types:
creole
a mother tongue that originates from contact between two languages
Chukchi,
Chukchi language
an indigenous and isolated language of unknown origin spoken by the Chukchi that is pronounced differently by men and women
Papuan,
Papuan language
any of the indigenous languages spoken in Papua New Guinea or New Britain or the Solomon Islands that are not Malayo-Polynesian languages
Ural-Altaic
a (postulated) group of languages including many of the indigenous languages of Russia (but not Russian)
Basque
the language of the Basque people; of no known relation to any other language
Niger-Kordofanian,
Niger-Kordofanian language
the family of languages that includes most of the languages spoken in Africa south of the Sahara; the majority of them are tonal languages but there are important exceptions (e.g., Swahili or Fula)
Haitian Creole
a creole language spoken by most Haitians; based on French and various African languages
Na-Dene
a family of North American Indian languages
Mosan
a family of Amerindian languages spoken in Washington and British Columbia
Arawak,
Arawakan
a family of South American Indian languages spoken in northeastern South America
Esquimau
the language spoken by the Eskimo
Aleut
the language spoken by the Aleut
Hoka,
Hokan
a family of Amerindian languages spoken in California
Penutian
a family of Amerindian language spoken in the great interior valley of California
Munda
a family of languages spoken by people scattered throughout central India
Mon-Khmer
a branch of the Austro-Asiatic languages
Formosan
the Austronesian languages spoken on Formosa
Hottentot,
Khoikhoi,
Khoikhoin
(offensive) any of the Khoisan languages spoken by the pastoral people of Namibia and South Africa, now considered derogatory
PIE,
Proto-Indo European
a prehistoric unrecorded language that was the ancestor of all Indo-European languages
Albanian
the Indo-European language spoken by the people of Albania
Illyrian
a minor and almost extinct branch of the Indo-European languages; spoken along the Dalmatian coast
Thraco-Phrygian
an extinct branch of the Indo-European language family thought by some to be related to Armenian
Germanic,
Germanic language
a branch of the Indo-European family of languages; members that are spoken currently fall into two major groups: Scandinavian and West Germanic
Celtic,
Celtic language
a branch of the Indo-European languages that (judging from inscriptions and place names) was spread widely over Europe in the pre-Christian era
Italic,
Italic language
a branch of the Indo-European languages of which Latin is the chief representative
Tocharian
a branch of the Indo-European language family that originated in central Asia during the first millennium A.D.
Anatolian,
Anatolian language
an extinct branch of the Indo-European family of languages known from inscriptions and important in the reconstruction of Proto-Indo European
Chechen
a northern Caucasian language spoken by the Chechen
Circassian
a northern Caucasian language spoken by the Circassian
Georgian
a southern Caucasian language with 3 million speakers and a long literary tradition
Ubykh
an extinct Caucasian language spoken exclusively in Turkey
Chad,
Chadic,
Chadic language
a family of Afroasiatic tonal languages (mostly two tones) spoken in the regions west and south of Lake Chad in north central Africa
Semitic
a major branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family
Egyptian
the ancient and now extinct language of Egypt under the Pharaohs; written records date back to 3000 BC
Berber
a cluster of related dialects that were once the major language of northern Africa west of Egypt; now spoken mostly in Morocco
Cushitic
a group of languages spoken in Ethiopia and Somalia and northwestern Kenya and adjacent regions
Omotic
a group of related languages spoken in a valley of southern Ethiopia; closely related to Cushitic languages
Kordofanian
a group of languages spoken in the relatively small Kordofan area of the south Sudan
Niger-Congo
a family of African language spoken in west Africa
Chari-Nile
a group of Nilo-Saharan language spoken in parts of the Sudan and Zaire and Uganda and Tanzania
Saharan
a Nilo-Saharan language spoken in parts of Chad
Songhai
a Nilo-Saharan language spoken by the Songhai in Mali and Niger