language family

noun

UK /ˈlæŋ.ɡwɪdʒ ˌfæm.əl.i/

US /ˈlæŋ.ɡwɪdʒ ˌfæm.əl.i/

A language family is a group of languages that are like cousins because they came from the same old language long ago.

English, German, and Dutch all belong to the same language family.

SYNONYMS

language group linguistic family language stock language phylum

RELATED WORDS

language dialect linguistics ancestor language branch

OTHER MEANINGS

2. A set of languages shown by linguists to share a common origin.

The Romance language family includes French, Spanish, and Italian.

3. A major grouping used to classify the world's languages.

Scholars divide the world's languages into many language families.

4. A family tree model of how languages split over time.

The language family shows how Latin branched into several modern languages.