Languages ​​living and dead. Artificial languages. Living and dead languages ​​of the world On the status of various classifications

According to one of the stories in the Bible, people on Earth once spoke the same language. However, God punished them for their pride, and during the construction of the famous Tower of Babel, a language barrier arose between people - they stopped understanding each other, and the construction remained unfinished, and the builders themselves scattered all over the world.

This is how peoples and nations speaking different languages ​​were formed. This is a legend. But, be that as it may, there are a great many languages ​​that people now speak, and many of them may seem not only complex, but even strange and funny to representatives of other nationalities. What can I say, often the population of two nearby villages (as, for example, in Africa) are not able to understand each other. And the inhabitants of Papua New Guinea alone speak 500 languages! The reason for such “linguistic” abundance among the Guineans is the mountainous landscape, because it is the mountains that separate one valley from another, and their populations rarely contact each other.

Alphabets also have global differences. For example, our native Russian language has 33 letters, the Khmer alphabet has 72 letters, Hawaiian has 12, and the inhabitants of the island of Bougainville get by with 11 letters.

There are differences between languages ​​in terms of difficulty. For example, the Tabasaran language (Dagestan) is considered the most difficult. Anyone who decides to study it will have to learn 48 cases, and this is not counting other difficulties. But the easiest language to learn is the one spoken by the population of the Hawaiian Islands. It contains only 7 consonants and 5 vowels, and the Hawaiian aborigines did not have an alphabet as such at all, and it had to be compiled by missionaries who came to educate the local natives. The smallest vocabulary is in the Taki language (French Guinea), it has only 340 words.

Sometimes the transfer of information can be carried out in a far from “traditional” way, for example, using drums. This type of “communication” is practiced in Central and South America, Asia and Africa. It is convenient because the signals transmitted by the drums play the role of a kind of “telephone”, allowing people to transmit news from village to village.

Hunters who track animals at night have to be extremely careful so as not to scare away their prey with excessive noise. Therefore, the Pygmies and the Vedas of Ceylon use a special monotonous whispering language when hunting. In its sound, this “whispering” is similar to the noise produced by the joint breathing of a pack of dogs.

One of the most interesting languages ​​is Silbo-Gomero. This is a whistle that is still used by the people of the Canary Islands to this day. According to legend, this is how runaway African slaves communicated with each other. Silbo-gomero is important for the islanders because this whistle can be used to communicate over long distances. And although telephones on the island are no longer a curiosity, communication in some places is still unavailable, so you have to transmit information to neighbors using a whistle. By the way, the information transmitted in this way is quite detailed. The Canarians cherish their heritage, and therefore silbo-gomero is included in the list of subjects required to be studied in primary schools.

Another type of communication method is sign language, which is used by people with hearing impairments. However, even within it there is such a variety of forms that we had to resort to creating a kind of “gestural Esperanto” in which people of different nationalities can communicate. In a number of countries, which include Spain, Iceland and the Czech Republic, sign language is recognized by the constitution.

Many languages ​​have a number of features determined by the external environment. For example, the Eskimos do not have a general concept of “snow,” but they have more than 20 words that denote the same phenomenon, but in more detail. For example, an Eskimo will say “blizzard”, “drifting snow”, “groats” depending on the type of snow precipitation. In the same way, an Australian will not understand if he is asked to count how many trees, animals and birds he sees; he will specifically name the type of animal or species of tree. For example, if an Australian sees five cockatoos and three ostriches, he will not say “eight birds,” for the Australian aborigines this is too abstract a concept.

Representatives of the Pirkhan tribe do not have specific names for numbers in their language. They can say “a little (one)”, “a little more” and there is also a definition for a group of objects of more than three objects. And it's all. Once upon a time, the Pirkhans had no need for numerals, but nowadays, because of this, they have to face difficulties when communicating with other tribes. However, the attempts of a couple of Europeans who lived for a long time in the Pirkhan tribe to teach them numerals and simple arithmetic operations did not bring success.

As you can see, there are a great many languages ​​around the globe, and some of them are quite original. However, despite their abundance, only six languages ​​have received official UN recognition: English, Russian, Chinese, Spanish, English and Arabic.

Earth population – 7 billion people

Number of languages ​​– 2.5-5 thousand (up to 6-7 thousand)

One day, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) published the data at its disposal: there are 2,796 languages ​​in the world. Typically, linguists prefer to give approximate numbers. The reasons for the discrepancies are as follows.

1) The difficulty of distinguishing between language and dialect.

2) Insufficient knowledge of languages. We live in a world where, it would seem, everything is already open and mapped. However, from time to time it becomes known from newspapers or television programs that somewhere in the jungles of the Amazonian lowlands or New Guinea, modern travelers managed to discover a tiny lost tribe, alienated from contact with other people and speaking a language not known to any of the specialists.

3) Finally, languages ​​can die. In Russia, for example, the Kerek language in Kamchatka has literally died out before our eyes, and the languages ​​of such peoples as the Itelmens, Yukaghirs, and Tofalars are disappearing. These are tiny peoples, only a few hundred people each, many of whom, especially young people, no longer know their language... Only in the 20th century, dozens of languages ​​disappeared from the face of the earth. With the development of communications, the number of living languages ​​is declining at an average rate of 1 language per two weeks.

So it is very difficult, if not impossible, to establish the exact number of languages ​​in the world.

Most common languages ​​(by number of speakers):

Chinese

As of January 2012 - 1349718000 people, more than 885 million people speak Mandarin.

English, Spanish, Hindi (fighting for second place)

English is the national language not only of the British and Americans, but also of Canadians, Australians, and New Zealanders... It is one of the official languages ​​of India and 15 African states (former British colonies); it is also spoken in other countries.

English is an international language. One and a half billion people around the world speak this language. It is native to 400-500 million people in 12 countries, and over a billion use English as a second language.

English is the language of business and politics. It is one of the working languages ​​of the United Nations. The world of information technology is also based on English. More than 90% of all information in the world is also stored in English. This language is defined as the main language of the Internet. Television and radio broadcasts of the world's largest companies (CBS, NBC, ABC, BBC, CBC), covering an audience of 500 million people, are also performed in English. More than 70% of scientific publications are published in English. Songs are sung and films are made in this language.

Arabic, Bengali, Portuguese, Russian, Japanese, German, French, etc.

Language map of the world (toart of world languages)

is a map of families and groups of languages, as well as their individual representatives. The distribution area of ​​languages ​​is indicated by a certain color.

Less common languages

There are currently just over 400 languages ​​considered endangered. They are spoken by a very small number of mostly elderly people and, apparently, these languages ​​will disappear forever from the face of the Earth with the death of these “last of the Mohicans.” Here are some examples:

Russia: Kerek (2 people) and Udege (100 people) languages;

Africa: languages ​​Bikia (1 person), Elmolo (8 people), Goundo (30 people), Kambap (30 people);

Australia: Alaua language (about 20 people);

North America: Chinook (12 people), Kansa (19 people), Kaguila (35 people);

South America: Tehulche languages ​​(about 30 people), Itonama (about 100 people).

In 1996, a man named Red Thundercloud died in the United States... He was the last person who knew the Catawba language of the Sioux Indian tribe. True, before his death he managed to record speech patterns and ritual songs of his language for the Smithsonian Institution, which rendered a great service to science. Unfortunately, this rarely happens; more often than not, a language dies quietly and imperceptibly along with its last speakers...

Every two weeks, somewhere in the world, a language dies along with its last speaker, and with it a picture of the hopes, beliefs and views of an entire ethnic group. The loss of each language, therefore, always means the loss of the culture of its native people. These languages ​​cannot leave behind even exhibits for a museum, since most of them do not have written traditions. So with the death of their last speaker, the language disappears without a trace and forever. Languages ​​die along with the last speaker, and therefore danger threatens, first of all, nations that do not use writing.

According to scientists, in 50-100 years half of the existing languages ​​will disappear. In order for a language to be preserved, about 100 thousand of its speakers are required.

In 2009, UNESCO recognized 136 languages ​​in Russia as endangered.

Languages ​​always die. As a result of wars, natural disasters, epidemics, the enslavement of one people by another, but never before has extinction proceeded at such a rapid pace. It is estimated that over the past 500 years, humanity has lost approximately half of all the languages ​​it spoke, and half of all remaining languages ​​will disappear before the end of this century. There are many reasons leading to the death of a language, but the main ones currently playing a decisive role can probably be called economic and political factors: globalization, modernization, industrialization and urbanization, entailing the transformation of a world that once consisted of a motley collection of relatively self-sufficient individuals. peoples into one “global village”.

As a rule, “strong” languages, such as, say, English, Russian, French, Arabic or Chinese, all without exception with a large number of speakers and a developed written tradition, have been studied quite well by linguists. This is opposed by thousands of practically unstudied and rapidly disappearing languages, which makes the question of their study and description one of the most pressing and pressing problems of modern linguistics.

Many languages ​​are disappearing due to the fact that their speakers come into contact with a stronger linguistic environment, so the languages ​​of small nationalities and the languages ​​of peoples without statehood are primarily at risk of extinction. If less than 70% of children learn a language, it is considered endangered. According to UNESCO's Atlas of the World's Languages ​​in Danger, approximately 50 languages ​​are currently at risk of extinction in Europe.

Scientists and politicians have long sounded the alarm. The UN declared 1994-2004 the decade of the world's indigenous peoples, and UNESCO and the Council of Europe tasked scientists with creating the Red Book, a global database and atlases of endangered languages.

So, languages ​​are divided into

Living language is any natural language (used for communication) that is currently in use. Dead language- a language that does not exist in living use and, as a rule, is known only from written monuments, or is in artificial, regulated use. Dead languages ​​are often called archaic forms of living, actively used languages. In some cases, dead languages, having ceased to serve as a means of living communication, are preserved in written form and are used for the needs of science, culture, and religion: 1. Latin (from the 6th century BC to the 6th century AD) 2. Old Russian language (written monuments of the 11th-14th centuries) 3. Ancient Greek language (from the end of the 2nd millennium BC to the 5th century AD) for scientific and religious purposes - Sanskrit, Latin, Church Slavonic, Coptic, Avestan, etc. There is an example when a dead language became alive again, as happened with Hebrew. Most often, the literary language is torn away from the spoken language and freezes in some of its classical appearance, then hardly changing; when a spoken language develops a new literary form, the old one can be considered to have turned into a dead language (an example of such a situation would be the Turkish language, which replaced the Ottoman language as the language of education and office work in Turkey in the 20s of the 20th century). Constructed languages- special languages, which, unlike natural ones, are designed purposefully. types: 1.Programming languages ​​and computer languages. 2. Information languages ​​- languages ​​used in various information processing systems. 3. Formalized languages ​​of science - languages ​​intended for symbolic recording of scientific facts and theories of mathematics, logic, chemistry and other sciences.4. Languages ​​of non-existent peoples created for fictional or entertainment purposes, for example: Elvish language - J. Tolkien, Klingon language - Star Trek. International auxiliary languages ​​- languages ​​created from elements of natural languages ​​and offered as an auxiliary means of international communication. The most famous artificial language was Esperanto (L. Zamenhof, 1887) - the only artificial language that became widespread and united quite a lot of supporters of an international language. There are also languages ​​that were specifically developed for communication with extraterrestrial intelligence (linkos). According to the purpose of creation, artificial languages ​​can be divided into the following groups: 1. Philosophical and logical languages. 2.Auxiliary languages ​​- intended for practical communication. 2. Artistic or aesthetic languages. 3. Language is also created to set up an experiment, for example, to test the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis (that the language a person speaks limits consciousness, drives it into a certain framework).

Articles on specific issues

V.G. And they are. Development of simple sentence structure in Indo-European languages. - “Issues of linguistics”, 1960, M” 1.

Yu.D.Apresyan. On strong and weak control - “Issues of Linguistics”, 1964, No. 3.

N. D. Arutyunova. On the concept of word formation system. - “Philological Sciences”, 1960, Wi 2.

V. V. Vinogradov. Word formation and its relation to grammar and vocabulary. - In the collection: Questions of theory and history of language. M., 1952.

B. N. G o l o v i i. On the question of the essence of a grammatical category. - “Issues of linguistics”, 1955, No. 1.

B. N. Golovin. Notes on grammatical meaning. - “Issues of linguistics”, 1962, No. 2.

E.V.Gulyga. The problem of grammatical category. - Teacher zap. MGPIIYA, vol. 5, 1953. -

E. A. Zemskaya. About one feature of the connection of word-forming morphemes in the Russian language. - “Issues of linguistics”, 1964, No. 2.

N. N., Korotkov, V. 3. P a n f n l o v. On the typology of grammatical categories. - “Issues of linguistics”, 1965, No. 1.

M. G. Kravcheyko and T. V. Stroeva. On the issue of words and phrases. - “Issues of linguistics”, 1962, No. 2.

T. P. L omtesh. On controversial issues in the theory of syntax.-NDVSh, Philological Sciences, 1958, No. 4.

I. A. Melchuk. On internal inflection in Indo-European and Semitic languages. - “Issues of linguistics”, 1963, No. 4.

V. N. Mngrin. Relationships between parts of speech and members of a sentence. - NDVSh, Philological Sciences, 1959, No. 1.

N. S. Pospelov. On the grammatical nature of a complex sentence. - In the collection: Questions of syntax of the modern Russian language. M., Uchpedgiz, 1950.

N.S. P o si e l o v. The doctrine of parts of speech in the Russian grammatical tradition. Moscow State University Publishing House, 1954.

N. S. Pospelov. Complex sentence and its structural types. - “Issues of linguistics”, 1959, No. 2.

I, P. R a s p o p o v. On the issue of predicativity. - “Issues of linguistics”, 195B, No. 5.

A. A. Kholodovich. About the secondary members of a sentence. From history and theory of the issue. - NDVSh, philological sciences, 1959, M 4.

E. I. Shendels. About grammatical polysemy. - “Issues of linguistics”, 1962, No. 3.

E. I. Shendels. The concept of grammatical homonymy. - NDVSH,

Philological Sciences, 1959, No. 1.

L. V. Shcherba. About parts of speech in Russian. - In the collection: Selected works on the Russian language. M., 1957.

LANGUAGES OF THE WORLD AND THEIR CLASSIFICATION

§ 64. The diversity of languages ​​of the world. Languages ​​and dialects. Living and dead languages.

Currently, there are about two and a half thousand languages ​​in the world. The number of languages ​​is not precisely established and is difficult to establish. Before their holes, there are territories that are poorly studied linguistically. These include some areas of Australia, Oceania, and South America. The population of such areas is usually small, lives in small groups isolated from each other, their languages ​​are poorly studied and it is not always possible to decide whether such groups speak different languages ​​or different dialects of the same language. In countries with multilingual populations, it is also not always easy to distinguish between languages ​​and dialects. In India, for example, according to 1951 data, there are 720 languages ​​and dialects; in Nepal, with a population of 9.5 million people, there are about 60 languages ​​and major dialects .

A dialect is a variant of a language system used by some group of a tribe (people, nation, living in the same territory. Such dialects are called terrotori and other dialects. They differ from languages ​​in the limited nature of their (functions: they are used as a means of everyday life communication, they do not fulfill the functions of the state language (see § 79), the language of science, etc. Written language in the dialect is usually absent or very poorly developed. Differences between dialect systems are more specific than differences between language systems. Systems of different dialects have There are many common links.The development trends of dialect systems largely depend on the development trends of the system of the language in which they are part.

However, it is not always easy to distinguish a dialect from a language, since, firstly, the structures of some related languages ​​are very close to each other, the differences between languages ​​are sometimes smaller than the differences between dialects (some dialects of German are more different from each other than Ukrainian and Russian languages; the population of Northern China almost does not understand speakers of southern Chinese dialects, while speakers of various Turkic languages ​​- Tatar, Bashkir, Kazakh, etc. - usually understand each other). Secondly, in certain historical periods (see § 79) dialects can perform functions close to the function of language: they are used in business correspondence in government affairs, and writing can appear in dialects. This situation is observed, for example, in India and Pakistan today, which is explained by the fragmentation of the country in the past and obstacles to the development of a common Indian language on the part of the British colonialists. Thirdly, some languages, especially in the early stages of their development, do not differ from dialects in terms of the functions they perform. Thus, tribal languages ​​are usually used only for everyday communication, do not have a written language, that is, they differ little from dialects. Therefore, for many poorly studied languages, it is difficult to establish boundaries between languages ​​and dialects. For example, in New Guinea, almost every village has its own language, and it is very difficult to say with confidence whether it is really a language or just a dialect.

It should also be taken into account that the number of languages ​​is not constant, since in the process of historical development languages ​​disappear and new ones appear. Languages ​​disappear if the groups that speak these languages ​​disappear. Thus, as a result of forced German assimilation, the Polabian language, one of the Slavic languages, which was spoken almost until the 18th century, disappeared. spoke the population living on the Elbe River (its old name was Laba). Sometimes languages ​​cease to be used in live communication (since the groups of people who used them disappear), but are preserved in written monuments. Such languages ​​are usually called dead. In territories where turbulent historical events unfolded in the past, where some peoples replaced others, several layers of such dead languages ​​were often preserved. For example, in the territory of Western Asia the Sumerian language is known, the monuments of which date back to the end of the 4th millennium BC. e., and the Sumerian language apparently became “dead” by the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. e. At the turn of the 4th and 3rd millennium BC. e. The oldest Elamite monuments date back, but the Elamite language existed for a long time, perhaps traces of it were noted until the 10th century. n. e. By the middle of the 3rd millennium BC. e. The Hurrian language also became dead, although separate groups of Hurrians survived in the valley of the upper Euphrates and in the mountains of the Armenian Taurus until the 7th century. BC e-The Hattic language, close to Hurrian, disappears by the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. e. These languages ​​changed by the 2nd millennium BC. e. Akkadian, who dominated the country for about one and a half thousand years, but from about the middle of the 1st century BC. e. and the Akkadian language becomes dead, replaced by dialects of the Aramaic language. Aramaic survived until the Middle Ages, when it was replaced by Arabic, but traces of it survive to this day. A language close to Aramaic is spoken by the population of several villages in Syria, more than 20 thousand Aisors living on the territory of the Armenian SSR. History has also preserved information about other dead languages ​​that were once widespread in Western Asia: Hittite (2nd millennium BC), Phrygian, Lycian.

Some dead languages ​​are used by other peoples as languages ​​of culture and science. In this capacity, for example, the Latin language, which was the official language of many Western European countries, acted for a long time (see § 79). The dead ancient Tibetan and ancient Mongolian languages ​​played a similar role in the East.

Modern living The languages ​​are far from identical in distribution: some are spoken by tens and even hundreds of millions of people, others by several thousand or even several hundred people. According to recent data, the 10 largest languages ​​of our time are spoken by about 60% of all humanity. The most common languages ​​are: Chinese, spoken by over 690 million people (Chinese and some national minority groups of China), English - 270 million people (England, USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and other former colonies of England), Russian - about 150 million people (for about 430 million people it turns out to be native language, the rest widely use it as a language of interethnic communication in the USSR), Spanish - 150 million (Spain, countries of Central and South America, North Africa), languages Hindi and Urdu, which are different literary varieties of the common language - Hindustani, serve, according to some sources, about 150 million people, according to others - even 180 million people.

The nature of the distribution of these languages ​​is far from the same. If Russian, Chinese, Hindustani are widespread in the territories of indigenous settlement and are the native languages ​​of the majority of those who speak them, then English and non-Pan languages ​​spread mainly due to colonial conquests. In Europe, in the old territory of distribution of English and Spanish, only about 20% of the total number of speakers of these languages ​​live. These languages ​​are mainly spoken in the former colonies of England and Spain, where they supplanted local languages, sometimes with very cruel measures.

The spread of the Portuguese language, which is spoken by about 85 million people in Portugal, Brazil and some other countries, and French, which serves over 60 million in France, Belgium, Switzerland, Canada, and North Africa, has the same character. Widespread languages ​​also include Japanese - 95 million, German (widespread in the GDR, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, spoken by about 90 million people), Arabic (in North Africa and Western Asia, about 85 million).

Along with large languages, there are small languages ​​spoken by only a few thousand people. Such languages ​​are especially common in countries where tribal languages ​​still exist. For example, some of the Bantu languages ​​(see § 68) are spoken by only a few thousand people in Africa. The cruel colonial policies of imperialist states led many African peoples to extinction, and languages ​​died out along with the tribes. Thus, in 1870, the population of the Bongo tribe living in the Nile Valley was 100 thousand, and according to 1931 data, only 5 thousand people spoke the Bongo language. The same situation is observed in America. One of the large linguistic groups - Iroquois - included 5-6 tribal languages ​​spoken by about 110 thousand people. Currently, there are less than 20 thousand Iroquois left. The tribes living within the Right Bank of the Mississippi were part of the Caddo group; About 25 thousand people spoke the languages ​​of this group; now no more than 2 thousand remain.

Smaller languages ​​are also found in the Soviet Union, especially in the Caucasus and Siberia. Thus, the Abazins living in 16 villages of the Karachay-Cherkess Autonomous Region (within the Stavropol Territory) number only 20 thousand people (according to the 1959 census). The Agul language, which is predominantly widespread in Dagestan, is spoken by 8 thousand people, Rutul - 7, Tsakhur - 6 thousand people. Many small languages ​​are found in the north of the European part of the USSR and in Siberia: Sami serves 1.8 thousand inhabitants of the Kola Peninsula, Selkup - 3.8 (population along the banks of the Taz River between the Ob and Yenisei), Itelmen - 1.1 (in Kamchatka ), Yukaghir (north of the Yakut Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic) - 0.4 thousand, etc.

Lenin's national policy provided the opportunity for the development of the languages ​​of all peoples of the Soviet Union. In the Soviet Union there is no significant reduction in the number of speakers of a particular language, since there is not a decrease, but even an increase in small-numbered peoples. Thus, 7185 people were registered as Aguls in 1895, 7653 in 1926, and 8000 people in 1959.

The languages ​​of the peoples of the world are very different both in structure and material composition (sound composition, word roots). Some of them are very similar to each other and form groups of similar languages, while others are significantly different. All this raises the question of the classification of the world's languages.

§ 65. Classification of languages. Types of classifications

By the XVI-XVII centuries. As a result of important geographical discoveries, Europeans became acquainted with many new languages. Among these languages ​​there were those that showed similarities with European languages ​​(Sanskrit and other languages ​​of India), and those that had no similarities with previously known languages ​​(the languages ​​of central and southern Africa, the languages ​​of America, Oceania). This aroused interest not only in learning languages, but also in systematizing them. Attempts to classify languages ​​begin in the 16th century. In 1538, Gwillelm Postellus’s work “On the Relationship of Languages” was published. In 1610, I. Yu. Scaliger’s work “Discourse on European Languages” was published, in which the author tries to outline the main groups of European languages. Issues of language classification are dealt with by E. Guichard, G.V. Leibniz and other linguists

M. V. Lomonosov achieved great success in his attempts to group European languages. In the 19th century The basic principles of classification of languages ​​have already emerged, in accordance with which the main groups and types of languages ​​were outlined.

The classification of languages ​​can be approached from different points of view. You can, for example, approach it from a geographical point of view, that is, group languages ​​according to their territorial distribution: languages ​​of America, languages ​​of Oceania, languages ​​of Australia, etc. This is done in cases where languages ​​are poorly studied, information about them is insufficient for another, deeper approach. For example, D. Brinton in 1891 proposed dividing all the languages ​​of America into 5 main groups: North Atlantic, North Pacific, Central, South Pacific and South Atlantic. Brinton took into account differences in the grammatical structure of languages, but the basis of his classification still turned out to be an external, purely geographical principle. The geographical approach is also used in other types of classification to identify smaller groups (again, when information about languages ​​is still insufficient). For example, within the family (see below) of the Bantu languages ​​(Central and Southern Africa), seven groups are usually distinguished, often on a territorial basis: northwestern group, northern group, southeastern group, etc. Each group includes a significant the number of languages ​​that have common features; for example, the northwestern languages ​​are characterized by a monosyllabic form of prefixes, the absence of incorporated (see § 74) pronominal indicators on verbs, the presence of initial nasal sounds at the end of a syllable, etc. But the degree of internal similarity of the languages ​​of these groups, the relationships between groups in this way are not fully revealed.

There are currently 2 main types of classification:

1) by material proximity, material similarity, i.e. by the similarity of the material elements of the language themselves - roots, endings;

2) by structural-typological similarity, i.e. by the similarity of the linguistic structure itself.

The first type of classification is called genealogical (from the Greek genealogia - pedigree) classification, since it is based on the relationship of languages, their origin from one common source (see § 66), the second type is called typological classification, and more recently in connection with Significant changes made to this classification led to talk of a structural-typological classification of languages.

§ 66. Genealogical classification of languages

The genealogical classification of languages ​​developed in the 19th century as a result of the work of many scientists: Franz Bopp, Rasmus Rask, Jacob Grimm, Vostokov and others. The genealogical classification received a particularly complete presentation in the book published in 1861-68. the work of August Schleicher, which was called “Compendium (i.e., an abbreviated summary - L.B.) comparative grammar of Indo-Germanic languages". Clarifications and amendments to the language classification system were made later and continue to be made to this day.

Genealogical classification divides all languages ​​into families, and within families into groups. Languages ​​are grouped into families and groups based on their material similarity.

First of all, this is the similarity of the roots of words, and not the random similarity of the roots of individual words, but the presence of entire groups of words with the same roots. For example, in all Slavic languages ​​there is a great similarity of roots in terms of kinship:

Russian mother brother sister children grandson

Ukrainian mother brother sister child grandson

Belarusian matsi brother syastra dzetsi unuk

Bulgarian T-shirt brother sister grandson

Serbian mother, majka brother sister child unuk

Czech mater, matka bratrsestra dite,deti vnuk

Polish mas, matka brat siostra dzieci wnuk

Ukrainian

Belorussian

Bulgarian

There is a similar similarity in the names of the seasons: Russian summer,winter; Ukrainian liThat, winter; Belarusian summer, sima; Bulgarian lato, winter; Serbian summer, winter; Polish tato, winter; Czech leto, winter. Similar relationships in the names of parts of the day: Russian night Day; Ukrainian nih, day; Belarusian night, day; Bulgarian night, day; Serbian Buth, given: Polish village,dzien; Czech village,den.

There are common roots in the names of many natural phenomena, for example: Russian wind, snow; Ukrainian ViTep, dniG Belarusian veter, snow; Bulgarian vyatar, removed; Serbian wind, snow; Polish wiatr, snieg; Czech vitr, snih.

The commonality of roots is also observed in adjectives, for example, in adjectives denoting quantity: Russians great(big), small; Ukrainian great, small; Belarusian lethargiciToi, small; Bulgarian golyam, small; Serbian big, small; Polish wielki, maly; Czech velky, maly. Adjectives denoting color are also indicative: Russian yellow green; Ukrainian zhovtiy, decrees; Belarusian

zhouty, zyalen; Bulgarian yellow, green; Serbian zhut, green

Polish zdlty, zielony; Czech zluty, green.

The relationship of languages ​​is always very clearly manifested in numerals:

Russian Ukrainian Belarusian Bulgarian Serbian Polish Czech

one one adzin one jedan jeden jeden

two two two two two dwa dva

three three three three three trzy tri

four chotiri chatyri chetiri chetiri cztery ctyri

five five five pet petpiec pet

six six shesc pole pole poleszesc sest

seven sim sedm sedamsied(e)m sedm

eight visim eight axes axes osiem osm

nine devets "yat dlevyats devet devet dziewiec devet

ten ten dzesyats deset deset dzleslec deset

The same similarity is found in other groups of related languages ​​when comparing words of the same semantic groups: terms of kinship, natural phenomena, names of domestic animals; adjectives denoting color, size, quality; basic numerals; names of the most important actions, etc.

The correspondences that we find in the languages ​​of the Germanic group are indicative (see § 67):

Father Daughter Water Summer Good

German Vater Tochter Wasser Sommer gut

English father daughter water summer good

Dutch vader dochter water zomer good

Swedish fader dotter vatten sommar got

Similar correspondences are observed in Romance languages ​​(see § 67);

Horse Cow Cat Earth Large Wear

Latin caballus vacca cattus terra grandis portare

French cheval vache chat terre grand porter

Italian cavallo vacca gatto terra grande portare

Spanish caballo vaca gato tierra grande portar

Even among the few examples given, there are some that suggest similarities between the three groups of languages ​​considered. Indeed, the Slavic, Germanic and Romance languages, together with some others (see § 67), are united into one large family of languages, which is called Indo-European, since it includes many languages ​​​​located in Europe and India. Indo-European languages ​​have many common roots in the same word groups.

Completely different roots are found in similar words in another, for example, the Turkic family of languages:

Mother Father Daughter Horse Earth No

Tatar ana ata kyz at fat yuk

Azerbaijani ana ata gyz at (er) jok

Kazakh ana ata kyz at zher zhok

Turkmen ana ata kyz at er-yok

Uzbek she ota kiz from er yuk

Bashki rs k i y ana ata kyz ater yuk

In related languages, similarities are found not only in the roots of words, but also in affixes. The similarity in affixes with a relational meaning is especially important (see § 48), since such affixes cannot be borrowed from one language to another (see § 82), therefore their similarity, and sometimes complete coincidence, can be a convincing indicator of the original connection of languages . Let us give as an example the case forms of the word

Introduction to linguistics: Textbook. manual for philol... . fak. un-tov/ L.I. Barannikova. - Saratov: Publishing...

bone in Slavic languages:
				Belarusian Serbian			Polish
					cost-i (jy)

The linguistic world is very diverse. Almost every nation speaks its own language and a certain set of dialects. It is impossible to calculate the exact number of languages ​​existing in the world. He believes that there are approximately 2.5 thousand to 5 thousand of them, but this number is not accurate, since no one excludes the existence of languages ​​unknown to us.

The problem of language classification- very important. The first classification that linguists took up was the so-called genealogical classification, that is, a classification that distributes languages ​​into families depending on the supposed commonality of their origin. The earliest attempts at such a classification date back to the Renaissance, when the advent of printing made it possible to get acquainted with the languages ​​of peoples. The very fact of similarity between languages ​​very soon led to their unification into families. In the beginning there were much fewer such families than at present.

Genealogical The classification of languages ​​is established on the basis of the comparative historical method. Most languages ​​are distributed into so-called language families, each of which in turn consists of various subgroups, or branches, and these latter - from individual languages.

The following large language families are known: Indo-European, Finno-Ugric, Turkic, Tungus-Manchu, Iberian-Caucasian, Semitic, Hamitic, Paleo-Asian and so on. A special position among the languages ​​of the world is occupied by the Tibetan-Chinese languages, as well as single languages: Japanese, Basque, etc.

Indo-European languages ​​fall into 12 subgroups. Some of which consist of individual languages ​​(Greek, Armenian, Albanian), and the other part - of relatively large, directly related linguistic associations (families). These are: the Slavic family of languages, Indian, Romance, Germanic, Celtic, Iranian, Baltic, etc. Within the Slavic family of languages, subgroups are distinguished: East Slavic (Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian); West Slavic (Polish, Czech, Slovak); South Slavic (Bulgarian, Serbo-Croatian, Slovenian). Germanic languages: German, English, Swedish, Danish, ... Romance languages: French, Spanish, Italian, ...

The concept of language kinship is a purely linguistic concept. In no case should it be confused with the ethnic relationships of peoples, or with their racial characteristics. Linguistic kinship is not always determined by geographic proximity. The Hungarian language is surrounded by Indo-European languages, but itself belongs to another language family - Finno-Ugric.

How are languages ​​related? First of all, in its grammatical structure, in the generality of the lexical fund, in the natural sound connections between them.

Morphological (typological) classification: the basis is primarily the structure of the word. Languages ​​in which the relationship between words in a sentence is expressed primarily by inflections are usually called inflectional (synthetic), and languages ​​in which these same relations are conveyed primarily by prepositions and word order - analytical. Thus, the Russian language turns out to be inflectional (synthetic), and French and English - analytical.

There are practically no “purely” inflectional languages, nor “purely” analytical languages. In inflectional languages ​​there are many analytical tendencies, just as in analytical languages ​​inflections are of no small importance. Despite constant complications, the division of languages ​​into inflectional and analytical still retains scientific significance. This division is based on one or another prevailing linguistic tendency.

The morphological classification of languages ​​becomes much more complex when it is based not only on one language family (at least as large as Indo-European), but on all languages ​​of the world. In this case, the following types of languages ​​are usually installed: root(or insulating), agglutinative And inflectional. Sometimes languages ​​are added to this classification incorporating(or polysynthetic). In root languages, a word is usually equal to a root, and the relationships between words are conveyed primarily by word order, function words, rhythm, and intonation. Root languages ​​include, for example, Chinese.