The main approaches to the classification of languages. Classification of languages ​​Principles of classification of languages ​​of the world (genealogical, typological, areal, functional, cultural-historical classifications)

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 affinity 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) is the literary language of 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 Bact 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:

BUT. 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

BUT. 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); the state language of the Russian Federation, an interethnic language for communication between the peoples of the Russian Federation and adjacent territories of the former USSR, one of the world 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- was 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 - an integral element of the Russian literary language.

AT. 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

BUT. North Germanic (Scandinavian) subgroup
1) Danish; writing based on the Latin alphabet; served as a literary language for Norway until the end of the 19th century.
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 was formed on the basis of southern German dialects, but with many features of the northern ones (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.

AT. 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- folk Latin dialects of the early Middle Ages, 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 written languages ​​(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- was used as a common 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- the language of the steppe nomads of the 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 in the 9th-11th 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, Mongolian, 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- the language of the most ancient parts of the Bible, 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 West 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, Ewando, 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, Mikmak, 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.

The modern nomenclature of world languages ​​includes up to five thousand languages ​​(more precisely, from 2500 to 5000: such a wide range in quantitative terms is due to the fact that the difference between languages ​​and dialects of one language is very conditional).

Some languages ​​are distributed in a narrow circle of speakers (for example, the tribal languages ​​of Africa, Polynesia, "one-aul" languages ​​​​of Dagestan), others represent a nationality (for example, the Dungan language in Kyrgyzstan), or a nation (for example, Czech, Bulgarian), others are used by several nations (eg French in France, Belgium, Switzerland), others function as international languages ​​(eg English, French, Spanish, Chinese, Arabic, Russian). The Russian language, in addition, is also an international language serving the peoples of Russia.

In addition to living, actively functioning languages, there are dead ones (for example, Latin, Gaulish or Gothic languages). Many dead languages ​​and even entire language families have survived only in place names or as borrowings in other languages, while others have disappeared without a trace. However, some dead languages ​​are still used today (for example, Latin is the language of the Catholic Church, medicine, and scientific terminology).

General linguistics still has rather approximate information about the modern languages ​​of the world. Along with well-studied languages ​​(whose history, thanks to the presence of written monuments and even theoretical descriptions, has been known for twenty and thirty centuries, compare, for example, the languages ​​​​of India), there are languages ​​whose surviving monuments remain undeciphered (for example, the hieroglyphic language of Crete). The classification of the languages ​​of America, Africa, Oceania, New Guinea, and Southeast Asia also needs detailed development.

Many languages ​​are still unwritten (for example, the languages ​​of Africa, Polynesia, Australia), some have a written tradition relatively recently (compare, for example, the late writing of the Albanian language, the first written monuments of which date back to the 15th century or Latvian - the 16th century. ), which creates its own difficulties in learning these languages.

Modern linguistics is engaged not only in the study and description of the languages ​​of the world, but also in their classification, determining the place of each language among the languages ​​of the world. Language classification

This is the distribution of the languages ​​of the world into groups based on defined
signs, in accordance with the principles underlying
research. There are various classifications of languages
of which the main ones are genealogical (or genetic)
kaya), typological (originally known as morphological
Kaya) and geographical (or areal). Principles of classification
languages ​​of the world are different.

Genealogical classification is based on the concept of linguistic kinship. Its purpose is to determine the place of a particular language in the circle of related languages, to establish its genetic links. The main research method is a comparative historical one, the main classification category is a family, a branch, a group of languages ​​(for example, according to this classification, the Russian language is included in the family of Slavic languages, distinguished on the basis of their common source - the Proto-Slavic language; French is in the family of Romance languages , ascending to a common source - folk Latin).

The typological classification is based on the concept of similarity (formal and/or semantic) and, accordingly, the difference between languages. It is based primarily on the features of the structure of languages, in particular, on the signs of the morphological structure of the word, the ways of connecting morphemes, the role of inflections and affixes in the formation of grammatical forms of the word and in the transfer of the grammatical meaning of the word. Its purpose is to group languages ​​into large classes based on the similarity of their grammatical structure, or rather

The principles of its organization, determine the place of a particular language
ka taking into account the formal organization of its linguistic structure. Basics
nym method of research is a comparative-comparator
ny, the main classification category - type, class of languages
(Russian, for example, just like other Indo-European
languages, belongs to languages ​​of the inflectional type, since inflection
this, closely related to the stem of the word, is stable and su
essential feature of the morphological structure of the word).

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 linguo-geographical, the main classification category is an area or zone (cf.

lects or languages ​​within a linguistic union). An areal classification is also possible within one language in relation to its dialects (cf. the areal classification of Russian dialects, according to which North Russian and South Russian dialects are distinguished, as well as transitional Central Russian dialects).

These classifications differ not only in their goals, but also in the degree of their stability: a genealogical classification is absolutely stable (since each language originally belongs to a particular family, group of languages ​​and cannot change the nature of this affiliation); typological classification is always relative and historically changeable (since each language is constantly evolving, its structure and the very theoretical understanding of this structure change); an areal classification is more or less stable, depending on the features underlying it.

In addition to these three main types of classifications, sometimes a functional (or social), as well as a cultural-historical classification is distinguished. Functional classification comes from the scope of the functioning of the language. It is based on the study of acts of speech and types of linguistic communication. In accordance with this classification, languages ​​are divided into natural, which are a means of communication (oral and written languages) and artificial, i.e. graphic languages ​​that do not reproduce the forms of natural languages ​​and are used in the field of science and technology (cf., for example, programming languages, information languages, logical languages, etc.). The cultural-historical classification examines languages ​​from the point of view of their relationship to the history of culture. In accordance with this classification, which takes into account the historical sequence of the development of culture, unwritten, written languages, literary languages ​​of the people and the nation, languages ​​of interethnic communication are distinguished (see the chapter "Language and Culture").

§ 304. There are several thousand languages ​​in the modern world. It is not possible to determine their exact number, which is explained by various reasons, and above all by the fact that it is far from always possible to strictly distinguish between a language and a territorial dialect: "The difference between different languages ​​and dialects of one language is arbitrary." So, for example, in modern Polish it is customary to distinguish between the following dialects: Greater Poland, Lesser Poland, Mazovian, Silesian and Kashubian. At the same time, some linguists (Kashubian St. Ramuld, German Fr. Lorenz, Russian scientists A.F. Hilferding, I.A. Baudouin de Courtenay, V. Yagich, Ya. Rozvadovsky, A.M. Selishchev, etc.) consider the Kashubian dialect as an independent West Slavic language. For a long time in romance, there were disputes over the number of Romance languages, the status of such languages ​​or dialects, such as Galician (a separate, independent language or dialect of the Portuguese language), Gascon (a separate language or a dialect of Provençal), Franco-Provençal (an independent language or dialect of French or Occitan), etc. There were different opinions on the status of the Moldovan language (a separate language or a variant of Romanian), Catalan and Occitan (different languages ​​or variants of one language), etc.

Different sources indicate a different number of world languages. Let's compare some statements on this subject: "There are more than two thousand different languages ​​in the world"; "Modern science has over 2500 languages"; "... There are about 2800 separate languages ​​on the globe"; "There are currently between 2,500 and 5,000 languages ​​on the globe." In the speech of one of the participants of the international scientific conference "Normative and Descriptive Terminology", held in Moscow on May 25–26, 2006, information was provided that there are 6417 languages ​​in the world.

Scientific research and description of languages ​​involves their classification, which refers to the distribution of languages ​​into certain groupings (classes, groups, subgroups, etc.) based on various differential features. According to the definition of V. A. Vinogradov, the classification of languages ​​is "the distribution of the languages ​​of the world according to certain taxonomic (i.e., classification. - V.N.) headings in accordance with the principles arising from the general purpose of the study, and on the basis of certain signs.

The classification of languages ​​can be based on various features, namely: the origin of languages, their genetic relationship (genealogical classification); typology of languages, types of language units (typological classification); belonging to one or another language area, one or another areal community (areal classification).

In linguistic literature, the first two classifications of languages ​​are usually considered - genealogical and typological, less often attention is paid to the latter.

Genealogical classification of languages

§ 305. Genealogical classification of languages, which is sometimes also called genetic (cf. Greek. genos-"kind, birth, descent" and logos-"concept, doctrine"), is the distribution of the languages ​​of the world into different groups based on family ties between them, taking into account the degree of their relationship. In this case, linguistic kinship relations are understood as the presence of similarities between homogeneous linguistic elements, due to the common origin of these languages ​​from one base language, or proto-language.

"Language kinship- a common property of two or more. languages, which consists in the fact that their original minimal significant elements (root morphemes and affixes) are in strictly defined correspondences, reflecting the regular nature of sound transformations ... of the material fund, ascending to a common source - proto-language".

Unlike other possible classifications of languages, the genealogical classification is absolute. This means that in this classification "each language belongs to one specific genealogy, grouping and cannot change this affiliation."

In the genealogical classification, the languages ​​of the world are usually divided into such groupings as language families, branches, groups, subgroups. At the same time, the terms denoting the corresponding groupings of languages ​​are used in linguistics extremely inconsistently (see below).

§ 306. The largest association of languages ​​in the genealogical classification is language family, or language family. A language family is a set of languages, one way or another (to a greater or lesser extent) related by kinship relations and retaining certain similarities of certain elements.

language family- this is "a set of related languages ​​\u200b\u200bthat descended from one ancestor language, or parent language (for example, Indo-European S. Ya.)", "inherited from a common parent language a noticeable commonality of the material fund (words, morphemes, roots, affixes), reflecting strict sound correspondences".

Other terms are also used to refer to the family of languages: "big family" (as opposed to "small family"), or "macrofamily" (as opposed to "microfamily"), "philia". In this sense, the term "group of languages" or "language group" is also often used.

Among the languages ​​of the world, several dozen language families differ. These are associations of such languages ​​as, for example: Indo-European (distributed on all continents of the globe), Turkic (distribution area - many countries of Europe and Asia), Finno-Ugric, or Finno-Ugric (Hungary, Norway, Western Siberia), Tungus- Manchu, or Manchu-Tungus (Siberia, Far East), Chukchi-Kamchatka (Chukotka, Kamchatka, etc.), Eskimo-Aleutian (Chukotka, Alaska, Canada, Greenland, Aleutian Islands, etc.), Nakh-Dagestan, or East Caucasian (Chechnya, Ingushetia, Dagestan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey), Mongolian (Mongolia), Sino-Tibetan, or Sino-Tibetan (China), Thai (Indochina and South China), Austroasian, or Austroasian (Southeast and South Asia ), Austronesian, or Malayo-Polynesian (Indonesia, Philippines, etc.), Dravidian (South Asian subcontinent), Papuan (New Guinea and some other Pacific Islands), Congo-Kordofanian, or Niger-Kordofanian (Africa), Nilo-Saharan (Africa), kois Anish (Africa, South Africa), Afroasian, Afroasiatic, or (obsolete) Semitic-Hamitic, Hamito-Semitic (Africa, Asia), Australian (Australia), Indian, American, or Amerindian (Central and South America), Caribbean, or Caribbean (South America), Gulf languages ​​(North America).

To date, the languages ​​of the Indo-European family have been studied in the most detail. In total there are over 100 Indo-European languages. According to some sources, their number reaches 127. According to scientists, the territory of the initial (or relatively early) distribution of the Indo-European languages ​​\u200b\u200bis located "in the strip from Central Europe and the North Balkans to the Black Sea region (Southern Russian steppes)". During the last five centuries, the languages ​​of the Indo-European family have also spread to North and South America, Australia, and partly to Africa.

The languages ​​of different families differ from each other in their specific features in different areas of the linguistic structure - in the field of phonetics, vocabulary, morphology, syntax, etc. transitivity - intransitivity of verbs, the presence of forms of different moods, etc. Many words of common Sindo-European origin are preserved in the vocabulary of modern Indo-European languages. These include some names of degrees of kinship (mother, daughter, son, brother, sister, etc.), names of animals (wolf, beaver, cow, goat, fly, etc.), trees (oak, willow, birch, etc.) and many other words (coast, sea, water, moon, fire, smoke, salt, sharp, two, three, four, etc.).

§ 307. Many families of languages ​​are divided into branches, which are often called small families, or groups. Language branches are smaller divisions of languages ​​than families. The languages ​​of the same branch retain closer family ties, have more similarities.

Among the languages ​​of the Indo-European family, there are branches of such languages ​​as, for example: Slavic, Baltic, Germanic, Romance, Greek (Greek group), Celtic, Illyrian, Indian (otherwise - Indo-Aryan), Indo-Iranian (Aryan), Tocharian and some others. In addition, some single languages ​​\u200b\u200bthat do not form special branches belong to the Indo-European language family, for example: Albanian, Armenian, Penetian, Thracian, Phrygian.

The Finno-Ugric language family includes four branches: Baltic-Finnish, Volga, Perm and Ugric; in addition, the Sami language belongs to this family, which is a single language, not included in any of the listed branches.

The languages ​​of the Chukchi-Kamchatka family are divided into two branches: Chukchi-Karyak and Itelmen.

In Russian linguistics, the most thoroughly studied and described are the Indo-European languages ​​of the Slavic branch, which were originally represented in Eastern and South-Eastern Europe, and later became widespread in different regions of Europe and Asia.

A striking distinctive feature of the Slavic languages ​​in the field of phonetics is the loss of Proto-Indo-European diphthongs and diphthong combinations, their transformation into monophthongs, or monophthongization. The consonant system of modern Slavic languages ​​reflects the first mitigation (first palatalization) of back-lingual g, k, x, expressed in their transition to the corresponding hissing z, c, s, which was reflected in the alternation of posterior lingual with hissing. In the field of morphology, almost all Slavic languages ​​have lost their dual number. All Slavic languages ​​have lost the ending s in the nominative case of the singular number of masculine nouns in connection with the action in the Common Slavic language of the law of the open syllable (cf. such Russian forms as wolf, son, smoke and their equivalents in different Slavic languages, on the one hand, and in non-Slavic Indo-European languages, on the other hand, for example, Lithuanian vilkas, siinus, dumos). In the vocabulary of various modern Slavic languages, a large number of words of common Slavic origin have been preserved: person, place, memory, weather, fun, simple, clean, greedy, write, read, forget and etc.

The most significant distinguishing features of the Baltic languages ​​in the field of phonetics can be considered the opposition of vowel phonemes in longitude - brevity, the presence of tonic stress, intonational opposition of phonemes, the presence of diphthongs (pure and mixed). In the morphology of names, five types of declension of nouns are preserved, in the sphere of the verb - a variety of types of compound tenses and moods formed by combining personal forms of the auxiliary verb with participles. The original vocabulary of common Indo-European origin prevails in the vocabulary, especially in such semantic areas as kinship names, parts of the human body, names of animals, plants, landscape elements, celestial bodies, elementary actions, names of numbers, pronouns, functional words, etc.

The Indo-European languages ​​of the Germanic branch are characterized by such distinctive features as, for example: the widespread use of ablaut, i.e. alternation of vowels in the root of a word that performs an inflectional or derivational function; spirantization of voiceless stop consonants p, t, k common Indo-European origin under certain conditions, i.e. turning them into slotted, or fricative; dynamic stress on the first (root) syllable; the presence of two varieties of adjective declension - strong, or pronominal, declension and weak, or nominal.

The characteristic features of the Romance languages ​​are: in the field of phonetics - the general Romance system of vowels of seven phonemes (preserved in most Romance languages), the presence of diphthongs, the simplification and transformation of some groups of consonants, the tendency to open the syllable; in morphology - a wide distribution of analytical grammatical forms, a two-gender system of nouns (male and female), lack of declension of names, a variety of forms of the article, an abundance of tense forms of the verb (differs up to 16 tenses); in word formation - the widespread use of conversion (transition of adjectives into nouns), denominative formation of verbs; in vocabulary - the predominance of words inherited from Latin, a large number of borrowings from Germanic, Celtic, ancient Greek and other languages.

Linguistic literature draws attention to the fact that the genetic relationship between the languages ​​of different branches is manifested to varying degrees. In particular, the presence of close relationships between such Indo-European languages ​​as Indian and Iranian, Slavic and Baltic is noted, which allows us to speak about the existence of intermediate language branches - Indo-Iranian, some Balto-Slav, etc. Particularly close ties remain between the Slavic and Baltic languages, which combine such common features as, for example, the presence of pronominal forms of adjectives, the similarity of the grammatical category of the verb aspect, the presence of a significant number of related words. It should be noted that the similarity of the vocabulary of the Slavic and Baltic languages ​​is explained not only by the common origin of these languages, but also by the borrowing of a large number of words by the Baltic languages ​​from Slavic as a result of long-term contacts between the Balts and Slavs in the past.

§ 308. Within the framework of some linguistic branches, different groups of closely related languages ​​are distinguished, which are related to each other by closer genetic relationships than the languages ​​of individual branches of certain language families. So, for example, the Slavic branch of the Indo-European family of languages ​​is divided into three groups: East Slavic (Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian languages), West Slavic (Polish, Czech, Slovak, Lusatian, and also extinct Polabian) and South Slavic (Bulgarian, Serbo-Croatian, Macedonian, Slovenian, as well as Old Church Slavonic, preserved in the texts of religious literature). Germanic languages ​​are also traditionally divided into three groups: northern, north Germanic, or Scandinavian, a group (Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Icelandic and Faroese), western, or West Germanic (English, German, Dutch, Luxembourgish, Frisian, Afrikaans , Yiddish) and Eastern, or East Germanic (extinct Gothic, Burgundian, Vandal, Gepid, Herul). Among the Romance languages, five groups are usually distinguished: Ibero-Romance (Portuguese, Galician, Spanish, Catalan), Gallo-Romance (French, Provençal), Italo-Romance (Italian, Sardinian), Romansh, or Ladin (Swiss Romansh, Tyrolean Romansh , Friulian) and Balkan-Romance (Romanian, Moldavian, Aromunian, Megleno-Romanian, Istro-Romanian).

The languages ​​of different groups belonging to the same branch are characterized by their similarities and differences. Let us note some phonetic phenomena that distinguish the Slavic languages ​​​​of different groups - East Slavic, West Slavic and South Slavic.

In accordance with common Slavic diphthong combinations *ol, *or, *el, *er between consonants in modern East Slavic languages, the corresponding full-vowel sound combinations are used: olo, oro, ere, with possible regular deviations in the pronunciation of vowels, for example, Russian head(from *golva, cf. Lithuanian galva), cow (*kowa, cf. Lithuanian karve), milk(from *melkon, cf. german Milch, shore(from *bergos, cf. german Berg- "mountain"), in West Slavic or in some of them - sound combinations lo, go, le, ge, with possible consonant changes, respectively Polish glova, krova, mleko, brzeg, Czech hlava, krava, mleko, breh, in South Slavic - sound combinations la, ha, ha, g "a, cf. Bulgarian head, κράβα, mlyako, bryag.

In accordance with common Slavic consonant combinations *dj, *tj in modern East Slavic languages, hissing sounds are used g, s, e.g. Russians boundary(from *medja, cf. latin medius- "average"), candle(from *svetja, cf. Russian light, shine) in West Slavic - whistling affricates dz, s, e.g. Polish miedza, s "wieca, in South Slavic - other consonants (cf., for example, Bulgarian between, light, Serbo-Croatian fur, ceeha, Slovenian meja, sveca etc.).

Some groups of closely related languages ​​are divided into subgroups. So, for example, South Slavic languages ​​are sometimes divided into two subgroups: eastern (Bulgarian and Macedonian) and western (Serbo-Croatian and Slovenian), West Slavic into three subgroups: Lechitic, Czech-Slavic and Serbo-Lusatian.

The genealogical classification of languages ​​is not the only one. Typological classification arose later than attempts at genealogical classification and proceeded from other premises. Typological classification languages aims to establish the similarities and differences of languages, which are rooted in the most common and important properties of the language and do not depend on genetic relationship.

The question of the "type of language" arose for the first time among the Romantics. The first scientific classification was the work of F. Schlegel, who contrasted inflectional languages ​​(meaning Indo-European) with non-inflectional, affixal ones. So, in particular, the scientist wrote: “In the Indian and Greek languages, each root is what its name says, and is like a living sprout; by virtue of the fact that the concepts of relations are expressed by means of an inner change, a free field is given for development.... All that has thus been obtained from a simple root retains the impress of kinship, is mutually connected, and therefore is preserved. Hence, on the one hand, wealth, and on the other hand, the strength and durability of these languages. “... In languages ​​that have affixation instead of inflection, the roots are not at all like that; they can be compared to a pile of atoms... their connection is purely mechanical - by external attachment. From their very inception, these languages ​​lack the germ of a living development... and these languages, whether wild or cultivated, are always difficult, confused, and often especially distinguished by their wayward, arbitrary, subjectively strange, and vicious character. Consequently, non-inflectional languages ​​were evaluated by him according to the degree of their evolutionary closeness to inflectional ones and were considered as a certain stage on the way to an inflectional system. So, in particular, F. Schlegel denied the existence of affixes in inflectional languages, and classified cases of affixal word formation as internal inflection. In fact, using modern terminology, F. Schlegel opposed not inflection and affix, but the way of combining morphemes in a word - fusion and agglutinative. F. Schlegel's brother, A. Schlegel, improved this classification by highlighting languages ​​without grammatical structure - amorphous and showed two opposite tendencies in the grammatical structure of the language - synthetic and analytical.

A new stage in the typological classification of languages ​​was discovered by W. von Humboldt. The scientist paid special attention to the issue of form in language, noting that form is “constant and uniform in the activity of the spirit, transforming organic sound into an expression of thought”, is “a synthesis in the spiritual unity of individual linguistic elements, in contrast to it, considered as material content". W. von Humboldt distinguishes between the external form in the language (these are sound, grammatical and etymological forms) and the internal form, as a single all-pervading force, that is, an expression of the spirit of the people. Based on the classification of the Schlegel brothers, Humboldt identified three types of languages: isolating, agglutinating and inflectional. Humboldt also outlined the main criteria for the classification of languages: 1) expression in the language of relations (transmission of grammatical meanings); 2) ways of forming a sentence; 4) the sound form of languages. He noted the absence of "pure" representatives of one or another type of language, that is, the absence of ideal models, and also introduced into scientific use another type of language - incorporating, the features of which are that the sentence is built as a compound word, that is, unformed roots - words are agglutinated into one common whole, which can be both a word and a sentence.

The next step was the scientific classification of languages ​​​​by A. Schleicher, who singled out:

a) isolating languages ​​in two varieties, in which only root morphemes are present (for example, Chinese) and in which root morphemes and functional words are present (Burmese);

b) agglutinating languages ​​in two main varieties:

Synthetic type, connecting roots and suffixes (Turkic and Finnish languages), roots and prefixes (Bantu languages), roots and infixes (Batsbi language);

Analytical type, combining ways of expressing grammatical meanings with the help of a suffix and function words (Tibetan language);

c) inflectional languages, in which inflections are presented as expressors of purely grammatical meanings:

Synthetic type, in which only internal inflection is presented (Semitic languages) and in which both internal and external inflection is presented (Indo-European languages, especially ancient ones);

Analytical type, in which grammatical meanings can equally be transmitted with the help of affixes, and with the help of inflections, and with the help of auxiliary words (Romance languages, English.

A. Schleicher considered isolating or amorphous languages ​​to be archaic, agglutinating languages ​​to be transitional, ancient inflectional languages ​​to be the era of prosperity, and inflectional new (analytical) languages ​​to be attributed to the era of decline.

A. Schleicher was followed by a number of classifications of languages ​​belonging to H. Steinthal, F. Mistelli, F.F. Fortunatov. The new typological classification belongs to the American scientist E. Sapir, who made an attempt to give a "conceptual classification of languages, based on the idea that "every language is a formalized language", but that "the classification of languages, built on the distinction of relations, is purely technical" and that it is impossible to characterize languages ​​from just one point of view. E. Sapir puts the expression of different types of concepts in the language as the basis of his classification: 1) root, 2) derivational, 3) mixed-relational, 4) purely relational.

Thus, we see that scientists based their classification on the way of expressing grammatical meanings in the language, such a classification is today called morphological. It is most common in linguistics, according to which languages ​​are divided into the following types: 1) isolating, or amorphous; 2) agglutinative, or agglutinating; 3) incorporating, or polysynthetic; 4) inflectional.

The first group includes, for example, the Chinese language. Isolating languages- these are languages ​​that are characterized by the absence of inflection, the grammatical significance of the order of words, the weak opposition of official or significant words. Agglutinative 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, and the unambiguity of affixes. Turkic languages ​​belong to this type of languages. To the third group polysynthetic languages, include those for which it is possible to include other members of the sentence (complement) in the verb-predicate, while alternation in the basis of the verb is possible, the predicate in such languages ​​is consistent not only with the subject, but also with other members of the sentence. This group includes the languages ​​of the American Indians. Inflectional languages- languages ​​that are characterized by a developed system of word formation and inflection, the presence of morphological alternations, a diverse system of declension and conjugation, synonymy and homonymy of affixes. The languages ​​of the inflectional type include many Indo-European languages, in particular Slavic and Baltic. Many languages ​​occupy an intermediate position on this scale of morphological classification. Often, to characterize the grammatical structure of a language, the terms analytical languages, synthetic languages ​​are also used. Analytical languages , or analytical languages are called those in which the grammatical meaning is expressed with the help of independent words, that is, a 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 constructions in which the grammatical meaning is conveyed either by an auxiliary or an independent word, for example: in the verb forms of the present tense, the category of a person is transmitted synthetically, with the help of endings - walk, walk, walk, walk, walk, walk; in past tense forms - analytically - I walked, you walked, he walked etc. Respectively, synthetic languages , or languages ​​of synthetic structure are called those in which grammatical meanings are expressed primarily by affixes (fusional and agglutinative), that is, both grammatical and lexical meanings are transmitted undivided, in one word with the help of affixes, internal inflection, etc., for example, in the form went- the suffix -l- conveys the grammatical meaning of time, and the inflection -a- - the grammatical meanings of the feminine and singular; in word form poverty root troubles- conveys the lexical meaning of the word, the suffix -н- - the meaning of quality, the suffix -ost- - the meaning of the objectified feature ( poor - poverty), inflection - u - meanings of the instrumental case, feminine and singular; in verb walks around the lexical meaning is expressed by the root - haj-, in which there is internal inflection (vowel alternation O / A), indicating imperfection - the duration and repetition of the action, as well as the alternation of consonants d / w, which in this case accompanies the alternation of the vowel, cf. give birth - give birth, raise - grow, feed - feed; prefix pro-, suffix - willow- and postfix -sya, which in combination indicate the way of carrying out the action “to do something from time to time, without straining”, associated with the meaning of the imperfect aspect, cf. walk around, and ending –et, indicating the 3rd person, singular and present tense.

Thus, among the inflectional languages, one can single out synthetic, ancient Greek, Sanskrit, Latin, most modern Slavic languages ​​(Russian, Polish), Baltic languages ​​(Lithuanian, Latvian), since synthetic ways of expressing grammatical meanings are richly represented in them. They are opposed by the new Western European languages ​​(English, German, French), as well as Bulgarian and Macedonian, which are dominated by analytical ways of representing grammatical meanings. However, these languages ​​also retain many features characteristic of inflectional languages, because their ancestors - Old English, Old French, Old Slavonic - belonged to inflectional languages ​​of a synthetic type. Even in English, which has almost lost inflectional forms (gender, number, case, person), internal inflection is richly represented in the formation of verb tenses. Inflectional languages ​​are characterized fusion- such a way of connecting morphemes, in which drawing boundaries becomes difficult due to alternations or the imposition of one morpheme on another.

From truly inflectional languages, such as Indo-European, one should distinguish "pseudo-inflectional", Semitic-Hamitic, which A. Schleicher also attributed to the inflectional type. More F.F. Fortunatov doubted this, drawing attention to the fact that "the relationship between stem and affix" in the Semitic languages ​​is the same as in the Turkic or Finno-Ugric languages. His student, V.K. Porzhezinsky wrote: “What in our languages ​​is called the root of the word, in the Semitic languages ​​corresponds only to the backbone of the word from consonants, since vowels play the role of a formal element; if we compare, for example, the Arabic qatala “he killed”, qutila “he was killed”, aqtala “he ordered to kill”, qitl “enemy”, qutl “mortal”, etc., it becomes clear that the meaning of the feature is “to kill "associated only with the consonants q - t - l". It is the immutability of the root and affixes that distinguishes the Semitic-Hamitic from the truly inflectional Indo-European.

Agglutinating languages ​​are analytic in the full sense of the word. So, F.F. Fortunatov wrote the following about them: “In the vast majority of families of languages ​​that have the forms of individual words, these forms are formed by means of such a selection in the words of the stem and affix, in which the stem either does not represent the so-called inflection at all, or if such inflection can appear in bases, then it does not constitute a necessary accessory of word forms and serves to form forms separate from those formed by affixes. Such languages ​​in the morphological classification are called ... agglutinating or agglutinative languages, i.e. actually gluing ... because here the stem and affix of words remain, in their meaning, separate parts of words in the forms of words, as if glued together. So, for example, "girl" in Turkish is kiz, girls - kizlar, girl (Dan. Pad.) - kiza, girls - kizlara, girl (propositional pad.) - kizda, girls - kizlarda. All inflections are unambiguous and point to only one meaning, they seem to be glued to an unchanging root, while in Russian, inflections are characterized by homonymy, for example, in the prepositional and dative cases of the feminine (girl), synonymy: guy - girl, guys - girls, in In Russian, the choice of inflection depends not only on the meaning of the word form, but also on the type of stem, inflection is attached not to the root, but to the stem. Agglutination- this is such a way of connecting morphemes, in which unambiguous affixes are attached to the stem or root and no phonetic changes in the morpheme are observed.

Incorporating or polysynthetic languages ​​are highly analytic, unformed root-words are agglutinated into one word-sentence, for example, in one of the American Indian languages ​​ninakakwa means ni - I, naka - is, kwa - meat (o) \u003d I + eat + meat, in the Chukchi language: you-ata-kaa-nmy-rkyn, literally "I-fat-deer-kill-do", that is, "I kill fat deer."

In addition to morphological, there are syntactic and phonetic typological classifications of languages. So, as a result of phonetic typology, languages ​​were identified that are characterized by vowel harmony - a special device of the phonetic system, which consists in a uniform vocal, and sometimes consonantal design of the word. However, vowel harmony serves morphological purposes, since due to this phenomenon, word forms of one word are opposed. According to what phonological feature is the basis of synharmonism, timbre synharmonism is distinguished (on the basis of a number of dominant, more often root vowel), labial (on the basis of roundedness), compactness (on the basis of the rise of the dominant vowel). For example, in Hungarian the suffix –hoz- means “approach, movement in the direction of something; to"; joining words with different root vowels, it adapts phonetically: to the window - ablakhoz, to the shoemaker - cipeszhez. Synharmonism is usually characteristic of agglutinating languages. In addition to the sign of vowel harmony, phonetic typology distinguishes languages ​​of the consonant type, that is, languages ​​in which consonants play the leading role in distinguishing words and word forms, these include the Russian language, and languages ​​of the vocal type, in which vowels play a leading role in the perception of a word. For example, in Semitic languages, consonants carry lexical information, while vowels carry grammatical information.

The construction of a syntactic typology of languages ​​made it possible to single out the ergative type of languages. In languages ​​of the ergative system, in the syntax of a sentence, non-subject and object are opposed, for example, mother washed the frame, mother washed her son, the rain washes the streets, and the agentive is the producer of the action (mother) and the factitive (carrier of the action). Lexically, this is expressed in the distribution of verbs into agentive, that is, transitive and factitive, that is, intransitive. So, if we compare the three sentences above, we can see certain differences: mom is an agent that tends to perform actions, rain is a factitive that can only act as a “carrier of action”, frame and son are direct additions in Russian However, the “frame” can only “experience the action” and cannot carry it out, the “son” can act both as the subject of the action and as the object. All these complex relationships in ergative languages ​​are expressed both by special cases “absolutive” - for mother and son, “ergative” - for rain and frame, and by special verb forms that oppose the first and second sentences to the third. The ergative structure is characteristic of the Basque language, most Caucasian languages, many Papuan, Indian, Australian, Paleoasian languages.

All presented typologies are private, as they compare languages ​​by individual properties. The purpose of this classification is to identify language universals - common properties of all human languages ​​or most languages. Thus, one of the most important universals is the presence of a subject and a predicate in a sentence; semantic universals include many models of changing the meaning of words, for example, “heavy - difficult”, “tasty - pleasant”, etc.

The diachronic typology of languages, that is, the study of the general patterns of development of languages ​​that occur in the language of changes, makes it possible to establish general trends in the development of languages. The idea of ​​diachronic universals is based on the hypothesis of the systemic proximity of the languages ​​of the archaic structure and on the later variability of new languages. So, private diachronic universals include the law on the formation of pronouns, at first demonstrative, personal and interrogative, and only later reflexive, possessive, relative and negative; the law of numerical abstraction, for example, in ancient languages, the existence of three numerical forms is known - singular, dual and plural, there is evidence that in some Indian, Australian and Papuan languages ​​\u200b\u200bthe numerical paradigm is much larger: singular - dual - triple - ... - plural (countless), and in modern languages ​​it is dichotomous: singularity - plurality.

The study of universals of various types makes it possible to compile universal grammars in which grammatical categories are explained through the categories of thinking. They consider the nomenclature of concepts and principles that are presumably common to all people in the field of perception and comprehension of reality. It was in the universal grammars that the methodology was developed and the foundations for the logical and philosophical substantiation of the principles of describing any language by parts of speech and grammatical categories were given. Giving a general nomenclature of the meanings of grammatical and lexico-grammatical categories, the compilers of universal grammars proceed from the fact that there are common meanings - semantic universals, which are based on the patterns of reflection of reality by a person and which can be expressed in one way or another in the language, in its vocabulary and grammar. So, the contensive typology is focused on the content categories of the language and the ways of their expression in the language.

At the same time, the typological approach does not exclude the analysis of certain groups or families of languages; the purpose of such an analysis is to elucidate the typological specifics of genetic groupings and search for possible typological correlates of such concepts as "Slavic languages", "Indo-European languages". This aspect of typological phenomena took shape as an independent typological discipline - characterology.

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 have "married" in the course of their 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 fiction invented by 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 Avatar movie should 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.

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