on earth. The difference is connected with the difference between dialects and languages, with the definition of the area and the scope of use, with the assessment of the "vitality" of the language.

The plurality of languages ​​necessitates classification.

Classification of languages ​​(from Latin classis - category + facěre - to do)- subdivision of languages ​​into groups according to the presence of common features, features and regular correspondences in vocabulary, phonetic and grammatical language structure.

In modern linguistics, four classifications have been developed.

In addition to the genealogical and typological (morphological) classifications, the following are considered: functional, involving the division of languages ​​into groups based on the differentiation of their socio-territorial functioning:

1. local dialects, dialects, adverbs;
2. international languages(natural and artificial);
3. state languages; areal (lat. arealis from area - area, space), or geographical, involving the subdivision of languages ​​in terms of the area of ​​distribution of certain phonetic, lexical, grammatical phenomena, i.e. based on the study language map world and describing the boundaries of the distribution of languages.

2) Genealogical classification.

Genealogical classification (Greek genealogia - genealogy)(hereinafter referred to as the Civil Code) represents the subdivision of languages ​​into families, branches, groups according to their common origin.

The Civil Code is formed as a result of the study of languages ​​using the comparative historical method, the founders of which are F. Bopp, J. Grimm (German scientists), R. Rask (Danish linguist), A.Kh. Vostokov (Russian linguist).

The comparative-historical method originated in late XIX century. Although comparative analysis was first applied to the study of Slavic languages ​​by M.V. Lomonosov (in the 18th century). Scientist first pointed out the proximity of the Slavic languages ​​to the Baltic ones, and also that Russian, Greek, Latin and German are “related” languages, and not “unrelated” ones - Finnish, Mexican, Chinese. The impetus that marked the beginning of the comparative historical method in linguistics was the discovery by Europeans ancient language Indian culture - Sanskrit.

By the end of the XVIII century. India was conquered by the British. The Indians seemed to the Europeans completely unlike them and a very backward people. But the English colonial administrator William Jones in 1786 at the Royal Scientific Society in Calcutta made a report that turned all European ideas about India upside down. He showed that Indian mythology had much in common with the ancient mythology of the European peoples. Moreover, the ancient Indian language - Sanskrit - turned out to be very similar to European languages. Particularly striking was the similarity of Sanskrit with the ancient languages ​​of European culture - ancient Greek and Latin, at that time well known to every educated European.

Wed: the verb to be in the form of the 3rd person, singular. in Russian - there is, in Latin, French - est, English - is, Gothic, German - ist, Greek - esti, Sanskrit - asti.

These are the first serious generalizations that demonstrate the facts of the similarity of languages, on the basis of which a hypothesis arises about the relationship of these languages ​​and the unity of their origin. The main provisions of this classification system are described in the work of the German scientist A. Schleicher "Compendium of Comparative Grammar of the Indo-Germanic Languages" (" Summary»; 1861-1862). The scientist creates the theory of the "family tree" of languages, according to which both the common trunk and each language branch are divided in half and erected - to the "primary organism", which is called the parent language, in fact, the ancestor language. That is, according to the concept of the genealogical tree of languages, the language family is formed as a result of the collapse of the once single proto-language. For example, all Romance languages ​​come from the dialects of vernacular (Vulgar) Latin, which were spoken by most of the population of the Roman Empire before its collapse. If you depict such a scheme graphically, then it resembles a genealogical tree of some kind, descending from a common ancestor.

According to the Civil Code, all languages ​​of the world are divided into several related families, each of which is divided into groups of more closely related languages. In turn, the groups are divided into subgroups, which include languages ​​that are in the closest relationship.

It should be noted that there are languages ​​that are not included in any groups. These are the Japanese Korean languages and others. It should also be borne in mind the conventionality of combining some languages ​​into families.

Thus, science has not yet resolved the question of the relationship of the Caucasian languages, the degree of closeness of the Australian languages ​​(for example, the languages ​​of Australia and Tasmania), the genetic connection of the Paleo-Asiatic languages ​​(for example, the languages ​​of Eastern Siberia and Far East) etc.

According to the Civil Code, the following families are distinguished: Indo-European, Turkic, Sino-Tibetan, Finno-Ugric, Semitic-Hamitic, Iberian-Caucasian, Mongolian, Paleo-Asiatic, Samoyedic, Tungus-Manchurian, Malayo-Polynesian, Dravidian, etc.

3)language families, groups, subgroups.

Indo-European language family.

Languages Indo-European family occurred as a result of the successive collapse of the Indo-European proto-language.

Indo-European language - the basis is not fixed by written monuments: it ceased to exist as a relatively unified (although, apparently, having dialects) language long before the first written monuments, in any case, no later than the end of the 3rd millennium BC.

So, Russian, Lithuanian, Latin, French, Spanish, Greek, Old Indian, English, German, the extinct Hittite and a number of other living and dead languages together make up Indo-European family languages.

This family of languages ​​is the largest among the linguistic families of Eurasia and includes 2.5 billion speakers.

The languages ​​of the Indo-European family are divided into groups, subgroups, branches.

The most important of them:

1. Indian group (Bengali, Urdu, Hindi, Romani, dead languages ​​Sanskrit and Prakrit);
2. Iranian group (Persian, Afghan, Kurdish, Tajik, Ossetian, dead language Scythian);
3. the Baltic group (Lithuanian, Latvian, Latgalian, the dead language Prussian);
4. Germanic group (Swedish, Norwegian, Icelandic, English, German, Dutch, dead languages ​​Visigothic, Ostrogothic);
5. roman group(French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Moldovan, Romanian, dead language Latin.);
6. Celtic group (Irish, Scottish, Breton, dead language Gaulish), etc.
7. Greek group (modern Greek; the dead - ancient Greek, Ionic-Attic) .;
8. Albanian group (Albanian);
9. Armenian group (Armenian);
10. Hittite-Luvian (Anatolian) group (dead - Hittite, Luvian, Palaian, Carian, Lydian, Lycian);
11. Tocharian group (dead - Tocharian)
12. Slavic languages ​​also represent a separate group of the Indo-European language family.

It should be noted that Slavic languages go back to the same source. This common Slavic ancestor language is conditionally called Proto-Slavic ; conditionally because it is not known how the people who spoke this language called themselves in ancient times.

The Proto-Slavic language existed until ser. I millennium AD, when the tribes who spoke it, having settled in the vast territories of Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe, begin to lose ties with each other. The language of each of the isolated groups of tribes continued to develop in isolation from others, acquiring new sound, grammatical and lexical features.

The Slavic group is divided into three subgroups :

• eastern subgroup: Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, dead Old Russian; - Western subgroup: Polish, Czech, Slovak, Kashubian;
• southern subgroup: Bulgarian, Serbian, Croatian, Slovenian, Macedonian, dead Old Church Slavonic, etc.);

Turkic(Turkish, Turko-Tatar) languages ​​- a family whose languages ​​are divided into branches, groups, subgroups. The two main branches are Western Xiongnu and Eastern Xiongnu.

First represented by the following language groups:

1. Bulgarian (Chuvash, Bulgar and Khazar),
2. Oguz (Turkmen, Trukhmen, Gagauz, Turkish, Azerbaijani, dead languages ​​Seljuk, Old Ottoman, Oguz, Pecheneg, Uz),
3. Kypchak (Tatar, Bashkir, Karaite, Kumyk, Nogai, Karakol, Kazakh, dead Polovtsian, Western Golden Horde),
4. Karluk (Uzbek, Uighur, as well as the dead Karluk-Khorezmian, Old Uzbek, the language of the Karakhanid state and the language after the Karakhanid period).

Second the group, East Xiongnu, includes the following subgroups:

1. Uighur (Tuva, Karagas, Yakut, Khakass, Kamasin, Kuerin, Shor, Sary-Uigur),
2. Kyrgyz-Kypchak (Kyrgyz, Altai).

Finno-Ugric languages- a language family (according to the genealogical classification of languages), the languages ​​\u200b\u200bof which are divided into two groups:

1. Ugrian, which includes the Hungarian (Magyar, Ugric), Mansi (Mansi, Vogul), Khanty (Khanty, Ostyak) languages;
2. Baltic-Finnish (Finnish, Estonian, Izhorian, Karelian, Vepsian, Vodian, Livian, Sami.
3. Perm (Komi-Zyryan, Komi-Perm, Udmurt)
4. Volga (Mari, Mordovian)

Mongolian languages- a language family (according to the genealogical classification of languages), which includes the following languages: Khalkha Mongolian(writing was based on the Mongolian alphabet obtained from the ancient Uighurs; since 1945 based on the Russian alphabet), Buryat-Mongolian(Buryat) (since the 30s of the XX century, writing based on the Russian alphabet), Kalmyk(Oirat).

There are also a number of smaller languages ​​(Dagur, Tungxiang, Menhir, etc.), mainly in China (about 1.5 million), Manchuria and Afghanistan.

Samoyedic languages(Nenets, Nganasan, Enets, Selkup)

Caucasian languages- a language family whose languages ​​are divided into groups, subgroups.

The most important of them:

1. the western group (Abkhaz-Adyghe or Abkhaz-Circassian languages), which includes the Abkhaz languages ​​(adverbs: Bzyb - northern and Abzhui (or Kador) - southern, Abaza, Adyghe, Kabardian and Ubykh;
2. the Nakh group, which includes the Chechen, Ingush, Batsbi languages;
3. the Dagestan group, which includes the Avar, Dargin, Lezgin (Kyurinsky), Lak (Kazy-Kumukh), Tabasaran, Andi, Karata, Chamolin, Tsez, Tsakhur, Rutul, and some other languages;
4. the southern (Karvelt) group, represented by the Megrelian, Chan (Laz), Georgian, Svan languages.

Tungus-Manchu languages.

1. Siberian group (Evenki and Even);
2. Manchu group (Manchu and Jurchen);
3. Amur group (Nanai and Udeic).

Malayo-Polynesian languages:

BUT) Indonesian group.

5) Western subgroup. (Indonesian, Batak, Cham);

6) Javanese subgroup (Javanese, Sudanese, Madurese, Balinese);

7) Dayak subgroup (Dayak);

8) South Sulavean subgroup (Saddan, Bugi, Makassar);

9) Philippine subgroup (Tagalog, Ilocan, Bikol);

10) Madagascar subgroup (Malagasy; dead - Kawi).

B) Polynesian group (Tonga and Niue, Maori, Hawaiian, Tahiti, Samoan, Uvea)

AT) Micronesian Group (Nauru, Marshal, Ponape, Truk)

Paleoasian languages.

BUT) Chukchi-Kamchatka languages ​​(Chukotian, Koryak, Itelmen, Alyutor, Kerek.

B) Eskimo-Aleut languages ​​(Eskimo, Aleut.

AT) Yenisei languages ​​(Ket, Kott)

Semitic-Hamitic languages- a language family whose languages ​​are divided into several groups:

1. Semitic (Arabic, Amharic, Tigre, Gurage, Harari, and other non-written languages ​​of Ethiopia, Aysor, as well as the dead Akkadian (Assyro-Babylonian), Ugaritic, Hebrew, Aramaic, Phoenician, Geez);
2. Egyptian (dead languages ​​ancient Egyptian and Coptic);
3. Cushitic (Galla, Somali, Agau, Sidamo, Saho, Beja, etc.);
4. Berber (Tuareg, Kabil, Shilh, Reef, as well as dead languages ​​Libyan, Numidian, Getulian);
5. child-Hamitic (Hausa, Kotoko, Sura, dialects of the cities of Kano, Khadejii, Katagum, Muzgu, Mubi, Sokoro, etc.).

Sino-Tibetan languages- a language family whose languages ​​are divided into two groups: Tai-Chinese and Tibeto-Burmese.

First represented by Chinese, Dungan, Thai, Lao, Zhuang, Viet languages. Second- Tibetan and Burmese.

Dravidian languages- Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Tulu, Gondi, Brahui.

Japanese (written based on Chinese characters) and Korean (based on Chinese and) - individual languages ​​of the Far East, not included in any groups.

Language families is a term used in the classification of peoples according to linguistic characteristics. The language family includes languages ​​that are related to each other.

It manifests itself in the similarity of the sound of words denoting the same subject, as well as in the similarity of such elements as morphemes, grammatical forms.

According to the theory of monogenesis, the language families of the world were formed from the proto-language spoken by the ancient peoples. The division occurred due to the predominance of the nomadic way of life of the tribes and their remoteness from each other.

Language families are subdivided as follows.

This table shows that the languages ​​of one family can be distributed in various countries and parts of the world. And the very concept of "language families" was introduced to facilitate the classification of languages ​​​​and the compilation of their genealogical tree. The most widespread and numerous is the Indo-European family of languages. Peoples who speak the languages ​​of the Indo-European family can be found in any hemisphere of the Earth, in any on any continent and in any country. There are also languages ​​that are not included in any language family. This is also artificial.

If we talk about the territory of Russia, then there are a variety of language families. The country is inhabited by people of more than 150 different nationalities, who can consider their mother tongue from almost every language family. The territorial language families of Russia are distributed depending on which country a particular region borders on, which language is most common in the country bordering the region.

Some nationalities have occupied a certain territory since ancient times. And at first glance it may seem strange why these particular language families and languages ​​predominate in this region. But there is nothing strange in this. In ancient times, people's migrations were determined by the search for new hunting grounds, new lands for agriculture, and some tribes simply led a nomadic lifestyle.

The forced resettlement of entire peoples during the Soviet era also played a significant role. The languages ​​from the Indo-European, Uralic, Caucasian and Altaic families are most fully represented in Russia. The Indo-European family occupies Western and Central Russia. Representatives live mainly in the north-west of the country. The northeast and southern regions are predominantly occupied by the Altai language groups. Caucasian languages ​​are represented mainly in the territory lying between the Black and Caspian Seas.

I. The Indo-European family of languages ​​is the largest. 1 billion 600 million speakers.

1) Indo-Iranian branch.

a) Indian group (Sanskrit, Hindi, Bengali, Punjabi)

b) Iranian group (Persian, Pashto, Forsi, Ossetian)

2) Romano-Germanic branch. The specialties of this branch are Greek and Arabic.

a) Romance (Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Provençal, Romanian)

b) German group

North German subgroup (Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic)

West German subgroup (German, English, Dutch)

c) Celtic group (Irish, Scottish, Welsh).

3) Balto-Slavic branch of languages

a) Baltic group (Lithuanian, Latvian)

b) Slavic group

West Slavic subgroup (Polish, Chechen, Slovak)

Southern subgroup (Bulgarian, Macedonian, Slovenian, Serbian, Croatian)

East Slavic subgroup (Ukrainian, Belarusian, Russian).

II. Altai family. 76 million speakers.

1) Turkic branch (Turkish, Tatar, Bashkir, Chuvash, Ayzeirbojan, Turkmen, Uzbek, Kyrgyz, Yakut)

2) Mongolian branch (Mongolian languages, Buryat, Kalmyk)

3) Tungus-Shandyur branch (Tungus, Evenk)

III. Uralic languages.

1) Finno-Ugric branch (Finnish, Estonian, Korelian, Udmurt, Mari (mountain and meadow), Mordovian, Hungarian, Khanty, Mansi).

2) Samoyed branch (Nenets, Enen, Selkups)

IV. Caucasian family. (Georgian, Abkhazian, Chechen, Kabardian)

V. Sino-Tibetan family

1) Chinese branch (Chinese, Thai, Siamese, Lao)

2) Tibeto-Burmese branch (Tibetan languages, Burmese languages, Himalayan languages)

VI. Afroasian family (Semito-Hamitic family)

1) Semitic branch (Arabic, Hebrew)

2) Barbary branch (languages ​​of the Sahara, Morocco and Mauretania)

The place of the Russian language in the typological classification: The Russian language belongs to inflectional languages, of a synthetic structure, with elements of analyticism.

Place of the Russian language in the genealogical classification: The Russian language belongs to the Indo-European family of languages, the Balto-Slavic branch, the East Slavic subgroup.

5. The essence of the Indo-European languages

Indo-European languages ​​(or Ario-European, or Indo-Germanic), one of the largest linguistic families of Eurasia. Common features Indo-European languages, which oppose them to the languages ​​of other families, are reduced to the presence of a certain number of regular correspondences between formal elements of different levels associated with the same content units (borrowings are excluded). A concrete interpretation of the facts of the similarity of the Indo-European languages ​​may consist in postulating a certain common source of known Indo-European languages ​​(Indo-European proto-language, the base language, a variety of ancient Indo-European dialects) or in accepting the situation of a linguistic union, which resulted in the development of a number of common features in originally different languages.

The Indo-European family of languages ​​includes:

Slavic group - (Proto-Slavic from 4 thousand BC);

Thracian - from the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC;

Indian (Indo-Aryan, including Sanskrit (1st century BC)) group - from 2 thousand BC;

Iranian (Avestan, Old Persian, Bactrian) group - from the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC;

Hitto-Luvian (Anatolian) group - from the 18th century. BC.;

Greek group - from the 15th - 11th centuries. BC.;

Phrygian language - from the 6th century. BC.;

Italian group - from the 6th century. BC.;

Venetian language - from 5 BC;

Romance (from Latin) languages ​​- from the 3rd century. BC.;

German group - from the 3rd century. AD;

Celtic group - from the 4th c. AD;

Armenian language - from the 5th c. AD;

Baltic group - from the middle of the 1st millennium AD;

Tocharian group - from the 6th c. AD

Illyrian language - from the 6th century. AD; Albanian language - from the 15th century. AD;

Languages ​​of the world: classification and methods of study

Test work in linguistics on the topic:

"Languages ​​of the world: classification and methods of study"

Plan

The main classification of the languages ​​of the world

Typological classification of languages: languages ​​of the analytical and synthetic structure

Genealogical classification

a) comparative-historical method in linguistics

b) the question of the ancestral home of Europeans

Bibliography

1. The main classification of world languages

Currently, there are from 3 to 5 thousand languages ​​on earth. The difference is connected with the difference between dialects and languages, secondly, with the definition of the area and the scope of use, and thirdly, with the assessment of the "vitality" of the language.

The plurality of languages ​​necessitates classification. In modern linguistics, 4 classifications have been developed:

Areal (geographic)

functional

Typological (morphological)

Genealogical

The first is based on the study of the language map of the world. Describes the boundaries of the distribution.

The second is based on the study of the functions and areas of language use (cultural, diplomatic, language of education, etc.)

The most important are typological and genealogical classifications.

2. Typological classification of languages: languages ​​of analytical and synthetic structure

The second direction works out the typological (morphological) classification of languages, based on morphological data, regardless of genetic or spatial proximity, relying solely on the properties of the linguistic structure. The typological classification of languages ​​seeks to cover the material of all languages ​​of the world, reflect their similarities and differences, and at the same time identify possible language types and specifics of each language or group of typologically similar languages, while relying on data not only from morphology, but also from phonology, syntax, and semantics.

The basis for including a language in the typological classification of languages ​​is the type of language, that is, a characteristic of the fundamental properties of its structure. However, the type is not implemented absolutely in the language; in fact, each language has several types, that is, each language is polytypological. Therefore, it is appropriate to say to what extent this or that type is present in the structure of a given language; on this basis, attempts are made to give a quantitative interpretation of the typological characteristics of the language.

The following typological classification of languages ​​is most accepted:

isolating (amorphous) type - unchangeable words with grammatical significance of word order, weak opposition of meaningful and auxiliary roots (for example, ancient Chinese, Vietnamese, Yoruba);

agglutinating (agglutinative) type - a developed system of unambiguous affixes, the absence of grammatical alternations in the root, the same type of inflection for all words belonging to the same part of speech, a weak connection (the presence of distinct boundaries) between morphs (for example, many Finno-Ugric languages, Turkic languages, Bantu languages);

the inflectional (inflectional) type combines languages ​​with internal inflection, that is, with grammatically significant alternation at the root (Semitic languages), and languages ​​with external inflection, fusion, that is, with the simultaneous expression of several grammatical meanings with one affix (for example, hands - instrumental case, plural), strong connection (lack of distinct boundaries) between morphs and heterogeneity of declensions and conjugations; in ancient and some modern Indo-European languages, internal inflection and fusion are combined.

The typological classification of languages ​​cannot be considered final, mainly because of its inability to reflect all the specifics of a particular language, taking into account its structure. But it contains in an implicit form the possibility of its refinement by analyzing other areas of the language. For example, in isolating languages ​​such as classical Chinese, Vietnamese, and Guinean, one-syllable words equal to a morpheme, the presence of polytony, and a number of other interrelated characteristics are observed.

The concept of linguistic relativity is a theory of the dependence of the style of thinking and fundamental worldview paradigms of a collective native speaker on the specifics of the latter. “The language of a people is its spirit, and the spirit of a people is its language,” and in this sense, “every language is a kind of worldview” (Humboldt). Thus, the typology of social life can and should be explained in terms of the variability of cultures expressing themselves in different languages. In this regard, within the framework of the linguistic relativity of the concept, a hypothetical model of the development of world culture is being formed, which could be based not on the Indo-European language matrix and the corresponding European rational-logical deductivism and the linear concept of irreversible time, but on a radically different language material. It is assumed that this would lead to the formation of a world culture of a fundamentally different type.

Typical synthetic languages ​​include the ancient written Indo-European languages: Sanskrit, Ancient Greek, Latin, Gothic, Old Slavonic; now largely Lithuanian, German, Russian (although both with many active features of analyticism); to analytical: Romanesque, English, Danish, Modern Greek, New Persian, New Indian; from Slavic - Bulgarian.

Languages ​​such as Turkic, Finnish, despite the predominant role of affixation in their grammar, have a lot of analyticity in the system due to the agglutinating nature of their affixation; languages ​​like Arabic are synthetic because their grammar is expressed within the word, but they are rather analytic in terms of the agglutinating tendency of affixation. Of course, in this respect there are deviations and contradictions; so, in German, the article is an analytical phenomenon, but it declines according to cases - this is synthetism; the plural of nouns in English is expressed, as a rule, once - an analytical phenomenon.

3. Genealogical classification

Genetic classification is based on the sign of kinship - common origin, which was established only after the emergence of the concept of linguistic kinship and the establishment of the principle of historicism in linguistic studies (19th century). It develops as a result of studying languages ​​with the help of a comparative-historical method. At the same time, the relationship of some languages ​​is recognized as proven if a common origin of a significant part of the morphemes of these languages, all grammatical affixes and many roots is found. Including in those parts of the vocabulary that are usually distinguished by particular stability: pronouns, names of some parts of the body, words with the meaning "water", "fire", "sun", "to be", "give", "eat", "drink » and others. The common origin of roots and affixes is confirmed by the presence of regular interlingual phonetic correspondences in them. If a comparative historical phonetics has been created that makes it possible to approximately reconstruct the roots of an ancestral language and trace (according to strict rules) their transformation into the roots of descendant languages, then the relationship of the latter is considered established.

In this sense, the relationship of the following families of languages ​​in the Old World is indisputable: Indo-European, Uralic (with Finno-Ugric and Samoyedic branches), Turkic, Mongolian, Tungus-Manchurian, Dravidian, Kartvelian, Semitic-Hamitic (Afrasian), in the 60s. 20th century united in the Nostratic (Borea) language family. It was possible to build a comparative phonetics of these languages ​​by tracing regular phonetic correspondences in more than 600 roots and affixes. Among the languages ​​of Eurasia, the Sino-Tibetan family of languages, the Yenisei, Andaman families, isolated languages: Basque, Burusha, Ainu and some languages ​​of antiquity: Sumerian, Kassite, Hattian, etc. remain outside the groupings. into three hypothetical families: Niger-Kordofanian, Nilo-Saharan and Khoisan.

The genetic classification of languages ​​exists in the form of a single scheme. Being linguistic, it does not coincide with anthropological and, in particular, does not imply that peoples speaking related languages ​​belong to a single race. Although the formation of language families occurs constantly, their formation, as a rule, dates back to the era before the emergence of a class society. The modern genetic classification of languages ​​does not provide grounds for supporting the concept, popular in the old linguistics, of the monogenesis of the languages ​​of the world.

Comparative historical method originates at the end of the 19th century, when, in the course of studying languages, factors of similarity of these languages ​​were established.

Based on the established similarity, a hypothesis arises about the relationship of these languages ​​​​and the unity of their origin, so gradually the comparative historical method became the basis for the formation of a special branch in linguistics.

The key to the formation and development of comparative historical linguistics was and remains the question of the habitat of the Proto-Indo-Europeans - the speakers of the Proto-Indo-European language. In pre-war literature, the north of Europe was often postulated as the ancestral home, while the Germanic peoples were declared the purest carriers of the "Aryan race".

After the idea of ​​​​the northern European ancestral home was debunked (in the Indo-European languages ​​\u200b\u200bthere is not even a common designation for the sea), the following main teachings about the ancestral home of Europeans were formed:

Academic hypotheses

The most commonly accepted hypothesis is the barrow hypothesis proposed by Marija Gimbutas in 1956. According to her, the ancestral home of the Indo-Europeans are the Volga and Black Sea steppes (pit culture). Gradually, various branches of the Indo-Europeans migrated in waves in different directions from their ancestral home. The ancestors of the Balts and Slavs occupied the original range the longest.

The Anatolian hypothesis (formulated by Colin Renfrew) suggests that the Proto-Indo-European language existed earlier than is commonly believed, around the Neolithic, in 7-6 thousand BC. in Anatolia (Chatal Huyuk is considered a monument of the Indo-Europeans), after which, in 6 thousand Indo-European languages ​​\u200b\u200bcrossed the Bosphorus and spread to South-Eastern Europe.

The Armenian hypothesis suggests that the Proto-Indo-European language originated in the Armenian Highlands. It is argued in the works of academicians T.V. Gamkrelidze and Vyach. Sun. Ivanova (1995). It has not received recognition among linguists, and its conclusions are refuted by modern genetic research.

Non-academic hypotheses

The Balkan hypothesis is based on the assumption of continuity between the Balkan cultures of the Neolithic (Gumelnitsa, Tripoli, etc.) and the early Indo-European cultures.

The Exodus from India theory has been rejected by the scientific community outside of India.

The Arctic hypothesis is a non-academic hypothesis of the Indian independence fighter B.G. Tilaka.

The Paleolithic continuity theory is based on the assumption that speakers of Indo-European languages ​​have continuously inhabited Europe for tens of thousands of years.

A number of historians identify several centers of the formation of the Indo-European community at different times - from the separation of the Indo-European proto-language from the boreal (VIII millennium BC) and to the formation of the first Indo-European states (ser. III and III / II millennium BC) The comparative historical method is based on two approaches:

1. first, a synchronous approach (based on the data of modern languages, their relationship is established).

2. based on the established relationship of languages, the problem of the language-ancestor is solved (diachronic approach).

Research method according to A. Schleicher: genealogical classification is not based on the historical method, i.e. to establish kinship and degree of kinship and to derive the language of the ancestor.

Genealogical units:

Subgroup

4. Language families, branches and groups in the modern world

The Indo-European family of languages ​​is the largest. 1 billion 600 million speakers.

1) Indo-Iranian branch.

a) Indian group (Sanskrit, Hindi, Bengali, Punjabi)

b) Iranian group (Persian, Pashto, Forsi, Ossetian)

2) Romano-Germanic branch. The specialties of this branch are Greek and Arabic.

a) Romance (Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Provençal, Romanian)

b) German group

North German subgroup (Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic)

West German subgroup (German, English, Dutch)

c) Celtic group (Irish, Scottish, Welsh).

3) Balto-Slavic branch of languages

a) Baltic group (Lithuanian, Latvian)

b) Slavic group

West Slavic subgroup (Polish, Chechen, Slovak)

Southern subgroup (Bulgarian, Macedonian, Slovenian, Serbian, Croatian)

East Slavic subgroup (Ukrainian, Belarusian, Russian).

Altai family. 76 million speakers.

1) Turkic branch (Turkish, Tatar, Bashkir, Chuvash, Ayzeirbojan, Turkmen, Uzbek, Kyrgyz, Yakut)

2) Mongolian branch (Mongolian languages, Buryat, Kalmyk)

3) Tungus-Shandyur branch (Tungus, Evenk)

Uralic languages.

1) Finno-Ugric branch (Finnish, Estonian, Korelian, Udmurt, Mari (mountain and meadow), Mordovian, Hungarian, Khanty, Mansi).

2) Samoyed branch (Nenets, Enen, Selkups)

Caucasian family. (Georgian, Abkhazian, Chechen, Kabardian)

Sino-Tibetan family

1) Chinese branch (Chinese, Thai, Siamese, Lao)

2) Tibeto-Burmese branch (Tibetan languages, Burmese languages, Himalayan languages)

Afroasian family (Semito-Hamitic family)

1) Semitic branch (Arabic, Hebrew)

2) Barbary branch (languages ​​of the Sahara, Morocco and Mauretania)

The place of the Russian language in the typological classification: The Russian language belongs to inflectional languages, of a synthetic structure, with elements of analyticism.

Place of the Russian language in the genealogical classification: The Russian language belongs to the Indo-European family of languages, the Balto-Slavic branch, the East Slavic subgroup.

5. The essence of the Indo-European languages

Indo-European languages ​​(or Ario-European, or Indo-Germanic), one of the largest linguistic families of Eurasia. The common features of the Indo-European languages, which oppose them to the languages ​​of other families, are reduced to the presence of a certain number of regular correspondences between formal elements of different levels associated with the same content units (borrowings are excluded). A concrete interpretation of the facts of the similarity of the Indo-European languages ​​may consist in postulating a certain common source of known Indo-European languages ​​(Indo-European proto-language, the base language, a variety of ancient Indo-European dialects) or in accepting the situation of a linguistic union, which resulted in the development of a number of common features in originally different languages.

The Indo-European family of languages ​​includes:

Slavic group - (Proto-Slavic from 4 thousand BC);

Thracian - from the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC;

Indian (Indo-Aryan, including Sanskrit (1st century BC)) group - from 2 thousand BC;

Iranian (Avestan, Old Persian, Bactrian) group - from the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC;

Hitto-Luvian (Anatolian) group - from the 18th century. BC.;

Greek group - from the 15th - 11th centuries. BC.;

Phrygian language - from the 6th century. BC.;

Italian group - from the 6th century. BC.;

Venetian language - from 5 BC;

Romance (from Latin) languages ​​- from the 3rd century. BC.;

German group - from the 3rd century. AD;

Celtic group - from the 4th c. AD;

Armenian language - from the 5th c. AD;

Baltic group - from the middle of the 1st millennium AD;

Tocharian group - from the 6th c. AD

Illyrian language - from the 6th century. AD;

Albanian language - from the 15th century. AD;

Bibliography

Uspensky B.A., Structural typology of languages

Basic provisions of descriptive linguistics. Concepts of morphemes, their arrangement. Development by Franz Boas of research techniques in the analysis of the text of North American Indians. The founders of the American linguistic school are Eduard Sapir and Leonard Bloomfield.

Genealogical tree of languages ​​and how it is composed. Languages ​​"inserting" and languages ​​"isolating". Indo-European group of languages. Chukotka-Kamchatka and other languages ​​of the Far East. Chinese language and its neighbors. Dravidian and other languages ​​of continental Asia.

The place of the Russian language in the linguistic systems of the world. The variety of functions and means of the modern Russian language, its lexical composition in terms of origin. Types of vocabulary depending on the scope of use. Modern orthoepic norms.

Differentiation of comparative studies in linguistics. Relationship between comparative historical research and linguistic typology. Various options for "glottal" reconstruction. Reconstruction of protolinguistic stops associated with the structure of the root morpheme.

Interaction of languages ​​and patterns of their development. Tribal dialects and the formation of related languages. Formation of the Indo-European family of languages. Education of languages ​​and nationalities. The formation of nationalities and their languages ​​in the past, at the present time.

The history of the study of the Caucasus in linguistic terms. Characteristics of the Kartvelian (southern) group of Caucasian languages, written and literary tradition of the Georgian language. Vocabulary of the Abkhaz-Adyghe group and the classification of the Nakh-Dagestan languages.