Family

A family of languages (a language family) is a group of languages that developed from a common historical ancestor.

A language isolate is a family of one, such as Basque or Sumerian.

Comments

Some linguists have tried to establish separate terms for larger and smaller groups of languages, or for groups with greater and shallower time-depth. None of these are as universally accepted and used as family. Here are some of them:

• stock, super-stock
• phylum
• genus

Origin of the term

This term was apparently adopted by linguists from biology, where a group of similar plants had been called family since the mid-18th century, if not earlier. The term is deeply entrenched in linguistics since at least the mid-19th century.

See also

• Daughter Language
• Genealogical Classification
• Sister Language

Other languages

German Sprachfamilie