Indo-European
The Indo-European language family comprises languages spoken in Europe, Asia, Americas, Australia and Africa. Its parent language is called Proto-Indo-European. It can be divided into at least eleven language branches plus several unaffiliated languages (some may belong to one of the branches but for the lack of data, such conclusion cannot be made). The list of the branches with information on languages they contain is found below.
- Albanian
- Anatolian
- Armenian
- Baltic
- Celtic
-
- Celtiberian
- Gaulish
- Old Irish
- Manx
- Old Cornish
- Old Welsh
- Germanic
- Greek
- Indic
- Iranian
-
Middle Iranian
- Italic
- Slavic
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- Old Church Slavonic
- (New) Church Slavonic
- Old (Ancient) Russian
- Tocharian
- unaffiliated
Afro-Asiatic
The Afro-Asiatic language family comprises languages spoken in, Africa, Asia and (sparsely) Europe. It comprises at least five distinct language branches (and possibly eight). They are Egyptian, Semitic, Berber, Cushitic, Chadic. In this database are treated Egyptian, Coptic (under construction) and Hebrew. Languages of the Berber, Cushitic, Chadic branch are not attested in their ancient forms.
- Egyptian
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- (Middle) Egyptian
- Coptic
- West Semitic
-
- Ugaritic
- Hebrew
- Phoenician and Punic
- Canaanite dialects
- Aramaic
- Ge´ez (Aksum)
- Ancient South Arabian
- Ancient North Arabian
- East Semitic
-
- Akkadian and Eblaite
Sino-Tibetan
The Sino-Tibetan language family can be subdivided to Chinese and Tibeto-Burman (Matisoff 1978). Other classification is available, too.
Burmese has a literary tradition dating from the 12th century while Tibetan tradition can be dated to the 8th century AD.
- Chinese (Sinitic)
-
- Ancient Chinese
Kartvelian
The Kartvelian language family comprises four affiliated languages: Georgian, Svan, Mingrelian and Laz. Its oldest texts are early Georgian inscriptions from the 5th century AD.
- Georgian
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- Early Georgian
Dravidian
The Dravidian language family comprises twenty four languages spoken mainly in India (besides Brahui and dangar spoken in Pakistan and Nepal). Its oldest inscriptions can be dated to the 3rd century BC. It can be split into four major groups: North, Central (Kolami–Parji), South-Central (Telugu–Kui) and South Dravidian.
- Southern Dravidian
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- Old Tamil
Mayan
The Mayan language family comprises thirty Mayan languages that can be subgrouped to five branches. The earliest hieroglyphic text dates from the 3rd century AD.
- Mayan
-
- Mayan
Mije-Sokean
The Mije-Sokean language family comprises languages that were and are spoken in Mesoamerica. Its oldest texts date to the 5th century AD.
- Epi-Olmec
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- Epi-Olmec
unaffiliated
This groups contains ancient languages that according to present knowledge cannot be affiliated to any other language. They can also be labeled isolate languages.
- unaffiliated
-
- Sumerian
- Etruscan
- Elamite
- Hurrian
- Urartian