Common descent of language families?

[EatTheRich]

A handful of historical linguists make the argument that the world's various language families and "isolates" (languages like Zuni, Kootenai, Korean, and Japanese that have no obvious close relatives) can be grouped into branching trees based on the idea of common descent. Not only is this "tree model" controversial; so are both the methods used by these researchers and the application of these methods. Nevertheless, there have been striking correspondences between both the findings of different researchers using different methods and between their findings and the independent conclusions of archeological and genetic research.

Even if some of the conclusions are mistaken, I think the goals of the project are laudable and, in my uninformed opinion, the conclusions are exciting. Presented here for illustration purposes is a simplified version of one such tree model, that of Joseph Greenberg, who pioneered the modern model of comparative linguistics, with branching details filled in by the work of researchers doing similar work. In this example, successive numbers at the same level illustrate a branching order, so that for example everything under 2-3 may be more closely related than everything under 1.

Greenberg's particular findings are controversial even among people sympathetic to his work. In particular, his Khoisan and Indo-Pacific families have come in for considerable scrutiny. The placement of the languages he terms Almosan, Korean, and Japanese, as well as the relationships of the highest-level families, are also controversial. But his work is a reference point for anyone doing similar work, and even researchers critical of his work often assume the existence of macrofamilies first established or defended by Greenberg. The identification of historic civilizations by language is also speculative. And I apologize for errors I've made here. The 12 basic families into which Greenberg divides the world's languages I have put in bold for reference.

IA. Nilo-Saharan
IA1a. Saharan (Zaghawa, Kanuri, Kanem-Bornu Empire)
IA1b. Songhay (Koyraboro Chiini, Koyra Chiini, Songhay Empire, Gao, Djenne, Timbuktu)
IA2. Fur (Sultanate of Darfur)
IA3a. Central Sudanic (Mangbetu, Efe pygmy language, Sao city-states)
IA3b-i. Nubian-Meroitic (Kush, Nubian kingdoms, Nubians)
IA3b-ii. Nilotic (Luo, Dinka, Maasai)
IB. Niger-Congo
IB1. Mande (Bambara, Mandinka, Soninke, medieval Ghana, Mali, and Bambara Empires, Caliphate of Bobo-Dioulasso)
IB2. Atlantic-Congo (Fula, Wolof, Fulani Sultanates, Tukulor Empire, Sokoto Caliphate)
IB3. Dogon-Bangi me (spoken in Mali)
IB4. Ijoid (new kingdom of Calabar)
IB5a. N. Volta (Kru, Mossi, Zande, Kingdom of Sosso)
IB5b-i. Kwa (Akan, Ewe, Fon, Ashanti Empire, Fante Confederacy, Kingdom of Dahomey)
IB5b-iia. W. Benue-Congo (Yoruba, Edo, Igbo, Kingdom of Benin, Igbo city-states, Kingdom of Bonny, Aro Confederacy)
IB5b-iib-I. Cross River (Ibibio, Efik, Ogoni, old Kingdom of Calabar)
IB5b-iib-II. Bantu (Rwanda, Rundi, Swahili, Zulu, Xhosa, Ndebele, Shona, Swazi, Baka and Mbuti pygmy languages, Herero, Mbundu, Kongo, Fang, Songo Confederacy, Luba Empire, Lunda Empire, Kingdom of Kongo, Zulu Empire, Mogadishu, Zanzibar, Kilwa, Great Zimbabwe)
II. Australian (Warlpiri, Kala Lagaw Ya, Dharug, Guugu Yimithirr, Djabirr Djabirr)
III. Indo-Pacific
IIIA. Tasmanian (extinct languages of Tasmania)
IIIB1a. Great Andamanese (Sentinelese and other Andaman Island languages)
IIIB1b. W. Indo-Pacific (Sultanates of Ternate and Tidore, languages of W. New Guinea and Timor)
IIIB2. Nuclear Indo-Pacific (Enga, Wiru, and other languages of New Guinea and N. Australia)
IIIC. Pacific (Rotokas and other languages of New Guinea and the Solomon Islands)
IV. Khoisan (Khoekhoe, Nama, and other languages of "Hottentots," "Bushmen," and related African peoples)
VA. Dene-Caucasian
VA1. Ancient Sumerian
VA2. Na-Dene (Tlingit, Haida, Slavey, Carrier, Beaver, Hare, Hupa, Navajo, Apache)
VA3. Vasconic (Basque, ancient Iberian, Kingdom of Navarre)
VA4. N. Caucasian (Chechen, Circassian, Ingush, ancient Hurrian, Kingdom of Mitanni, Kingdom of Colchis, "Amazons," biblical Jebusites)
VA5a. Chinese (Mandarin, Shanghaiese, Cantonese, Taiwanese)
VA5b. Tibeto-Burmese (Tibetan, Burmese, Karen, Dzongkha)
VB. Austric
VB1a. Hmong-Mien (Hmong)
VB1b. Austro-Asiatic (Vietnamese, Khmer, Mon, Santali, Angkor, Dvaravati)
VB2a. Tai-Kadai (Thai, Laotian, Shan, Zhuang)
VB2b-I. Philippine (Tagalog, Cebuano, Filipino, Kapampangan)
VB2b-IIA. Sama-Bajaw (languages of "sea gypsies")
VB2b-IIB. Barito (Malagasy and related languages of Madagascar, Borneo, and the Philippines)
VB2b-IIIA. Sunda-Sulawesi (Javanese, Sundanese, Balinese, Palauan, Chamorro, Malay, Chamic, Kingdoms of Champa, Sunda, Bali, Demak, Empires of Srivijaya and Majapahit, Sultanate of Aceh)
VB2b-IIIb. Oceanic (Micronesian, Samoan, Tongan, Tahitian, Maori, Hawaiian)
VIA1. Eurasiatic
VIA1a-I. Tyrsenian (Etruscan)
VIA1a-II. Indo-European
VIA1a-IIA. Anatolian (Hittite, Lydian)
VIA1a-IIB-1. Italic (Roman Empire, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Romanian, Italian)
VIA1a-IIB-2. Celtic (Cornish, Welsh, Gaulish, Gaelic, Breton, biblical Tarshish)
VIA1a-IIC. Greco-Armenian (Greek, Armenian, Philistine, ancient Macedon, Albanian, Phrygian)
VIA1a-IID. Indo-Iranian (Sanskrit, Pali, Median, Persian, Scythian, Parthian, Hindustani, Romani "gypsy" languages, Nepali, Bengali, Gujarati, Marathi, Assamese, Punjabi, Pashto, Kurdish)
VIA1a-IIE. Germanic (English, German, Dutch, Danish, Yiddish, Gothic, Norwegian, Swedish, Low German, Afrikaans, Frisian, Vandal)
VIA1a-IIF. Balto-Slavic (Polish, Czech, Russian, Serbo-Croatian, modern Bulgarian, Lithuanian, Latvian, Prussian)
VIA1b-I. Korean-Japanese-Ainu (Korean, Japanese)
VIA1b-II. Altaic (Mongol, Manchu, Jurchen, Hsiong-Nu, Turkish, Kazakh, Chagatai, Uzbek, Khazar, Huns, ancient Bulgars)
VIA1c. Eskimo-Aleut (Inuit, Yupik, Aleut)
VIA1d. Uralic (Finnish, Saami, Samoyed, Hungarian, Estonian)
VIA2. Amerind
VIA2a-1. Otomanguean (Zapotec, Mixtec, Monte Alban)
VIA2a-2. Uto-Aztecan (Hopi, Shoshone, Comanche, Yaqui, Nahua, Tarahumara, Hohokam, Anasazi, Toltec, Aztec)
VIA2a-3. Kiowa-Tanoan (Kiowa, Tanoan Pueblo)
VIA2b-1A1. Hokan (Mojave, Yuma, Pomo, Shasta)
VIA2b-1A2a. Inland Penutian (Miwok, Yokuts, Klamath, Modoc, Nez Perce, Walla Walla, Cayuse, Appaloosa)
VIA2b-1A2b. Maritime Penutian (Tshimshian, Chinook, Coosa, Siuslaw)
VIA2b-1A2c. Zuni (language of NM and AZ, "Cibola")
VIA2b-1A2d. Macro-Mayan (Mayan, Olmec, Totonac, Teotihuacan, Tiwanaku)
VIA2b-1A2e. Gulf (Natchez, Chitimacha, Alabama, Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Seminole, SE. Mississippians, Poverty Point, Moundville, Cahokia)
VIA2b-2A1. Iroquoian (Cherokee, Iroquois, Huron, Erie, Neutral, Tobacco, Susquehannock, Adena)
VIA2b-2A2. Siouan (Sioux, Crow, Winnebago, Omaha, Catawba, Cheraw, Osage, Kansa)
VIA2b-2A3. Yuchi (Tennessee language)
VIA2b-2A4. Keresan (Keres Pueblo, Mogollon)
VIA2b-2A5. Caddoan (Caddo, Wichita, Pawnee, Arikara, SW. Mississippians, "Quivira")
VIA2b-2B1. Algonquian (Blackfoot, Cheyenne, Arapaho, Cree, Chippewa, Kickapoo, Sauk, Fox, Illinois, Powhatan, Delaware, Mahican, Micmac, Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, Pequot, Narragansett, Wampanoag, Montagnais, Chickahominy, Hopewell, N. Mississippian)
VIA2b-2B2. Kootenai (spoken in B.C., MT, ID)
VIA2b-2B3a. Salishan (Flathead, Spokane, Kalispell, Flathead, Bella Coola, Lushootseed, Snohomish, Tillamook, Snohomish, Coeur d'Alene)
VIA2b-2B3b. Wakashan (Bella Bella, Nootka, Makah, Kwakiutl)
VIA2c-1. Chibchan-Paezan (Tarascan, Timucua, Chibcha, Muisca, "El Dorado," Miskito)
VIA2c-2A. Andean (Aymara, Quechua, Chavin, Moche, Chimu, Inca)
VIA2c-2B. Equatorial-Tucanoan (Paracas, Nazca, Huari, Jivaro, Guarani, Tupi, Arawak)
VIA2c-3. Ge-Pano-Carib (Carib, Garifuna)
VIB1. Kartvelian (Georgian and relatives)
VIB2. Dravidian (Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam, Chola Empire, Pandya Dynasty, Vijayanagara, Elam, Harappa, Mohenjo-Daro)
VIB3. Afro-Asiatic
VIB3-I. Omotic (Kaffa, Mocha)
VIB3-II. Cushitic (Oromo, Somali, Beja, Sidamo, Afar, Gudit Dynasty)
VIB3-IIIA. E. Semitic (Akkadian, Babylonian, ancient Assyrian, Eblaite)
VIB3-IIIB. S. Semitic (Ge'ez, Tigrinya, Amharic, Sheba, Himyar, Punt, Dm't, Axum)
VIB3-IIIC1. Arabic (Arabic, Maltese)
VIB3-IIIC2. NW. Semitic (Hebrew, Canaanite, Phoenician, Moabite, Carthage, Ammonite, Edomite, Aramaic, modern Assyrian, Syrian)
VIB3-IVA. Chadic (Hausa and relatives)
VIB3-IVB. Egyptian (ancient Egypt, Coptic)
VIB3-IVC. Berber (Tuareg, ancient Libyan, Numidia, ancient Mauretania, Sijilmasa, "Troglodytes")

 

[EatTheRich]

Major modern alternative proposals made by experts and backed by evidence (in approximate order of popularity):

• Shichiro Murayama grouped Japanese and Ainu (indigenous Japanese language) with the Austronesian languages (VB2b here) and Korean with Dravidian (VIB2), thus breaking up what is here VIA1b-I
• Igor Dianakoff suggests grouping Sumerian (VA1) with Austro-Asiatic (VIB1b)
• Kirsty Rowan groups Meroitic (part of IA3b-1) with Cushitic (VIB3-II)
• Vitaly Sheveroshkin argues for grouping the Almosan languages (VIA2B-2b) with the NE. Caucasian languages like Chechen (part of VA4)
• Gianfranco Forni puts Vasconic (VA3) with Indo-European (VIA1A-2)
• Paul Whitehouse argues for grouping Japanese, Korean, and Ainu (VIA1B-I) with the Indo-Pacific languages (III)
• Kamal Zvelebil groups the Uralic languages (VIA1d) with Dravidian (VIB2)
• Bob Hodge says the Indo-European languages ( VIA1a-II) should be grouped with the Afro-Asiatic languages (VIB3)
• John Colarusso groups Indo-European (VIA1a-II) with NW. Caucasian languages like Circassian (part of VA4)
• Jaime Martin puts Vasconic (VA3) with Dogon (IB3)

There are of course many other proposals

These proposals don't count the many researchers who break several of Greenberg's families (especially Khoisan and Indo-Pacific) into many small families for which they are unconvinced of any genetic relationship. Many people who do accept most or all of Greenberg' families also differ on the branching order both of the 12 main families (Merritt Ruhlen for instance places Khoisan as the most divergent, while grouping Kartvelian closer to Dene-Caucasian and putting Australian and Indo-Pacific together; Sergei Starostin also puts Khoisan on the outside while suggesting a closer relationship between Eurasiatic and Dravidian/Kartvelian/Afro-Asiatic than with Amerind) and within families (particularly for Dene-Caucasian, Eurasiatic, and Afro-Asiatic, in all of which the major component families are placed in a wide variety of branching orders.

 

[EatTheRich]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_English_words_by_country_or_language_of_origin

 

[EatTheRich]

@Days I have a hunch this would be up your alley.

 

[Days]

@Days I have a hunch this would be up your alley.

It takes a vision of what was happening, to understand how languages evolved. Humans moved about as populations - nations - or groups - so the languages evolved and mixed. The biggest impact upon movement was the flood period. All of Egypt would have moved up river, so the Nubian tongue was rooted in a more ancient Egyptian tongue, then as the waters receded, they returned back into the land of Egypt, and so the later kingdoms which we think of as ancient Egypt, had their roots in Nubia.

One of the ways we know Japanese roots extend from middle Africa is the family names are identical, facial structures also... so it follows the language should be related. Trying to nail down all the movements of major families of mankind over the past 10 millenia; even a rough sketch is monumental in scale. These guys are giants among linguists.

One of my ideas is that the flood waters forced a previously connected world commerce to separate and go inland; resulting in disconnected language. This could have been what the book of Genesis was referring to when the scribes penned that God confused their speech (into 7 languages) ...

Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.
Genesis 11:7-8

"Left off building the city" might even be a reference to all mankind giving up on civilization and the progress of technology... all of that is centered in cities; cities are what civilization builds. Technology requires standards, so it is highly likely that the whole world was of one speech in the sense that the whole world was deploying the same standards, measurements, terminology; because technology standardizes communication. What happened there... mankind had thrived under one type of climate for tens of thousands - if not hundreds of thousands - of years, so technology was super advanced and communication was universal; then global climate change struck in a radical fashion, and mankind retreated inland, left off living the high technology, became hunter/gatherers, became isolated groups/ nations, became nomadic, language went in every direction... until we slowly returned to what we were. We are still returning today.