Indo-European family of languages ​​map. language family

language family

language family

The language family is the largest unit of classification of peoples (ethnic groups) on the basis of their linguistic kinship - the common origin of their languages ​​​​from the alleged base language. Language families are divided into language groups.
The largest in number is the Indo-European language family, which includes language groups:
- Romanesque: French, Italians, Spaniards, Portuguese, Moldavians, Romanians, etc.;
- Germanic: Germans, British, Scandinavians, etc.;
- Slavic: Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians, Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Bulgarians, Serbs, Croats, etc.
The second largest is the Sino-Tibetan language family, with the largest Chinese language group.
The Altaic language family includes a large Turkic language group: Turks, Azerbaijanis, Tatars, Kazakhs, Turkmens, Uzbeks, Kirghiz, Yakuts, etc.
The Uralic language family includes the Finno-Ugric group: Finns, Estonians, Hungarians, Komi, etc.
The Semitic group belongs to the Semitic-Hamitic language family: Arabs, Jews, Ethiopians, etc.

Synonyms: family of peoples

See also: Ethnoses Languages

Finam Financial Dictionary.

See what the "Language Family" is in other dictionaries:

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Books

• Myths and Society of Ancient Ireland, Bondarenko Grigory Vladimirovich. The book is devoted to the basics of traditional ancient Irish culture, myths and Everyday life ancient Irish society. The most diverse aspects of the traditional worldview and ...

I think many of us have heard the famous construction legend. Tower of Babel, during which people, with their quarrels and squabbles, so angered God that he divided their single language into a great multitude, so that, not being able to communicate with each other, people could not even swear. This is how we settled all over the world, each nation with its own language, culture and traditions.

According to official figures, there are now between 2,796 and more than 7,000 languages ​​in the world. Such a big difference comes from the fact that scientists can not decide what exactly is considered a language, and what is a dialect or adverb. Translation agencies often face the nuances of translating from rare languages.

In 2017, there are approximately 240 language groups, or families. The largest and most numerous of them - Indo-European, to which our Russian language belongs. A language family is a set of languages ​​that are united by the sound similarity of the roots of words and similar grammar. The basis of the Indo-European family is English and German, which form the backbone of the Germanic group. In general, this language family unites the peoples occupying the main part of Europe and Asia.

It also includes such common Romance languages ​​as Spanish, French, Italian and others. The Russian language is part of the Slavic group of the Indo-European family along with Ukrainian, Belarusian and others. The Indo-European group is not the largest in terms of the number of languages, but they are spoken by almost half of the world's population, which makes it possible for it to bear the title of "most numerous".

The next family of languages ​​unites more than 250,000 people - this is afro-asian a family that includes Egyptian, Hebrew, Arabic and many other languages, including extinct ones. This group consists of more than 300 languages ​​of Asia and Africa, and it is divided into Egyptian, Semitic, Cushitic, Omotian, Chadian and Berber-Libyan branches. However, the Afro-Asiatic family of languages ​​does not include about 500 dialects and adverbs used in Africa, often only in oral form.

Next in terms of prevalence and complexity of study - Nilo-Saharan family of languages ​​spoken in Sudan, Chad, Ethiopia. Since the languages ​​of these lands have significant differences among themselves, their study is not only big interest, but also great difficulties for linguists.

Over a million native speakers includes Sino-Tibetan group of languages Tibeto-Burmese the branch has more than 300 languages, which are spoken by as many as 60 million people worldwide! Some of the languages ​​of this given family still do not have their own written language and exist only in oral form. This greatly complicates their study and research.

The languages ​​and dialects of the peoples of Russia belong to 14 language families, the main of which are Indo-European, Uralic, North Caucasian and Altaic.

• About 87% of the population of Russia belongs to the Indo-European language family, and 85% of it is occupied by Slavic group languages ​​(Russians, Belarusians, Poles, Ukrainians), followed by the Iranian group (Tajiks, Kurds, Ossetians), the Romance group (Gypsies, Moldavians) and the Germanic group (Yiddish-speaking Jews, Germans).
• The Altaic language family (approximately 6.8% of the population of Russia) is made up of the Turkic group (Altaians, Yakuts, Tuvans, Shors, Chuvashs, Balkars, Karachais), the Mongolian group (Kalmyks, Buryats), the Tungus-Manchurian group (Evenks, Evens, Nanais) and the Paleo-Asiatic group of languages ​​(Koryak, Chukchi). Some of these languages this moment is under the threat of extinction, as their speakers are partly switching to Russian, partly to Chinese.
• The Uralic language family (2% of the population) is represented by the Finnish group of languages ​​(Komi, Margey, Karelians, Komi-Permyaks, Mordovians), Ugric (Khanty, Mansi) and Samoyedic groups (Nenets, Selkups). More than 50% of the Uralic language family are Hungarians and about 20% are Finns. This includes the linguistic groups of peoples living in the regions of the Ural Range.

The Caucasian language family (2%) includes the Kartvelian group (Georgians), the Dagestan group (Lezgins, Dargins, Laks, Avars), the Adyghe-Abkhazian (Abkhazians, Adyghes, Kabardians, Circassians) and the Nakh groups (Ingush, Chechens). The study of the languages ​​of the Caucasian family is associated with great difficulties for linguists, and therefore the languages ​​of the local population are still very little studied.

Difficulties are caused not only by grammar or the rules for constructing the language of a given family, but also by pronunciation, which is often simply inaccessible to people who do not know this type of language. Certain difficulties in terms of study are also created by the inaccessibility of some mountainous areas North Caucasus.

language family is a group of languages ​​that are united linguistically, having one common ancestor language, called parent language.
Most languages ​​in the world belong to some language family. Languages ​​that are not clearly related to other languages, and which cannot be placed in any family, are called isolate languages .
Creole languages ​​- these are the only languages ​​in the world that can neither be called isolates nor attributed to any language family. They form special type languages.

"related languages" and "proto-language"

Genetic connections

If we compare, for example, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and Romanian, we will find a striking similarity between them, which indicates belonging to one language family. This "family resemblance" does not appear when comparing French and German. But if we again compare German, English, Dutch, Swedish and Danish, we again find a "family resemblance" between these languages.
The basic idea is that these languages ​​are similar in that they all evolved from a common, once-existing language (also called parent language). We know common origin (from latin) of the five languages ​​mentioned in the first case, which today are called Romance languages, but we have no written evidence of the ancestor language of the four languages ​​in the second example, today called Germanic languages, although we have every reason to believe that one existed. Linguists manage to establish genetic classifications by comparing languages ​​and trying to determine constantly current rules similarities (and differences). This method is called comparative linguistics. The classification of languages ​​into groups is called genetic classification: two languages ​​belonging to the same group are genetically related.

deceptive resemblance

However, the following must be kept in mind. The similarity between two or more languages ​​can happen both in terms of their genetic connection (features of similarity come from a common trait in the past), but there may be other sources of similarity:

- borrowing: the fact that the French sloo tomate sounds like an Aztec word tomatl does not prove that these languages ​​are related to each other, but shows that they were in contact. The name that the plant brought to Europe received came from the name of the people where this plant grows. That's why French“borrowed” a word from another language and adapted it.

- random resemblance: Languages ​​have limited sound systems to express thousands of complex concepts. If we randomly choose two languages ​​that are not at all similar to one another, we will always find 3 or 4 words that are similar in form and meaning.
Therefore, one can speak of a genetic connection only if there are several similarities in different directions, even partial, and not single, but conspicuous.

Language family groups, extended families

Since there are closely related languages ​​that originated from the same ancestor language 1000 or 2000 years ago, it can be assumed that there are other related languages ​​that originate from the same ancestor language of an earlier period. In the 19th century, with an emphasis on systematic and converging common features in languages, several linguists have succeeded in discovering the existence of a large language families – Indo-European. This is the first discovered language family, which includes: Romance, Germanic, Slavic languages, Greek and others. And if you are surprised that French and Russian share the same ancestor language, then try comparing French and Nepali, or Pashto and Kurdish! Despite the differences between these languages, they all belong to Indo-European family languages. Belonging to the same family does not necessarily mean obvious similarities, or a standard level of understanding between speakers of these languages.

Classification

Some groups of languages ​​may have many subdivisions within them. These divisions are sometimes referred to as "families" or "sub-families", sometimes creating misunderstandings. When referring to internal divisions, the following terms may be used. At present, there is no consensus on the correct use of these terms: the division of languages ​​can be called " group», « branch», « subgroup" etc. If the family forms a large number of languages ​​and internal divisions, then we can already talk about " superfamily" or " macrofamily". For example, as in the case of Niger-Congolese family of languages, which consists of 1300 - 1500 languages ​​(the number depends on the sources) and represents 1/5 or even ¼ of all the world's languages.

It is possible to refer to the same group of the same family of languages ​​languages ​​that are very far from each other geographically, and which are spoken even on different continents. For example, the Eskimo-Aleut family includes the languages Eastern Siberia and Alaska on the other side Pacific Ocean- which are separated by thousands of kilometers of ocean. Actually Eskimo-Aleut languages can be found throughout North America from Pacific coast to coast Atlantic Oceans and even in Greenland. Likewise, languages Austronesian family languages ​​spoken in the islands of the South Pacific, South-East Asia and even in Madagascar, which is next to the African continent!

On the other hand, in some regions the globe can be observed big variety and the complexity of genetically related languages. For example, in Europe there are three families of languages, and in all American continent contains almost half of the world's languages, although these 400 languages ​​are spoken by about 25 million people. Many families of Amerindian languages ​​consist of less than 15 languages. IN Papua New Guinea, the territory of which is twice the territory of France - from 600 to 800 languages, which make up about twenty families. It should be noted that this discrepancy is the result of the "isolation" of some peoples, but also the lack of information about these languages, which makes it difficult to classify them.
It is also necessary to keep in mind that the classification of languages ​​is a source of constant disputes and discussions between linguists, so the number of language families may and their composition may differ depending on the source.

On this page you will find information about interesting facts associated with language families of the world, separate languages ​​or their systems of calculation.

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The numbers after the names of the languages ​​indicate the number of speakers, according to Loewin's book.

Indo-European family

The most studied and most widely spoken family of languages ​​in the world. Similarities between IE languages ​​have been noted since ancient times; but the realization that they were descended from a once-existing proto-language, as well as the existence of an important connection with the Indo-Iranian languages, was first clearly stated by William Jones in 1786. Over the course of a century, scientists reconstructed the Proto-Indo-European language for the first time.
One of the brightest distinctive features PIEA are changes in root vowels in conjugation: rare cases of such survivals can be found in the forms of English verbs, for example: sing / sang / sung. PIYA had a rich system of inflections, three numbers (singular/dual/plural) and three genders.

German group.

The earliest texts in the Germanic languages ​​that have survived to this day are a translation into the Gothic language of the Bible in the 4th century. The earliest English texts date back to the 7th century. But English is not descended from Old Germanic, but rather both of these languages ​​are descended from Proto-Germanic.

Italian group.

From several Italian languages ​​( Oscan, Umbrian and Faliscan), which have been spoken in Italy since antiquity, only one Latin has survived. Some of them still existed in the 1st century AD, but all modern Romance languages ​​are descended from Latin. Earliest texts in Romance languages: 9th century CE French texts
We have an array of texts for ; the earliest date back to around 500 BC. There are many sayings in Latin that are still in use today, such as: Venimus ad Galliam sed non currimus,"We go to Gaul, but do not run", or Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori.AmarumetindecorumestaVesuviointerfici, “It is sweet and decent to die for your country. BitterlyAndindecentbeburiedatVesuvius» .

Celtic group.

Irish is one of official languages Ireland. In Ireland government agencies also called in Irish.
The earliest writings in the Celtic languages ​​date back to the 1st century - these are inscriptions in the Gaulish language.
Celtic numbers survived in counting sets in English language, so-called scores; they are used in counting sheep, stitches, and in children's games. Here is an example: yan, tan, tethera, pethera, pimp, sethera, lethera, hovera, covera, dik.

Greek group.

Mycenaean Greek era Linear B, dating back to the early 14th century BC, also belongs to this group, which was proved by Michael Ventris in 1952. Linear B has nothing to do with, which was invented centuries later; the invented alphabet began to use a syllabic alphabet.
Tocharian A and B are two extinct languages ​​that were once spoken in Xinjiang. Their existence became known only in the 1890s.
Albanian was one of the last languages ​​to be assigned to the Indo-European family. It replaced a significant part of the Indo-European vocabulary.

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Baltic group.

Slavic group.

The earliest Slavic texts date back to the 9th century.

Anatolian group.

Hittite language texts dating back to the 17th century BC are today the oldest Indo-European texts which were discovered only about a century ago. They represent the most obvious confirmation of historical-linguistic forecasting - namely Saussure's postulation coefficientssonantiques. This is evidence for the existence of so-called laringals in Proto-Indo-European, which were not attested in any known IE language at that time, but which ended up in the Hittite language. On the other hand, the Hittite language turned out to have little resemblance to other IE languages, which led to the need to reassess the proto-language. Some believe that Hittite and Indo-European were branches of an earlier "Indo-Hittite" language.

Indo-Iranian group.

There are ancient inscriptions in Persian dating back to the 6th century BC, as well as Sanskrit texts dating back to about 1000 BC.

In the 18th century, having become acquainted with Sanskrit, European scholars revealed its similarity with Greek and Latin. This marked the beginning of philological research, which ended with the reconstruction of the Proto-Indo-European language (chauvinistically called Indogermanisch, because German scholars were mainly involved in the study). It was previously believed that Sanskrit was closest to the proto-language, but with the results of linguistic research, it turned out that this was not the case. Linguists retain respect for the accuracy of ancient Sanskrit grammars such as Panini (4th century BC).
Ardhamagadhi (Ardhamagadhi), one of the post-Sanskrit dialects. Prakrit is the language of Jain scripture.

Elamite
In ancient times, it was spoken in the southwestern part of Persia. The earliest inscriptions date back to the 25th century BC. There is no established connection with other languages, although Roulin, following Macalpin, refers it to the Dravidian languages.

Dravidian group

They are distributed mainly in the southern part of India, but there are regions to the north, in particular, Brahui, in Pakistan, where these languages ​​are also used. It is likely that the Dravidian languages ​​were once distributed throughout India, but then were supplanted. Aryan(Indo-European) tribes three thousand years ago. Features of the Dravidian languages ​​such as retroflex consonants, spread to the Indian languages, and Sanskrit, in turn, had a huge impact on the Dravidian languages.
Fucked up
The genetic affiliation of the impudent to one or another language family has not been determined. About 40% of vocabulary has similarities with vocabulary Munda languages, and some linguists refer this language to the indicated group. Of the numbers, 2-4 are borrowed from the Dravidian languages, and 5-10 from Indian.
Burushaski
An isolated language that is spoken in a remote area of ​​the Pakistani part of Kashmir. The language is associated with the Caucasian languages ​​due to its four-gender system (masculine, feminine, living gender, other objects), and with the Basque language, in view of its ergative structure and the type of construction of the sentence - SOV, but such only typological similarities can hardly serve as a strong basis for establishing linguistic kinship.

Afro-Asian family

Semitic group

Semitic languages ​​are distinguished by inflections, which are characterized by a change in vowels, in relation to the triconsonantal root. For example, the Arabic root KTB produces verb forms such as kataba- he wrote katabat"she wrote" taktubu"you write", taka:taba"Chat with each other" yukattibu"force to write"; and nominal forms: kita:b"book", kutubi: "salesman", kita:b"writer", maktaba"library" and so on.
Semitic languages ​​also have one of most ancient writing systems, which dates back to the Akkadian period around 3000 BC. There are Canaanite inscriptions dating back to the 20th century BC. Hebrew bible Tanakh was written between 1200 and 200. BC.).
The earliest date back to the 4th century AD. However, an example classical Arabic language is the Koran, the appearance of which is attributed to the 7th century. In regions where Arabic is spoken, there is diglossia when spoken and written languages ​​diverge greatly. Throughout the Arab world, the standard written language (which, by the way, is also used in formal speech) is Classical Arabic, which is no longer spoken as mother tongue But it must be taught in school. Colloquial very far from this standard and varies from country to country. Uneducated Arabs from all over Arab world can no longer understand each other. Egyptian the language family boasts one of the oldest written records (from 3000 BC). This writing has 4500 years! Even Chinese writing appeared only ca. 2700 BC The modern Egyptian language is not a descendant of ancient Egyptian, but of ancient Arabic. The modern descendant of the language of the pharaohs - Coptic, is still used as the liturgical language of Egyptian Christians. Nimbia, a dialect of the Guandara language belonging to the Chadic family, is known for its duodecimal number system. 12- " tuni", 13 - " tunim`beda"- "12 + 1", 30 - guimebinìshidé- "24 + 6", etc.

Sumerian

Basque

Etruscan

Meroitic

Meroitic was the language of Meroe, ancient kingdom located south of Egypt.

Hurrian language

caucasian family

The Caucasian languages ​​(which many scholars divide into two or even four unrelated families) have a characteristic word order like SOV and an ergative case system - which indicates similarities with the Basque language. This similarity has led to numerous speculations and theories, but no evidence of a connection between these languages ​​has been obtained. The Caucasian languages ​​also have a rather bizarre system of consonants - in the Ubykh language, for example, there are 82 consonant phonemes.

Nilo-Saharan family

Khoisan family

Uncommon characters in the Khoisan languages ​​(spoken in southwest Africa) are clicking sounds, used as phonemes only in this group and some neighboring Bantu languages. Kung language (!Xu~ ), from this family differs from other languages ​​in that it has the largest number of phonemes: 141. In most languages, the number of phonemes varies between 20 and 40.

Kordofan family

These languages ​​are usually grouped with the Niger-Congo languages ​​into the Niger-Kordofanian family.
The Niger-Congo family is not fully understood (although some of its subfamilies, such as the Bantu, are well classified). There are no forms of reconstruction of the Proto-Niger-Congo language on a par with IE, Semitic, Austronesian, Algonquian, etc. languages.
An interesting fact about the language krongo: Numbers are verbs. (The same is observed in some Amerindian languages.)

Niger-Congo family

Most of the languages ​​of Africa (approximately from the southern border of the Sahara) belong to this large family. For the Latin alphabet, this is a real test: most of the languages ​​\u200b\u200bof this family not only distinguish between open and closed sounds e And O(depicted on the letter as e And e , O And O ), but also tonality. Some languages ​​have words with a "floating tone" that is not associated with any syllable in the word, but is realized in the whole word!
The number system of the Niger-Congo languages ​​is based mainly on the quinary system. The numbers "6-9", for example, often look like "5 + 1-4". Sometimes changes in sound make the origin of a word unclear (cf. the Spanish word once= 10 + 1) or borrowing (for example, in Swahili, 6-9 are borrowed from Arabic). Other ways of word formation are also possible. Sometimes a separate word is used to denote the number "8" (it itself apparently formed from "two fours"), and "9" \u003d 8 + 1; also, to express the number "7", the word for the number "6" is used. The numbers "9" and sometimes "8" can be expressed as "10 minus 1 (or 2)".
For more complex numerals, Bantu languages ​​tend to use tens, while Western languages ​​tend to use twenties.
The Yoruba number system is characteristic in that it uses subtraction, for example: 19 ookandinlogun = 20 — 1, 46 = 60 — 10 — 4, 315 orindinnirinwooneMarun = 400 — (20 * 4) — 5.
The word "7" in Kumbundu (Bantu language), sambuari, is a derivative of "6 + 2" - serving as a euphemism, replacing the original word for "7", which is itself taboo.
As can be seen from Johnston's study of the Tanzanian language in 1919 and the 1970s, the compound words for the numbers "6-9" are replaced in many languages ​​by numbers borrowed from Swahili (which in turn were borrowed from Arabic).

Ural family

About existence Ural family was already known in the 18th century. The earliest evidence of the Finnish languages ​​is an inscription on Karelian 13th century, inscriptions in Ugric and Hungarian date back to 1200. In view of the obvious typological similarities with the Altaic languages, a connection between these families is not excluded.

Altai family

The real genetic classification of the Altaic languages ​​raises strong doubts: the complexity of the issue lies in the fact that these languages ​​have existed in mutual contact for several thousand years, so it is not easy to separate borrowings from genetic kinship.

Korean

The relationship of the Korean language with any other language has not been established. Perhaps there is a distant connection with the Japanese and Altaic languages.

Japanese

Sino-Tibetan family

Chinese languages ​​are tonal Thai languages ​​and languages hmong— but they are not closely related. Tibeto-Burmese languages ​​are generally non-tonal. in Chinese, they refer to the 17th century BC; in Tibetan - by the 7th century. AD; in Burmese - by the 12th century. AD
Chang (Dzorgai) languages. Information on this branch of the Tibeto-Burmese language family has only recently come to the attention of Western scholars, thanks to Chinese research in the 80s and 90s. To this family belongs the now dead Tangut or Xia language, which is visually represented in the logographic form of an 11th century inscription.

miao yao

Tai-Kadai languages

Thai languages ​​were once spoken in southern China down to the Yangtze River. Tai-Kadai and Chinese have had a strong influence on each other, so now it is not so easy to determine what was borrowed from where. It used to be that the Thai and Chinese languages ​​were related to each other, but now this is in great doubt, since the similarity is due to borrowings.

Austroasiatic languages

Yumbri is the first language I came across, where no numbers at all. There are words meaning "little" and "many". It is noteworthy that neremoy, seems to correspond to the concept of "one" in other Austroasiatic languages, such as Rengao moi'?

Ainu language

Austronesian family

The Austronesian family is the largest language family in the world., numbering about 1000 separate languages. Partially reconstructed Proto-Austronesian.
Often people think that linguists classify languages ​​into families based on similar-sounding words. In fact, they are based on regular sound correspondences in languages, whether the words sound the same or not. A good example is the eastern group of Santo languages: words iedh(Sakao language) and tharr(Shark Bay language) are completely different in sound, like the word * vati(proto-Vanuatu language). But in fact, they are all single-root words, indicating the connection between these languages.
The linguist Jacques Guy has reconstructed word changes in the following way. In both languages, the labial-labial consonants changed to dental before front vowels, with the loss of final vowels: * vati --> *thati —> *that.
In addition, a complex vowel shift was observed in the Sakao language, after which almost all consonants became weakened: voiceless plosives and voiced fricatives, fricatives and approximants (fricative sonorants) appeared: * that —> *thet —> *yedh.
Finally, in the Shark Bay language, the final -t has changed to a vibrating one: * that —> *tharr. Q.E.D.

Chukchi-Kamchatka languages

Yukagir

Yenisei

Gilyatsky

Indo-Pacific macrofamily

The Indo-Pacific macrofamily is a poorly understood group of 60 or more smaller language families in New Guinea. The genetic links between these languages, if any, cannot be accurately determined until grammatical and lexical interpenetrations on a large scale have been carefully analyzed.

Australian languages

A classification of the Australian languages ​​into small families has been made, but it has proved extremely difficult to put them together into a large family. R.M.U. Dixon believes that the language family tree model does not quite fit Australia. Here, most likely, the situation is as follows: hundreds of languages ​​existed in dynamic equilibrium, grammatical features and lexemes passed from one language to another in different regions or across the continent.
Many Australian languages ​​have a limited set of numbers. (This does not mean that these are simple languages ​​- these languages ​​are quite complex). Some words for numbers do not represent any particular number, but a range of numbers.
The following examples are suggestive, taken from the Yir Yoront language, where there is a complete set of numbers, but counting in most Australian languages ​​ends at 2, 3 or 4. As in many languages, the words in Yir Yoront for numbers are refer directly to the process of counting on the hands: 5 = “whole hand”, 7 = “whole hand + two fingers”, 10 = “two hands”.

Amerindian languages

IN Indo-European languages we are accustomed to numbers whose roots cannot be subjected to further analysis. In other families, the names of numbers may be derived words, often associated with the process of counting on the fingers and toes - for example, in the Choctaw language "5" \u003d talhlhaapih"the first (hand) is over"; Bororo "7" - ikerametuyapogedu- "my hand, and my friend"; Klamath "8" - ndan-ksahpta"3 fingers that I bent"; unalit "11" - atkahakhtok"down to the foot"; shasta "20" - tsec"man" (it is believed that a person consists of 20 countable limbs).

Na-dene

Navajo is one of the Amerindian languages ​​with the largest number of speakers in the United States, with about 100,000 speakers.
Greenberg combined all the Amerindian languages ​​below (that is, excluding the Eskimo-Aleut and Na-Dene languages) into a single family, Amerindian. His conclusions are based only on "mass comparison" and not on the method comparative analysis which is not accepted by some linguists.
The North American languages ​​have been fairly well studied, and many families are well classified, and there are reconstructed forms of proto-languages. However, since South America the case is different. Let's see what happens in fifty years.

Almosan languages

Algonquian languages

Cree is one of the most spoken Indian languages ​​in Canada, with about 80,000 speakers.

Keres

Sioux

Aztec-Tanoan macrofamily

Nahuatl (Aztec) is a language known for its vigesimal number system: for example, "37" is campoallioncaxtollihomome"20 + 17". There is also a special word for "400" tzontli(literally "hair", in figuratively"abundance"). Numbers from 1 to 19 are grouped by five (for example, "17" - caxtollihomome"15 and 2"), so that the system can be more accurately called - "system" 5-20 ".

Ottomanang languages

The northern dialect of the Pama language is interesting for its octal number system.

Penuti language

Many languages ​​of Mexico, Central America and California have a number of number systems based on 20 rather than 10. This is not always obvious with numbers from 11 to 19, because some of which may be compound words, as in the decimal system. However, numbers above 19 give clarity: for example, 100 is "five by twenty", etc.
Mayan languages ​​are different developed system letters, which was fully deciphered only in this century. This writing system has a separate character for the number zero.

Chibchan languages

Some Amazonian languages, such as Yanomami, only have roots from 1 to 3. This does not mean (as some observers hastily conclude) that people can only count up to 3. They have fingers and toes, and they know how to use them for the account. If a Yanomami Indian leaves you 20 arrows and leaves, and when he returns, he does not count at least one, - woe to you. Perhaps the lack of names for numbers allows you to come up with special names each time, depending on the situation.

Andean languages

Quechua is one of the most widely spoken Amerindian languages, with over 7 million speakers. It was this language that was the language of the Inca Empire, and also became widespread thanks to the missionary work of the Spanish-speaking colonialists.
The Incas exchanged account information using kipu s (literally "knots"), bundles of knots in the form of strings. One or more numbers were written in each line, and the lines were grouped into colored bundles, sometimes the final score was attached, as in the table. The numeric code was decimal; each number was represented by a number of knots from 0 to 9; the knots were made differently, so several numbers could be encoded on one line.
The Urarina language (Ruhlen included this language in this group, but other linguists consider this language an isolate) has two very unusual features among all languages ​​of the world: in this language there is no sound /r/ (for example, the word pusaq"8" was borrowed in the form fusa-), the word order in a sentence in this language is OVS (object-verb-subject).

equatorial group

Guarani can be considered the most efficient modern Amerindian language. It is spoken by the majority (88%) of the population of Paraguay - the bulk of which are mestizos, not pure Indians. Perhaps that is why the language has gained popularity in Paraguayan society. In Paraguay, they can speak both Spanish and Guarani.

Ge-pano-Caribbean languages

The Bakairi language has a binary number system: numbers above 2 ( Ahage) are formed using a combination of words meaning "1" and "2" (although such a count ends in 6, and after that the word is repeated measure"this"). Computer experts will object that in the binary system there should only be words for "0" and "1", but for example, our own decimal number system does not work that way either: we have a word meaning the number "ten".
IN Cherente a word meaning the number "2" ( ponhuane), literally translated as “deer footprint” (apparently, in view of the forked imprint of a deer hoof).

Pidgin and Creole languages

Although the languages ​​of this section are almost all based on Western European languages, there are pidgin languages ​​and creole languages ​​that have taken languages ​​from other families as a basis. Two of them belong to the Amerindian languages: chinook jargon And mobile language of commerce. Other examples: pidgin hamer(based on the Omot language Hamer), hiri motu(based on Austronesian motu), kituba(based on Congolese languages), and fanagalo(another Bantu pidgin).
Michif is hard to understand: (too simplistic), nouns, pronouns and numerals (except 1) are French, verbs are from Cree - pretty complex verbs, btw. This language cannot be considered a pidgin. Most likely, this language developed in a bilingual environment.

There are also artificial languages, the information about which will be no less interesting. But about them - in the following articles.