Back قائمة العائلات اللغوية Arabic جدول اللغات ARZ Телдәр ғаиләләре исемлеге Bashkir Сем’і і групы моваў BE-X-OLD ভাষা পরিবারসমূহের তালিকা Bengali/Bangla Seznam jazykových rodin Czech Sprachfamilien der Welt German Keyeyê zıwanan DIQ Pśeglěd rěcnych swójźbow DSB List of language families English
Language families are groups of languages that are related to each other because they come from a common older language. The languages in such a family are similar in their vocabulary or structure.
For example, French and Spanish both come from Latin. Latin was spoken a long time ago, and some of the people who spoke it started to speak different ways - for the word "good", one group started saying "bueno" while another group started saying "bon". Most words are said a little differently in Spanish and French, so the two are called different languages.
Most languages belong to a language family, but some languages do not. These languages are called language isolates.
There also are constructed languages, such as Esperanto. Constructed languages are made for different reasons: making a 'world language', for fun, for use in fiction, etc.