Classification of languages, its main types. Principles of classification of languages. I. Indo-European languages

Exam: Theory of language

There are 2500-3000 languages on Earth. These languages differ both in their prevalence and social functions, as well as in the peculiarities of the phonetic structure and vocabulary, morphological and syntactic characteristics. In linguistics, there are a number of classifications of languages. The main ones are four: areal (geographic), genealogical, typological and functional.

Genealogical The classification is based on the definition of family relationships between languages. At the same time, the common origin of related languages is proved and their development from a single, often reconstructed in special ways, language, which is called the parent language, is demonstrated. In the genealogical classification of languages, first of all, the degree of their kinship and ties is ascertained.

Typological (morphological), Operates with classes of languages that are combined according to those characteristics that are selected as reflecting the most significant features of the linguistic structure (for example, the way morphemes are combined). The best known is the morphological classification of languages, according to which languages are distributed through the abstract concept of type into the following four classes: 1) isolating, or amorphous, such as Chinese. 2) agglutinative, or agglutinating, for example, Turkic and Bantu languages. 3) incorporating, or polysynthetic, for example, Chukchi-Kamchatka. 4) inflectional languages, such as Slavic, Baltic.

Areal (geographic), An areal classification of languages is possible both for idioms within the genealogical classification of languages (for example, the Polissya area, covering Belarusian-Ukrainian dialects), and for languages of different genetic affiliation (for example, the Carpathian area of the Hungarian-Ukrainian Slavic dialects). In areal classification important role play signs associated with contact phenomena. Areal classification is also possible within one language in relation to its dialects; it underlies linguistic geography. Geographic classification is associated with the place of distribution (original or late) of a particular language (or dialect). Its purpose is to determine the area of the language (or dialect), taking into account the boundaries of its linguistic features. The main research method is linguogeographical. A special category of areal classification of languages is formed by language unions, which are formed as a result of speech interaction in the sphere of household communication. within the framework of a linguistic union, there is a convergence of related and unrelated languages and dialects included in it, united by a certain commonality of household vocabulary, syntactic constructions, characteristic features morphology and phonetics. Thus, the areal classification consists in studying the language map of the world, linguistic characteristics different countries, as well as the distribution of individual languages or groups of languages.

Functional classification Languages is multidimensional. It takes into account three main divisions:

1) the connection of a language with the people to which it belongs,

2) the functions that the language performs in society,

3) the prevalence of the language outside the main ethnic area. According to the connection of the language with the people, three main social types of language are distinguished - the tribal language, the language of the people, and the national language. social type language is determined by the social community of people. According to the coverage of people, languages are divided into languages of narrow and wide use. Narrow USE languages ARE tribal and minority languages. National LANGUAGES are used not only as languages of interethnic, but also INTERNATIONAL communication. In this case, the use of language goes beyond the LIMITS of its ethnic area, and it becomes not only a means of communication, but also a means of fixing the data of science and art.

Cultural and historical The classification deals almost exclusively with literary and written languages, with written variants of languages that serve ethnic groups of peoples or nations. "

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Lecture #14

Language classifications

Similarities and differences between languages. The similarity is material and typological.

Genealogical classification of languages. The concepts of "linguistic kinship", "comparative-historical method".

III. Typological classification of languages.

I. One of the tasks of linguistics is the systematization of existing languages (about 2500), which differ in prevalence and social functions, features of the phonetic structure and vocabulary, morphological and syntactic characteristics.

There are two approaches to the classification of languages:

grouping according to the commonality of linguistic material (roots, affixes, words), and thus according to the common origin - genealogical classification;

grouping according to the common structure and type, primarily grammatical, regardless of origin - typological classification.

When comparing languages, you can find easily perceptible lexical

and phonetic, i.e. material correspondences, which imply certain patterns or regularities in the relationship between languages and peoples - speakers of these languages.

The commonality of linguistic material (material closeness) is associated with the differentiation of dialects of the once common language. Differences in dialects were caused by various reasons: changing socio-historical conditions, migrations, contacts with other languages and dialects, geographical and political isolation, etc. Tribes that spoke different dialects of the same, previously common language, settling in new territories remote from each other, could not communicate as before. Contacts weakened, and linguistic differences grew. The strengthening of centrifugal tendencies led over time to the formation of new languages, although they were genetically related. The systematization of related languages reflects the genealogical classification.

In the languages of the world, common features are also found in the structure of sentences, the composition of the main parts of speech, in the form and word-formation structures - the so-called typological similarity.

This similarity is due to the fundamental unity of human nature, the unity of its biological and mental organization, which manifests itself in a number of dependencies between the communicative and intellectual needs and capabilities of a person and the structure of his language. If in a number of languages the observed typological similarity

covers a large series of systemically interconnected phenomena, then such languages can be considered as a certain language type. The systematization of the languages of the world according to certain types is reflected in typological classifications.

II. Genealogical classification of languages– study, description and grouping of world languages based on common origin from one source language.

Genealogical classification proceeds from the concept of kinship of languages. related languages languages are recognized that originate from one base language - the parent language and, therefore, have some features:

the presence of materially related roots and affixes;

the presence of regular sound correspondences.

Establishing the genetic identity of languages, elucidating the degree of their

family relations and connections is carried out using the comparative historical method. Comparative historical method- this is a set of research techniques used in the study of related languages in order to establish the general patterns of their development and reconstruction of the parent language.

The comparative-historical method is based on a number of requirements, the observance of which increases the reliability of the conclusions.

The establishment of the genetic identity of languages should be done by comparing the most archaic forms. Because related languages have undergone changes and diverged from each other, it is necessary to penetrate into their pre-written state.

Comparison of presumably related languages begins with a dictionary comparison, and not the entire array of common words is examined, but only those that are the most ancient in their meaning. These are the following semantic groups of words:

Forms of the verb of being, 3rd person singular. and pl. the present tense of the indicative mood (cf.: Skt. á sti - sá nti "is", lat. est – sunt, goth. ist – sind, other slav eat - network);

Terms of kinship (for example, "mother": Skt. mā tá r, lat. mater, other isl. moder, other slav mater, modern English mother, German Mutter);

The names of some plants and animals (for example, "mouse": Skt. mū h, lat. mus, other upper mus, other slav mouse, modern English mouse, German Mouse);

The names of parts of the human body, some tools, some natural phenomena (for example, "tooth": Skt. dá ntam- win.pad unit, lat. dentem - wine fall unit, modern English teeth, German Zahn, French dent );

Names of pronouns, numerals up to 10 (for example, "two": Vedic. d(u)vā , lat. duo, OE dau, other slav two, modern English two, German zwei).

These groups of words must be equally represented in the compared languages, since unwritten languages lack the vocabulary associated with civilization. The purpose of their comparison, in addition to establishing the nature of the correlation of common words in different languages, is also an analysis of the phonetic and morphological structures of the word. The relationship of languages is manifested both in the coincidence of whole words, and in the similarity (formal and semantic) of the minimum meaningful units of the language - morphemes.

Therefore, the next stage of the study is the comparison of morphemes, which expands the base of comparison. There are much more common morphemes in related languages than there are common words. This is one of the signs of the relationship of languages. The importance of the criterion of grammatical correspondences lies in the fact that inflectional forms, unlike words and grammatical models of words, as a rule, are not borrowed (cf., lat. am- a- t, German lieb- t, russ. loves).

Comparison of morphemes makes it possible to show the phonetic similarity and dissimilarity of words and parts of words in related languages. This similarity and dissimilarity is called phonetic correspondences. Establishing sound correspondences is an important link for comparison.

According to the rule of phonetic correspondences, a sound that changes in a certain position in one word undergoes similar changes in the same conditions in other words (for example, the initial Slavic b in Latin in some cases corresponds to f, dating back to Indo-European * bh: brother – frater, bean -faba, take -ferunt).

When establishing sound correspondences, it is necessary to take into account historical changes that, due to the internal laws of the development of each language, appear in the latter in the form of phonetic laws (for example, Russian wife corresponds to Norwegian kona, because in Scandinavian Germanic languages [k] comes from [g], and in Slavic [g] in the position before front vowels changed to [g], cf. Greek gyne "female").

All indications regarding each element under consideration in several related languages should be taken into account, since the correspondence of elements of only two languages may be accidental.

The use of the comparative historical contributes to the reconstruction of the proto-language. Protolanguage reconstruction- a set of techniques and procedures for recreating unattested forms and phenomena by comparing the corresponding units of related languages. For example, knowing the phonetic, grammatical and semantic correspondences of the Indo-European languages, it is possible, on the basis of lat. fumus "smoke", ancient Greek. thymos "breath, spirit", ancient Slav. smoke and others. to restore the protoform for this word dhumos. The base language cannot be completely restored, but the basic data of phonetics, grammar and vocabulary (to the least extent) can be reconstructed.

The results of studies of languages by the method of comparative historical linguistics are summarized in the genealogical classification of languages.

Different degrees of kinship of languages are conveyed by the terms "family", "group", "subgroup".

Family- this is the whole set of languages of a given kinship (for example, Indo-European family).

Group (branch) is an association within a family of languages that show great material proximity (for example, Slavic group, Germanic group etc.).

Subgroup- an association within a group of languages, the family ties of which are quite transparent, which makes it possible for their speakers to understand each other almost freely (for example, East Slavic subgroup: Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian languages).

III. The comparative study of the structural properties of languages, regardless of the nature of the genetic relationships between them, is called typology. The subject of structural typology is the internal organization of language as a system, i.e. the similarity of the structure of languages at one of the levels. There are formal and contensive typologies.

Formal typology studies the means of expressing the meanings of the language, i.e. grammatical categories that are necessarily expressed in an utterance in this language.

Contensive typology is focused on the semantic categories of the language and ways of expressing them, which, unlike grammatical ones, can be expressed by units of all levels.

The basis for classification in typology may be different. Traditional typological (morphological) classification reflects the desire to distinguish types of languages based on general principles structures of grammatical forms. This classification is based on the opposition of roots and affixes.

The following types of languages are usually established in the morphological classification: root (or isolating), agglutinative (or agglutinating), inflectional, incorporating (or polysynthetic).

insulating (or root ) languages - these are languages in which words do not change, each root in which is isolated from another, and grammatical connections between them are expressed using word order and intonation (for example, Chinese).

The absence of external signs of belonging to a grammatical category contributes to the development of grammatical conversion of 1 words of one grammatical form into another under the influence of the grammatical environment.

All isolating languages into root-isolating and base-isolating, i.e. having derivational affixes.

TO root isolating languages once A.V. Schlegel used the term amorphous (formless), because. words in these languages are devoid of any form. This subtype is characterized by the following features:

In such languages there are not only inflectional, but also

derivational affixes;

These languages lack parts of speech;

Each word represents a pure root, and a sentence

a sequence of invariable roots (for example, in Chinese cha

boo heh, where [cha]"tea", [in]"I am", [boo]"No", [heh]"to drink", translated into

Russian I don't drink tea);

New concepts, new words are formed by adding roots (for example,

in Chinese Shui"water", Ugh"carry", Shui+ Ugh"water carrier");

A system of tones has been developed, depending on which the meaning of the word changes.

Foundation languages- these are modern languages in which the words do not change, but in these languages there are some word-forming and formative affixes (for example, in the Malay language roemah "House", be- roemah"to live, live").

Agglutinative or agglutinating (lat. agglutinare"glue") languages - these are languages that are characterized by a developed system of word formation and inflection, the absence of morphological alternations, a single system of declension and conjugation (for example, the Turkic languages).

This type of language differs from other affixing languages by the technique of adding affixes and the functions that they perform: unambiguous, standard affixes are mechanically attached to the stem of a word.

In an agglutinative word, the boundaries between morphemes are quite distinct, the root has no variants, while each affix has only one meaning and each meaning is expressed by only one affix (for example, kaz. mektep-ter-ge"schools" -ter- expresses the value of the plural. numbers, -ge- date value. case).

In agglutinative languages, the positional method of formal expression of grammatical meanings dominates: polysemantic word is built on the principle of gradual concretization of the base, from affixes with a wider meaning to affixes with more specific and less wide meaning (for example, Kaz. uy-ler-imis-de-gi-ler-den"from those who are at home": each subsequent affix, expressing the grammatical meaning, specifies the root).

Since in agglutinative languages the connection between morphemes is weak, they have developed a phonetic means for bonding morphemes - synharmonism- in all joining affixes, a vowel of the same row as in the root is used (for example, Kaz. welle r-le R"lands").

Agglutinating languages are divided into languages with suffix agglutination(Kazakh language), languages with prefix agglutination(languages of Africa), languages with suffix-prefix agglutination(Georgian language).

inflectional or fusional (lat. fusio"fusion") languages - these are languages that are characterized by the multifunctionality of grammatical morphemes, the presence of fusion, morphological combinations, an extensive system of declension and conjugation (for example, Indo-European languages).

In languages of this type, as in agglutinative ones, the main way of expressing grammatical meanings is affixation. But along with external inflection, internal inflection is widely used, i.e. a change in the composition of the root, expressing a grammatical meaning (for example, in English. man – men “man - men”: plural meaning is transmitted by alternation in the root).

Another characteristic feature of the inflectional structure is the fusion technique of combining morphemes in a word. In a fusion word, the boundaries between morphemes are indistinct (for example, in the word shoes morphemes are closely soldered, the root is connected, i.e. without service morphemes is not used); service morphemes simultaneously express several grammatical meanings (for example, in the Russian word wife flexion -a has three meanings: feminine, nominative, singular).

Inflectional languages are also characterized by homonymy and synonymy of affixes (for example, in Russian –in- can have the value of singularity: pea and the value is big: house-in-a; in words tables, houses, children different inflections express the plural); different position of affixes in relation to the root (roots, prefixes, suffixes, infixes).

Incorporating (lat. in "v", corpus"body", i.e. "Introducing something into the body" incorporere "insert") or polysynthetic (gr. poly "many" and synthesis "connection, combination") languages - these are languages that are characterized by the incompleteness of the morphological structure of the word, which allows the inclusion of its other members in one member of the sentence (for example, a direct object can be included in the verb-predicate). The incorporating languages include the languages of the Indians of North America, Chukchi-Kamchatka, etc.

The word in such languages acquires a structure only as part of a sentence: there is no word outside the sentence, the sentence is the main unit of speech, which includes words (for example, the Chukchi word-sentence you - ata-kaa - nmy - rkyn"I kill fat deer", the basis of this word-sentence you are rkyn, which incorporates kaa"deer" and its definition ata"fatty").

Many languages occupy an intermediate position on this scale of morphological classification. Often, the terms "analytical languages" and "synthetic languages" are also used to characterize the grammatical structure of a language.

Analytical languages or analytical languages called languages in which grammatical meanings are expressed using independent words, i.e. dissected transmission of lexical and grammatical meanings is carried out. The analyticity of the language is manifested in the morphological immutability of the word and the presence of complex structures in which the grammatical meaning is conveyed either by a functional word or by an independent one (for example, the Russian form will love- analytical, the meaning of the future tense of the 1st person singular is transmitted by an auxiliary verb) in the presence of complex structures in which the grammatical meaning is transmitted either by a function word or by an independent speech).

Synthetic languages or synthetic languages are called those in which grammatical meanings are expressed mainly by affixes, i.e. grammatical meaning and lexical meaning are transmitted undividedly, in one word with the help of affixes, internal inflection, etc. (for example, in the word move-and-l-a with the help of affixes, the values of the past tense, feminine, singular are transmitted. numbers).

In its pure form, analyticism and synthetism are not represented in any language of the world, because in each language there are both those and other elements, although their ratio may be different (for example, in Russian, along with the predominance of synthetism, there are also analytical forms; English language is an inflectional language of the analytical type, but synthetic forms are also observed in it).

In addition to the morphological typological classification, there are classifications built on the basis of other structural criteria - syntactic, phonemic, etc. Thus, the phonological classification of the Slavic languages is known. Typological patterns are also revealed in syntax.

educational:

1. Kodukhov V.I. Introduction to linguistics. M.: Enlightenment, 1979. -

2. Maslov Yu.S. Introduction to linguistics. M.: Higher School, 1987. - p.221-

3. Reformatsky A.A. Introduction to linguistics. M.: Aspect Press, 2001. - p.

additional:

1. Amanbayeva G.Yu. Linguistic typology: Proc. student allowance

humanitarian universities. Karaganda: Publishing house of KarSU, 2002.

2. Mechkovskaya N.B. General Linguistics: Structural and Social Typology

languages: Proc. manual for students of philological and linguistic

specialties. M.: Flinta: Nauka, 2001.

3. Theoretical foundations of the classification of languages of the world. M., 1980.

4. Theoretical foundations of the classification of world languages. Relationship problems.

1Conversion(lat. conversion "transformation") - the formation of a new word by moving it from one part of speech to another.

According to one of the most authoritative English-language sites dedicated to the study of the languages of the world, there are currently 7106 languages on earth. This includes only living languages. As some researchers note, many more languages can be distinguished. It depends on how you draw the line between language and dialect. To study such a variety of languages, one should subject them to processing and classification.

Classifications of languages can be based on various principles. Two most commonly used classifications in the scientific literature should be singled out. Namely genealogical (or genetic) and morphological (or typological).

"Genetic classification is the classification of languages on the basis of the presence or absence of their nearest common ancestor." Genealogical classification is based on the principle of kinship, by finding a common origin. "It develops as a result of the study of languages with the help of the comparative historical method" and exists in the form of a single scheme.

The scheme includes the presence of the following bits:

language families - genetic language associations that have a common ancestor (protolanguage); an example of such an association is the family of Indo-European languages, where the common ancestor - the Indo-European language, broke up about 6-7 thousand years ago;

isolated languages (or isolates) - monolingual families (an example is the Basque language);

unclassified languages - little-studied languages that, due to the lack of sufficient data about them, cannot be attributed to any language group.

Currently, some scientists also distinguish the so-called macrofamilies (when some language families have a common ancestor). The existence of most isolated macrofamilies is questioned. The only macrofamilies that have sufficiently substantiated theories of their existence are the Nostratic (it includes the Indo-European, Altai, Ural, and other families) and the Afroasian macrofamilies. Sometimes these two macrofamilies are combined into one macrofamily.

When constructing a unified classification of languages based on the genetic principle, scientists encounter some difficulties in distinguishing between truly native languages and those that "married" in the course of their development. historical development. "Language changes, as you know, in a language occur, firstly, in the course of the so-called vertical transmission, vertical transmission from the older generation to the younger and, secondly, which is very important, in the course of horizontal transmission - the transfer of elements from one language to the other in the course of interlingual contacts". Because the language does not exist in isolation, but is very often subject to changes from the outside, a huge number of various kinds of borrowings appear. Because of this influence of some languages on others, it is sometimes difficult for historical linguists (comparativeists) to distinguish a language family from a language union formed in the process of interaction of languages. Textbook examples should be considered such pairs of languages as Chinese and Japanese, in which there is a huge percentage of Chinese vocabulary, and French and English (80% of the English vocabulary is borrowed from French).

"The typological classification of languages arose later than the attempts at genealogical classification and proceeded from other premises." In contrast to genealogical classification, morphological classification is based on similarities and differences in linguistic structure. It is based on the formal aspect. Such linguists as A. Schlegel, H. Steinthal, W. Humboldt, A. Schleicher and the American linguist E. Sapir participated in the creation of this classification.

In the morphological classification, 4 types of languages are distinguished: root, inflectional, agglutinative and incorporating.

Root (amorphous, isolating or root isolating) languages are languages that are characterized by a complete or almost complete absence of inflection. In such languages, word order is of great grammatical significance. This group includes such languages as Chinese, Vietnamese, Dungan, Muong. It is also believed that the English language is developing in this direction.

Inflectional (or fusional) languages are languages that are characterized by a developed system of inflection. They have the ability to convey a whole range of grammatical meanings with one indicator. For example, in the word "at home?" the ending "a" conveys the meaning of gender (masculine), number (plural) and case (nominative). This group should include Slavic, Baltic, Italic and some of the Indian and Iranian languages.

Agglutinative (or agglutinative) languages are languages that also have a developed inflection system, but unlike inflectional languages, in agglutinative languages, each grammatical meaning has its own indicator. an example is the Komi-Permyak word "sin" (eye). In the instrumental plural, it looks like "synneson", where the morpheme "nez" is the indicator of the plural, and the morpheme "on" is the indicator of the instrumental case. In this example, we see that the morphemes that form the grammatical form of a word are added after the root. Such agglutination is called postfigure. Also, agglutination can be prefiguring when morphemes are attached before the root. Bilateral agglutination is possible, when some morphemes are attached before the root, and others, respectively, after.

Obviously, a classification that is free from the shortcomings of the traditional morphological classification of languages "(vagueness of basic concepts, non-delimitation of heterogeneous classification criteria, undeveloped ideas about necessary and sufficient criteria, inconsistency with specific language structures) and also includes phonological, syntactic, semantic characteristics of the structure of the language, at present time cannot yet be created." It should be understood that it is impossible to fully attribute the language to any one specific type. It may contain features of several types, it can move from one group to another in the course of evolution. It is important to understand that this or that language belongs to any group according to its prevailing characteristics.

In addition to the two classifications presented, it will not be superfluous to mention others. tongue glottogenesis agglutinative

Firstly, languages can be divided according to one more grammatical feature - syntactic, into two classes:

synthetic languages - languages in which the syntactic roles of words are determined by a developed system of inflections and affixes (Russian language);

analytical languages are languages where the syntactic roles of words are determined by functional words (particles and prepositions) and word order (English).

It should be said that languages can be natural (actually, which are presented in the genealogical classification) and artificially created (or constructed). The second class includes one of the most famous artificially created languages - Esperanto. There is also a class of fictional languages. The difference between fictional languages and artificial ones lies in the purpose of their creation. Artificial languages are invented for real communication. Usually such languages are really studied and used in certain circles. Fictional languages are languages from fiction or other works of art, invented by the authors to create languages of non-existent worlds. Examples of such languages from literature are the Elvish and other languages of the Mediterranean, invented by Tolkien. Also, the Na'vi language from James Cameron's movie "Avatar" should also be attributed to fictional languages, where the fictional language even has its own dictionary. If artificial languages \u200b\u200bare exclusively practical, then fictional languages \u200b\u200bare created for aesthetic purposes.

Natural languages that are not included in the genealogical classification should also include contact languages (pidgins, creoles and various mixed languages). Contact languages are usually created on the basis of several languages in a natural way as a result of communication between people, ethnic groups speaking different languages. An example is Spanglish, which originated from English and Spanish.

V scientific papers you can find a huge number of classifications based on various aspects. The list presented here is far from exhaustive.

The enumeration of languages is accompanied by minimal geographical, historical and philological commentary.

I. INDO-EUROPEAN LANGUAGES

1. Indian group 1

(over 96 living languages in total)

1) Hindi and Urdu(sometimes referred to as Hindustani 2) - two varieties of one new Indian literary language: Urdu - the state language of Pakistan, has a written language based on the Arabic alphabet; Hindi (official language of India) - based on the Old Indian script Devanagari.
2) Bengal.
3) Punjabi.
4) Lakhnda (landi).
5) Sindhi.
6) Rajasthani.
7) Gujarati.
8) Mrathi.
9) Sinhalese.
10) Nepal(Eastern Pahari, in Nepal)
11) Bihari.
12) Oriya.(otherwise: audrey, utkali, in eastern India)
13) Assamese.
14) Gypsy, released as a result of resettlements and migrations in the 5th - 10th centuries. AD
15) Kashmiri other Dardic languages

Dead:
16) Vedic- the language of the most ancient sacred books of the Indians - the Vedas, formed in the first half of the second millennium BC. e. (recorded later).
17) Sanskrit. The "classical" literary language of the Indians from the 3rd century BC. BC. to the 7th century AD (literally samskrta means "processed", as opposed to prakrta "not normalized" spoken language); rich literature, religious and secular (epos, dramaturgy), remained in Sanskrit; the first Sanskrit grammar of the 4th c. BC. Panini reworked in the 13th century. AD Vopadeva.
18) Pali- Central Indian literary and cult language of the medieval era.
19) Prakrits- various colloquial Middle Indian dialects, from which the new Indian languages \u200b\u200bcame; replicas of minor persons in Sanskrit dramaturgy are written on prakrits.

1 On Indian languages, see: 3grapher G.A. Languages of India, Pakistan, Ceylon and Nepal. M., I960.
2 See, for example, the title of the book by A.P. Barannikov "Hindustani (Urdu and Hindi)". D., 1934.

2. Iranian group 1

(more than 10 languages; finds the greatest proximity with the Indian group, with which it unites into a common Indo-Iranian, or Aryan, group;
arya - tribal self-name in the most ancient monuments, from it Iran, and Alan - self-name of the Scythians)

1) Persian(Farsi) - writing based on the Arabic alphabet; for Old Persian and Middle Persian, see below.
2) Dari(Farsi-Kabuli) - literary language Afghanistan, along with Pashto.
3) Pashto(Pashto, Afghan) - literary language, from the 30s. state language of Afghanistan.
4) Baloch (baluchi).
5) Tajik.
6) Kurdish.
7) Ossetian; dialects: Iron (Eastern) Digor (Western). Ossetians - descendants of the Alans-Scythians
8) Talysh.
10) Caspian(Gilyan, Mazanderan) dialects.
11) Pamir languages(Shugnan, Rushan, Bartang, Capykol, Khuf, Oroshor, Yazgulyam, Ishkashim, Vakhan) are the non-written languages of the Pamirs.
12) Yagnobsky.

Dead:
13) Old Persian- the language of cuneiform inscriptions of the Achaemenid era (Darius, Xerxes, etc.) VI - IV centuries. BC e.
14) Avestan- another ancient Iranian language, which came down in the Middle Persian lists of the sacred book "Avesta", which contains the religious texts of the cult of the Zoroastrians, the followers of Zarathushtra (in Greek: Zoroaster).
15) Pahlavi- Middle Persian language III - IX centuries. n. e., preserved in the translation of the "Avesta" (this translation is called "Zend", from where for a long time the Avestan language itself was incorrectly called Zend).
16) Median- a genus of northwestern Iranian dialects; no written monuments have been preserved.
17) Parthian- one of the Middle Persian languages \u200b\u200bof the 3rd century. BC e. - III century. n. e., common in Parthia to the southeast of the Caspian Sea.
18) Sogdian- the language of Sogdiana in the Zeravshan valley, the first millennium AD. e.; ancestor of the Yaghnobi language.
19) Khwarezmian- the language of Khorezm along the lower reaches of the Amu Darya; the first - the beginning of the second millennium AD.
20) Scythian- the language of the Scythians (Alans), who lived in the steppes Along the northern coast of the Black Sea and east to the borders of China in the first millennium BC. e. and the first millennium AD. e.; preserved in proper names in Greek transmission; ancestor of the Ossetian language.
21) Bactrian(Kushan) - the language of the ancient Bakt along the upper reaches of the Amu Darya, as well as the language of the Kushan beginning of the first millennium AD.
22) Saky(Khotanese) - in Central Asia and in Chinese Turkestan; from V - X centuries. AD texts written in the Indian Brahmi script remained.

Note. Most contemporary Iranian scholars subdivide the living and dead Iranian languages into the following groups:
A. Western
1) Southwestern: ancient and middle Persian, modern Persian, Tajik, Tat and some others.
2) Northwestern: Median, Parthian, Balochi (Baluchi), Kurdish, Talysh and other Caspian.
B. Oriental
1) Southeastern: Saka (Khotanese), Pashto (Pashto), Pamir.
2) Northeastern: Scythian, Sogdian, Khorezmian, Ossetian, Yagnob.

1 On Iranian languages, see: Oransky I.M. Iranian languages. M, 1963. - Tat - Tats are divided into Muslim Tats and "Mountain Jews"

3. Slavic group

A. Eastern subgroup
1) Russian; adverbs: northern (great) Russian - "surrounding" and southern (great) Russian - "aking"; The Russian literary language developed on the basis of the transitional dialects of Moscow and its environs, where from the south and southeast the Tula, Kursk, Oryol and Ryazan dialects spread features alien to the northern dialects, the former dialectal basis of the Moscow dialect, and displacing some of the features of the latter, as well as by mastering the elements of the Church Slavonic literary language; in addition, in the Russian literary language in the XVI-XVIII centuries. included various foreign language elements; writing based on the Russian alphabet, reworked from the Slavic - "Cyrillic" under Peter the Great; ancient monuments of the 11th century. (they also apply to the Ukrainian and Belarusian languages); official language Russian Federation, an interethnic language for communication between the peoples of the Russian Federation and adjacent territories former USSR, one of the world's languages.
2) Ukrainian or Ukrainian a indian; before the revolution of 1917 - Little Russian or Little Russian; three main dialects: northern, southeastern, southwestern; the literary language begins to take shape from the 14th century, the modern literary language exists from the end of the 18th century. on the basis of the Podneprovsky dialects of the southeastern dialect; writing based on the Cyrillic alphabet in its post-Petrine variety.
3) Belorussian; writing since the 14th century. based on Cyrillic Dialects North-Eastern and South-Western; literary language - on the basis of Central Belarusian dialects.

B. Southern subgroup
4) Bulgarian- formed in the process of contacting Slavic dialects with the language of the Kama Bulgars, from where it got its name; writing based on the Cyrillic alphabet; ancient monuments from the 10th century. AD
5) Macedonian.
6) Serbo-Croatian; the Serbs write on the basis of the Cyrillic alphabet, the Croats - on the basis of the Latin; ancient monuments from the 12th century.
7) Slovenian;- writing based on the Latin alphabet; the oldest monuments from the X - XI centuries.

Dead:
8) Old Church Slavonic(or Old Church Slavonic) - the common literary language of the Slavs of the medieval period, which arose on the basis of the Solun dialects of the ancient Bulgarian language in connection with the introduction of writing for the Slavs (two alphabets: Glagolitic and Cyrillic) and the translation of church books to promote Christianity among the Slavs in the 9th-10th centuries . n. e.. Among the Western Slavs, it was supplanted by Latin in connection with Western influence and the transition to Catholicism; in the form of Church Slavonic - constituent element Russian literary language.

V. Western subgroup
9) Czech; writing based on the Latin alphabet; ancient monuments from the 13th century.
10) Slovak; Polish; writing based on the Latin alphabet; ancient monuments from the 14th century,
12) Kashubian; lost its independence and became a dialect of the Polish language.
13) Lusatian(abroad: Sorabian, Vendian); two options: upper Lusatian (or eastern) and lower Lusatian (or western); writing based on the Latin alphabet.

Dead:
14) Polabsky- died out in the 18th century, was distributed along both banks of the river. Labs (Elbes) in Germany.
15) Pomeranian dialects- died out in the medieval period due to forced Germanization; were distributed along the southern coast of the Baltic Sea in Pomerania (Pomerania).

4. Baltic group

1) Lithuanian; writing based on the Latin alphabet; monuments from the 14th century. Latvian; writing based on the Latin alphabet; monuments from the 14th century.
3) Latgalian 1 .

Dead:
4) Prussian- died out in the 17th century. in connection with forced Germanization; the territory of the former East Prussia; monuments of the XIV-XVII centuries.
5) Yatvyazh, Curonian and other languages in the territory of Lithuania and Latvia, extinct by the 17th-18th centuries.

1 There is an opinion that this is only a dialect of the Latvian language.

5. German group

A. North Germanic (Scandinavian) subgroup
1) Danish; writing based on the Latin alphabet; served as a literary language for Norway until late XIX v.
2) Swedish; writing based on the Latin alphabet.
3) Norwegian; writing based on the Latin alphabet, originally Danish, since the literary language of the Norwegians until the end of the 19th century. was Danish. In modern Norway, there are two forms of the literary language: riksmol (otherwise: Bokmål) - bookish, closer to Danish, Ilansmol (otherwise: Nynorsk), closer to Norwegian dialects.
4) Icelandic; writing based on the Latin alphabet; written monuments from the 13th century. ("sagas").
5) Faroese.

B. West German subgroup
6) English; Literary English developed in the 16th century. AD based on the London dialect; 5th-11th centuries - Old English (or Anglo-Saxon), XI-XVI centuries. - Middle English and from the 16th century. - New English; writing based on the Latin alphabet (no changes); written monuments from the 7th century; language of international importance.
7) Dutch (Dutch) with Flemish; writing in Latin; Boers live in the Republic of South Africa, immigrants from Holland who speak a variety of the Dutch language, the Boer language (in other words: Afrikaans).
8) Frisian; monuments from the 14th century.
9) Deutsch; two dialects: Low German (Northern, Niederdeutsch or Plattdeutsch) and High German (Southern, Hochdeutsch); the literary language developed on the basis of South German dialects, but with many northern features (especially in pronunciation), but still does not represent unity; in the VIII-XI centuries. - Old High German, in the XII-XV centuries. -Middle High German, from the 16th century. - New High German, worked out in the Saxon offices and translations of Luther and his associates; writing based on the Latin alphabet in two varieties: Gothic and Antiqua; one of the largest languages in the world.
10) Yiddish(or Yiddish, New Hebrew) - various High German dialects mixed with elements of Hebrew, Slavic and other languages.

V. East German subgroup
Dead:
11) Gothic, existed in two dialects. Visigothic - served the medieval Gothic state in Spain and Northern Italy; had a written language based on the Gothic alphabet, compiled by Bishop Wulfila in the 4th century. n. e. for the translation of the Gospel, which is the most ancient monument of the Germanic languages. Ostrogothic - the language of the Eastern Goths, who lived in the early Middle Ages on the Black Sea coast and in the southern Dnieper region; existed until the 16th century. in the Crimea, thanks to which a small dictionary compiled by the Dutch traveler Busbeck has been preserved.
12) Burgundian, Vandal, Gepid, Heruli- the languages of the ancient Germanic tribes in East Germany.

6. Romanesque group

(before the collapse of the Roman Empire and the formation of Romance 1 languages - Italian)

1) French; literary language developed by the 16th century. based on the Île-de-France dialect centered in Paris; French dialects were formed at the beginning of the Middle Ages as a result of crossing the folk (vulgar) Latin of the Roman conquerors and the language of the conquered native Gauls - Gallic; writing based on the Latin alphabet; the oldest monuments from the 9th century. AD; the middle French period from the 9th to the 15th centuries, the new French - from the 16th century. French became an international language earlier than other European languages.
2) Provencal (Occitan); minority language of southeastern France (Provence); as a literary one existed in the Middle Ages (the lyrics of the troubadours) and survived until the end of the 19th century.
3) Italian; the literary language developed on the basis of the Tuscan dialects, and in particular the dialect of Florence, which arose due to the crossing of vulgar Latin with the languages \u200b\u200bof the mixed population of medieval Italy; writing in the Latin alphabet, historically - the first national language in Europe 3 .
4) Sardinian(or Sardinian). Spanish; formed in Europe as a result of crossing folk (vulgar) Latin with the languages of the native population of the Roman province of Iberia; writing based on the Latin alphabet (the same applies to Catalan and Portuguese).
6) Galician.
7) Catalan.
8) Portuguese.
9) Romanian; formed as a result of crossing folk (vulgar) Latin and the languages of the natives of the Roman province of Dacia; writing based on the Latin alphabet.
10) Moldavian(a kind of Romanian); writing based on the Russian alphabet.
11) Macedonian-Romanian(Aromunian).
12) Romansh- the language of the national minority; since 1938 it has been recognized as one of the four official languages of Switzerland.
13) Creole languages- Crossed Romance with local languages (Haitian, Mauritian, Seychelles, Senegalese, Papiamento, etc.).

Dead (Italian):
14) Latin- the literary state language of Rome in the republican and imperial era (III century BC - the first centuries of the Middle Ages); the language of rich literary monuments, epic, lyrical and dramatic, historical prose, legal documents and oratory; the oldest monuments from the VI century. BC.; the first description of the Latin language by Varro. 1st century BC.; classical grammar of Donat - IV century. AD; the literary language of the Western European Middle Ages and the language of the Catholic Church; along with ancient Greek - a source of international terminology.
15) Medieval Vulgar Latin- vernacular dialects early medieval which, when crossed with the native languages of the Roman provinces of Gaul, Iberia, Dacia, etc., gave rise to Romance languages: French, Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian, etc.
16) Oscan, Umbrian, Saber and other Italian dialects are preserved in fragmentary written monuments of the last centuries BC.

1 The name "Romance" comes from the word Roma, as Rome was called by the Latins, and now by the Italians.
2 See Ch. VII, § 89 - on the formation of national languages.
3 See ibid.

7. Celtic group

A. Goidel subgroup
1) Irish; written records from the 4th c. n. e. (Ogham script) and from the 7th century. (on a Latin basis); is literary and at the present time.
2) Scottish (Gaelic).

Dead:
3) Manx- the language of the Isle of Man (in the Irish Sea).

B. Brythonic subgroup
4) Breton; Bretons (formerly Britons) moved after the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons from the British Isles to the European continent.
5) Welsh (Welsh).

Dead:
6) Cornish; in Cornwall, a peninsula in southwestern England.

b. Gallic subgroup
7) Gallic; extinct since the formation of the French language; was distributed in Gaul, Northern Italy, the Balkans and even in Asia Minor.

8. Greek group

1) modern Greek, from the 12th century

Dead:
2) ancient greek, 10th century BC. - V c. AD;
Ionic-Attic dialects from the 7th-6th centuries. BC.;
Achaean (Arcade-Cypriot) dialects from the 5th c. BC.;
northeastern (Boeotian, Thessalian, Lesbosian, Aeolian) dialects from the 7th century. BC.
and western (Dorian, Epirus, Cretan) dialects; - the oldest monuments from the 9th century. BC. (poems by Homer, epigraphy); from the 4th century BC. common literary language koine based on the Attic dialect centered in Athens; the language of rich literary monuments, epic, lyrical and dramatic, philosophical and historical prose; from III-II centuries. BC. works of Alexandrian grammarians; along with Latin - a source of international terminology.
3) Middle Greek or Byzantine- the state literary language of Byzantium from the first centuries AD. until the 15th century; the language of monuments - historical, religious and artistic.

9. Albanian group

Albanian, written monuments based on the Latin alphabet from the 15th century.

10. Armenian group

Armenian; literary since the 5th century. AD; contains some elements dating back to the Caucasian languages; the ancient Armenian language - Grabar - is very different from the modern living Ashkharabar.

11. Hitto-Luvian (Anatolian) group

Dead:
1) Hittite (Hittite-Nesite, known from cuneiform monuments of the 18th-13th centuries. BC.; the language of the Hittite state in Asia Minor.
2) Luvian in Asia Minor (XIV-XIII centuries BC).
3) Palai in Asia Minor (XIV-XIII centuries BC).
4) carian
5) Lydian- Anatolian languages of ancient times.
6) Lycian

12. Tocharian group

Dead:
1) Tocharian A (Turfan, Karashar)- in Chinese Turkestan (Xinjiang).
2) Tocharsky B (Kuchansky)- there; in Kucha until the 7th century. AD Known from manuscripts around the 5th-8th centuries. n. e. based on the Indian Brahmi script discovered during excavations in the 20th century.

Note 1. For a number of reasons, the following groups of Indo-European languages converge: Indo-Iranian (Aryan), Slavs - Baltic and Italo-Celtic.
Note 2. The Indo-Iranian and Slavo-Baltic languages can be grouped under satem languages, as opposed to the other kentom languages; this division is carried out according to the fate of the Indo-European *g and */s of the middle palatals, which in the first gave front-lingual fricatives (catam, simtas, sto - "hundred"), and in the second remained back-lingual plosives; in German, thanks to the movement of consonants - fricatives (hekaton, kentom (later centum), hundert, etc. - "one hundred").
Note 3. The question of belonging to the Indo-European languages of the Venetian, Messapian, obviously, the Illyrian group (in Italy), Phrygian, Thracian (in the Balkans) as a whole can be considered resolved; Pelasgian languages (Peloponnese before the Greeks), Etruscan (in Italy before the Romans), Ligurian (in Gaul) have not yet been clarified in their relationship to the Indo-European languages.

II. CAUCASUS LANGUAGES 1

A. Western group: Abkhazian-Adyghe languages

1. Abkhaz subgroup
Abkhazian; dialects: bzybsky- northern and Abjui(or Kadbrian) - southern; writing until 1954 on the basis of the Georgian alphabet, now - on the Russian basis.
Abaza; writing based on the Russian alphabet.
2. Circassian subgroup
Adyghe.
Kabardian (Kabardino-Circassian).
Ubykh(Ubykhs emigrated to Turkey under tsarism).

B. Eastern group: Nakh-Dagestan languages

1. Nakh subgroup
Chechen; are written in Russian.
Ingush
Batsbi (tsova-tushinsky).

2. Dagestan subgroup
Avar.
Darginsky.
Laksky.
Lezginsky.
Tabasaran.
These five languages are written on the basis of Russian. Other languages are unwritten:
Andean.
Karatinsky.
Tyndinsky.
Chamalinsky.
Bagvalinsky.
Akhvakhsky.
Botlikh.
Godoberinsky.
Tsezsky.
Betinsky.
Khvarshinsky.
Gunzibsky.
Ginuhsky.
Tsakhursky.
Rutulsky.
Agulsky.
Archinsky.
Bududhekiy.
Kryzsky.
Udinsky.
Khinalugsky.

3. Southern group: Kartvelian (Iberian) languages
1) Megrelian.
2) Laz (Chan).
3) Georgian: writing in the Georgian alphabet from the 5th century BC. AD, rich literary monuments of the Middle Ages; dialects: Khevsurian, Kartli, Imeretian, Gurian, Kakhetian, Adjarian, etc.
4) Svansky.

Note. All languages that have a written language (except Georgian and Ubykh) are based on the Russian alphabet, and in the previous period for several years - on Latin.
1 The question of whether these groups represent one family of languages has not yet been resolved by science; rather, one can think that there are no family ties between them; the term "Caucasian languages" refers to their geographical distribution.

III. OUTSIDE THE GROUP - BASQUE

IV. URAL LANGUAGES

1. FINNO-UGRIAN (UGRIC-FINNISH) LANGUAGES

A. Ugric branch

1) Hungarian, written in Latin.
2) Mansi (Vogul); writing on a Russian basis (since the 30s of the XX century).
3) Khanty (Ostyak); writing on a Russian basis (since the 30s of the XX century).

B. Baltic-Finnish branch

1) Finnish (Suomi); writing based on the Latin alphabet.
2) Estonian; writing based on the Latin alphabet.
3) Izhora.
4) Karelian.
5) Vepsian.
6) Vodsky.
7) Livsky.
8) Sami (Saami, Lappish).

B. Perm branch

1) Komi-Zyryansky.
2) Komi-Permyak.
3) Udmurt.

G. Volga branch

1) Mari (Mari, Cheremis), adverbs: upland on the right bank of the Volga and meadow - on the left.
2) Mordovian: two independent languages: Erzya and Moksha.

Note. Finnish and Estonian are written based on the Latin alphabet; for the Mari and Mordovian - for a long time based on the Russian alphabet; in Komi-Zyryan, Udmurt and Komi-Perm - on the Russian basis (since the 30s of the XX century).

2. SAMOYED LANGUAGES

1) Nenets (Yuraco-Samoyed).
2) Nganasani (Tavgian).
3) Enets (Yenisei-Samoyed).
4) Selkup (Ostyak-Samoyed).

Note. modern science considers the Samoyedic languages to be related to the Finno-Ugric languages, which were previously considered as an isolated family and with which the Samoyedic languages form a larger association - the Uralic languages.

V. ALTAI LANGUAGES 1

1. TURKIC LANGUAGES 2

1) Turkish(before Ottoman); writing since 1929 based on the Latin alphabet; until then for several centuries - based on the Arabic alphabet.
2) Azerbaijani.
3) Turkmen.
4) Gagauz.
5) Crimean Tatar.
6) Karachay-Balkarian.
7) Kumyk- used as mutual language for the Caucasian peoples of Dagestan.
8) Nogai.
9) Karaite.
10) Tatar, with three dialects - middle, western (Mishar) and eastern (Siberian).
11) Bashkir.
12) Altai (Oirot).
13) Shorsky with the Kondom and Mrassky dialects 3 .
14) Khakassian(with dialects of Sogai, Beltir, Kachin, Koibal, Kyzyl, Shor).
15) Tuva.
16) Yakut.
17) Dolgansky.
18) Kazakh.
19) Kyrgyz.
20) Uzbek.
21) Karakalpak.
22) Uighur (New Uighur).
23) Chuvash, a descendant of the language of the Kama Bulgars, writing from the very beginning based on the Russian alphabet.

Dead:
24) Orkhon- according to the Orkhon-Yenisei runic inscriptions, the language (or languages) of the powerful state of the 7th-8th centuries. n. e. in Northern Mongolia on the river. Orkhon. The name is conditional.
25) Pechenegsky- language steppe nomads IX-XI centuries AD
26) Polovtsian (Cuman)- according to the Polovtsian-Latin dictionary compiled by Italians, the language of the steppe nomads of the XI-XIV centuries.
27) Old Uyghur- the language of a huge state in Central Asia IX-XI centuries n. e. with writing based on a modified Aramaic alphabet.
28) Chagatai- literary language of the XV-XVI centuries. AD in Central Asia; Arabic graphics.
29) Bulgarian- the language of the Bulgar kingdom at the mouth of the Kama; the Bulgar language formed the basis of the Chuvash language, part of the Bulgars moved to the Balkan Peninsula and, having mixed with the Slavs, became an integral element (superstratum) in the Bulgarian language.
30) Khazar- the language of a large state of the 7th-10th centuries. AD, in the area of the lower reaches of the Volga and Don, close to the Bulgar.

Note 1. All living Turkic languages, except Turkish, have been written since 1938-1939. on the basis of the Russian alphabet, until then for several years - on the basis of Latin, and many even earlier - on the basis of Arabic (Azerbaijani, Crimean Tatar, Tatar and all Central Asian, and foreign Uighurs still). In sovereign Azerbaijan, the question of switching to the Latin alphabet has been raised again.
Note 2. The question of the grouping of the Turko-Tatar languages has not yet been finally resolved by science; according to F.E. Korsh (see: Korsh F.E. Classification of Turkish tribes by language, 1910.) - three groups: Northern, Southeastern and Southwestern; according to V.A. Bogoroditsky (see: Bogoroditsky V.A. Introduction to Tatar linguistics in connection with other Turkic languages, 1934.) - eight groups: northeastern, Abakan, Altai, West Siberian, Volga-Urals, Central Asian, Southwestern (Turkish) and Chuvash; according to V. Schmidt (See: Schmidt W. Die Sprachfamilien und Sprachenkreise der Erde, 1932.) - three groups: Southern, Western, Eastern, while V. Schmidt classifies the Yakut as Mongolian. Other classifications were also proposed - V.V. Radlova, A.N. Samoilovich, G.I. Ramstedt, S.E. Malova, M. Ryasyanen and others. In 1952, N.A. Baskakov proposed a new scheme for the classification of Turkic languages, which the author thinks of as "periodization of the history of the development of peoples and Turkic languages" (see: "Proceedings of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. Department of Literature and Language", vol. XI, issue 2), where ancient divisions intersect with new and historical with geographical (see also: Baskakov N.A. Introduction to the study of Turkic languages. M., 1962; 2nd ed. - M., 1969).
1 A number of scientists are of the opinion about the possible distant relationship of the three language families - Turkic, Mongolian and Tungus-Manchu, forming the Altai macrofamily. However, in the accepted usage, the term "Altaic languages" denotes rather a conditional association than a proven genetic grouping (V.V.).
2 In view of the fact that in Turkology there is no single point of view on the grouping of Turkic languages, we give them a list; at the end, different points of view on their grouping are given.
3 Currently, Altaic and Shor languages use the same literary language based on Altaic.

2. MONGOLIAN LANGUAGES

1) Mongolian; writing was based on the Mongolian alphabet, received from the ancient Uighurs; since 1945 - based on the Russian alphabet.
2) Buryat; from the 30s 20th century writing based on the Russian alphabet.
3) Kalmyk.

Note. There are also a number of smaller languages (Dagurian, Tung-Xiang, Mongorian, etc.), mainly in China (about 1.5 million), Manchuria and Afghanistan; No. 2 and 3 have since the 30s. 20th century writing based on the Russian alphabet, and until then, for several years - based on the Latin alphabet.

3. TUNGUS-MANCHUR LANGUAGES

A. Siberian group

1) Evenki (Tungus), with Negidal and Solon.
2) Even (Lamut).

B. Manchurian group

1) Manchurian, dies out, had rich monuments of medieval writing in the Manchu alphabet.
2) Jurchen- a dead language, known from the monuments of the XII-XVI centuries. (hieroglyphic writing modeled after Chinese)

B. Amur group

1) Nanai (Gold), with Ulch.
2) Udei (Udege), with Oroch.

Note. No. 1 and 2 have since 1938-1939. writing based on the Russian alphabet, and until then, for several years - based on the Latin alphabet.

4. INDIVIDUAL LANGUAGES OF THE FAR EAST NOT INCLUDED IN ANY GROUPS

(presumably close to Altai)

1) Japanese; writing based on Chinese characters in the 8th century. AD; new phonetic-syllabic writing - katakana and hiragana.
2) Ryukyuan, obviously related to Japanese.
3) Korean; the first monuments based on Chinese characters from the 4th century. AD, modified in the 7th century. AD; from the 15th century - folk Korean letter "onmun" - an alpha-syllabic system of graphics.
4) Ainu, mainly on the Japanese Islands, also on Sakhalin Island; now out of use and superseded by Japanese.

VI. AFRASIAN (SEMITE-HAMITE) LANGUAGES

1. Semitic branch

1) Arab; international cult language of Islam; there are, in addition to classical Arabic, regional varieties (Sudanese, Egyptian, Syrian, etc.); writing in the Arabic alphabet (on the island of Malta - based on the Latin alphabet).
2) Amharic, official language of Ethiopia.
3) Tigre, tigray, gurage, harari and other languages of Ethiopia.
4) Assyrian (Aysor), the language of isolated ethnic groups in the countries of the Middle East and some others.

Dead:
5) Akkadian (Assyrian - Babylonian); known from the cuneiform monuments of the ancient East.
6) Ugarit.
7) Hebrew- language ancient parts Bibles, the cult language of the Jewish church; existed as a colloquial language until the beginning of our era; from the 19th century on its basis, Hebrew was formed, now the official language of the state of Israel (along with Arabic); writing based on the Hebrew alphabet.
8) Aramaic- the language of the later books of the Bible and the common language of the Near East in the era of the III century. BC. - IV century. AD
9) Phoenician- the language of Phoenicia, Carthage (Punic); dead BC; writing in the Phoenician alphabet, from which subsequent types of alphabetic writing originated.
10) Geez- the former literary language of Abyssinia IV-XV centuries. AD; now a cult language in Ethiopia.

2. Egyptian branch

Dead:
1) ancient egyptian- the language of ancient Egypt, known from hieroglyphic monuments and documents of demotic writing (from the end of the 4th millennium BC to the 5th century AD).
2) Coptic- a descendant of the ancient Egyptian language in the medieval period from the 3rd to the 17th centuries. AD; the cult language of the Orthodox Church in Egypt; writing is Coptic, the alphabet is based on the Greek alphabet.

3. Berbero-Libyan branch

(North Africa and Western Central Africa)

1) Ghadames, Sioua.
2) Tuareg(tamahak, ghat, taneslemt, etc.).
3) 3enaga.
4) Kabyle.
5) Tashelhit.
6) Zenetian(reef, shauya, etc.).
7) Tamazight.

Dead:
8) Western Numidian.
9) Eastern Numidian (Libyan).
10) Guanche, existed until the 18th century. languages (dialects?) of the natives of the Canary Islands.

4. Kushite branch

(North East and East Africa)

1) Bedauye (beja).
2) Agavian(aungi, bilin, etc.).
3) Somalia.
4) Sidamo.
5) Afar, saho.
6) Oromo (galla).
7) Iraqw, Ngomvia and etc.

5. Chadian branch

(Central Africa and West Central Sub-Saharan Africa)

1) Hausa(belongs to the Western Chadian group) is the largest language of the branch.
2) Other Western Chadian: gvandara, ngizim, boleva, karekare, angas, sura and etc.
3) Central Chadian: tera, margi, mandara, kotoko and etc.
4) Eastern Chadian: mubi, sokoro and etc.

VII. NIGERO-CONGO LANGUAGES

(territory of sub-Saharan Africa)

1. Mande languages

1) Bamana (bambara).
2) Soninka.
3) Coco (susu).
4) Maninka.
5) Kpelle, scrap, mende, etc.

2. Atlantic languages

1) Fula (fulfulde).
2) Wolof.
3) Serer.
4) Diola. Cognacs.
5) Gola, dark, bull and etc.

3. Ijoid languages

Represented by isolated language ijo(Nigeria).

4. Kru languages

1) Seme.
2) Bethe.
3) Godier.
4) Crewe.
5) Grebo.
6) Wobe and etc.

5. Kwa languages

1) Akan.
2) Baule.
3) Adele.
4) Adangme.
5) Ewe.
6) Background and etc.

6. Dogon language

7. Gur languages

1) Bariba.
2) Senari.
3) suppire.
4) Gurenne.
5) Gourma.
b) Kasem, cabre, kirma and etc.

8. Adamawa-Ubangu languages

1) Longuda.
2) Tula.
3) Chamba.
4) Mumue.
5) Mbum.
b) Gbaya.
7) Ngbaka.
8) Sere, Mundu, Zande and etc.

9. Benuecongo languages

The largest family in the Niger-Congo macrofamily covers the territory from Nigeria to the east coast of Africa, including South Africa. It is divided into 4 branches and many groups, among which the largest is the Bantu languages, which in turn are divided into 16 zones (according to M. Gasri).

1) Nupe.
2) Yoruba.
3) Ygbo.
4) Edo.
5) Jukun.
6) Efik, ibibio.
7) Kambari, birom.
8) Tiv.
9) Bamilek.
10) Kom, lamnso, tikar.
11) Bantu(Duala, Ewondo, Teke, Bobangi, Lingala, Kikuyu, Nyamwezi, Togo, Swahili, Congo, Luganda, Kinyarwanda, Chokwe, Luba, Nyakyusa, Nyanja, Yao, Mbundu, Herero, Shona, Sotho, Zulu, etc.).

10. Kordofanian languages

1) Kanga, Miri, Tumtum.
2) Katla.
3) Rere.
4) Morning
5) Tegem.
6) Tegali, tagbi and etc.

VIII. NILO-SAHARAN LANGUAGES

(Central Africa, geographic Sudan zone)

1) Songhai.
2) Saharan: kanuri, tuba, zagawa.
3) Fur.
4) Mimi, mabang.
5) Eastern Sudanese: wilds, mahas, bale, suri, nera, ronge, tama and etc.
6) Nilotic: Shilluk, Luo, Alur, Acholi, Nuer Bari, Teso, Nandi, Pakot and etc.
7) Central Sudanese: kresh, sinyar, capa, bagirmi, moru, madi, logbara, mangbetu.
8) Kunama.
9) Bertha.
10) Kuama, komo, etc.

IX. Khoisan languages

(on the territory of South Africa, Namibia, Angola)

1) Bushman languages(Kung, Auni, Hadza, etc.).
2) Hottentot languages(nama, quran, san-dave, etc.).

X. Sino-Tibetan languages

A. Chinese branch

1) Chinese is the world's largest spoken language. Folk Chinese is divided into a number of dialect groups that differ greatly primarily phonetically; Chinese dialects are usually defined geographically. Literary language based on the northern (Mandarin) dialect, which is also the dialect of the capital of China - Beijing. For thousands of years, the literary language of China was Wenyan, which was formed in the middle of the 1st millennium BC. and existed as a developing but incomprehensible bookish language until the 20th century, along with the more colloquial literary language Baihua. The latter became the basis of the modern unified literary Chinese language - Putonghua (based on Northern Baihua). The Chinese language is rich in written records from the 15th century. BC, but their hieroglyphic nature makes it difficult to study the history of the Chinese language. Since 1913, along with hieroglyphic writing, a special syllabo-phonetic letter "zhu-an izymu" was used on a national graphic basis for pronunciation identification of the reading of hieroglyphs by dialects. Later, more than 100 different projects for the reform of Chinese writing were developed, of which the project of phonetic writing on the Latin graphic basis has the greatest promise.
2) Dungan; the Dungans of the People's Republic of China have an Arabic script, the Dungans of Central Asia and Kazakhstan are originally Chinese (hieroglyphic), later - Arabic; since 1927 - on a Latin basis, and since 1950 - on a Russian basis.

B. Tibeto-Burmese branch

1) Tibetan.
2) Burmese.

XI. THAI LANGUAGES

1) Thai- the state language of Thailand (until 1939, the Siamese language of the state of Siam).
2) Laotian.
3) Zhuang.
4) Kadai (li, lakua, lati, gelao)- a group of Thai or an independent link between Thai and Austronesian.

Note. Some scholars consider the Thai languages to be related to Austronesian; in former classifications they were included in the Sino-Tibetan family.

XII. LANGUAGES

1) miao, with dialects hmong, hmu and etc.
2) yao, with dialects mien, kimmun and etc.
3) Well.

Note. These little-studied languages of Central and South China were formerly included in the Sino-Tibetan family without sufficient reason.

XIII. DRAVID LANGUAGES

(languages of the most ancient population of the Indian subcontinent, presumably related to the Uralic languages)

1) Tamil.
2) Telugu.
3) Malayalam.
4) Kannada.
For all four, there is a script based on (or type of) the Indian Brahmi script.
5) Tulu.
6) Gondi.
7) Brahui and etc.

XIV. OUTSIDE THE FAMILY - THE LANGUAGE OF BURUSHASDI (VERSHIK)

(mountainous regions of Northwest India)

XV. AUSTRIASIAN LANGUAGES

1) Languages munda: santal i, mundari, ho, birkhor, juang, sora, etc.
2) Khmer.
3) Palaung (rumai) and etc.
4) Nicobar.
5) Vietnamese.
6) Khasi.
7) Malacca group(semang, semai, sakai, etc.).
8) Naali.

XVI. AUSTRONESIAN (MALAY-POLYNESIAN) LANGUAGES

A. Indonesian branch

1.Western group
1) Indonesian, has been named since the 1930s. XX century., Currently the official language of Indonesia.
2) Batak.
3) Cham(Chamsky, Dzharai, etc.).

2. Javanese group
1) Javanese.
2) Sundanese.
3) Madura.
4) Balinese.

3. Dayak or Kalimantan group
Dayak and etc.

4. South Sulawesian group
1) Saddansky.
2) Buginese.
3) Makassarsky and etc.

5. Philippine group
1) Tagalog(Tagalog).
2) Ilokan.
3) Bikolsky and etc.

6. Madagascar group
Malagasy (formerly Malagasy).

Dead:
Kawi- Old Javanese literary language; monuments from the ninth century. n. e.; by origin, the Javanese language of the Indonesian branch was formed under the influence of the languages of India (Sanskrit).

B. Polynesian branch

1) Tonga and Niue.
2) Maori, Hawaiian, Tahiti and etc.
3)Sam6a, uvea and etc.

B. Micronesian branch

1) Nauru.
2) Marshall.
3) Ponape.
4) Truk and etc.

Note. The classification of the Austronesian macrofamily is given in an extremely simplified form. In fact, it covers a huge number of languages with an extremely complex multi-stage subdivision, regarding which there is no consensus (V.V.)

XVII. AUSTRALIAN LANGUAGES

Numerous minor indigenous languages of Central and Northern Australia, most prominently guarantee. Apparently, they form a separate family Tasmanian languages on about. Tasmania.

XVIII. PAPUAN LANGUAGES

Languages of the central part of about. New Guinea and some smaller islands in the Pacific. A very complex and not definitively established classification.

XIX. PALEOASIATIAN LANGUAGES 1

A. Chukchi-Kamchatka languages

1) Chukchi(Luoravetlansky).
2) Koryak(Nymylan).
3) Itelmensky(Kamchadal).
4) Alyutorsky.
5) Kereksky.

B. Eskimo-Aleut languages

1) Eskimo(Yuite).
2) Aleutian(Unangan).

B. Yenisei languages

1) Ket. This language reveals features of kinship with the Nakh-Dagestan and Tibetan-Chinese languages. Its bearers were not natives of the Yenisei, but came from the south and assimilated by the surrounding people.
2) Kott, Arin, Pumpokol and other extinct languages.

D. Nivkh (Gilyak) language

E. Yukagiro-Chuvan languages

Extinct languages (dialects?): Yukagir(previously - odulian), Chuvan, Omok. Two dialects have been preserved: Tundra and Kolyma (Sakha-Yakutia, Magadan, region).

1 Paleoasian languages - a conditional name: Chukchi-Kamchatka represent a community of related languages; the rest of the languages are included in Paleoasiatic rather on a geographical basis.

XX. INDIAN (AMERINDIAN) LANGUAGES

A. Language families of North America

1) Algonquian(Menomini, Delaware, Yurok, Mikmaq, Fox, Cree, Ojibwa, Potowatomy, Illinois, Cheyenne, Blackfoot, Arapaho, etc., as well as disappeared - Massachusetts, Mohican, etc.).
2) Iroquois(Cherokee, Tuscarora, Seneca, Oneida, Huron, etc.).
3) Sioux(Crow, Hidatsa, Dakota, etc., along with several extinct ones - ofo, biloxi, tutelo, katawba).
4) gulf(natchez, tunic, chickasaw, choctaw, muskogee, etc.).
5) Na-dene(haida, tlingit, eyak; Athabaskan: nava-ho, tanana, tolova, hupa, mattole, etc.).
6) Mosan, including Vakash (Kwakiutl, Nootka) and Salish (Chehalis, Skomish, Kalispel, Bella Kula).
7) Penutian(Tsimshian, Chinook, Takelma, Klamath, Miubk, Zuni, etc., as well as many extinct ones).
8) hocaltec(karok, shasta, yana, chimariko, pomo, salina, etc.).

B. Language families of Central America

1) Yuto-Aztec(Nahuatl, Shoshone, Hopi, Luiseño, Papago, Bark, etc.). This family is sometimes combined with the Iowa-Tano languages (Kiowa, Piro, Tewa, etc.) within the Tano-Aztec phylum.
2) maya quiche(Mam, Kekchi, Quiche, Yucatek Maya, Ixil, Tzeltal, Tojolabal, Chol, Huastec, etc.). The Maya, before the arrival of Europeans, reached a high level of culture and had their own hieroglyphic writing, partially deciphered.
3) Ottoman(Pame, Otomi, Popolok, Mixtec, Trick, Zapotec, etc.).
4) Miskito - Matagalpa (Miskito, Sumo, Matagalpa, etc.). These languages are sometimes included in Chibchan.
5) Chibchanskiye (karake, rama, getar, guaimi, chibcha, etc.). The Chibchan languages are also spoken in South America.

B. Language families of South America

1) Tupi Guarani(tupi, guarani, yuruna, tuparia, etc.).
2) Kechumara(Quechua is the language of the ancient state of the Incas in Peru, currently in Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador; Aymara).
3) Arawak(chamicuro, chipaya, itene, uanyam, guana, etc.).
4) Araucanian(Mapuche, Picunche, Pehuiche, etc.) -
5) pano takana(chacobo, kashibo, pano, takana, chama, etc.).
6) Same(Canela, Suya, Xavante, Kaingang, Botokudsky, etc.).
7) Caribbean(wayana, pemon, chaima, yaruma, etc.).
8) Language alakaluf and other isolated languages.

CLASSIFICATION OF LANGUAGES, the distribution of the languages of the world into certain taxonomic headings or classes in accordance with the principles arising from the general purpose of the study, and on the basis of certain features. The problem of language classification arises during their comparative study and is sometimes thought of as its ultimate goal, to achieve which it is necessary to comprehensively consider the systems of compared languages in search of the most significant characteristics that form the basis of classification (language classification parameters) - one-dimensional (by one parameter) or multidimensional (according to several parameters). There are 2 main types of language classification - genealogical classification of languages and typological classification languages; the main difference between them is that the first is based on the concept of linguistic kinship, the second on the concept of similarity (formal and/or semantic). From the point of view of their goals, they are irreducible to each other, but their principles may overlap: the genealogical classification of languages is often built taking into account typological features, which is inevitable when the comparative knowledge of the corresponding languages is insufficient, when their genealogical classification is preliminary. The independence of the two types of classification of languages is manifested in the possibility of a typological classification within the already established genealogical groupings.

There is also a third type of classification of languages - the areal classification of languages (see Areal linguistics), which occupies an autonomous, but intermediate position between the two classifications indicated above. An areal classification of languages is also possible for idioms within the genealogical classification of languages (for example, the Polissya area, covering the Belarusian-Ukrainian dialects), and for languages of different genetic affiliation (for example, the Carpathian area of the Hungarian-Slavic dialects); an important role is played by signs associated with the contacting of languages (see Linguistic Contacts). Areal classification is also possible within one language in relation to its dialects; it underlies linguistic geography.

With the genetic approach to the classification of languages, they operate with taxonomic categories: family, branch, group, etc., with the typological approach - type, class, with the areal - area, zone (for example, the zone of transitional dialects); a special category of areal classification of languages is formed by language unions. Only the genealogical classification of languages is absolute (each language belongs to one specific genealogical grouping and cannot change this affiliation; cases of erroneous assignment of a language to one family or group with subsequent transfer to another family are not taken into account). The typological classification of languages is always multidimensional, relative (the same language can be included in different classes according to different classification criteria) and historically changeable due to the variability of the very structure of the language and its theoretical understanding. The areal classification of languages is more or less stable depending on the nature of the classification parameters. Only for the areal classification of languages is the territorial localization of idioms essential, the genealogical and typological classification of languages is built independently of the spatial distribution of languages.

The issues of classification of languages began to be actively developed from the beginning of the 19th century, one of the first major works in this area is “Mithridates” by I.K. Adelung (1806-17), where all 3 types of classification of languages are outlined in a syncretic form. Since the middle of the 20th century, theoretical principles have been intensively discussed various kinds language classifications; many languages have not yet found their final place in the genetic classification of languages (especially in Africa, Oceania, Polynesia), while for some the question is already being resolved of a metagenealogical classification based on the possibility of a deeper relationship of a number of established families (see, for example, Nostratic languages). In the second half of the 20th century, interest in the problems of areal classification increased, and typological classification was enriched with new ideas and methods.

Lit .: Benveniste E. Classification of languages // New in linguistics. M., 1963. Issue. 3; Theoretical foundations of the classification of languages of the world. M., 1980-1982. Ch. 1-2.