Language is an integral part of culture and plays a crucial role in its development and transmission. Language reflects the values, beliefs, and perceptions of a culture; and provides a way to express a culture, transmit cultural norms, values, and traditions from one generation to the next. Language also shapes our perceptions of the world, giving us a sense of identity and belonging to a particular cultural group.

In essence, language both reflects and shapes the values, beliefs, and identity of a society, while culture provides the context and meaning through which language is understood and interpreted. Therefore, understanding a culture requires understanding its language, and vice versa.

Languages are constantly evolving, as new languages are created and old languages are lost, so it is hard to count how many languages are spoken around the world. It is estimated that at least 7,000 languages are being spoken today. Of these languages, there are about 62 main language families (as shown on the tree above).

A language family is a group of languages that are related through descent from a common ancestral language or parental language, called the proto-language of that family. Languages within a family share a significant number of common features in phonology, morphology, and syntax. Subdivisions of a language family are called “branches”. Some families contain hundreds of different languages, while some languages, termed isolates, are not known to be related to any other languages and therefore constitute a family consisting of only one language.

*This page is still under construction. Eventually, you will be able to click on the language families below and be taken to that language family’s page. Keep visiting to see when more pages are added.*

MAIN LANGUAGE FAMILIES

LANGUAGE GROUPS WITH MANY FAMILIES

ISOLATE LANGUAGE FAMILIES