Historic Development
of Languages
(The Monster)
By Alan D. DeSantis
Geographic Distribution of
Living Languages, 1996
Area of World
# of Languages
% of World
Languages
The Americas
Africa
Europe
Asia
The Pacific
1,000
2,011
225
2,165
1,302
15%
30%
3%
32%
19%
TOTAL 6,703
The population figures in this table refer to
first language speakers in all countries
(* = U.N. Languages)
*1 CHINESE, MANDARIN
China
885,000,000
*2 SPANISH
Spain
332,000,000
*3 ENGLISH
UK
322,000,000
4 BENGALI
Bangladesh 189,000,000
5 HINDI
India
182,000,000
6 PORTUGUESE
Portugal 170,000,000
*7 RUSSIAN
Russia
170,000,000
8 JAPANESE
Japan
125,000,000
9 GERMAN, STANDARD
Germany 98,000,000
10 CHINESE, WU
China
77,175,000
11 JAVANESE
Indonesia, Java, Bali 75,500,800
12 KOREAN
Korea, S. 75,000,000
*13 FRENCH
France
72,000,000
14 VIETNAMESE
Viet Nam 67,662,000
15 TELUGU
India
66,350,000
16 CHINESE, YUE
China
66,000,000
17 MARATHI
India
64,783,000
18 TAMIL
India
63,075,000
19 TURKISH
Turkey
59,000,000
20 URDU
Pakistan 58,000,000
*ARABIC’S Total
Middle East 150, 000,000
Introduction to World
Languages
• There are over 6,000 languages currently
spoken in the world
• English is the most spoken language
– Most use it as their second (2 Billion)
• Many are unstudied languages
– New Guinea has 3 million people and 900
languages, many in remote communities
• Most of these emerged out of four
common parents!!
The World’s 4 Major
Language Families
Indo-European
Aus-tro-ne-sian
Af-ro-as-i-at-ic
Sino-Tibetan
Austronesian
Afroasiatic
Example of “Comparative
Reconstruction” in the
Romance Languages
French
Italian
Spanish
Rumanian
Portuguese
Word
mere
pere
oeil
pied
un
trios
mois
madre
padre
occhio
piede
uno
tre
mese
madre
padre
ojo
pie
uno
tres
mes
mama
tata
ochiu
picior
un
trei
luna
mae
pai
olho
pe
um
tres
mes
mother
father
eye
foot
one
three
month
The Big Problem
• Language reconstruction is not an exact science
• “Truth” emerges by consensus
• Consensus is harder and harder to reach as we go
back further and further
– Many of these “families” are debated/contested
• It is argued that every 10,000 years, the
continuous cycle of change completes itself
– Nothing exists from the initial (first generation)
language
I. Indo-European Languages
• Proto Indo-European spoken 5,000 BC
• This is the group we are most influenced by
– English, French, Spanish, Italian, German
• Of the 12 languages with more than 100
million speakers, 8 of them are I-E
– The widespread use of I-E languages is due to
colonization, imperialism, and missionaries
• But of the thousands of languages in the
world, only about 150 are I-E
Major Indo-European
Language Family
(First and Second Generation)
more
Proto-Indo-European
Proto-Germanic
Proto-Italic
Common Slavonic
Old Indo-Iranian
Minor Indo-European
Language Family
(First, Second, & Third Generations)
more
Proto-Indo-European
Celtic
Baltic
Irish Gaelic, Scottish Gaelic,
Breton, Welsh
Lithuanian, Latvian
Tocharian, Anatolian, Hittite
(all extinct)
Armenian
Albanian
Ancient Greek
Modern Greek
Ia. Germanic Languages
(Second, Third, & Fourth Generations)
Proto-Germanic
West Germanic
North Germanic
English, German, Yiddish,
Frisian, Dutch, Afrikaans
Swedish, Danish, Norwegian
Faroese, Icelandic
East Germanic
(Gothic)
-Afrikaans is a derivative of Dutch
-Gothic, spoken in central Europe, disappeared in 8th century
Ib. Italic Languages
(Second, Third, & Fourth Generations)
Proto-Italic
Latin
Osco-Umbrian
French, Italian, Catalean, Spanish
Provencal, Poruguese, Rumanian
Oscan, Umbrian
-Latin Derivatives are known as Romantic Languages
-Fathered by “vulgar Latin” (language of Roman Empire) not
“formal Latin.”
-Provencal is spoken in the South of France
-Catalan is spoken in northern Spain
-Rumanian is the most different
-Oscan and Umbrian were languages of southern Italy
Ic. Slavonic Languages
(Second, Third, & Fourth Generations)
Common Slavonic
East Slavonic
South Slavonic
West Slavonic
Russian, Byelorussian, Ukrainian
Bulgarian, Serbo-Croat
Polish, Czech, Slovak
-All Slavonic languages are remarkably similar
-Russian is the most widely spoken
Id. Indo-Iranian Languages
(Second, Third, & Fourth Generations)
Old Indo-Iranian
Sanskrit
Proto-Iranian
Hindi-Urdu, Bengali, Bihari
Punjabi, Marathi, Gujarati
Persian, Pashto
-Persian, also called Farsi, is spoken in Iran
-Pashto is spoken in Afghanistan and northern Pakistan
-All the other languages are spoken in different parts of India by
its 1 billion people
II. Sino-Tibetan Family
• 300 East Asian Languages
– Many of which remain unexplored
• There are Two Major Divisions:
– 1) Sinitic/Chinese (1 Billion Speakers)
• 5 Major Dialects
– 2) Tibeto-Burman
• Many different languages, very few speakers
• Burmese (20 mill) and Tibetan (3 mill) are the only
members with more than million speakers
II. Sino-Tibetan Family
Sino-Tibetan
Sinitic
(Chinese)
Tibeto-Burman
The 5 Dialects:
Mandarin, Yue, Wu, Min, Hakka
Burmese &Tibetan
III. Austronesian Family
• 1,000 Different Languages
• Two Major Sub-Divisions
• 1) Formosan
– 3 Ancient Languages
• Spoken only in the hills of Taiwan
• 2) Malayo-Polynesian
– West: Malayo Polynesian
• Indonesia, Malaysia, Madagascar, Philippines
• Recently Thai (40 mil) and Lao (10 mil) have been added
– East: Oceanic
• Papua New Guinea, Fijian, Islands of Pacific
III. Austronesian Family
Proto-Austronesian
Formosan
Proto-Malayo-Polynesian
Western
(Asian)
Oceanic
Indonesian-Malay, Javanese,
Malagsy
New Guinean, Pacific Islands,
Fijian, Samoan
–Indonesian-Malay (150 mill) in Indonesian and Malaysia
–Javanese (60 mill) in Java and Indonesia
–Pilipino is the official language of Philippines
–Malagasy (9 mill) of Madagascar
–Most others have under 1 mill
IV. Afroasiatic Family
• Comprises about 250 Languages
– Arabic being the biggie--150 Mill
• From northern Africa and the Middle East:
– Iran, Iraq, Chad, Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia,
Lebanon, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt,
Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan,
• It is the language of Judaism, Christianity, and
Islam
– Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed
IV. Afroasiatic Family
Afroasiatic Family
Semitic
Cushitic
Berber
Chadic
Amharic (Ethiopia)
Hebrew & Aribic
Aramaic (Palestinian)
Somali
(plus 40 others)
Kabyl
(10 mill. acorss N. Africa)
Hausa
(plus 130 others)
Ancient Egyptioan
(extinct)
-Hausa is one of Africa’s major languages spoken in Chad &
Nigeria (20 mill)
-Akkadian was the first written language (Semitic)
-Jesus spoke Palestinian Aramaic
V. Sub-Saharan Africa
• South of the Sahara Desert, there are
three other language families:
– 1) Niger-Congo Family
• Several hundred languages
• From Senegal to Kenya to South Africa
– 2) Nilo-Saharan Family
• 100 languages by 10 million people
– 3) Khoisan (Coisan) Family
• Southern Africa (uses click sounds)
• 50 languages spoken by fewer than 75,000
– *Remember, North Africa is Afroasiatic
VI. Other Families of
Asia and Europe
• 1) Altaic Family (many speakers)
–
–
–
–
250 Mil Speakers Total
Vast area from USSR to China
Turkic, Mongolian, Manchu
Recently, Japanese (150 mil) and Korean (50
mil) have been added
• 2) Dravidian Family (many speakers)
– Southern India
VI. Other Families of
Asia and Europe
• 3) Austro-Asiatic (many speakers)
– 100 Languages in Southeast Asia
– Found in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand
• 4) Caucasian Family
– Georgian is best known
– 30 Languages of Soviet Union, Turkey, and Iran
• 5) Uralic Family
– Finland, Hungary, Estonia
VII. The Americas
• It was assumed that there were 300 Languages
belonging to 50 families
• Greenburg has found that there are only 3
– Eskimo Aleut
• Upper and most of the Eastern regions of Canada
– Na-Dene
• Western and Central Canada (not touched by E A)
• Also, Navaho and Apache (Texas, OK)
– Amerind
• Everything Else from California to New York to Mexico
to Brazil to Argentina
VII. The Americas
• Each year more and more Native American
Languages are dying out with no speakers left:
Since 1965 . . .
– Tillamook, Wiyot, Algonquian, Huron,
Chumash, Salinan, Chinook, Natchez,
Tonkawa have died.
• Languages with fewer than 50 speakers:
– Abnaki-Penobscot, varieties of Apache, Coeur
d’Alene, Squamish, Cupeno, Miwok, Yokuts,
Pmo, Shasta, Tuscarora
VIII. Pidgin and Creole
• Pidgin
– Members of the subordinate (colonized) area create a
simplified variety of the dominant language
– Used in very limited situations (work, business)
• Bamboo, China Coast, Cameroon
– Many based on English and French
• Creole
– Today, most pidgins give way to Creole
– Used in many contexts
– More complex and developed over generations
• Louisiana, Jamaican, Caribbean
And the totals are . . .
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
1. Indo-European--2 Bill (Europe)
2. Sino Tibetan--1,040 Bill (Asia)
3. Niger-Congo--260 Mill (Africa)
4. Altaic--250 Mill (Asia)
5. Austonesian--250 Mill (Asian Pacific)
6. Afroasiatic--230 Mill (N. Af & M. East)
7. Dravidian--140 Mill (Asia)
8. Austro-Asiatic--60 Mill (Asia)
Nostratoc Super Family
• Researchers from Russia and US have found a
Super Family of 10,000 BC
• It gave birth to the Indo-European, Afroasiatic,
Uralic, Altaic, Dravidian, and Eskimos Aleut
families
• This being the case, English, Hebrew, Arabic,
Finnish, Korean, Turkish, and Eskimo would all be
cousins
• But this is still highly contested