Language classification

In linguistics, language classification is the grouping of related languages into the same category. There are two main kinds of language classification: genealogical and typological classification.

Genealogical (or genetic) classification

Languages are grouped by diachronic relatedness into language families. In other words, languages are grouped based on how they were developed and evolved throughout history, with languages which descended from a common ancestor being grouped into the same language family.

Typological classification

Main article: Linguistic typology

Languages are grouped by their structural and functional features.

See also

• Genetic relationship
• List of language families