Genealogical classification of languages: basic principles and features

The basis of this classification of languages is based on the principle of their historical kinship, that is, the initial ascent of a group of languages to a common root language. It is not always possible to set the language of the ancestors, but nevertheless clearly visible and it gives the scientists-linguists is good reason to assume its existence in the distant past. To look for similar elements in different languages, traditionally used comparative-historical method – it is on the data obtained with it, and is based traditional genealogical classification of languages.

According to the clearly expressed principle of historical kinship, or historical similarities, the languages are usually divided into several large groups called in linguistics families. All languages inside the same family have some similarities in the structure of words and peculiarities of pronunciation of sounds or rules of word formation. Not always these relations are noticeable at first glance – sometimes it requires hard work, which will help to identify distant relationship of various languages. Nevertheless, traditional linguistics, agreeing with the fundamental idea that some languages have common roots, easily find similar moments in their structure and characteristics.

Genealogical classification of languages in the world today involves not only the division into language families – within each family there are other degree of kinship of languages in which there are groups. It is worth noting that languages from different families have no similarity, and this allows to speak with confidence about the different nature of their origin. There are some similar aspects, due to historical borrowing of words and word forms, only confirms the disunity of the different language families.

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Within each family genealogical classification of languages implies the separation of several branches (groups), languages which have far more similarities than the rest of the family. This may be due to later linguistic processes on a given territory, caused the fragmentation of language into a few similar groups, or increased isolation of different nationalities due to historical, natural or military disasters.

Often inside the language subgroups genealogical classification of languages allocates and languages with the closest possible ties – they are usually referred to as subgroups. A striking example of this classification is traditionally considered the division of Slavic languages belonging to the Indo-European family, East Slavic, West Slavic and South Slavic subgroup.

In some cases, the lack of historical knowledge and the disappearance of some ethnic groups leads to the emergence of a number of specific difficulties. So, some languages, despite the long-term study, cannot be attributed to one or another language family, because it does not have a pronounced similarity with the other members. Genealogical classification of languages usually refers to such cases languages “out of classification".

But it should be noted that data collected by linguists in the study of a family cannot be considered static. Very often, the appearance of new information or finding previously unknown texts written in a particular language, force us to reconsider the traditional classification, and again inspecting the facts previously considered already established.

So even while standing outside of any of the family languages may in a few years, as a result of receiving new data to be assigned to an already known family or become the basis for the development of a new classification.