Language Families Part 2

Written by Blackkdark on 16th October 2007

So, if all these languages are so closely related, why do they vary so much, even within a family?  Well, the reason for that lies in several different factors.  Culture is one such factor.  Cultures that have use for certain terms will create, revive, and pass forth those terms.  That's one of the ways that languages change and mold.

Another way languages change like that is through Language contact.  When two languages come into contact, especially in the days before widespread writing and standardization, they would affect each other in many different ways.  Sometimes grammar would be changed.  Sometimes Pidginization and Creolization will occur.

Other things that can cause variation include things like sound changes or sound shifts.  The High German Consonant or Sound Shift (HGSS) distinguished High German from Dutch, Low German, and the other Germanic languages.  The Great Vowel shift is one of the reasons that English doesn't have as many phonetic cognates with other Germanic based languages.  These changes can cause larger gaps in the language family then one might normally expect.

The reasons we keep languages in a family, even with variations like this is that they come from a common origin language or languages.  There are also still roots in which can still be seen, even if one needs to dig for it. 

There is often a misconception about English, stating that it is a Romance language.  It is a Germanic language, but because of the French influence it has a large amount of Latin-Based French words in English.  There is a bigger debate about whether English is itself a Creole, or something else.  I would make the argument that it is a Creole, but others might not.