Language Family

Language Families are collections of languages which share a common ancestor from which they are all descended from.

Afro-Asiatic
Afro-Asiatic is a major language family which consists of Berber, Chadic, Cushitic, Egyptian, and Semitic. Some scholars choose to add Omotic to this family, though this connection is disputed.

The idea of this grouping began in the 9th Century with the theories of Judah ibn Quraysh of Tiaret in Algeria, a Hebrew grammarian, who perceived a connection between Semitic and Berber. In 1844, Theodor Benfey would suggest a language family consisting of Semitic, Berber, and Cushitic.

The justification for this family is as follows


 * A set of emphatic consonants, variously realized as glottalized, pharyngealized, or implosive.
 * VSO typology with SVO tendencies.
 * A two-gender system in the singular, with the feminine marked by the sound /t/.
 * All Afroasiatic subfamilies show evidence of a causative affix s.
 * Semitic, Berber, Cushitic (including Beja), and Chadic support possessive suffixes.
 * Nisba derivation in -j (earlier Egyptian) or -ī (Semitic)
 * Morphology in which words inflect by changes within the root (vowel changes or gemination) as well as with prefixes and suffixes.
 * A shared word index

Proposed Language Families
Not all proposed Language Families are widely accepted, and here is a list of various more well-known discredited theories.

Altaic
A widely rejected language family which connects Turkic, Mongolic, Tungusic, Koreanic and Japonic Languages. The origins of the grouping were in 1730 by Philip Johan von Strahlenberg, who proposed a grouping between Turkic, Mongolic, and Tungusic languages. This paved the way for further theories, with the term "Altaic" first showing up in a theory proposed by Finnish philologist Matthias Castrén in 1844.

The theory came about due to the similar grammar amongst these languages,


 * SOV Word Order
 * Stem-Suffix-Suffix
 * Postpositions
 * Lack of grammatical gender
 * Vowel Harmony
 * No Constant Clusters at Onset

It is highly controversial, gathering a great degree of criticism starting in the 1950's and continuing to this day. Although it still has its supporters, it is still rejected by the majority of linguists. It is currently thought that the similarities are simply birthed from a Sprachbund, and not a genetic relationship.