languagesdescended

Languages descended from a proto-language are languages that have evolved from a common ancestral form. In linguistics, such languages are grouped into families, with the original language called a proto-language and its descendants described as daughter languages or branches. The resulting family tree shows how modern tongues are related through shared history and regular patterns of change.

Scholars determine genealogical relationships using the comparative method, identifying regular sound correspondences, shared core vocabulary, and grammatical features. From these data they reconstruct aspects of the proto-language and propose a branching structure. Dating divergence is often uncertain and relies on limited evidence, so classifications may change with new findings or different methodological choices.

Examples of major descendant lineages include the Romance languages—Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian—descended from Latin; the West Germanic languages—English, German, Dutch—descended from Proto-Germanic; the Indo-Aryan languages—Hindi, Bengali, Punjabi, Marathi, Urdu—descended from Proto-Indo-Iranian; and the Slavic languages—Russian, Polish, Czech—descended from Proto-Slavic. The Sino-Tibetan family includes Sinitic languages such as Mandarin and Cantonese, descended from a common ancestor, as well as Tibeto-Burman languages; other large families include Niger-Congo (Bantu) and Austronesian, each with numerous descendants.

Descendant relationships can be complicated by language contact, borrowing, or rapid diversification, and dialect versus language distinctions can be influenced by sociopolitical factors. Despite these complexities, the study of language descent helps linguists understand the historical development of languages and the connections among speaker communities.