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Languages of the World

Terms

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Language is...
an innate universal capacity
A language is...
a learned, local, implementations of that innate universal capacity.
Phonetics
production and perception of language sounds
phonology
organization and patterning of language sounds
Morphology
the structure and formation of words
syntax
the structure and formation of phrases and sentences
semantics
the processes of encoding and decoding meaning in words and phrases
pragmatics
higher level language structures
1 (reference image)
Bilabial
2 (reference image)
labiodental
3 (reference image)
dental
4 (reference image)
Aleveolar
5 (reference image)
Alveopalatal
6 (reference image)
Palatal
7 (reference image)
velar
8 (reference image)
uvular
9 (reference image)
Glottal
Phones
speech sound
Phoneme
The smallest phonetic unit in a language that is capable of conveying a distinction in meaning, as the m of mat and the b of bat in English.
Allophone
A predictable phonetic variant of a phoneme. For example, the aspirated t of top, the unaspirated t of stop,
Bound Morpheme
A morpheme that always attaches to other morphemes, never existing as a word itself
Free Morpheme
Morphemes that can stand alone as words
Inflectional morphemes
Morphemes that serve a purely grammatical function, neve creating a new word but only a different form of the same word
Derivational morpheme
Morphemes that change the meaning or lexical category of the words to which they attach
Affixes
bound morphemes that change the meaning or syntactic function of the words to which they attach. Prefixes, infixes, and suffixes are the three types of affixes.
Prefixes
affixes that attach to the beginning of a stem
suffixes
affixes attached to the end of a stem
infixes
a type of bound morpheme that is inserted into the root
Isolating (Analytic) languages
Type of language in which words consist mainly of one morpheme and sentences are composed of sequences of these free morphemes. Grammatical relationships are often indicated by word order. Ex: Chinese and Viatnamese
Fusional (Inflecting) languages
A type of language in which the relationships between the words in a sentence are indicated by bound morphemes that are difficult to separate from the stem. In fusional languages it is difficult to tell where one morpheme ends and the next begins. Ex: Spanish
Agglutinating (Agglutinantive) languages
A type of language in which the relationships between words in a sentence are indicated primarily by bound morphemes. Ex: Hungarian, Swahili
Polysynthetic (incorporating) languages
a type of language that attaches several affixes to a stem to indicate grammatical relationships
Nominative case
subject or unmarked
genitive case
possession
accusative case
direct object
partitive
object affected only partially by verb
essive
time or place "at which" something happened
addessive
to be "at" or in the possession of
inessive
"inside of" usually in an abstract sense
allative
"direction towards which"
ablative
"away from"
elative
"motion from inside of something"
illative
motion to the inside of
comitative
in the company of
translative
turns into
instrumental
means bye which accomplished
prolative
by way of
abessive
absence of an object
pidgins
Contact languages, usually through trade, not a native language,
Creole
a creole language is a pidgin that has become a native language, ex: Gullah
Panini
500 BCE, outlined phonology and grammar of the Sanskrit language
Sir William Jones
British scholar and colonial administrator. Proposed the Indo-European language family...1786
Jacob Grimm
Grimm's law, rules of sound change that could explain systematic relationship of sounds, published in 1822
Joseph Greenberg
Classification of african languages - 1960s; classification of indo-pacific languages - 1970s; Amerindian languages - 1980s
Afro-Asiatic (where)
Northern Africa
Altaic
Turkey, Central Asia, China, Siberia
Amerind
Much of North America, all of central and south america
Australian
Australia (except tasmania)
austro-asiatic
india, myanmar, cambodia, vietnam
Austronesian
Madagascar, taiwan, malaysia, indonesia, phillipines, polynesia, new zealand
causcasian families (north and south)
caucasus region, between the black sea and the caspian sea
chukotko-kamchatkan
far eastern siberia
dravidian
southern india
eskimo-aleut
alaska, northern canada, greenland
hmong-mien
china and vietnam
indo-european
europe, iran, afghanistan, northern india, australia, new zealand, the americas
indo-pacific
papua new guinea, nearby pacific islands, tasmania
khoisan
southern cone of africa
na-dene
western canada, alaska, nw US, arizona, new mexico
niger-kordofanian
most of sub-saharan africa
nilo-saharan
saharan africa and northern parts of sub-saharan africa
sino-tibetan
china, tibet, myanmar (burma), nepal, northern india
tai-kadai
southeast asia, especially thailand, laos, and malaysian peninsula
uralic
scandinavia, northern russia, hungary
Breton
Celtic->Indo-European
Cornish (extinct)
Celtic->indo-european
Welsh
Celtic->indo-european
irish gaelic
Celtic->indo-european
Scots gaelic
Celtic->indo-european
manx (extinct)
Celtic->indo-european
Latin (extinct)
Italic->indo-european
italian
Italic->indo-european
portuguese
Italic->indo-european
Spanish
Italic->indo-european
Catalan
Italic->indo-european
French
Italic->indo-european
Provencal
Italic->indo-european
Romanian
Italic->indo-european
Rhaeto-Romance
Italic->indo-european
Greek
Greek->Indo-European
Icelandic
Germanic-> indo-european
faroese
Germanic-> indo-european
swedish
Germanic-> indo-european
danish
Germanic-> indo-european
norwegian
Germanic-> indo-european
english
Germanic-> indo-european
frisian
Germanic-> indo-european
dutch
Germanic-> indo-european
afrikaans
Germanic-> indo-european
german
Germanic-> indo-european
yiddish
Germanic-> indo-european
Lithuanian
Baltic->indo-european
latvian
baltic->indo-european
Russian
Slavic->indo-european
belarusian
Slavic->indo-european
ukrainian
Slavic->indo-european
czech
Slavic->indo-european
slovak
Slavic->indo-european
polish
Slavic->indo-european
sorbian
Slavic->indo-european
slovenian
Slavic->indo-european
serbo-croatian
Slavic->indo-european
bosnian
Slavic->indo-european
bulgarian
Slavic->indo-european
macedonian
Slavic->indo-european
armenian
armenian->indo-european
albanian
albanian->indo-european
tocharian
tocharian->indo-european
hittite
anatolian->indo-european
Avestan (extinct)
Indo-iranian->indo-european
pashto
Indo-iranian->indo-european
farsi
Indo-iranian->indo-european
tajiki
Indo-iranian->indo-european
baluchi
Indo-iranian->indo-european
kurdish
Indo-iranian->indo-european
Sanskrit
Indo-iranian->indo-european
Hindi
Indo-iranian->indo-european
Urdu
Indo-iranian->indo-european
marathi
Indo-iranian->indo-european
sinhalese
Indo-iranian->indo-european
punjabi
Indo-iranian->indo-european
kashmiri
Indo-iranian->indo-european
nepali
Indo-iranian->indo-european
gujarati
Indo-iranian->indo-european
romany
Indo-iranian->indo-european
assamese
Indo-iranian->indo-european
bengali
Indo-iranian->indo-european
bihari
Indo-iranian->indo-european
oriya
Indo-iranian->indo-european
Finnish
Fino-Ugric->Uralic
Estonian
Fino-Ugric->uralic
Hungarian
fino-ugric->uralic
Saami
Sami->uralic
Uyghur
Turkic->Altaic
Uzbek
Turkic->Altaic
Azerbaijani
Turkic->Altaic
Turkish
Turkic->Altaic
Turkmen
Turkic->Altaic
Kazakh
Turkic->Altaic
Kirghiz
Turkic->Altaic
Buriat
Mongolian->Altaic
Mongolian
Mongolian->Altaic
Manchu
Tungusic->Altaic
Chechen
East Caucasian -> North Caucasian
Abkhaz
West Caucasian-> North Caucasian
Ubykh
West Caucasian ->North Caucasian
Georgian
South Caucasian Family
Koryak
Chukitko-Kamchatkan Family
Brahui
Northern->Dravidian Family
Gondi
South-central ->Dravidian Family
Telugu
South-Central->Dravidian Family
Kannada
Souther->Dravidian Family
Malayalam
Southern->Dravidian Family
Tamil
Southern->Dravidian Family
Chinese, Hakka
Chinese->Sino-Tibetan
Chinese, Mandarin
Chinese->Sino-Tibetan
Chinese, Min
Chinese->Sino-Tibetan
Tibetan, Central
Tibetic-Sino-Tibetan
Sikkimese
Tibetic->Sino-Tibetan
Sherpa
Tibetic->Sino-Tibetan
Burmese
Burmish->Sino-Tibetan
Hadza
Hatsa->Khoisan
!Kung
South Africa->Khoisan
!Xoo
South Africa->Khoisan
heikom
South Africa->Khoisan
Khoe
South Africa->Khoisan
Nama
South Africa->Khoisan
Zulu
Bantoid->Niger-Kordofanian
Xhosa
Bantoid->Niger-Kordofanian
Swahili
Bantoid->Niger-Kordofanian
Yoruba
Atlantic-Congo->Niger-Kordofanian
Vai
Mande->Niger-Kordofanian
Hebrew
Semitic->Afro-Asiatic
Mon
Mon-Khmer->Austro-Asiatic
Khmer
Mon-Khmer->Austro-asiatic
Vietnamese
Mon-Khmer->austro-asiatic
Thai
Tai-Kadai Family
Lao
Tai-Kadai Family
Javanese
Malayo-Polynesian->Austronesian Family
Malay
Malayo-Polynesian->Austronesian Family
Sundanese
Malayo-Polynesian->Austronesian Family
Tagalog
Malayo-Polynesian->Austronesian Family
Cebuano
Malayo-Polynesian->Austronesian Family
Malagasy
Malayo-Polynesian->Austronesian Family
Ilokano
Malayo-Polynesian->Austronesian Family
Hawaiian
Polynesian->austronesian
tahitian
Polynesian->austronesian
maori
Polynesian->austronesian
rapa nui
Polynesian->austronesian
samoan
Polynesian->austronesian
Aleut
Aleut->Eskimo-Aleut
Inuktitut
Eskimo->Eskimo-Aleut
Yupik
Eskimo->Eskimo-Aleut
Apache
Athabaskan->Na-dene
Navajo
Athabaskan->na-dene
chipewa
Athabaskan->na-dene
Cheyenne
Algonquian->amerind
cree
Algonquian->amerind
Crow
siouan->amerind
dakota
siouan->amerind
hidatsa
siouan->amerind
mohawk
iroquoian->amerind
onondaga
iroquoian->amerind
cherokee
iroquoian->amerind
Choctaw
Muskogean->amerind
Hopi
Uto-Aztecan->amerind
Zapotec
Oto-manguean
Quechua
Andean->amerind
ch'orti'
mayan->amerind
quiche
mayan->amerind

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