Arbor linguarum humanarum
The Human Language Tree
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How the world's languages descend, diverge and borrow
Drag to wander · scroll or pinch to look closer · click a leaf, a stem or a red thread
How to read the tree
- Line of descent proved by the comparative method. Time runs left to right.
- Uncertain or disputed link
- Family root and ancestral split (a proto-language)
- A living language. Leaf size shows native speakers.
- Endangered (pale) and revived (fresh green)
- † Extinct (withered) and classical or liturgical (outline)
- Borrowing and contact. Thicker threads went deeper: words, then sounds, then grammar.
- A creole or mixed language is born
- Watercolour limbs: human dispersal, which frames language history but does not prove kinship
Dates are approximate. Beyond about 8,000 years the evidence fades into mist: no family can be traced further with today's methods.
Layers
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