Language

===Language families of the world===
{{main|Language family|Dialectology|Historical linguistics|List of language families}}
[[File:Primary Human Language Families Map.png|upright=1.5|thumb|left|Principal language families of the world (and in some cases geographic groups of families). For greater detail, see ''[[:Template:Distribution of languages in the world|Distribution of languages in the world]]''.]]
The world's languages can be grouped into [[Language family|language families]] consisting of languages that can be shown to have common ancestry. Linguists recognize many hundreds of language families, although some of them can possibly be grouped into larger units as more evidence becomes available and in-depth studies are carried out. At present, there are also dozens of [[language isolate]]s: languages that cannot be shown to be related to any other languages in the world. Among them are [[Basque language|Basque]], spoken in Europe, [[Zuni language|Zuni]] of [[New Mexico]], [[Purépecha language|Purépecha]] of Mexico, [[Ainu language|Ainu]] of Japan, [[Burushaski language|Burushaski]] of [[Pakistan]], and many others.<ref name="Katzner">{{harvcoltxt|Katzner|1999}}</ref>

The language family of the world that has the most speakers is the [[Indo-European languages]], spoken by 46% of the world's population.<ref name="EthnologueFamily">{{Harvcoltxt|Lewis|2009}}, "[http://www.ethnologue.com/statistics/family Summary by language family] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160101054116/http://www.ethnologue.com/statistics/family |date=1 January 2016 }}"</ref> This family includes major world languages like [[English language|English]], [[Spanish language|Spanish]], [[French language|French]], [[German language|German]], [[Russian language|Russian]], and [[Hindustani language|Hindustani]] ([[Hindi]]/[[Urdu]]). The Indo-European family spread first through hypothesized [[Indo-European migrations]] that would have taken place some time in the period {{Circa|8000}}–1500 BCE,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Heggarty |first1=P. |last2=Anderson |first2= C.|last3= Scarborough|first3=M.|last4=King |first4=B.|last5=Bouckaert |first5=R.|last6=Jocz |first6=L.|last7= Kümmel|first7=M.J.|last8= Jügel|first8=T.|last9= Irslinger|first9=B.|last10= Pooth|first10=R.|last11= Liljegren|first11=H |date=28 July 2023|title=Language trees with sampled ancestors support a hybrid model for the origin of Indo-European languages |url= http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-220000|journal= Science|volume=  381|issue= 6656|pages=eabg0818 |doi=10.1126/science.abg0818 |pmid=37499002 |hdl=10234/204329|hdl-access=free}}</ref> and subsequently through much later [[History of colonialism|European colonial expansion]], which brought the Indo-European languages to a politically and often numerically dominant position in the [[Americas]] and much of [[Africa]]. The [[Sino-Tibetan languages]] are spoken by 20%<ref name="EthnologueFamily"/> of the world's population and include many of the languages of East Asia, including Hakka, [[Mandarin Chinese]], [[Cantonese]], and hundreds of smaller languages.<ref name="ComrieOgilvie">{{harvcoltxt|Comrie|2009}}; {{harvcoltxt|Brown|Ogilvie|2008}}</ref>

[[Africa]] is home to a large number of language families, the largest of which is the [[Niger–Congo languages|Niger-Congo language family]], which includes such languages as [[Swahili language|Swahili]], [[Shona language|Shona]], and [[Yoruba language|Yoruba]]. Speakers of the Niger-Congo languages account for 6.9% of the world's population.<ref name="EthnologueFamily"/> A similar number of people speak the [[Afroasiatic languages]], which include the populous [[Semitic languages]] such as [[Arabic language|Arabic]], [[Hebrew language]], and the languages of the [[Sahara]] region, such as the [[Berber languages]] and [[Hausa language|Hausa]].<ref name="ComrieOgilvie"/>

The [[Austronesian languages]] are spoken by 5.5% of the world's population and stretch from [[Madagascar]] to [[maritime Southeast Asia]] all the way to [[Oceania]].<ref name="EthnologueFamily"/> It includes such languages as [[Malagasy language|Malagasy]], [[Māori language|Māori]], [[Samoan language|Samoan]], and many of the indigenous languages of [[Indonesia]] and [[Formosan languages|Taiwan]]. The Austronesian languages are considered to have originated in Taiwan around 3000 BC and spread through the Oceanic region through island-hopping, based on an advanced nautical technology. Other populous language families are the [[Dravidian languages]] of [[South Asia]] (among them [[Kannada language|Kannada]], [[Tamil language|Tamil]], and [[Telugu language|Telugu]]), the [[Turkic languages]] of Central Asia (such as [[Turkish language|Turkish]]), the [[Austroasiatic languages|Austroasiatic]] (among them [[Khmer language|Khmer]]), and [[Tai–Kadai languages]] of [[Southeast Asia]] (including [[Thai language|Thai]]).<ref name="ComrieOgilvie"/>

The areas of the world in which there is the greatest linguistic diversity, such as the Americas, [[Papua New Guinea]], [[West Africa]], and South-Asia, contain hundreds of small language families. These areas together account for the majority of the world's languages, though not the majority of speakers. In the Americas, some of the largest language families include the [[Quechuan languages|Quechua]], [[Arawak languages|Arawak]], and [[Tupi-Guarani languages|Tupi-Guarani]] families of South America, the [[Uto-Aztecan languages|Uto-Aztecan]], [[Oto-Manguean languages|Oto-Manguean]], and [[Mayan languages|Mayan]] of [[Mesoamerica]], and the [[Na-Dene languages|Na-Dene]], [[Iroquoian languages|Iroquoian]], and [[Algonquian languages|Algonquian]] language families of [[North America]]. In Australia, most indigenous languages belong to the [[Pama-Nyungan languages|Pama-Nyungan family]], whereas New Guinea is home to a large number of small families and isolates, as well as a number of Austronesian languages.<ref name="Katzner"/> Due to its remoteness and geographical fragmentation, Papua New Guinea emerges in fact as the leading location worldwide for both species (8% of world total) and linguistic richness – with 830 living tongues (12% of world total).<ref>{{cite news |last1=Briand |first1=Frederic |title=Silent Plains … the Fading Sounds of Native Languages |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/235742552 |work=National Geographic |date=February 2013}}</ref>