Language Families
There are over (1) languages that are used throughout the world today. Almost all of these languages belong to a much smaller number of language families. All of the languages within a language family are related and all of them have a similar history. Therefore, the grammar, vocabulary, sounds of related languages, the way of thinking and the style of talking among related languages are (2) .
Even though there are so many languages used today, there are only about 20 or 30 major language families.
Ⅰ. The (3) family. It includes most of the languages that are spoken throughout Europe, for example (4) .
Ⅱ. The (5) family. It includes most languages in the area of North Africa and the Middle East.
Ⅲ. The Bantu family. It includes most of the languages spoken in central and southern (6) .
Ⅳ. The (7) family. It includes all dialects of Chinese, the languages of southeast Asia. Of course, not all the languages of east Asia belong to this family, for example, (8) .
Ⅴ. The Polynesian family. The Polynesian languages are (9) . They are spoken on the islands around Indonesia, islands eastward all the way to Hawaii, islands west all the way to Madagascar, off the east coast of Africa. Example of Polynesian languages: (10) .
These five language groups or language families are only a few of the major language families from around the world. There are many more.