Language family facts for kids
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Language families are groups of languages that are related to each other because they come from a common older language. The languages in such a family are similar in their vocabulary or structure.
For example, French and Spanish both come from Latin. Latin was spoken a long time ago, and some of the people who spoke it started to speak one way, saying, for example, for good: "bueno" while another group started saying "bon." Most words are said a little differently in Spanish and French, so the two are called different languages.
Most languages belong to a language family, but some languages do not. These languages are called Language isolates.
There also are constructed languages, like for example Esperanto. Constructed languages are made for different reasons: making a 'world language', for fun, for use in fiction, etc.
Language families
Some language families with sub-families and language examples:
Indo-European languages
Other
Images for kids
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Contemporary distribution (2005 map) of the world's major language families (in some cases geographic groups of families). This map includes only primary families i.e. branches are excluded. For greater detail, see Distribution of languages on Earth.
See also
In Spanish: Familia de lenguas para niños
