Just curious, if they have come up with a 'family tree' for languages, showing how different languages evolved, and branched out, and how different languages may be related? .
2007-07-17 13:00:34 · 4 answers · asked by gemini6187 2 in Society & Culture ➔ Languages
That might fall under the field of comparative linguistics, which basically compares different languages, their histories and how they are related. See link below for more information. Might also want to look into dialectology, which is the study of geographic variations within a language.
2007-07-17 13:08:23 · answer #1 · answered by scottr 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The best proposed family tree for all of the world's languages languages I have seen is featured in the April, 1991 issue of "Scientific American," in an article called "Hard Words," by Philip E. Ross (pages 138 & 139). I haven't seen anything else since that time which compares with it.
Unfortunately, "Scientific American" articles on the internet only go back as far as 1993 the last time I looked. So you might have to go to a college library to find the magazine or request it at your local library through an interlibrary loan.
2007-07-17 19:16:10 · answer #2 · answered by Brennus 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Look for a reverse dictionary, and look up the word "language", you might see one, within the pages under that topic. Looking up "world languages" on a search engine might give you one.
2007-07-17 13:11:59 · answer #3 · answered by bryan_q 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes. Usually you can find a pretty good one in most larger dictionaries. Check your end pages. There are some languages that don't fit in very well, most notably Basque.
2007-07-17 13:08:54 · answer #4 · answered by lyyman 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋